A bull elephant was found dead in West Aceh on April 13. Its tusks were missing; its trunk was severed from its body. Photo: Khaidar A pair of critically endangered…
Global Forest Watch map showing forest loss between 2001 and 2013 in Peru's Alto Nanay Pintuyacu Chambira conservation area and Alto Purus National Park New NASA data shows a jump…
Cleared peatlands in Indonesia's Riau province. Photo: Rhett A. Butler Indonesia’s forest clearing moratorium is full of holes. At the edge of a jungle in the Sumatran village of Sumber…
Shipments of hammerhead shark fins were approved by the Costa Rican government in violation of an international treaty, conservation groups allege. A school of hammerhead sharks swim near the Galapagos…
Myanmar's Inle Lake. Photo by Marc Veraart. Home to some of the largest remaining contiguous forests in Southeast Asia, as well as more than 1,700 species of amphibians, birds, mammals…
Amid EU threats to blacklist Thai seafood if the industry fails to clean up its act by October, the Southeast Asian country and its neighbor Indonesia agreed on Thursday to…
A baby orangutan in North Sumatra. The species is critically endangered. Photo: Rhett A. Butler In Indonesia, preferential targeting of REDD+ projects in high-carbon areas won't do much for biodiversity.…
Wooden fishing rigs off Java's coast. Photo: Rhett A. Butler On Sunday, the Indonesian ombudsman asked the maritime affairs minister to help fishermen adapt to the government ban on seine…
Villagers protest the proposed construction of dams on the Salween River in Myanmar, on International Day of Action for Rivers and Against Dams, March 14, 2015. At least five dams…
Marilyn Baptiste, 2015 Goldman Environmental Prize winner for North America, led the Xeni Gwet'in community in defeating one of the largest proposed gold and copper mines in British Columbia that…
Skin texture variation in one mutable rainfrog (Pritimantis mutabilis), which changes from spiny at 0 seconds to smooth at 330 seconds. Photo courtesy of the Zoological Journal of the Linnean…
United Cacao didn't need authorization to clear its plantation near Tamshiyacu, said a court in Loreto, Peru, resolving for the time being one of a series of questions about the…
Liberia is home to pygmy hippos (Choeropsis liberiensis or Hexaprotodon liberiensis), which are listed by the IUCN as Endangered. A swathe of no-deforestation policies by major commodities producers and suppliers…
A traditional fishing vessel in Indonesia. Photo: Andreas Harsono Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo will form a special task force to deal with fishermen’s concerns about the new ban on…
Researchers were in for a surprise when they viewed footage from a remote and little-explored area of southeastern Tibet. Within the more than 700 photos captured by their camera traps,…
Kendeng's karst mountains provide local people with water for irrigation. Photo: Tommy Apriando A member of Indonesia's National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) held up the Rembang cement factory case…
A group of scientists have expressed 'strong concerns' about mounting threats to wilderness and wildlife in Cambodia. In a resolution issued at the conclusion of their annual gathering in Phnom…
A pastured sheep near the Chimborazo volcano in the Ecuadorian Andes. Photo by Guido Alvarez. As tropical forests around the world are cleared for human development, scientists and conservationists are…
More than 300 hundred natives of Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos who were moved from the island of Benjina to neighboring Tual this week as part of Indonesia's investigation into slavery…
Pacific sardines swim through a kelp forest. The species crashed in the 1950s. After rebounding in the 1990s and 2000s, its numbers have plummeted once again. U.S. managers will soon…
Google Earth image showing GPS points where forest loss occurred within the past year in a West Kalimantan concession held by PT Bumi Mekar Hijau (BMH). The apparent loss of…
Deforestation for an oil palm plantation abuts forest in Sabah, Malaysia. Photo by Rhett Butler. Forests not only house many of the world's species, but also much of its carbon.…
Part 3 of 5 of a series on palm oil financing. Part I and Part II. Note: this article draws heavily from Seymour el al 2015. Rainforest canopy seen from…
Mt. Kinabalu, in the Crocker Range of Sabah, Malaysia, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. Part of the Crocker Range would be flooded if the Kaiduan dam is built. Credit: Shankar S.…
Felled oil palm trees in Aceh Tamiang. Photo: Junaidi Hanafiah A joint effort to eradicate illegal oil palm in an area of Indonesia's Aceh province that was devastated by flash…
Forest clearing for an oil palm in Malaysia. Photos by Rhett A. Butler Yum! Brands, the company that owns KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut, on Thursday announced a zero…
Kenya’s elephants could be among the animals harmed by harsh new laws to hamstring the programs of international environmental groups such as the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and World Wide…
Local people and day laborers block access to a Wilmar mill in West Kalimantan on April 1. Photo: Andi Fachrizal Local people blocked the road to a Wilmar palm oil…
Global forest loss drops in 2013, but still tops 18M ha Forest loss in Malaysia and Indonesia, 2001-2013. Click to enlarge. Russia and Canada led the world in forest loss,…
This is the first in a two-part series about the EU's influence in illegal deforestation. The second part will be published shortly. Sunset in the Amazon. Photo by Sue Wren.…