Luxury wood market driving extinction of rare ipê trees, report warns
Whether walking along a beach boardwalk, installing new hardwood floors or sitting out on a friend’s deck, there’s a good chance you’ve already come across the wood of the rare…
Wildlife Trafficking
Links between terrorism and the ivory trade overblown, study says
“The white gold of jihad.” “Case proven: ivory trafficking funds terrorism.” “How killing elephants finances terror in Africa.” Just a few years ago, headlines like this were commonplace, as conservation…
Meet Magali, the conservation warrior rescuing Peru’s rainforest animals: Video
In the dark, early morning hours, Magali Salinas trails a troop of howler monkeys through the Amazon rainforest. Magali is particularly invested in this troop. She rehabilitated each monkey, brought…
Nigeria emerges as Africa’s primary export hub for ivory, pangolin scales
When Singaporean customs officials opened a shipping container en route to Vietnam from Nigeria on April 3, 2019, they found piles of canvas sacks stuffed full of dusty, dried flakes.…
Armed and dangerous, ‘murder lorises’ use their venom against each other
Videos and images of slow lorises being “tickled” have gone viral: their large eyes peering out, tiny arms raised overhead. But, as it turns out, the loris isn’t tickled to…
Shark fin trafficking ring busted as trade ban comes into effect in Florida
U.S. authorities say they’ve broken up a conspiracy to traffic shark fins in and out of Florida by a company based in California, where their sale and export is banned…
Is that ivory from an elephant or a nut? A new guide shows how to tell
Governments and businesses looking to crack down on the illegal ivory trade have a new tool in their hands, courtesy of WWF, TRAFFIC, and the CITES Secretariat. For the first…
A jaguar nicknamed “Short-Tail” the first known to cross between Belize and Guatemala
An adult male jaguar nicknamed “Short-Tail” (due to his partially missing tail) was caught on camera in both Belize and Guatemala, making him the first individual confirmed to cross the…
Turtles and tortoises in trouble: More than half of all species face extinction
Turtles and tortoises in trouble On the island of Madagascar, locked gates, razor-wire fences, and 24-hour armed guards protect one of the world’s rarest treasures. That treasure, worth roughly $50,000…
Less than a thousand remain: New list of animals on the brink of extinction
The giant panda, tiny tamaraw buffalo, riverine rabbit and Iberian lynx all have something in common: they join a growing list of animals on the brink of extinction. A newly…
Keeping gorillas safe amid COVID-19 concerns
As the COVID-19 pandemic unfolds, gorilla conservation teams are working to ensure that Africa’s endangered mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei), and the people who protect them, remain safe. Gorillas are…
Conservationists set the record straight on COVID-19’s wildlife links
The World Health Organization has categorized the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) as a pandemic in light of its spread around the world. Ever since the first cases emerged in the…
‘Fake market’: Red panda study finds no real demand behind rise in poaching
Cases of poaching and illegal trade in the endangered red panda (Ailurus fulgens) are on the rise in Nepal. But with little evidence of a demand for panda pelts and…
Altered forests threaten sustainability of subsistence hunting
The way humans have changed the forests of Central and South America may be making it impossible for subsistence hunters to continue their way of life, according to two conservation…
Special series
Forest Trackers
- Deforestation intensifies in northern Malaysia’s most important water catchment
- Authorities and Yobin communities clash as deforestation spikes in Indian national park
- Mennonite colony builds bridge, clears forest in Bolivian protected areas
- Satellites show deforestation surging in Indonesia’s Tesso Nilo National Park
Oceans
- Amid haggling over deep-sea mining rules, chorus of skepticism grows louder
- Sea life may downsize with ocean warming — bringing challenging impacts
- In Japanese waters, a newly described anemone lives on the back of a hermit crab
- ‘We’ve got to help the oceans to help us’: Q&A with deep-sea explorer Dawn Wright
Amazon Conservation
- Brazil’s new deforestation data board sparks fear of censorship of forest loss, fires
- First-of-its-kind freshwater mangroves discovered in Brazil’s Amazon Delta
- Swiss pledge to stop illegal gold imports from Brazil Indigenous reserves
- At 30, Brazil’s Yanomami reserve is beset by mining, malaria and mercury
Land rights and extractives
- Organized crime drives violence and deforestation in the Amazon, study shows
- Worries and whispers in Vietnam’s NGO community after activist’s sentencing
- Displaced by a dam, women defenders fight for their land rights in Colombia
- Amazonian communities in Peru try to keep oil-rich Block 64 in their own hands
Endangered Environmentalists
- Worries and whispers in Vietnam’s NGO community after activist’s sentencing
- Scientists call for end to violence against Amazon communities, environmental defenders
- Indigenous advocates sense a legal landmark as a guardian’s killing heads to trial
- In Brazil, an Indigenous land defender’s unsolved killing is the deadly norm
Indonesia's Forest Guardians
- A utopia of clean air and wet peat amid Sumatra’s forest fire ‘hell’
- From Flores to Papua: Meet 10 of Indonesia’s mangrove guardians
- Why I stand for my tribe’s forest: It gives us food, culture, and life (commentary)
- Reforesting a village in Indonesia, one batch of gourmet beans at a time
Conservation Effectiveness
- Nepal was supposed to double its tiger population since 2010. It tripled it
- In prioritizing conservation, animal culture should be a factor, study says
- Young forests can help heal tropical aquatic ecosystems: Study
- How sharing and learning from failures can transform conservation (commentary)
Southeast Asian infrastructure
- In Laos, a ‘very dangerous dam’ threatens an ancient world heritage site
- Bali’s new highway project sparks concerns about agriculture and conservation areas
- Deforestation notches up along logging roads on PNG’s New Britain Island
- Plantations and roads strip away Papua’s forests. They’re just getting started
