Disease prevention a boost to human health and great ape conservation
ver the last four decades, industrial agriculture has been a boon to Southeast Asia, but it also helped destroy more than 30 percent of Borneo’s rainforest — one of the…
Conservation News
Have tiger numbers really increased?
On 10 April 2016, WWF and the Global Tiger Forum announced that the world’s tiger population had finally increased “after several decades of constant decline”. From “as few as 3,200”…
Eavesdropping on Cameroon’s poachers to save endangered primates
ameroon’s Korup National Park is home to elephants, chimpanzees, red colobus monkeys, drill, and a myriad of noisy species, whose squawks, squeals and howls fill the forest air. For more…
Palm oil, mining moratorium declared in Indonesia’s Leuser Ecosystem
Top officials in Indonesia have reportedly declared a moratorium on new oil palm and mining concessions in the Leuser Ecosystem, the only place on Earth where elephants, rhinos, orangutans, and…
Indian conservation geneticist wins Field Museum’s top conservation award
The Field Museum in Chicago has awarded the 2016 Parker/Gentry award to Uma Ramakrishnan, an Indian conservation geneticist who has worked extensively on population genetics, evolutionary history and conservation of…
Another tiger perishes at Indonesia’s ‘Death Zoo’
Another tiger has died at Indonesia's infamous Surabaya Zoo, once again bringing attention to the negligence, mismanagement and corruption that has plagued the institution. Zoo veterinarian Irmanu Ommy said the…
One ape, two ape: why counting apes is so difficult — but crucial
t’s no secret: one of the biggest threats facing the world’s great ape populations is industrial agricultural, now rapidly extending throughout their native home ranges in Africa and Southeast Asia…
Designing the ideal wildlife corridor for Malaysia’s orangutans
ive years ago, some 7,000-acres of logged forest in the Kalabakan River network of Sabah, on the island of Borneo, was slated for oil palm production. Imperial College London ecologist…
Turtle smuggler sentenced to 5 years in prison
In 2014, Canadian border guards arrested Kai Xu, a Canadian man, for attempting to smuggle 51 live turtles in his trousers. The border guards found "41 turtles taped to his…
Half of Sumatra’s forests within reach of the average bird trapper
Almost half of the forests in Indonesia’s Sumatra are within reach of the average bird trapper, finds a new study published in Conservation Biology. Based on interviews with 49 trappers…
The week in environmental news – April 15, 2016
Indonesia to bar new palm oil and mining permits in forest areas [The Wall Street Journal] Indonesian President Joko Widodo shocked observers this week when he said the country would…
Hundreds of baby dolphin deaths linked to BP oil spill
Between 2010 and 2014, more than a thousand common bottle-nosed dolphins washed ashore on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. These dolphin strandings were the “largest and longest cetacean…
Last best place on earth: Who will save the Caribbean’s great coral reef?
es Kaufman set me straight on the paradox that is Lighthouse Reef Atoll, a cluster of five islands some 50 miles off the coast of Belize in the emerald blue…
Making sense of a rare rhino’s death in Indonesian Borneo (commentary)
OK, I will keep this short. Plenty has been said about the recent sad event in Indonesian Borneo. For those unaware of the story search the internet for “WWF”, “Kalimantan”, “Meijaard”,…
Tripa’s Trials: protecting key orangutan habitat through the courts
"Hell for people and paradise for orangutans,” is how Ian Singleton, director of the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Program (SOCP), describes intact Indonesian peat swamp forests. With their high daily temperatures…
Fishing nets kill ‘high proportion’ of adult loggerhead turtles in the Mediterranean
The waters off the coast of Middle East and North Africa are proving to be death traps for the Mediterranean loggerhead turtles. As adult loggerhead turtles migrate to these regions…
An agribusiness revolution is needed to save Africa’s last great apes
frica is similar to other developing regions of the world in that agriculture is central to the continent’s economy, composing almost one quarter of its GNP and employing nearly two-thirds…
Climate change is drying up small islands, study says
Sea level rise severely threatens small islands across the globe. But now, these islands have another cause for worry -- reduced freshwater access and increasing aridity due to climate change.…
Half of World Heritage Sites threatened by ‘harmful industrial activities’, new report finds
Natural World Heritage Sites represent areas that have some of the richest biodiversity, natural beauty and geology in the world. But these sites of “outstanding universal value”, that cover only…
Study finds link between RSPO certification and profitability for palm oil companies
More evidence is emerging to suggest that for palm oil companies, becoming more sustainable pays off. “Correlating Economic and Financial Viability with Sustainability for Palm Oil Plantations,” a paper by…
The week in environmental news – April 08, 2016
A look at why Honduras is being called the world’s deadliest country for environmentalists [Guardian] Human rights activists are finding themselves in dangerous new territory – the battlegrounds that are…
First round of UN negotiations to regulate high seas fishing concludes
f you go more than 200 miles off the coast anywhere on Earth, you end up in the high seas, the largely ungoverned portion of the ocean that covers 43…
6 new species of dragon millipedes discovered in Chinese caves
Scientists have now added six new species to the dragon millipede family. Discovered within caves of two southern Chinese regions of Guangdong and Guangxi Zhuang, scientists say that these critters…
Could a rare rhino’s tragic death in Borneo have been prevented?
The death of an endangered Sumatran rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis) in Indonesian Borneo earlier this week sent the wildlife conservation community into deep mourning and raised questions about whether the animal…
DiCaprio endorses petition to save Sumatra’s last great rainforest
Leonardo DiCaprio has endorsed a Change.org petition asking Indonesia's top leadership to protect the Leuser Ecosystem, one of Southeast Asia's last great swaths of rainforest. Several times in recent days, the Oscar winner and…
Only 250 rare Bawean warty pigs remain on Indonesian Island
For the first time ever, scientists have confirmed a population of fewer than 250 mature Bawean warty pigs on a small Indonesian island called Bawean. This makes these pigs one…
Participatory Mapping in the Mobile Age
Deep in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains, with peaks that soar over 18,000 feet over the Colombian coast, the Kogi people live on roughly six million isolated from…
One of the last Bornean rhinos dies in Kalimantan
One of the newly discovered Sumatran rhinos in Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of Borneo, died on Tuesday from a leg infection after being wounded by a snare. The critically endangered…
Critically endangered Kemp’s ridley sea turtles are in even more trouble than scientists thought
Kemp’s ridley sea turtles, found mostly in the Gulf of Mexico, had been pushed to the brink of extinction by the 1980s, but bilateral conservation efforts between the U.S. and…
Are Europe’s Ash trees headed towards extinction?
Ash trees (Fraxinus excelsior) are the second most abundant trees in Europe. But these commonly-found trees could soon become extinct, a new study warns. Threats from an invasive and “potentially devastating”…
Unilever, Kellogg, Mars drop palm oil giant IOI over RSPO suspension
In the wake of IOI Group's suspension from the the world's largest association for ethical palm oil production, its customers Unilever, Kellogg and Mars have announced they will stop doing business…
Pathogens ‘lurking’ in Lao PDR’s wildlife markets can lead to emergence of zoonotic diseases
Conditions at wildlife markets in Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) could lead to public health “catastrophes”, a new study warns. Poor biosafety standards and high volume of wild animals illegally…
Special series
Forest Trackers
- Satellite data show burst of deforestation in Myanmar rare earth mining hotspots
- Narco airstrips beset Indigenous communities in Peruvian Amazon
- 15 illegal narco-trafficking airstrips found near Peru Indigenous communities
- Satellite data show bursts of deforestation continue in Indonesian national park
Oceans
- Talks to reduce funding for overfishing remain stalled at WTO meeting
- New strategy to reverse Kenya’s shark decline tries to bring fishers on board
- Mongabay shark meat exposé wins national journalism education award in Brazil
- Indigenous concerns surface as U.S. agency considers seabed mining in Alaskan waters
Amazon Conservation
- Researchers eye jaguar conservation wins under Brazil Indigenous stewardship project
- ‘World’s largest’ carbon credit deal in the Amazon faces bumpy road ahead
- New conservation model calls for protecting Amazon for its archaeological riches
- Brazil dredges Amazon rivers to ease drought isolation, raising environmental concerns
Land rights and extractives
- As traditional forest governance erodes in Peru, ‘ghost permits’ fill the vacuum
- What’s happening with the global treaty to trace critical minerals?
- In the race for DRC’s critical minerals, community forests are on the frontline
- Lithium mining may threaten a precious resource — water: Voices from the land (commentary)
Endangered Environmentalists
- José Albino Cañas Ramírez, a defender of Indigenous territories, aged 44
- A killing with precedent: Kaiowá man’s murder fits a pattern in Brazil
- Environmental & rights activists flee and hide as M23 captures DRC’s cities
- Environmental journalist in Cambodia shot and killed by suspected logger
Indonesia's Forest Guardians
- On a Borneo mountainside, Indigenous Dayak women hold fire and defend forest
- Fenced in by Sulawesi national park, Indigenous women make forestry breakout
- In Borneo, the ‘Power of Mama’ fight Indonesia’s wildfires with all-woman crew
- Pioneer agroforester Ermi, 73, rolls back the years in Indonesia’s Gorontalo
Conservation Effectiveness
- How effective is the EU’s marquee policy to reduce the illegal timber trade?
- How sharing and learning from failures can transform conservation (commentary)
- Is planting trees as good for the Earth as everyone says?
- Failure in conservation projects: Everyone experiences it, few record it
Southeast Asian infrastructure
- Flores’ geothermal ambitions collide with justice, culture & local resistance
- An ‘ocean grab’ for a property megaproject leaves Jakarta fishers grounded
- Study: Indonesia’s new capital city threatens stable proboscis monkey population
- Indonesia’s new capital ‘won’t sacrifice the environment’: Q&A with Nusantara’s Myrna Asnawati Safitri
