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	<channel>
		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/tasmania/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Fri, 21 Aug 2026 04:36:06 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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	<title>Tasmania environmental news</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/tasmania/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>Extreme weather dampens breeding success for marine predators in Tasmania: study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/extreme-weather-dampens-breeding-success-for-marine-predators-in-tasmania-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/extreme-weather-dampens-breeding-success-for-marine-predators-in-tasmania-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Jul 2026 12:11:09 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Madeline Shaw]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Autumn Spanne]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/27062833/h.-BANNER-52065723988_5bb208650e_o-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=324558</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Australia, Global, Oceania, and Tasmania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animals, Biodiversity, Biology, Birds, Climate, Climate Change, Climate Science, Coastal Ecosystems, Conservation, Disasters, Earth Science, Ecosystems, Environment, Extreme Weather, Flooding, Global Environmental Crisis, Health, Heatwave, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Oceans, Pollution, Predators, Research, Science, Seabirds, Storms, Temperatures, Weather, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[On the rocky shores of Tasmania, seals and seabirds can’t shelter indoors during a storm or turn on the AC during a hot spell. When extreme weather strikes, they’re exposed to the elements, especially when they’re tied to a clumsy pup or a nest of newly hatched chicks. The effects can be deadly. A study [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[On the rocky shores of Tasmania, seals and seabirds can’t shelter indoors during a storm or turn on the AC during a hot spell. When extreme weather strikes, they’re exposed to the elements, especially when they’re tied to a clumsy pup or a nest of newly hatched chicks. The effects can be deadly. A study published in Science Advances in June found that extreme weather events like storms, heat waves and floods can interfere with the breeding success of important marine predators like seals, shearwaters and albatross that raise their young along the coasts. As these events become both more frequent and increasingly intense due to climate change, the study authors stress the need to monitor predator populations to better protect them from the effects, especially during vulnerable times in the breeding season. “Extreme weather events are becoming a new normal,” study lead author Milan Sojitra, a marine ecologist at the University of Tasmania, told Mongabay. “It is having an effect on ecosystems and species.” Marine ecosystems around the world are under stress from the effects of human-caused climate change, including heatwaves and warming ocean temperatures that can cause coral bleaching and mass die-offs of marine species. Tasmania, an island and Australian state 240 kilometers (149 miles) south of the mainland, is a climate change hotspot, with surface waters off its eastern coast warming three to four times faster than the global average, according to a 2018 study. The frequency and intensity of extreme rainfall and heat on the island&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/extreme-weather-dampens-breeding-success-for-marine-predators-in-tasmania-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/extreme-weather-dampens-breeding-success-for-marine-predators-in-tasmania-study/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-324558</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Long dubbed a ‘climate refuge,’ warming Tasmanian forests need our help</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/long-dubbed-a-climate-refuge-warming-tasmanian-forests-need-our-help/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/long-dubbed-a-climate-refuge-warming-tasmanian-forests-need-our-help/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 May 2026 21:31:04 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Stefan Lovgren]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/12184852/2.-Dove-Lake-Cradle-Mountain-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=319252</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Australia, Oceania, and Tasmania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Climate, Climate Change, Conservation, Environment, Environmental Law, Forests, Impact Of Climate Change, Islands, Rainforests, Research, Temperate Forests, Temperatures, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[TASMANIA, Australia — A shaded creek winds through fern forest along the Lilydale Falls Trail in northern Tasmania. As hikers pass by, researcher Todd Walsh reaches into the slow-moving water and beneath a rock to pull out a juvenile giant freshwater crayfish caught in one of his live traps. In streams like this one, he [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[TASMANIA, Australia — A shaded creek winds through fern forest along the Lilydale Falls Trail in northern Tasmania. As hikers pass by, researcher Todd Walsh reaches into the slow-moving water and beneath a rock to pull out a juvenile giant freshwater crayfish caught in one of his live traps. In streams like this one, he says, present day temperatures rarely climb above about 21° Celsius (69.8° Fahrenheit). “The lethal temperature seems to be about 23°[C, or 73.4°F] for these guys,” says Walsh, an independent crayfish expert who has studied the animals for decades and is known locally as the “Lobster Man.” Walsh says he has encountered a few other Tasmanian creeks reaching 25-26°C (77-78.8°F), which would exceed the species’ apparent thermal limits, and he hasn’t found any crayfish in those streams. Crayfish expert Todd Walsh checks a live trap in a shaded stream in northern Tasmania, where cold, forested waterways provide critical habitat for the giant freshwater crayfish. Image by Stefan Lovgren. A juvenile Tasmanian giant freshwater crayfish. Few survive to adulthood, making the loss of habitat for young individuals a major threat to the species. Image by Stefan Lovgren. The Tasmanian giant freshwater crayfish (Astacopsis gouldi), also dubbed the giant freshwater lobster (even though it’s not a lobster), is the largest freshwater invertebrate on Earth, capable of growing up to a meter long (more than 3 feet) and living for decades. It occurs only in northern Tasmania’s cool, forested river watersheds — habitat that has remained colder and wetter&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/long-dubbed-a-climate-refuge-warming-tasmanian-forests-need-our-help/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/long-dubbed-a-climate-refuge-warming-tasmanian-forests-need-our-help/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-319252</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Tasmania, the mines have closed but the rivers remember</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/in-tasmania-the-mines-have-closed-but-the-rivers-remember/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/in-tasmania-the-mines-have-closed-but-the-rivers-remember/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Apr 2026 21:17:55 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Stefan Lovgren]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/16164414/4-King-River-drone-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317656</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Australia, Oceania, and Tasmania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Environment, Environmental Law, extractives, Fish, Freshwater, Freshwater Fish, Global Environmental Crisis, Health, Mining, Planetary Boundaries, Planetary Health, Poisoning, Pollution, Rivers, Toxicology, Waste, Water, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The King River snakes through some of Tasmania’s most dramatic and diverse landscape, flowing past rainforest, button grass plains and the rugged peaks of the West Coast Range before emptying into a large bay near Strahan, a quiet fishing town. To the casual visitor, the winding stream looks as wild as the lightly settled country [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The King River snakes through some of Tasmania’s most dramatic and diverse landscape, flowing past rainforest, button grass plains and the rugged peaks of the West Coast Range before emptying into a large bay near Strahan, a quiet fishing town. To the casual visitor, the winding stream looks as wild as the lightly settled country around it. But on a February morning, the King’s tea-brown waters flowing past forested banks near the sea were disturbingly silent. The air hummed with large, persistent horseflies and little else. Healthy Tasmanian streams typically teem with aquatic insects, including mayflies, stoneflies and caddisflies, which form the foundation of freshwater food webs. Not here. Along the lower King River, many aquatic species are gone; an enduring effect of copper mining above Queenstown, which sent uncounted tons of mine waste downstream. That pollution originated at Mount Lyell, one of Australia’s largest historic copper mines. Established in the early 1890s, its tailing piles discharged toxic contaminants into the nearby Queen River, a tributary that flows directly into the King. Historic mine workings at Mount Lyell near Queenstown, Tasmania state, Australia, where more than a century of copper mining has left a lasting environmental legacy that continues impacting biodiversity and posing risks to public health. Image by Stefan Lovgren. Although large-scale dumping ended long before the mine was finally closed in 2014, that hidden legacy of pollution remains embedded in river waters, sediments and floodplains. Surveys of aquatic life have repeatedly found that the sensitive species expected in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/in-tasmania-the-mines-have-closed-but-the-rivers-remember/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/in-tasmania-the-mines-have-closed-but-the-rivers-remember/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317656</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Global maps reveal where mycorrhizal fungi thrive — and where they’re unprotected</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/global-maps-reveal-where-mycorrhizal-fungi-thrive-and-where-theyre-unprotected/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/global-maps-reveal-where-mycorrhizal-fungi-thrive-and-where-theyre-unprotected/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Aug 2025 16:47:35 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/04165307/MS-01.-Credit-Mateo-Barrenengoa-The-mycorrhizal-mushroom-Cortinarius-albomagellanicus-emerges-from-a-hyper-diverse-but-hidden-underground-fungal-community-in-Tierra-de-Fuego-Chile-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=303702</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Ethiopia, Global, Tasmania, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Environment, Forests, Fungi, Green, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[With nearly every step, we move above a vast underground network of fungal filaments, an ancient communication system that predates human civilization by hundreds of millions of years. Now, scientists have created the first comprehensive maps of these hidden networks. These maps, published in a new study in Nature, represent a four-year effort by the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[With nearly every step, we move above a vast underground network of fungal filaments, an ancient communication system that predates human civilization by hundreds of millions of years. Now, scientists have created the first comprehensive maps of these hidden networks. These maps, published in a new study in Nature, represent a four-year effort by the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks (SPUN) to understand where mycorrhizal fungi are most diverse across the globe. The findings reveal that less than 10% of mycorrhizal fungi biodiversity hotspots fall within existing protected areas, leaving vast underground ecosystems vulnerable to destruction from agriculture and development. &#8220;For centuries, we&#8217;ve mapped mountains, forests, and oceans. But these fungi have remained in the dark, despite the extraordinary ways they sustain life on land,&#8221; Toby Kiers, SPUN&#8217;s executive director and co-author of the paper, said in a statement. &#8220;They cycle nutrients, store carbon, support plant health, and make soil. When we disrupt these critical ecosystem engineers, forest regeneration slows, crops fail, and biodiversity aboveground begins to unravel.&#8221; Map from SPUN’s Underground Atlas showing predicted arbuscular mycorrhizal biodiversity patterns across underground ecosystems. Bright colors indicate higher richness and endemism. Image courtesy of SPUN. Mycorrhizal fungi form symbiotic partnerships with more than 80% of plant species, creating extensive underground networks that transport nutrients and water. These fungal webs can make up to a third of the living mass in the soil, forming what scientists describe as the &#8220;wood wide web,&#8221; allowing plants to share resources and communicate environmental threats&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/global-maps-reveal-where-mycorrhizal-fungi-thrive-and-where-theyre-unprotected/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/global-maps-reveal-where-mycorrhizal-fungi-thrive-and-where-theyre-unprotected/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-303702</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Scientists strive to restore world’s embattled kelp forests</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/07/scientists-strive-to-restore-worlds-embattled-kelp-forests/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/07/scientists-strive-to-restore-worlds-embattled-kelp-forests/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Jul 2022 20:42:19 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Devitt]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/07/06072625/1.-Giant-kelp-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=258012</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Covering the Commons, Oceans, and Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Australia, California, Global, Pacific Islands, Pacific Ocean, Tasmania, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Aquaculture, Biodiversity, Blue Carbon, carbon, Carbon Sequestration, Climate Change, Coastal Ecosystems, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Ecosystems, Environment, Global Environmental Crisis, Green, Impact Of Climate Change, Marine, Marine Conservation, Ocean Warming, Oceans, Research, Restoration, Seagrass, Technology, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Earth’s vast underwater kelp forests are a vital source of food, pharmaceuticals, and more, while storing huge amounts of carbon. These undersea forests are also at risk, but researchers are working to restore them.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Hidden beneath the waterline, the world’s kelp forests grow along more than one-quarter of all seacoasts, supporting a richness of biodiversity that naturalist Charles Darwin believed could rival that of tropical rainforests. But also unseen, these critical habitats are vanishing due to warming ocean currents, pollution, overharvesting and other human impacts. Despite centuries of accumulated knowledge gained from seaweed cultivation in Pacific Rim countries, the regional declines of kelp beds and recent sudden wipeouts of vast kelp strongholds have underscored just how little conservationists know about protecting or restoring these vital undersea forests, says Karen Filbee-Dexter, a University of Western Australia marine ecologist who studies climate change impacts on kelp. &#8220;Kelp forests are under appreciated and understudied compared to other coastal ecosystems,” says Filbee-Dexter. “But we need to better understand them. They are one of the most extensive marine life plant habitats that we have on Earth, [while] the evidence is overwhelming showing that they are changing really rapidly.” Researchers first got a wakeup call when marine heatwaves abruptly devastated entire kelp forests on the Tasmanian coast in 2011, and in Northern California in 2014. When the towering stalks and blades of kelp went away, so too did many marine species they supported. And as rock lobster, abalone and fish vanished, commercial fisheries worth millions shut down. Additionally, losing wild kelp forests reduces protection of coastal communities from storm surges and removes an important carbon sink. Scientists estimate that the world’s kelp forests store anywhere from 61 to 268 teragrams&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/07/scientists-strive-to-restore-worlds-embattled-kelp-forests/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/07/scientists-strive-to-restore-worlds-embattled-kelp-forests/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-258012</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Study suggests the Tasmanian tiger survived into the 21st century</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/02/study-suggests-tasmanian-tiger-survived-into-the-21st-century/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/02/study-suggests-tasmanian-tiger-survived-into-the-21st-century/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Feb 2021 20:17:55 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[James Fair]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/02/04195010/Thylacines_in_the_National_Zoo_Washington_D.C._-_close_up-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=239289</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Australia, Oceania, and Tasmania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Camera Trapping, Cryptozoology, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Forests, Green, Habitat, Hunting, Mammals, Marsupials, Over-hunting, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In July 2019, Australian authorities on the island of Tasmania received a report of a footprint spotted by an unnamed individual on a walk up to Sleeping Beauty Mountain in the southeast of the state. “Wasn’t able to take a photo, however he googled it when he got home and believes it was a Tasmanian [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In July 2019, Australian authorities on the island of Tasmania received a report of a footprint spotted by an unnamed individual on a walk up to Sleeping Beauty Mountain in the southeast of the state. “Wasn’t able to take a photo, however he googled it when he got home and believes it was a Tasmanian Tiger,” the report reads, according to the Tasmanian Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment (DPIPWE). That same year, a government plant biologist saw what they believed to be a Tasmanian tiger (Thylacinus cynocephalus), or thylacine, from 30 meters (100 feet) away in a remote area. “Good description given, bounded into bush,” the report states. In 2018, three cyclists said they witnessed a thylacine crossing the road in front of them. Images captured in 1911 and 1933. From the public domain. These are just three of more than 1,200 alleged thylacine sightings reported between 1910 and 2019 in Tasmania that have been collated and analyzed by Barry Brook, a mammal ecologist at the University of Tasmania, and colleagues to create the Tasmanian Thylacine Sighting Records Database, which they used to estimate an extinction date for the thylacine. Their findings, released in pre-print format in January through bioRxiv and undergoing peer review, indicate the iconic Australian marsupial predator most likely died out in the late 1990s or early 2000s — decades later than has been assumed. The results surprised even Brook. “Contrary to expectations, the inferred extinction window is wide and relatively recent, spanning from the 1980s&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/02/study-suggests-tasmanian-tiger-survived-into-the-21st-century/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-239289</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The first modern-day marine fish has officially gone extinct. More may follow</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/06/the-first-modern-day-marine-fish-has-officially-gone-extinct-more-may-follow/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/06/the-first-modern-day-marine-fish-has-officially-gone-extinct-more-may-follow/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Jun 2020 14:53:27 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Claire Alberts]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Elizabethalberts]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/06/26030501/Red-handfish_Rick-Stuart-Smith-09-18-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=231857</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Australia and Tasmania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Extinction, Fish, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Saltwater Fish, Saving Species From Extinction, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[There is only one photo of the smooth handfish: an image of a withered, yellowing specimen with pectoral fins that extend like arms, and a triangular crest attached to the top of its head. Sometime between 1800 and 1804, French zoologist François Péron plucked this fish out of the ocean while voyaging through Australia, presumably [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[There is only one photo of the smooth handfish: an image of a withered, yellowing specimen with pectoral fins that extend like arms, and a triangular crest attached to the top of its head. Sometime between 1800 and 1804, French zoologist François Péron plucked this fish out of the ocean while voyaging through Australia, presumably in the shallow coastal waters of southeastern Tasmania. Since then, no other smooth handfish (Sympterichthys unipennis) has ever been spotted, and the fish that Péron collected became the holotype for the entire species. In March 2020, the IUCN officially declared the species to be extinct. The holotype of the smooth handfish. Image by Australian National Fish Collection, CSIRO. The loss of this species may seem insignificant, especially since it hasn’t been seen for about 200 years, but it’s a noteworthy event: the smooth handfish is actually the first marine, bony fish to go extinct in modern times. While it could be argued that the New Zealand grayling (Prototroctes oxyrhynchus) was actually the first oceanic fish to die out, the grayling was migratory and spawned in freshwater, so wasn’t an exclusively marine fish. Jessica Meeuwig, a professor at the University of Western Australia and director of the university’s Centre for Marine Futures, told Mongabay that the smooth handfish likely disappeared due to habitat loss and destructive fishing practices like scallop trawling, and that the species’ extinction is “indicative of broader problems in how we continue to manage our oceans.” “Some claim that the ocean is too&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/06/the-first-modern-day-marine-fish-has-officially-gone-extinct-more-may-follow/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/06/the-first-modern-day-marine-fish-has-officially-gone-extinct-more-may-follow/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-231857</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘New’ footage released of the last Tasmanian tiger</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/05/new-footage-released-of-the-last-tasmanian-tiger/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/05/new-footage-released-of-the-last-tasmanian-tiger/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 May 2020 02:44:17 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Claire Alberts]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Elizabethalberts]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/05/25160038/Screenshot-2020-05-25-at-9.53.45-PM-1-744x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=230645</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Australia and Tasmania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Charismatic Animals, Endangered Species, Extinction, Film, Saving Species From Extinction, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In a 21-second newsreel clip, Benjamin, a thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus) who lived at Beaumaris Zoo in Tasmania, paces the length of his concrete enclosure as two men rattle the chain-link barrier. “The Tasmanian tiger,” the film’s narrator says, “easily distinguished by his straight, unjointed tail, is also a dangerous opponent, though like the [Tasmanian] devil, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In a 21-second newsreel clip, Benjamin, a thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus) who lived at Beaumaris Zoo in Tasmania, paces the length of his concrete enclosure as two men rattle the chain-link barrier. “The Tasmanian tiger,” the film’s narrator says, “easily distinguished by his straight, unjointed tail, is also a dangerous opponent, though like the [Tasmanian] devil, is now very rare, being forced out of its natural habitat by the march of civilization.” For many years, there were only a few black-and-white reels — with a combined running time of about 3 minutes — of the now-extinct thylacine, also known as the Tasmanian tiger. This “new” clip was recorded in 1935 as part of a travelogue called Tasmania the Wonderland, but it was only digitalized and released by the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA) this month. “The scarcity of thylacine footage makes every second of moving image really precious,” Simon Smith, curator at the NFSA, said in a statement. “We&#8217;re very excited to make this newly-digitised footage available to everyone online.” Thousands of years ago, the thylacine roamed across New Guinea and mainland Australia, but the species disappeared from these regions due to hunting, and possibly because of competition with the dingo (Canis lupus dingo). In modern times, the thylacine only existed in Tasmania, a small island at the southeastern tip of Australia, but European settlers drove the species toward extinction with rampant hunting, habitat destruction and introduced disease. Benjamin, one of the last surviving thylacines, was acquired by&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/05/new-footage-released-of-the-last-tasmanian-tiger/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/05/new-footage-released-of-the-last-tasmanian-tiger/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-230645</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New population of extremely rare &#8216;red handfish&#8217; discovered off Tasmania</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/02/new-population-of-extremely-rare-red-handfish-discovered-off-tasmania/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/02/new-population-of-extremely-rare-red-handfish-discovered-off-tasmania/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Feb 2018 11:01:31 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2018/02/14064645/T-politus_Antonia-Cooper_160118-sm-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=203761</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Australia, Oceania, and Tasmania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Environment, Fish, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Oceans, Species Discovery, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Divers have discovered a new population of what is considered to be one of the world’s rarest fish. Until recently, scientists knew of only one tiny population of about 20 to 40 red handfish (Thymichthys politus), an unusual species that prefers to “walk” on the seafloor using its hand-shaped fins over swimming, from a strip [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Divers have discovered a new population of what is considered to be one of the world’s rarest fish. Until recently, scientists knew of only one tiny population of about 20 to 40 red handfish (Thymichthys politus), an unusual species that prefers to “walk” on the seafloor using its hand-shaped fins over swimming, from a strip of rocky reef in Frederick Henry Bay in southeast Tasmania. But last month, seven divers from the University of Tasmania’s Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS) and the citizen science project Reef Life Survey counted eight more red handfish in a small area measuring 50 by 20 meters (164 by 66 feet) several kilometers away from Frederick Henry Bay. The team estimates that this new site, currently undisclosed, harbors about 20 to 40 individuals, doubling the number of known red handfish on Earth, according to a press release from the IMAS. Red handfish. Photo by Antonia Cooper/University of Tasmania/Reef Life Survey. Antonia Cooper, technical officer at the IMAS, had spent more than two hours diving with her team and was about to turn back when she spotted the first red handfish. “My dive partner went to tell the other divers that we were going to start heading in and I was half-heartedly flicking algae around when, lo and behold, I found a red handfish,” Cooper said in the statement. “Finding a new population that is definitely distinct from the existing one is very exciting,” she added. “It means there’s potentially a bigger gene pool and also that there are potentially&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/02/new-population-of-extremely-rare-red-handfish-discovered-off-tasmania/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/02/new-population-of-extremely-rare-red-handfish-discovered-off-tasmania/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-203761</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Breakthrough boosts hope for treating contagious cancer in Tasmanian devils</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2017/03/breakthrough-boosts-hope-for-treating-contagious-cancer-in-tasmanian-devils/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2017/03/breakthrough-boosts-hope-for-treating-contagious-cancer-in-tasmanian-devils/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Mar 2017 03:57:05 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2015/10/03150154/Sarcophilus_harrisii_tarannaSMALL-506x330.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=193985</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Atlantic Forest, Australia, and Tasmania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Diseases, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Genetics, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Mammals, Marsupials, Saving Species From Extinction, Solutions, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A type of transmissible cancer has decimated Tasmanian devil populations. First detected in 1996, the devil facial tumor disease (DFTD) has spread across most of the Tasmanian devil&#8217;s range and has wiped out more than 80 percent of these animals in Tasmania. The cancer, which spreads when the devils bite each other&#8217;s snouts, kills virtually every [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A type of transmissible cancer has decimated Tasmanian devil populations. First detected in 1996, the devil facial tumor disease (DFTD) has spread across most of the Tasmanian devil&#8217;s range and has wiped out more than 80 percent of these animals in Tasmania. The cancer, which spreads when the devils bite each other&#8217;s snouts, kills virtually every devil it infects. Last year, researchers found that Tasmanian devils (Sarcophilus harrisii) have been evolving resistance to fight the cancer. And now, scientists may have a cure that could prevent the species&#8217; extinction. After years of laboratory work, researchers have successfully used immunotherapy to shrink and eliminate golf-ball sized tumors on Tasmanian devils. They report their findings in the journal Scientific Reports. “This is almost a Eureka moment for us because it’s the first time we can say for sure that it was the immunotherapy that was making the tumour shrink,” Professor Woods of the Menzies Institute for Medical Research, University of Tasmania, said in a statement. Devil facial tumour disease causes tumours to form in and around the mouth, interfering with feeding and eventually leading to death by starvation. Photo by Menna Jones, Wikimedia Commons. The researchers tested four immunization protocols on nine healthy devils over a span of six years. The team immunised the devils with a variety of cell preparations and exposed them to live DFTD cancer cells, and found that they could successfully trigger the devil’s immune system to recognise and destroy established DFTD tumors. “Our research shows that a DFTD vaccine&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2017/03/breakthrough-boosts-hope-for-treating-contagious-cancer-in-tasmanian-devils/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2017/03/breakthrough-boosts-hope-for-treating-contagious-cancer-in-tasmanian-devils/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-193985</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Tasmanian devils are rapidly evolving resistance to deadly cancer</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2016/08/tasmanian-devils-are-rapidly-evolving-resistance-to-deadly-cancer/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2016/08/tasmanian-devils-are-rapidly-evolving-resistance-to-deadly-cancer/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Aug 2016 09:14:04 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2015/10/03150154/Sarcophilus_harrisii_tarannaSMALL-506x330.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=188994</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Atlantic Forest, Australia, and Tasmania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Diseases, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Genetics, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Mammals, Saving Species From Extinction, Solutions, Wildlife, and Zoonotic Diseases]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A transmissible cancer &#8212; the devil facial tumor disease (DFTD) &#8212; has decimated Tasmanian devil populations. The contagious cancer, first recorded in 1996, has wiped out over 90 percent of these animals in some parts of Tasmania. The disease kills virtually every devil it infects, but there may be some hope, researchers have found. A [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A transmissible cancer &#8212; the devil facial tumor disease (DFTD) &#8212; has decimated Tasmanian devil populations. The contagious cancer, first recorded in 1996, has wiped out over 90 percent of these animals in some parts of Tasmania. The disease kills virtually every devil it infects, but there may be some hope, researchers have found. A new study published in Nature Communications suggests that Tasmanian devils are rapidly evolving resistance to fight the cancer, and may be able to escape extinction. Scientists used tissue samples collected from 360 devils across Tasmania between 1999 and 2014 to look for genes that might have changed in response to DFTD. They compared the DNA of three independent devil populations before the arrival of DFTD and eight to sixteen years after DFTD arrived. Devil facial tumour disease causes tumours to form in and around the mouth, interfering with feeding and eventually leading to death by starvation. Photo by Menna Jones, Wikimedia Commons. The team found that in all three devil populations, two small genetic regions in their DNA appear to have changed considerably in response to DFTD. Five genes in these two regions are linked to cancers in other mammals, researchers discovered, suggesting that Tasmanian devils are likely evolving resistance to the disease. Moreover, these genetic changes have occurred in just four to eight generations of devils since the outbreak of DFTD. “The results are surprising,” co-author Hamish McCallum of Griffith University in TK said in a statement, &#8220;because rapid evolution requires pre-existing genetic variation and Tasmanian devils have low&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2016/08/tasmanian-devils-are-rapidly-evolving-resistance-to-deadly-cancer/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-188994</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Why is Tasmania burning, and why are scientists worried?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2016/02/why-is-tasmania-burning-and-why-are-scientists-worried/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2016/02/why-is-tasmania-burning-and-why-are-scientists-worried/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Feb 2016 18:41:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2016/02/02180526/800px-Bush_fire_at_Captain_Creek_central_Queensland_Australia.-440x330.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Global Forest Reporting Network]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Australia and Tasmania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Conservation, El Nino, Environment, Fires, Forest Loss, Forests, Global Warming, Green, Habitat Loss, Trees, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[On January 13, dry lightning strikes sparked off a series of fires in northwest Tasmania that spread quickly. So far, the fires have ravaged more than 107,000 hectares of land, according to the Tasmanian Fire Service. As of Monday, there were 81 active fires across the state, of which, 26 are currently either uncontained or uncontrolled. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[On January 13, dry lightning strikes sparked off a series of fires in northwest Tasmania that spread quickly. So far, the fires have ravaged more than 107,000 hectares of land, according to the Tasmanian Fire Service. As of Monday, there were 81 active fires across the state, of which, 26 are currently either uncontained or uncontrolled. Nearly a month after the fires started, many are still ablaze. One problem is that most active fires are located in remote, rugged areas of Tasmania. Moreover, some fires are burning in deep peat soil, Ted Lefroy, Director of the Centre for Environment at University of Tasmania, told Mongabay. The trouble with peat fires &#8212; or fires that result from the burning of partially decomposed plant matter in wetlands &#8212; is that these tend to keep smoldering underground without becoming outwardly apparent on the surface. This makes it difficult for firefighters to detect and control the fires. The peat fires do become visible occasionally, Lefroy said, when the temperatures rise further and wind speeds increase. To manage the active fires, over 180 remote area specialists from Tasmania Fire Service, Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service, Australian mainland and New Zealand have been operating throughout the state. Given the enormous scale of the fires, firefighters have been focusing most of their efforts on human life and property such as farmlands, and critical infrastructure like major hydro-electric transmission lines. A wildfire burns out of control in a Tasmanian forest. Photo by user 80 trading 24 via Wikimedia Commons (CC 3.0). While&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2016/02/why-is-tasmania-burning-and-why-are-scientists-worried/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-178373</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Tasmanian Devils hit by a second contagious cancer</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2016/01/tasmanian-devils-hit-by-a-second-contagious-cancer/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2016/01/tasmanian-devils-hit-by-a-second-contagious-cancer/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Jan 2016 09:30:28 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2016/01/02224825/105958_web-442x330.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Australia and Tasmania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Diseases, Endangered Species, Environment, Mammals, Wildlife, and Zoonotic Diseases]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In 1996, researchers discovered a deadly cancer in Australia’s Tasmanian Devils. The transmissible cancer jumps from one Tasmanian Devil to another, and is often fatal to the animals. Since its discovery, the contagious cancer has wiped out over 90 percent of Tasmanian Devils in some areas. Now, researchers have discovered a second contagious cancer in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In 1996, researchers discovered a deadly cancer in Australia’s Tasmanian Devils. The transmissible cancer jumps from one Tasmanian Devil to another, and is often fatal to the animals. Since its discovery, the contagious cancer has wiped out over 90 percent of Tasmanian Devils in some areas. Now, researchers have discovered a second contagious cancer in these endangered marsupials, according to a study published last week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. This second cancer, first detected in a devil in south-east Tasmania in 2014, is genetically distinct from the first one, researchers from the University of Tasmania, Australia, and the University of Cambridge, UK, have found. &#8220;The second cancer causes tumors on the face that are outwardly indistinguishable from the previously-discovered cancer,&#8221; lead-author Ruth Pye from the Menzies Institute for Medical Research at the University of Tasmania, said in a statement. &#8220;So far it has been detected in eight devils in the south-east of Tasmania.&#8221; The new contagious cancer produces large facial tumors in Tasmanian Devils, much like the first form of cancer. Photo by Gregory Woods, Menzies Institute for Medical Research, University of Tasmania. Normally, cancers are not contagious. Only four forms of transmissible cancers have been found in nature so far, in Tasmanian Devils, dogs, Syrian hamsters and soft-shell clams. In the Tasmanian devils, the cancer spreads when the devils bite each other&#8217;s faces during fights for food, and at the time of mating. But the recent discovery of a second contagious cancer in the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2016/01/tasmanian-devils-hit-by-a-second-contagious-cancer/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-172593</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Giving the handfish a hand</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2015/12/giving-the-handfish-a-hand/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2015/12/giving-the-handfish-a-hand/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Dec 2015 07:15:08 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Caleb O'Brien]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sue Palminteri]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2015/12/02225538/Handfish-monitoring_TimLynch-3_small-520x327.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Australia and Tasmania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Endangered Species, Fish, Monitoring, Oceans, Technology, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Researchers are using diver-towed GPS buoys and underwater cameras to estimate the populations of rare fish in Tanzanian estuaries.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Spotted handfish, a type of anglerfish, use their pectoral and pelvic fins to “walk” along the ocean floor. Photo courtesy of Tim Lynch. The handfish is a curious creature. A type of anglerfish in the Brachionichthyidae family, most species of handfish live in the waters around Tasmania. But unlike many oceangoing critters, handfish often “walk” along the ocean floor instead of swimming. Handfish usually dwell on sand and silt substrates at depths ranging from two to 30 meters, where they often eat shrimp, small crustaceans and fish. One species, known as the spotted handfish (Brachionichthys hirsutus), is in danger of extinction — it&#8217;s been disturbed by fishermen dredging for scallops, had its waters polluted by development, and its spawning areas buffeted by environmental pressures. It doesn’t help that strolling along the substrate isn’t the most efficient way for a species to find new territory. These animals are small (a few inches long), and as with many rare and elusive animals, it can be challenging for researchers to estimate the size of a population and to track changes in it over time. So a team of Australian scientists recently tested a new technique to survey the handfish in an estuary in which handfish are known to live. By combining underwater photography with the precision of GPS technology, the new procedure makes tallying the elusive handfish easier and, statistically, far more powerful. Knowing the location and density of the fish, Lynch et al. (2015) write, is “the key data required for monitoring&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2015/12/giving-the-handfish-a-hand/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-171788</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Tasmanian Devil vaccine trial suffers setback: 4 of 19 vaccinated devils killed on road</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2015/10/tasmanian-devil-vaccine-trial-suffers-setback-4-of-19-vaccinated-devils-killed-on-road/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2015/10/tasmanian-devil-vaccine-trial-suffers-setback-4-of-19-vaccinated-devils-killed-on-road/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Oct 2015 10:51:26 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2015/10/03150154/Sarcophilus_harrisii_tarannaSMALL-506x330.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Australia and Tasmania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Captive Breeding, Conservation, Diseases, Endangered Species, Environment, Mammals, Saving Species From Extinction, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[On September 26, scientists released 19 Tasmanian devils (Sarcophilus harrisii) — immunized against the deadly devil facial tumor disease — into the Narawntapu National Park in northern Tasmania. This is the world’s first vaccine trial for the endangered devils in the wild. However, just a few days after the immunized devils were released, four were killed in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii). Photo by JJ Harrison, Wikimedia Commons. On September 26, scientists released 19 Tasmanian devils (Sarcophilus harrisii) — immunized against the deadly devil facial tumor disease — into the Narawntapu National Park in northern Tasmania. This is the world’s first vaccine trial for the endangered devils in the wild. However, just a few days after the immunized devils were released, four were killed in road accidents. “Sadly, yes, it is true,” David Pemberton, Program Manager of the Save the Tasmanian Devil Program (STDP), told Mongabay. Devil facial tumour disease causes tumours to form in and around the mouth, interfering with feeding and eventually leading to death by starvation. Photo by Menna Jones, Wikimedia Commons. The contagious devil facial tumor disease was first recorded in 1996, and has wiped out over 90 percent of devils in some areas. Since its discovery, scientists have been striving to establish disease-free populations of Tasmanian devils in the wild. So this vaccine trial in the wild is a big step forward, especially since the park is home to known populations of diseased devils. “We hope that this vaccination strategy will allow the devil’s immune system to work as it should, and destroy tumour cells before they can cause disease,” James Murphy, a researcher fromthe Walter and Eliza Hall Institute who was involved in the vaccination project, said in a statement. However, while the devil facial tumor disease is the biggest threat to Tasmanian devils currently, roadkill remains a close second, Pemberton said. “In the 2014-15 financial year 317 individual devils were reported&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2015/10/tasmanian-devil-vaccine-trial-suffers-setback-4-of-19-vaccinated-devils-killed-on-road/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-150638</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Invasive predators, deforestation driving Tasmanian parrot over the edge</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2015/05/invasive-predators-deforestation-driving-tasmanian-parrot-over-the-edge/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2015/05/invasive-predators-deforestation-driving-tasmanian-parrot-over-the-edge/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 May 2015 19:18:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Apoorva Joshi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2015/05/invasive-predators-deforestation-driving-tasmanian-parrot-over-the-edge/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Australia and Tasmania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Birds, Deforestation, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Forest Loss, Forests, Green, Habitat Loss, Invasive Species, Logging, Parrots, Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Young swift parrots (Lathamus discolour). Photo courtesy of Dejan Stojanovic. In the forests of Tasmania lives the swift parrot (Lathamus discolour), a highly threatened bird that breeds nowhere else in the world. New research published recently in Biological Conservation finds they are more at risk of extinction than previously thought, with introduced sugar gliders (Petaurus [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Young swift parrots (Lathamus discolour). Photo courtesy of Dejan Stojanovic. In the forests of Tasmania lives the swift parrot (Lathamus discolour), a highly threatened bird that breeds nowhere else in the world. New research published recently in Biological Conservation finds they are more at risk of extinction than previously thought, with introduced sugar gliders (Petaurus breviceps) and logging dealing two big blows to their remaining numbers. The swift parrot is a small, colorful parrot with pointed wings and a long, pointed tail. Adult males are predominantly bright green and have a blue patch on the crown, a red frontal band, and throat and under-tail coverts. Adult females are slightly duller but with a prominent cream underwing-bar. Globally, introduced predators are major drivers of extinction but native predators can also have serious effects, the authors write. In landscapes – particularly those modified by anthropogenic activities – multiple threats can be active simultaneously so synergistic interactions between different threats like predation and habitat loss accelerate the decline of prey populations. Island endemics are particularly vulnerable to predators and have suffered high rates of extinction following the introduction of predators. Coauthor Dejan Stojanovic holds a sugar glider. Photo courtesy of Dejan Stojanovic. According to the authors, identifying the impact of these introduced predators on endangered prey populations is critical for conservation management. The research showed that 50.9 percent of female swift parrots nesting on the main island of Tasmania were killed by sugar gliders while incubating eggs. This did not occur on offshore&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2015/05/invasive-predators-deforestation-driving-tasmanian-parrot-over-the-edge/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-23604</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>World Heritage Committee takes ten minutes to reject Australia&#8217;s bid to strip forests of protection</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2014/06/world-heritage-committee-takes-ten-minutes-to-reject-australias-bid-to-strip-forests-of-protection/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2014/06/world-heritage-committee-takes-ten-minutes-to-reject-australias-bid-to-strip-forests-of-protection/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Jun 2014 20:05:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2014/06/world-heritage-committee-takes-ten-minutes-to-reject-australias-bid-to-strip-forests-of-protection/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Australia and Tasmania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Environment, Forests, Governance, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Parks, Protected Areas, and Temperate Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The UNESCO World Heritage Committee today unanimously rejected a controversial proposal by the Australian government to strip 74,000 hectares of temperate rainforest from a World Heritage Site in Tasmania. In an embarrassing setback for the Australia government, it took the committee less than ten minutes to unanimously reject the proposal, according to the Guardian. The [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The UNESCO World Heritage Committee today unanimously rejected a controversial proposal by the Australian government to strip 74,000 hectares of temperate rainforest from a World Heritage Site in Tasmania. In an embarrassing setback for the Australia government, it took the committee less than ten minutes to unanimously reject the proposal, according to the Guardian. The 74,000 hectares in question were a part of a so-called &#8220;peace deal&#8221; between environmentalists and loggers in Tasmania, which added 170,000 hectares to an existing World Heritage site. The government contended that much of the forest was degraded, yet experts disagreed. In fact, the IUCN found that 85 percent of the 74,000 hectares was natural forest and nearly half of the whole was old-growth forest. The IUCN recommended that the committee reject the proposal. &#8220;Today is vindication for every Australian, and people around the world, who love Tasmania’s forests and want to see them protected,&#8221; said World Heritage expert Alec Marr in response to the decision. &#8220;The World Heritage Committee has today upheld the integrity of the Convention and Australia needs to respect its obligations to the Convention.&#8221; The former leader of Australia Green party, Bob Brown, blasted the current government for its attempt to shrink the World Heritage Site. &#8220;[Prime Minister] Tony Abbott lied about the forests being degraded. That lie has been rejected at international level. It is a diplomatic fiasco for the Prime Minister and Australia. However, it is a win for global diplomatic propriety,&#8221; Brown said in a statement adding, &#8220;This&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2014/06/world-heritage-committee-takes-ten-minutes-to-reject-australias-bid-to-strip-forests-of-protection/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-25048</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Plan to shrink World Heritage forest in Tasmania &#8216;clearly inappropriate,&#8217; says IUCN</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2014/05/plan-to-shrink-world-heritage-forest-in-tasmania-clearly-inappropriate-says-iucn/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2014/05/plan-to-shrink-world-heritage-forest-in-tasmania-clearly-inappropriate-says-iucn/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 May 2014 15:39:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2014/05/plan-to-shrink-world-heritage-forest-in-tasmania-clearly-inappropriate-says-iucn/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Australia and Tasmania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Governance, Green, Islands, Logging, Parks, and Protected Areas]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has roundly criticized Australia&#8217;s proposal to remove 74,000 hectares of temperate rainforest from the World Heritage Committee. In a report to the global organization, the IUCN argues that the removal of these forests would &#8220;impact negatively&#8221; on the site&#8217;s overall value. The 74,000 hectares in question were [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has roundly criticized Australia&#8217;s proposal to remove 74,000 hectares of temperate rainforest from the World Heritage Committee. In a report to the global organization, the IUCN argues that the removal of these forests would &#8220;impact negatively&#8221; on the site&#8217;s overall value. The 74,000 hectares in question were just added to the World Heritage site last year as a part of a landmark agreement between environmentalists and logging companies, which saw a total of 170,000 hectares added to the World Heritage Site. However, Australia&#8217;s new government, under Prime Minister Tony Abbott, has pledged to undo the agreement by cutting out 43 percent of the new forest and opening it up for logging. The government has claimed that the bulk of the area was logged or degraded, a point disputed by activists and researchers. In fact, the IUCN says various analyses show that the 74,000 hectares in question is made up of 85 percent natural forest, including 45 percent old-growth forest. &#8220;Only 10 percent of the area is regenerating from logging since 1960 and only circa 4 percent of the area is regarded as having been heavily disturbed,&#8221; reads the report, noting that these areas were &#8220;explicitly identified for restoration&#8221; last year. The Tasmanian devil is found in the forests in question. This species is currently listed as Endangered by the IUCN Red List. Photo by: JJ Harrison/Creative Commons 3.0. The government has classified its proposal as a &#8220;Minor Boundary Modification&#8221; to the World&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2014/05/plan-to-shrink-world-heritage-forest-in-tasmania-clearly-inappropriate-says-iucn/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-25186</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Australians rally to save World Heritage Site from chopping block</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2014/04/australians-rally-to-save-world-heritage-site-from-chopping-block/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2014/04/australians-rally-to-save-world-heritage-site-from-chopping-block/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Apr 2014 16:17:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2014/04/australians-rally-to-save-world-heritage-site-from-chopping-block/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Australia and Tasmania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Green, Islands, Logging, Parks, and Protected Areas]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Yesterday, nearly 2,000 people held a rally to show support for a Tasmanian forest that the Australian government wants stripped of its UNESCO World Heritage Sites and logged. The government, headed by Prime Minister Tony Abbott, has proposed to cut out 74,000 hectares of forest in Tasmania&#8217;s Upper Florentine valley from World Heritage status in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Yesterday, nearly 2,000 people held a rally to show support for a Tasmanian forest that the Australian government wants stripped of its UNESCO World Heritage Sites and logged. The government, headed by Prime Minister Tony Abbott, has proposed to cut out 74,000 hectares of forest in Tasmania&#8217;s Upper Florentine valley from World Heritage status in order allow industrial logging back in. &#8220;Today&#8217;s outstanding turn out in the Upper Florentine forests clearly shows that Australians are very proud of their World Heritage forests,&#8221; said Jenny Weber, the campaign manager with the Bob Brown Foundation which organized the rally. &#8220;We are sending a strong message to UNESCO that we love our spectacular forests of outstanding universal value, and the Australian community will stand up to defend them.&#8221; The forest in question was part of a landmark agreement in Tasmanian between logging companies and environmentalists, which saw 170,000 hectares added to the existing World Heritage Site. But the Abbot government, which has also proposed a moratorium on any new protected areas, now wants to open up 43 percent of the forest in question. The government claims that much of the targeted area is degraded, but local conservationists, including former Green Party head Bob Brown, have disputed that. Since 2000, Australia has lost 6 million hectares of forest cover according to Global Forest Watch, largely in Victoria, Western Australia, and Tasmania. Since its election last year, the Tony Abbott government has made a number of controversial decision on the environment, including a shark cull,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2014/04/australians-rally-to-save-world-heritage-site-from-chopping-block/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-25325</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Australia proposes banning environmental boycotts</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2014/04/australia-proposes-banning-environmental-boycotts/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2014/04/australia-proposes-banning-environmental-boycotts/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Apr 2014 18:36:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2014/04/australia-proposes-banning-environmental-boycotts/</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Endangered Environmentalists]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Australia and Tasmania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Green, Sustainability, and Sustainable Development]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[What do you do when a company is repeatedly caught trashing the environment and refuses to change its ways? Boycott! Activists and campaigners often use boycotting a company&#8217;s products when other methods have failed, yet in Australia such boycotts could soon become illegal. The Guardian reported last week that the Australia government is currently mulling [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[What do you do when a company is repeatedly caught trashing the environment and refuses to change its ways? Boycott! Activists and campaigners often use boycotting a company&#8217;s products when other methods have failed, yet in Australia such boycotts could soon become illegal. The Guardian reported last week that the Australia government is currently mulling a plan to remove an exception for to employ &#8220;secondary boycotts.&#8221; The news comes amid of a U-turn on environmental protections under the new coalition government headed by Tony Abbott. &#8220;Boycotts have been one of the most important arrows in the quiver of responsible conservationists and consumers. They’ve convinced many environmentally predatory firms around the world to clean up their acts,&#8221; said well-known ecologist, William Laurance, a professor at James Cook University in Australia. &#8220;It&#8217;s a tremendously bad idea.&#8221; Laurance is also the head of the new environmental group, the Alliance of Leading Environmental Researchers and Thinkers or ALERT. Clearcut logging in Styx Valley, Tasmania. A number of high profile boycotts have revolved around stores selling products made from old-growth forests in Tasmania. Photo by: TTaylor/Creative Commons 3.0. Richard Colbeck, Tasmania Senator and the parliamentary secretary for agriculture, told the Guardian that the &#8220;secondary boycotts&#8221; by environmental groups will be up for the debate by the government, though consumer protection boycotts will stay. Colbeck pointed to a number of recent boycotts in Australia targeting the timber industry for clearcutting native forests, calling it &#8220;a dishonest campaign.&#8221; However, the scientists with ALERT argue that such boycotts&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2014/04/australia-proposes-banning-environmental-boycotts/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-25421</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Australia proposes removing old-growth forests from World Heritage Site</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2014/02/australia-proposes-removing-old-growth-forests-from-world-heritage-site/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2014/02/australia-proposes-removing-old-growth-forests-from-world-heritage-site/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Feb 2014 13:26:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2014/02/australia-proposes-removing-old-growth-forests-from-world-heritage-site/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Australia and Tasmania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Deforestation, Environment, Forestry, Forests, Governance, Green, Logging, Rainforests, and Temperate Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Last year, after decades of fighting, environmentalists and the forestry industry reached a landmark agreement that added 170,000 hectares of old-growth forest in Tasmania as a part of a World Heritage Site. But less than a year later and that so-called peace agreement is in danger of unraveling. The new Australian government, under Prime Minister [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Last year, after decades of fighting, environmentalists and the forestry industry reached a landmark agreement that added 170,000 hectares of old-growth forest in Tasmania as a part of a World Heritage Site. But less than a year later and that so-called peace agreement is in danger of unraveling. The new Australian government, under Prime Minister Tony Abbott, is going ahead with removing 74,000 hectares (43 percent) from the World Heritage site. Australia&#8217;s Environment Minister, Greg Hunt, contends that the 117 areas in question are &#8220;degraded or logged&#8221; and were added to the agreement &#8220;against the wishes of local community.&#8221; However, others say that at least some of the forests in question have high conservation value, including unlogged temperate rainforest. &#8220;Some of it is some of the most outstanding forests in the country, if not in the planet,&#8221; Peter Hitchcock a consultant on World Heritage listing told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). &#8220;So the great majority of the area that is being proposed to be removed from the World Heritage Area is in fact unlogged forest, and much of it with important conservation values.&#8221; Protest camp against logging in the Upper Florentine Valley. Photo by: J.J. Harrison/Creative Commons 3.0. In addition, a number of forestry companies have stated they wouldn&#8217;t want to log in the disputed areas. Evan Rolley, the Executive Director of forestry company Ta Ann, said it would not accept wood outside of the landmark peace agreement. Vica Bayley, Tasmania campaign manager for the Wilderness Society, told the Guardian&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2014/02/australia-proposes-removing-old-growth-forests-from-world-heritage-site/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-25752</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Last disease-free Tasmanian devils imperiled by mine</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2013/08/last-disease-free-tasmanian-devils-imperiled-by-mine/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2013/08/last-disease-free-tasmanian-devils-imperiled-by-mine/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Aug 2013 14:20:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Oliver Milman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2013/08/last-disease-free-tasmanian-devils-imperiled-by-mine/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Australia and Tasmania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Carnivores, Conservation, Diseases, Endangered Species, Environment, Green, Islands, Mammals, Marsupials, Mining, Predators, Regulations, Saving Species From Extinction, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The federal environment minister, Mark Butler, has given the go-ahead to a controversial mine that the courts halted amid concerns it could drastically affect the last stronghold of the Tasmanian devil. Butler said he had granted approval to Shree Minerals to proceed with its iron ore mine at Nelson Bay River in the north-west of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The federal environment minister, Mark Butler, has given the go-ahead to a controversial mine that the courts halted amid concerns it could drastically affect the last stronghold of the Tasmanian devil. Butler said he had granted approval to Shree Minerals to proceed with its iron ore mine at Nelson Bay River in the north-west of Tasmania, subject to 30 conditions. However, the Save the Tarkine campaign group, which successfully convinced the federal court to block the mine two weeks ago, said it would launch a further legal challenge, claiming that Butler had not taken the time to make a full assessment of the mine&#8217;s impact. The federal court had ruled that Tony Burke, the previous environment minister, had erred by failing to properly consult departmental advice relating to the mine&#8217;s adverse implications for the Tasmanian devil. Around 80% of the Tasmanian devil population has been ravaged by a facial tumor disease, with the last remaining tumor-free population found in the Tarkine, where the mine is to be located. Conditions placed on the mine by Butler include a ban on travel to and from the site outside daylight hours to reduce the chance of devils being run over by trucks. Shree employees will also have to get to the mine via a bus, rather than travel there in their own cars. Shree will have to monitor devil populations and contribute $350,000 to the Save the Tasmanian Devil program. The company will have to pay $48,000 for each devil killed, as well&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2013/08/last-disease-free-tasmanian-devils-imperiled-by-mine/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2013/08/last-disease-free-tasmanian-devils-imperiled-by-mine/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-26557</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Decades-long fight leads to old-growth forest protection in Tasmania</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2013/06/decades-long-fight-leads-to-old-growth-forest-protection-in-tasmania/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2013/06/decades-long-fight-leads-to-old-growth-forest-protection-in-tasmania/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Jun 2013 15:09:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Bridie Jabour]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2013/06/decades-long-fight-leads-to-old-growth-forest-protection-in-tasmania/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Australia and Tasmania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Conservation, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Environment, Environmental Heroes, Forests, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Industry, Logging, Old Growth Forests, Parks, Primary Forests, Protected Areas, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, and Temperate Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Almost 200,000 hectares of Tasmania&#8217;s old growth forest have been world heritage listed, bringing hope that a three-decade fight between environmentalists, politicians and loggers is over. The World Heritage Committee has extended the heritage listed boundary of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area by more than 170,000 hectares after accepting a proposal from the Australian [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Almost 200,000 hectares of Tasmania&#8217;s old growth forest have been world heritage listed, bringing hope that a three-decade fight between environmentalists, politicians and loggers is over. The World Heritage Committee has extended the heritage listed boundary of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area by more than 170,000 hectares after accepting a proposal from the Australian government which will give the areas the highest level of environmental protection in the world. The old growth forest areas now added to the heritage listing are in the Upper Florentine as well as within the Styx, Huon, Picton and Counsel River Valley. Logging will continue in the forest in areas Environment Minister Tony Burke described as &#8220;less contentious.&#8221; The proposal the government put to the World Heritage Committee was the work of people within the forestry industry as well as environmentalists, including Miranda Gibson who famously spent 457 days living in a tree in the old growth forest in a campaign for extended environmental protection. Speaking from Hobart where she had watched a livestream of the World Heritage Committee handing down the decision, Gibson said she was thrilled and had contemplated returning to the tree if she was unhappy with the decision. &#8220;It&#8217;s good to know I don&#8217;t have to go back to the tree unless I want to visit,&#8221; she said. &#8220;The hardest part [of living in the tree] was not knowing how long I would be up there or if the loggers would come and log around me.&#8221; &#8220;It was obviously also&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2013/06/decades-long-fight-leads-to-old-growth-forest-protection-in-tasmania/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2013/06/decades-long-fight-leads-to-old-growth-forest-protection-in-tasmania/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-28803</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Could the Tasmanian tiger be hiding out in New Guinea?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2013/05/could-the-tasmanian-tiger-be-hiding-out-in-new-guinea/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2013/05/could-the-tasmanian-tiger-be-hiding-out-in-new-guinea/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 May 2013 16:36:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2013/05/could-the-tasmanian-tiger-be-hiding-out-in-new-guinea/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Australia, Indonesia, New Guinea, Papua New Guinea, Southeast Asia, and Tasmania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Camera Trapping, Carnivores, Cryptic Species, Cryptozoology, Environment, Exploration, Extinction, Forests, Green, Islands, Mammals, Marsupials, Predators, Rainforests, Science, Strange, Technology, Top Predators, Tropical Forests, Wildlife, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Many people still believe the Tasmanian tiger (Thylacinus cynocephalus) survives in the wilds of Tasmania, even though the species was declared extinct over eighty years ago. Sightings and reports of the elusive carnivorous marsupial, which was the top predator on the island, pop-up almost as frequently as those of Bigfoot in North America, but to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Many people still believe the Tasmanian tiger (Thylacinus cynocephalus) survives in the wilds of Tasmania, even though the species was declared extinct over eighty years ago. Sightings and reports of the elusive carnivorous marsupial, which was the top predator on the island, pop-up almost as frequently as those of Bigfoot in North America, but to date no definitive evidence has emerged of its survival. Yet, a noted cryptozoologist (one who searches for hidden animals), Dr. Karl Shuker, wrote recently that tiger hunters should perhaps turn their attention to a different island: New Guinea. The Tasmanian tiger, also known as the thylacine, once populated much of Tasmanian and mainland Australia&#8212;where it is also still searched for&#8212;but few know that the animal was present on New Guinea as well. Its prehistoric presence there first came to light in 1960 when archeologists discovered the lower jaw of a Tasmanian tiger. &#8220;Further confirmed fossil remains, dating at over 2 million years old, have subsequently been found on New Guinea; and also in later years, unconfirmed sightings of thylacine-like beasts have been reported from both Papua New Guinea (PNG) and Irian Jaya (the western, Indonesian half of New Guinea),&#8221; Shuker told mongabay.com. A specimen of the Tasmanian tiger in the Natural History Museum at Oslo, Norway. Photo by: L. Shyamal. While Tasmanian tigers are believed to have died out in New Guinea at the end of the Pleistocene, Shuker believes there&#8217;s a chance a population still survives on the mountainous island, which contains some of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2013/05/could-the-tasmanian-tiger-be-hiding-out-in-new-guinea/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2013/05/could-the-tasmanian-tiger-be-hiding-out-in-new-guinea/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-28987</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Man drove Tasmanian Tiger to extinction in Australia</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2013/02/man-drove-tasmanian-tiger-to-extinction-in-australia/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2013/02/man-drove-tasmanian-tiger-to-extinction-in-australia/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Feb 2013 15:44:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2013/02/man-drove-tasmanian-tiger-to-extinction-in-australia/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Australia and Tasmania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Carnivores, Environment, Extinction, Green, Hunting, Mammals, and Poaching]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Tasmanian Tigers at Beaumaris Zoo, Hobart c 1918. Courtesy of the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. Man, not disease, drove the Tasmanian Tiger to extinction, according to a new study published in the Journal of Animal Ecology. The Tasmanian Tiger or thylacine was a marsupial carnivore unique to the Australian island Tasmania that was last [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Tasmanian Tigers at Beaumaris Zoo, Hobart c 1918. Courtesy of the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. Man, not disease, drove the Tasmanian Tiger to extinction, according to a new study published in the Journal of Animal Ecology. The Tasmanian Tiger or thylacine was a marsupial carnivore unique to the Australian island Tasmania that was last confirmed in the wild in 1933. The last individual died in Hobart zoo in 1936, although there have been sporadic claims of sightings since then. While some have attributed the decline of the species to disease, the new study shows that the thylacine could have been wiped out by humans alone. &#8220;Many people, however, believe that bounty hunting alone could not have driven the thylacine extinct and therefore claim that an unknown disease epidemic must have been responsible,&#8221; said University of Adelaide professor Thomas Prowse, lead author of the study. &#8220;We tested this claim by developing a &#8216;metamodel&#8217; &#8211; a network of linked species models &#8211; that evaluated whether the combined impacts of Europeans could have exterminated the thylacine, without any disease.&#8221; &#8220;The new model simulated the directs effects of bounty hunting and habitat loss and, importantly, also considered the indirect effects of a reduction in the thylacine&#8217;s prey (kangaroos and wallabies) due to human harvesting and competition from millions of introduced sheep,&#8221; Prowse continued. &#8220;We found we could simulate the thylacine extinction, including the observed rapid population crash after 1905, without the need to invoke a mystery disease. We showed that the negative impacts&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2013/02/man-drove-tasmanian-tiger-to-extinction-in-australia/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2013/02/man-drove-tasmanian-tiger-to-extinction-in-australia/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-29647</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Australia reels from record heatwave, fires</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2013/01/australia-reels-from-record-heatwave-fires/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2013/01/australia-reels-from-record-heatwave-fires/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Jan 2013 17:52:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2013/01/australia-reels-from-record-heatwave-fires/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Australia and Tasmania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Climate Science, Drought, Environment, Extreme Weather, Fires, Green, Heatwave, and Impact Of Climate Change]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Expert: unprecedented heatwave &#8216;responding to the background warming trend&#8217; Fires burning in Southwest Tasmania on January 7th. Image taken by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA&#8217;s Terra satellite. Photo by: NASA. Yesterday Australia recorded its highest average temperature yet: 40.33 degrees Celsius (104.59 Fahrenheit). The nation has been sweltering under an unprecedented summer [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Expert: unprecedented heatwave &#8216;responding to the background warming trend&#8217; Fires burning in Southwest Tasmania on January 7th. Image taken by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA&#8217;s Terra satellite. Photo by: NASA. Yesterday Australia recorded its highest average temperature yet: 40.33 degrees Celsius (104.59 Fahrenheit). The nation has been sweltering under an unprecedented summer heatwave that has spawned wildfires across the nation, including on the island of Tasmania where over 100 houses were engulfed over the weekend. Temperatures are finally falling slightly today, providing a short reprieve before they are expected to rise again this weekend. For six days, from January 2nd-7th, the nation&#8217;s average high has been above 39 degrees Celsius (102 degrees Fahrenheit). Noted meteorologist, Jeff Masters, writes at his blog that this is &#8220;the first time that has happened since record keeping began in 1910 [in Australia].&#8221; The extreme heat has prompted Australia Bureau of Meteorology&#8217;s to add a new color to their maps&#8212;dark purple&#8212;to mark temperatures between 50 and 54 degrees Celsius (122-129.2 degrees Fahrenheit). The Prime Minister of Australia, Julia Gillard, warned: &#8220;Whilst you would not put any one event down to climate change, weather doesn&#8217;t work like that, we do know over time that as a result of climate change we are going to see more extreme weather events and conditions.&#8221; Gillard&#8217;s comments were buoyed&#8212;and even strengthened&#8212;by experts. &#8220;The current heatwave&#8212;in terms of its duration, its intensity and its extent&#8212;is now unprecedented in our records,&#8221; David Jones with the Bureau of Meteorology told&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2013/01/australia-reels-from-record-heatwave-fires/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2013/01/australia-reels-from-record-heatwave-fires/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-29785</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Forgotten species: the rebellious spotted handfish</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2011/07/forgotten-species-the-rebellious-spotted-handfish/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2011/07/forgotten-species-the-rebellious-spotted-handfish/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Jul 2011 17:45:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2011/07/forgotten-species-the-rebellious-spotted-handfish/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Australia and Tasmania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Environment, Evolution, Ex-situ Conservation, Fish, Green, In-situ Conservation, Invasive Species, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Oceans, Saving Species From Extinction, Solutions, Strange, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Everyone knows the tiger, the panda, the blue whale, but what about the other five to thirty million species estimated to inhabit our Earth? Many of these marvelous, stunning, and rare species have received little attention from the media, conservation groups, and the public. This series is an attempt to give these &#8216;forgotten species&#8216; some [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Everyone knows the tiger, the panda, the blue whale, but what about the other five to thirty million species estimated to inhabit our Earth? Many of these marvelous, stunning, and rare species have received little attention from the media, conservation groups, and the public. This series is an attempt to give these &#8216;forgotten species&#8216; some well-deserved attention. The &#8216;cool&#8217; spotted handfish: adult and juvenile. Photo by: Mark Green &#8211; CSIRO. Evolution is a bizarre mistress. In her adaptation workshop she has crafted parrots that don&#8217;t fly, amphibians with lifelong gills, poison-injecting rodents, and tusked whales. In an evolutionary hodge-podge that is reminiscent of such mythical beasts as chimeras and griffins, she has from time-to-time given some species&#8217; attributes of others, such as the marine iguana who is as happy underwater as a seal, the duck-billed platypus that lays eggs like a reptile, and the purple frog that has a lifestyle reminiscent of a mole. Then there&#8217;s one of her least-known hodge-podges: the fish who &#8216;walks&#8217; with hands instead of swimming. Handfish, as they are aptly known, have hand-shaped pectoral fins that allows the fish to quite literally walk along the bottom of the sea searching for tantalizing worms and crustaceans. Perhaps this is not as surprising as it first sounds: pectoral fins are thought also to have evolved into the forelimbs of everything from rats to frogs to lizards. So, walking on fins is little different from walking on legs, though much rarer today. Fifty million years ago handfish were&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2011/07/forgotten-species-the-rebellious-spotted-handfish/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2011/07/forgotten-species-the-rebellious-spotted-handfish/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-32276</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Australia forest destruction connected to local products</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2011/05/australia-forest-destruction-connected-to-local-products/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2011/05/australia-forest-destruction-connected-to-local-products/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 May 2011 19:44:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2011/05/australia-forest-destruction-connected-to-local-products/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Australia and Tasmania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Certification, Consumer Action, Consumption, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporations, Deforestation, Environment, Forestry, Forests, Green, Logging, Plantations, Pulp And Paper, Sustainability, Sustainable Forest Management, Temperate Forests, Timber, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Some of Australia&#8217;s most popular stores are driving the destruction of native forests, according to a report by a new environmental group Markets for Change (MFC). Furniture, building materials, and paper products were found to be coming at the expense of native forests in Australia and being sold by over 30 businesses in the country, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Some of Australia&#8217;s most popular stores are driving the destruction of native forests, according to a report by a new environmental group Markets for Change (MFC). Furniture, building materials, and paper products were found to be coming at the expense of native forests in Australia and being sold by over 30 businesses in the country, such as Freedom Furniture, Bunnings, Officeworks, Staples, Target, Coles, and Woolsworths. &#8220;Australian families do not want to buy into this destruction. They want to know that the everyday products they buy are not endangering wildlife or leading to increasing climate pollution. Well known retailers need to become part of the solution and not the problem—that means rapidly moving away from using native forests to environmentally responsible plantation timber for their products,” said Tim Birch, CEO of Markets for Change, in a press release. Markets for Change is asking these stores to commit to a procurement policy that would ban products made from native forests or from old growth forest destruction abroad. The organization encourages consumers to purchase products certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) only if products have &#8216;full FSC certification&#8217;, and to avoid products with &#8216;FSC-controlled wood&#8217; or &#8216;mixed source certification&#8217;. According to the report: &#8220;This level of certification is unacceptable because it continues to be given to companies that are undertaking logging operations in native forests in Australia. These logging activities are destroying native forest ecosystems.&#8221; Industrial logging is currently permitted in 76% of Australia&#8217;s nearly 150 million hectares of native forests.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2011/05/australia-forest-destruction-connected-to-local-products/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2011/05/australia-forest-destruction-connected-to-local-products/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-32552</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Back from extinction: Tasmanian tiger caught on video?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2010/11/back-from-extinction-tasmanian-tiger-caught-on-video/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2010/11/back-from-extinction-tasmanian-tiger-caught-on-video/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Nov 2010 18:27:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2010/11/back-from-extinction-tasmanian-tiger-caught-on-video/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Australia and Tasmania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Carnivores, Cryptozoology, Environment, Extinction, Green, Mammals, Marsupials, Predators, Strange, Videos, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A 9 second video released today on YouTube claims to show a living Tasmanian tiger. The footage was captured by Murray McAllister last year. McAllister says he has seen the believed-to-be-extinct Tasmanian tiger several times in the last few years. While the full video is over 8 minutes long, McAllister has only released a preview. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A 9 second video released today on YouTube claims to show a living Tasmanian tiger. The footage was captured by Murray McAllister last year. McAllister says he has seen the believed-to-be-extinct Tasmanian tiger several times in the last few years. While the full video is over 8 minutes long, McAllister has only released a preview. He is negotiating for television rights. According to his website, McAllister has seen Tasmanian tigers both on the island of Tasmania and on mainland Australia even though it is believed the Tasmanian tiger was largely extinct in Australia before Europeans arrived. The Tasmanian tiger, or thylacine, has captured the imagination of cryptozoologists ever since the last known individual died in the 1936 in the Hobart Zoo, which closed the next year. There have been thousands of persistent sightings of the thylacine throughout Tasmania since the 1930s, including inconclusive photos taken by German tourists in 2005. Once the world’s largest carnivorous marsupial and a top predator, the Tasmanian tiger, if extinct, was likely done in by human persecution, disease, and competition with the non-native dingo. Update: According to Our Amazing Planet, experts have stated that the animal in the video is a red fox, not a Tasmanian tiger. DNA analysis by researchers from McAllister confirmed that the animals is a red fox, a non-native species to Australia. Related articles Time to give up on Tasmanian tiger, says DNA expert (03/02/2009) Money and energy spent on finding the Tasmanian tiger should be used for other conservation purposes,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2010/11/back-from-extinction-tasmanian-tiger-caught-on-video/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2010/11/back-from-extinction-tasmanian-tiger-caught-on-video/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-33332</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Environmentalists win decades-long war with logger in Tasmania</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2010/09/environmentalists-win-decades-long-war-with-logger-in-tasmania/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2010/09/environmentalists-win-decades-long-war-with-logger-in-tasmania/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Sep 2010 23:52:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
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										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
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					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2010/09/environmentalists-win-decades-long-war-with-logger-in-tasmania</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Australia and Tasmania]]>
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											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Deforestation, Environment, Forestry, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, and Logging]]>
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											<description>
							<![CDATA[Gunns Limited, an Australian logging company, that has been engaged in a long-running battle with environmentalists over the firm&#8217;s cutting of old-growth forests on Tasmania, conceded defeat Thursday, reports the Environment News Service. Speaking at the ForestWorks conference in Melboure, Australia, Gunns chief executive Greg L&#8217;Estrange said the company will transition its operations from native [&#8230;]]]>
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							<![CDATA[Gunns Limited, an Australian logging company, that has been engaged in a long-running battle with environmentalists over the firm&#8217;s cutting of old-growth forests on Tasmania, conceded defeat Thursday, reports the Environment News Service. Speaking at the ForestWorks conference in Melboure, Australia, Gunns chief executive Greg L&#8217;Estrange said the company will transition its operations from native forests to plantations, effectively ending the practice that has won the company so much animosity from green groups over the years. &#8220;This may well mean transitioning to plantations but move we must, for the conflict must end,&#8221; said L&#8217;Estrange, alluding to the decades-long campaign by environmentalists against the company. &#8220;Through this inclusive approach we will find joint solutions to age-old conflicts and move beyond to a real, sustainable forest industry.&#8221; Logging coupe WE034D, 25th June 2007 / Photo: Laura Minnebo &#8220;Over the past year we have made a clear, directional statement that our future will be in the development and use of plantation-based products because we must change in order to achieve broader community and investor support,&#8221; said L&#8217;Estrange. &#8220;Native forest is not part of our future.&#8221; &#8220;We see that the conflict largely has to end,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;The vast support of the Australian population is with the environmental non-government organizations.” Beyond public relations damage, Gunns has suffered bruising court battles over the past decades in its efforts to suppress protests. In 2009 the company lost a case filed against 20 defendants, including The Wilderness Society. At part of the settlement, Gunns paid the NGO&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2010/09/environmentalists-win-decades-long-war-with-logger-in-tasmania/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-33653</doi>				</item>
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					<title>Tasmania gets Australia&#8217;s first CCB-certified REDD deal</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2009/07/tasmania-gets-australias-first-ccb-certified-redd-deal/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2009/07/tasmania-gets-australias-first-ccb-certified-redd-deal/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Jul 2009 00:45:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2009/07/tasmania-gets-australias-first-ccb-certified-redd-deal/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Australia and Tasmania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Avoided Deforestation, carbon, Carbon Sequestration, climate finance, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Forestry, Forests, Logging, Redd, and Temperate Forests]]>
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											<description>
							<![CDATA[Project will pay landowners not to log old-growth forests in Tasmania A forest conservation project in Tasmania has become Australia&#8217;s first Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) project to meet Climate, Community and Biodiversity Standards. The project, run by Sydney-based Redd Forests, is on 860 hectares of private land in Tasmania. Logging of old-growth [&#8230;]]]>
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							<![CDATA[Project will pay landowners not to log old-growth forests in Tasmania A forest conservation project in Tasmania has become Australia&#8217;s first Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) project to meet Climate, Community and Biodiversity Standards. The project, run by Sydney-based Redd Forests, is on 860 hectares of private land in Tasmania. Logging of old-growth forests in Tasmania is increasingly controversial: environmentalists regularly clash&#8212;sometimes violently&#8212;with forestry companies. The new project provides an alternative source of income for landowners who have traditionally relied on logging. A statement from Redd Forests explains: The Redd Forests project&#8230; demonstrates the commercial viability of using the carbon market to reward landowners who, traditionally, have logged their land for income. Instead, landowners can now assign those same logging rights to Redd Forests in return for a percentage of the proceeds of sale of the resulting carbon credits. These credits are generated by Redd Forests &#8216;locking up&#8217; the land for a period of 25 or more years thus avoiding the release of greenhouse gas emissions resulting from logging and land clearing practices. In return the landowner commits to manage the land and promote the natural regeneration and growth of their native and old growth forests. Clear-cut at Caveside near Chudleigh in Tasmania as seen from Google Earth. Image courtesy of Pete Godfrey. &#8220;This is a &#8216;win-win&#8217; in the fight against climate change&#8221; said Redd Forests&#8217; Managing Director Stephen Dickey. &#8220;The landowner can secure a healthy income for protecting rather than degrading his forest land, the emissions of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2009/07/tasmania-gets-australias-first-ccb-certified-redd-deal/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-36529</doi>				</item>
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