Poverty News

Victories won by activists around the world tops our list of the big environmental stories of the year. In this photo: a young woman is placed in handcuffs and arrested…

Before and after satellite images of flooding in Ayutthaya Province, Thailand. Photo by: NASA. The year 2011 has presented the world with a shocking increase in irregular weather and disasters…

Drought and erratic rains could lead to further food scarcities in Africa warns the United Nations World Food Program (WFP). The WFP singles out South Sudan, the world's newest nation,…

The indri lemur is one of the most commonly hunted for bushmeat, though it is listed as Endangered. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler . Conservationists have often found that some…

Bare hills: aerial view of deforestation and soil erosion in Madagascar. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. In terms of biodiversity, the hugely imperiled forests of Madagascar may be among the…

Bushmeat hunting is one of the major threats to mammals in sub-Saharan Africa. Although widely discussed and recognized as an issues in Central and West Africa, a new study in…

The Turkana tribe of northern Kenya are buffeted by constant drought and food insecurity, which recent research says may be worsening due to climate change. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler.…

Fertilizer trees—which fix nitrogen in the soil—have improved crops yields in five African countries, according to a new study in the International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability. In some cases yields…

Malagasy family help their father carry his boat out to fish. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. A new study warns that overfishing could exacerbate poverty and political stability in one…

Deforested area in Madagascar in the western watershed of the Bay of Antongil. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. This weekend around 500 people showed up for a rally and concert…

Children in Madagascar. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. The Tea Party and the African island-nation of Madagascar are having dueling concerts over the issue of illegal logging, reports the Associated…

A new documentary, filmed single-handily by filmmaker David Fedele, covers the impact of industrial logging on a community in Papua New Guinea. Entitled Bikpela Bagarap (or 'Big Damage' in English),…

Deforestation worsens famine in Africa, but drylands restoration could help. Millions of people across the Horn of Africa are suffering under a crippling regional drought and tens of thousands have…

A boy pushing a shopping cart load of wires going for burning in the Agbogbloshie ghetto in Accra, Ghana. Photo by: Kwei Quartey. In Agbogbloshie, a slum outside the capital…

Tropical forest in Ghana, an irreplaceable habitat for many species. Photo courtesy of Ben Phalan. Given that we have very likely entered an age of mass extinction—and human population continues…

Douglas cutting tree in Papua New Guinea. Photo by: David Fedele. In one scene a young man, perhaps not long ago a boy, named Douglas stands shirtless and in shorts…

Famine victims in Kenya. Children are the most vulnerable during a famine. At the beginning of August the US estimated that 29,000 children under five had perished from the famine…

A new study of Uganda's Kibale National Park refutes the conventional wisdom that parks cause poverty along their borders. "Apparently the park provides a source of insurance; [locals] can hunt,…

Rice for market in the Luangwa Valley. Photo by: Julie Larsen Maher/WCS. Luangwa Valley in Zambia is home to stunning scenes of Africa wildlife: elephants, antelopes, zebra, buffalo, leopards, hyena,…

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…

As the UN announces that famine has spread in Somalia to three additional regions (making five in total now), the US has put the first number to the amount of…

The Turkana people of northern Kenya are currently being hard hit by hunger and drought, which some experts say could have links to climate change. Observers have long warned that…

The Nigerian Montane Forest Project's field station set in the Ngel Nyaki Forest. Photo by: Pierre-Michel Forget. Between 2000 and 2010, Nigeria lost nearly a third (31 percent) of its…

As the US media is focused like a laser on theatric debt talks and the UK media is agog at the heinous Rupert Murdoch scandal, millions of people are undergoing…

On Sunday morning children swimming in the Mashiria River in the Peruvian Amazon noticed oil floating on the water. A pipeline owned by Maple Energy had ruptured in Block 31-E,…

Snow leopard in the Wakhan Corridor caught on camera trap. Photo by: Wildlife Conservation Society. Decades of war and poverty has not exterminated snow leopards (Panthera uncia) in Afghanistan according…

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,…

Tiang migration across Boma-Jonglei-Equatoria Landscape, South Sudan. Photo credit: © Paul Elkan/Wildlife Conservation Society. At midnight local time on Friday, South Sudan became the world's newest nation. As celebrations continue…

To read more about Tanzania's recent announcement related to the Serengeti road: Unpaved road through Serengeti to progress. The controversial Serengeti road is going ahead, but with conditions. According to…

A prolonged drought in East Africa is bringing many of the region's impoverished to their knees: the World Food Program (WFP) is warning that 10 million people in the region…