In 2004, nomadic herders in Mongolia’s Gobi Desert faced a daunting prospect. One of the world’s largest copper-gold mines, Oyu Tolgoi, was settling in, and herder communities were being forced…
Between the borders of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, the Aral Sea, once the lifeblood of peoples in both countries, is parched, shrouded in a layer of toxic salt and dust that’s…
The sand cat is small, elusive and adapted to life in some of Earth’s most inhospitable deserts — that makes it hard to study and conserve, with lots of unknowns about its behaviors and populations across its range.
This July marks the deadline by when the Asian Development Bank (ADB) – which describes itself as Asia and Pacific’s Climate Bank – committed to achieving full alignment with the…
SHAMSHY, Kyrgyzstan — “I was only 9 when I first saw a snow leopard with my father. He was a ranger bringing injured animals found in the mountains to the…
In 2010, in the Lunar Year of the Tiger, the governments of 13 Tiger Range Countries met in St Petersburg, Russia and agreed to work together to double global tiger…
At times of anguish and confusion we turn to nature to quiet the mind and find healing. We hold on to the miraculous survival of wildlife and ecosystems, to persist…
Research and recent events demonstrate that climate change is intensifying and destabilizing the annual monsoon, with impacts not just for India but the world.
The saiga antelope has great cultural, historical, and ecological importance to Mongolia. So I was proud to be advisor to the Mongolian Government Delegation at the 18th Meeting of the…
War, drugs, corruption, and terrorism are terms Westerners are more likely to associate with Afghanistan than biodiversity conservation. But Alex Dehgan, a conservation technologist who runs the Washington D.C.-based Conservation…
Corruption fuels the illegal harvest and sale of caviar, potentially hastening the slide of many fish species toward extinction. That’s the conclusion of a report published Feb. 13 by the…
ISFARA, Tajikistan — Ayubhudja Yahyehudjaev stands between rows of fruit trees in the hills above town, glad and proud that this agroforestry test garden of nearly 0.6 hectares (1.5 acres)…
FAIZOBOD, Tajikistan — Mirzoli Azizov, a 54-year-old farmer, is sorting apples from the second harvest this year from his agroforestry gardens in this district 50 kilometers (30 miles) east of…
KYZL-UNKUR, Jalalabad region, Kyrgyzstan — The mountain road leading to Kyzyl-Unkur winds through a gorge. Three hours later, on a broken road, one finds the village surrounded on all sides…
No one really knows for sure how many snow leopards there are left in the world, but an initiative spearheaded by snow leopard range countries and scientists announced last week…
In May 2015, more than 200,000 saiga antelope (Saiga tatarica) suddenly died. Entire herds perished, their bodies littering the steppe grasslands of central Kazakhstan as if dropped from the sky.…
The latest update to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species had bad news about the conservation status of many species, including some that were previously so abundant that their…
Update: Since the publication of this story, the IUCN has downgraded the conservation status of snow leopards from Endangered to Vulnerable. We are also interested in hearing informed arguments in…
The beauty of the saiga belies first impressions. It may be hard to look beyond the big nose — a bulbous schnozz that looks like a chunk of an elephant’s…
Among best selling items this gift-giving season are Hatchimals, a Retro Pop-Up Hot Dog Toaster, and a Monogrammed Blackhead Remover. But what do you buy for a harried, underfunded, hard…
The grayish-white form of the ghost of the mountain slinks through the snowcapped slopes of Central Asia. Its remote, harsh habitat, cryptic coat and elusive nature have impeded investigation and…
Saiga perish by the thousands in the Betpak-Dala region of Kazakhstan. Photo by: Sergei Khomenko/FAO. The good news: conservationists believe that whatever killed off over a hundred thousand saiga in…
A male saiga. Photo by: Seilov/Creative Commons 3.0. No one knows what's killing them, but scientists estimate that almost half of the world's saiga (Saiga tatarica) have perished since May…
Lazarus turtle: Scientists discover unknown population of Critically Endangered reptile A rare photo of a living Arakan forest turtle. Photo courtesy of Shahriar Caesar Rahman. By the early Twentieth Century,…
Small hydropower projects fragment forests in India's Western Ghats Aerial view of the Kadmane small hydroporject in the Western Ghats. Photo by: Niren Jain. Rising energy demand and global efforts…
The most important environmental and wildlife stories from the last year Also see our Top 10 HAPPY Environmental Stories of 2014 1. The Year of Zero Deforestation Pledges: In 2014,…
Bangladesh struggles to deal with devastating oil spill in world's largest mangrove forest, home to dolphins and tigers Government inaction has pushed local children and families to attempt to clean…
Reduced river flows below irrigation dams decimate freshwater dolphins Rare photo showing two Indus River dolphins in the wild. Photo credit: Albert Reichert, CC-BY.N The Indus River dolphin (Platanista gangetica…
Activists stage cultural protest against Rampal coal plant Landsat image of the Sundarbans, the world's largest mangrove forest. Photo by: NASA. Over the weekend, Bangladeshi artists performed plays, sang songs,…
Endangered species have it bad enough, but in conflict zones, things get worse The human cost of war is horrendous. However, while most attention is focused on the suffering caused…
Cars versus leopards: big cats and other animals face decline due to rising traffic. A big cat crosses the Mysore-Mananthavadi Highway as commercial vehicles look on. Photo credit: Vikram Nanjappa.…
Last fall tens of thousands of Bangladeshis participated in a five day march that took them from the country's capital to the Sundarbans, the world's largest mangrove forest. They marched…
