Little-explored island off the coast of Papua New Guinea could soon face industrial logging Children on Woodlark Island. Photo by: Simon Piyuwes. Woodlark Island is a rare place on the…
Industrial logging operation in Malaysian Borneo in 2012. Photos by Rhett A. Butler. The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), a body that sets social and environmental certification criteria for forestry products,…
Scientists say both rich and developing countries must recognize primary forests as a conservation priority. Primary rainforest in Imbak Canyon in the state of Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. The forest is…
Satellite image of PNG. Courtesy of Google Earth The Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation (ATBC), the world's largest group of tropical researchers, is calling on the government of Papua…
In 1890 Lamberto Loria collected 45 specimens—all female—of a small bat from the wilds of Papua New Guinea. Nearly 25 years later, in 1914, the species was finally described and…
Oil palm tree. Papua New Guinea's National Court has declared two leases held by Malaysia-based Kuala Lumpur Kepong Berhad (KLK) null and void, and ordered the government to cancel the…
Papua New Guinea's Prime Minister, Peter O'Neill, released a statement last week saying that hugely controversial land leases under the country's Special Agricultural and Business Leases (SABLs) will be cancelled…
Rainforest tree on Woodlark Island. Photo by: Simon Piyuwes. Seven years ago, a palm oil company set its eyes on Woodlark Island—a small rainforest island nearly 200 miles off the…
Aerial view of jungle river on the island of New Guinea. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. Corruption, weak governance, and powerful timber barons are illegally stripping the forests of Papua…
Rainforest conversion for an oil palm plantation in Malaysia Unlike other palm oil giants that have recently made strong commitments to eliminating deforestation and social conflict from their supply chains,…
Across New Guinea, deforestation is occurring at increasing levels. Whether it be industrial logging, monoculture plantations, hunters felling trees in pursuit of arboreal wildlife, or other forms of forest conversion,…
Palm plantations expanding at 7% per year across Malaysia and Indonesia Some 3.5 million hectares (8.7 million acres) of forest in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Papua New Guinea was converted for…
In 2010 the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) pledged to set aside 17 percent of the world's land as protected areas in addition to protecting 60 percent of the world's…
Palm oil being used to perpetuate fraud, land-grabbing in Papua New Guinea Developers are seeking palm oil concessions to as a means to circumvent restrictions on industrial logging in Papua…
The tenkile, or the Scott’s tree kangaroo (Dendrolagus scottae) could be a cross between a koala bear and a puppy. With it’s fuzzy dark fur, long tail and snout, and…
In a single paper, a team of researchers have succinctly described 101 new species of weevils from New Guinea, more than doubling the known species in the beetle genus, Trigonopterus.…
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…
With islands and atolls scattered across the ocean, the small Pacific island states are among those most exposed to the effects of global warming: increasing acidity and rising sea level,…
Kristofer Helgen comes face to face with a long-beaked echidna in New Guinea. Photo by: Tim Laman. The continent of Australia is home to a wide variety of wonderfully weird…
Rainforest in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. Photo by Rhett A. Butler 2012 was another year of mixed news for the world's tropical forests. This is a look at some of the…
Cropped close-up of New Guinea singing dog. This is arguably the first time the dingo-like canine has been photographed in the wild. Photo by: Tom Hewitt. A rarely seen canine…
Logs smuggled across the border from Myanmar to China. Photo © : EIA. Runaway economic growth comes with costs: in the case of China's economic engine, one of them has…
The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) is holding its tenth annual meeting later this month. The initiative, which aims to improve the social and environmental performance of palm oil…
Hydrothermal vent in the Marianas Trench. Life on hydrothermal vents were not discovered until the late 1970s. Decades later, much remains unknown about these vents and many of them remain…
The beginnings of a palm oil plantation on newly deforested area in Pomio District. Photo by: Paul Hilton/Greenpeace. Eleven percent of Papua New Guinea's land area has been handed over…
100 percent of New Britain Palm Oil Limited's palm oil will be eco-certified, segregated, and fully traceable by the end of the year, reports the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil…
The Bumblebee Gecko (Nactus kunan) from Manus Island off Papua New Guinea was discovered in 2010, and described as a new species in 2012. Photo by Robert Fisher of the…
A bulldozer rumbles over a recently deforested area in Pomio District, East New Britain, Papua New Guinea. Photo by: Paul Hilton/Greenpeace. Locals protesting the destruction of their forest in Papua…
Basamuk Bay in Madang, Papua New Guinea. Photo produced using Google Earth. A massive, controversial nickel mine has been shut down in Papua New Guinea due to the environmental concerns…
Margaret Southern writes about international conservation strategies and projects for The Nature Conservancy's editorial strategy team. She also writes about green living for TNC's Cool Green Science blog and recently…