New site is a match-maker for world’s endangered frogs
The golden toad (Bufo periglenes) is one of well-over a hundred frogs that are believed to have gone extinct over the past few decades. Photo by: US Fish and Wildlife…
Forest carbon projects rake in $178 million in 2010
An aerial view of an Amazon tributary in Peru, one of the top countries for projects in the young forest carbon market. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. Investors funneled $178…
Could blockbuster animated movies help save life on Earth?
Coquerel's sifakas kissing. The Madagascar film series helped raise the profile of many of the island's unique species, including lemurs. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. Some scientists may scoff at…
New US stamp seeks to raise money for endangered species
As of today, buying a stamp may help save some of the world's most beloved and endangered species. The US Postal Service has released a new stamp that will raise…
Conservationists renew push for ‘rainforest bonds’
The Amazon rainforest. Photo by Rhett A. Butler Conservationists are renewing a push for a special class of 'rainforest bonds' to fund efforts to conserve tropical forests. WWF, the Global…
Loving the tapir: pioneering conservation for South America’s biggest animal
Lowland tapir in Yasuni National Park in Ecuador. Photo by: Jeremy Hance. Patricia Medici will be speaking at the Wildlife Conservation Network Expo in San Francisco on October 1st, 2011.…
BBC plans to cancel fruitful Wildlife Conservation Fund
The announcement that the BBC plans to axe its 4-year-old Wildlife Conservation Fund, which has raised nearly $5 million (£3 million) for endangered species worldwide, has spurred an online campaign…
Taking corporate sustainability seriously means changing business culture
Clare Raybould at the Auckland Zoo where she volunteers. Photo courtesy of Clare Raybould. As more and more people demand companies to become sustainable and environmentally conscious, many corporations are…
Malaria may hurt conservation efforts, aid poachers
Map courtesy of the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Scientists predict that malaria could spread further with climate change. In 2009, 781,000 people died of malaria worldwide…
US House Republicans propose to eliminate migratory bird conservation act
The US House of Representatives has proposed an environmental spending bill that strips funds from many environmental agencies, including eliminating altogether the Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act. The vote has…
WWF partnering with companies that destroy rainforests, threaten endangered species
A new report finds that conservation giant WWF may demand too little when working with logging companies. Screenshot of WWF website. Arguably the globe's most well-known conservation organization, the World…
South Sudan’s choice: resource curse or wild wonder?
This commentary was originally published in February, but given that South Sudan has just celebrated independence over the weekend, we thought it apt to re-publish. Oryx and WCS Cessna shadow,…
Over 900 species added to endangered list during past year
Previously unpublished 17th Century Dutch sketch of the dodo, taken from a real specimen, either alive or stuffed. Dronte means dodo in Dutch. The past twelve months have seen 914…
Germany backs out of Yasuni deal
Germany has backed out of a pledge to commit $50 million a year to Ecuador's Yasuni ITT Initiative, reports Science Insider. The move by Germany potentially upsets an innovative program…
How do we save the Sumatran rhino?
Tam, a male Sumatran rhino is kept in semi-captivity in Borneo with hopes to mate him with a female. The Sumatran rhinos on Borneo are actually a unique subspecies, dubbed…
Cambodia’s wildlife pioneer: saving species and places in Southeast Asia’s last forest
This interview is an excerpt from The WildLife with Laurel Neme, a program that explores the mysteries of the animal world through interviews with scientists and other wildlife investigators. "The…
Rise in wildlife tourism in India comes with challenges
A line of tourist jeeps clogs the road in a dry forest, as all eyes—and cameras—are on a big cat ambling along the road ahead; when the striped predator turns…
Elephants: the gardeners of Asia’s and Africa’s forests
Forest elephant. Photo by: Carlton Ward Junior. An interview with Ahimsa Campos-Arceiz and Stephen Blake. Warning: graphic images below. It seems difficult to imagine elephants delicately tending a garden, but…
The saola: rushing to save the most ‘spectacular zoological discovery’ of the 20th Century
One of the only photos of a saola in the wild. Photo taken by cameratrap in 1999. Photo courtesy of William Robichaud . The saola (Pseudoryx nghetinhensis) may be the…
Pet trade, palm oil, and poaching: the challenges of saving the ‘forgotten bear’
This interview is an excerpt from The WildLife with Laurel Neme, a program that explores the mysteries of the animal world through interviews with scientists and other wildlife investigators. "The…
As South Sudan eyes independence, will it choose choose to protect its wildlife?
After the people of South Sudan have voted overwhelmingly for independence, the work of building a nation begins. Set to become the world's newest country on July 9th of this…
Africa’s vanishing wild: mammal populations cut in half
An interview with Ian Craigie. The big mammals for which Africa is so famous are vanishing in staggering numbers. According to a study published last year: Africa's large mammal populations…
Asia’s last lions lose conservation funds to tigers
Gir lions become more popular with tourists, but threaten livestock of adjacent villages. The last lions of Asia and the final survivors of the Asiatic lion subspecies (Panthera leo persica)…
With REDD, could financial markets become species’ extinction risk?
Add financial markets to the long list of threats to wildlife Scale-crested pygmy tyrant. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. The emergence of a Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD)…
Will Indonesia’s big REDD rainforest deal work?
A shorter version of this article appears on Yale e360 as Indonesia’s Corruption Legacy Clouds a Forest Protection Plan. The version that appears below was last revised on October 31,…
Study: REDD could save species from extinction, if well-funded
The burgeoning global program REDD+ (Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) could do more than mitigate climate change, according to a new study in Conservation Letters by scientists with…
Tiger summit reaches bold agreement and raises $300 million
The summit to save the world's biggest cat, and one of the world's most popular animals, has agreed to a bold plan dubbed the Global Tiger Recovery Program. Meeting in…
Oil, indigenous people, and Ecuador’s big idea
An interview with David Romo Vallejos. Ecuador's big idea—potentially Earth-rattling—goes something like this: the international community pays the small South American nation not to drill for nearly a billion barrels…
Rebuttal: Slaughtering farmed-raised tigers won’t save tigers
An interview with Alasdair Cameron of the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA). A recent interview with Kirsten Conrad on how legalizing the tiger trade could possibly save wild tigers sparked off…
Would legalizing the trade in tiger parts save the tiger?
An interview with Kirsten Conrad. Just the mention of the idea is enough to send shivers down many tiger conservationists' spines: re-legalize the trade in tiger parts. The trade has…
Special series
Forest Trackers
- Bolivia’s El Curichi Las Garzas protected area taken over by land-grabbers
- Authorities struggle to protect Bolivian national park from drug-fueled deforestation
- Poverty and plantations: Nigerian reserve struggles against the odds
- Logging, road construction continue to fuel forest loss in Papua New Guinea
Oceans
- ‘Our life support system is at risk’: Interview with ‘Her Deepness’ Sylvia Earle
- No answers for Ghanaian fishery observer’s family months after suspected death
- Fewer fish and more rules lead to illegal catches, Italian fishers say
- Fishing by dodgy fleets hurts economies, jobs in developing countries: Report
Amazon Conservation
- New ban threatens traditional fishers in Brazil’s Mato Grosso state
- Deforestation haunts top Peruvian reserve and its Indigenous communities
- Amid record-high fires across the Amazon, Brazil loses primary forests
- A web of front people conceals environmental offenders in the Amazon
Land rights and extractives
- Women weave a culture of resistance and agroecology in Ecuador’s Intag Valley
- Hyundai ends aluminum deal with Adaro Minerals following K-pop protest
- Brazil’s illegal gold trade takes a hammering, but persists underground
- Maluku bone collector unearths troubling consequence of coastal abrasion
Endangered Environmentalists
- Indonesian activists face jail over FB posts flagging damage to marine park
- Vietnamese environmentalist sentenced to 3 years in prison for tax evasion
- Son of slain Quilombola leader will still strive for community’s rights
- Video: Five Tembé Indigenous activists shot in Amazonian ‘palm oil war’
Indonesia's Forest Guardians
- Fenced in by Sulawesi national park, Indigenous women make forestry breakout
- In Borneo, the ‘Power of Mama’ fight Indonesia’s wildfires with all-woman crew
- Pioneer agroforester Ermi, 73, rolls back the years in Indonesia’s Gorontalo
- After 20 years and thousands of trees planted, Kalimantan’s veteran forester persists
Conservation Effectiveness
- The conservation sector must communicate better (commentary)
- Thailand tries nature-based water management to adapt to climate change
- Forest restoration to boost biomass doesn’t have to sacrifice tree diversity
- How scientists and a community are bringing a Bornean river corridor back to life
Southeast Asian infrastructure
- Study: Indonesia’s new capital city threatens stable proboscis monkey population
- Indonesia’s new capital ‘won’t sacrifice the environment’: Q&A with Nusantara’s Myrna Asnawati Safitri
- Small farmers in limbo as Cambodia wavers on Tonle Sap conservation rules
- To build its ‘green’ capital city, Indonesia runs a road through a biodiverse forest
