Bright lights, big city, tiny frog: Romer’s tree frog survives Hong Kong
Romer's tree frog is, in every respect, an animal that keeps out of the way. Start with its size: averaging just 1.5 to 2.5 centimeters (0.6 to 1 inches) in…
Brazil pledges ‘largest restoration commitment ever made’
Brazil will restore 22 million hectares of land in what’s being called “the largest restoration commitment ever made by a single nation." “We are a country of forests,” said Rachel Biderman,…
Can fig trees regrow lost rainforests?
“By themselves the figs could build a forest,” ecologist EJH Corner wrote almost a century ago. Now a fascinating book, Gods, Wasps, and Stranglers: the secret history and redemptive future…
Restoring degraded land could mean big financial gains for Latin America
Land that has been degraded by human activity comprises around 20 percent of the forest and agricultural land in Latin America and the Caribbean. Such areas have attracted conservation attention,…
China’s reforestation program a letdown for wildlife, study finds
The world’s largest reforestation scheme may offer only marginal benefits for — or diminish — biodiversity, a study released earlier this month in Nature Communications revealed. A team of international…
Logging roads have long-lasting impacts on forests
When logging roads appear in forests, they are often spotlighted by conservationists as harbingers of ecological harm to come. But a new study finds that the roads themselves can damage…
‘All they need is a head start’: reforesting India’s Western Ghats
India is home to iconic wildlife like tigers, dholes and even lions, as well as many species found nowhere else in the world. But they share the subcontinent with the…
Declining pastureland around the globe presents significant conservation opportunity
New evidence that global pasture extent is declining presents an important conservation opportunity, according to a researcher. Some 62 million hectares of pasture (about 153 million acres, an area three…
China’s forests are growing back – but at a cost
More than a decade ago, China enacted one of the largest forest conservation programs in the world. But has it worked? It has, according to an analysis published recently in…
In the rush to reforest, are the world’s old-growth grasslands losing out?
New commitments coming out of December's COP21 in Paris set their eyes on forests as a way to curb global warming. But a recent article published in Science warns that…
The week in environmental news – Feb 05, 2016
Morocco has flipped the switch on the world’s largest solar power plant [NPR] This week, Morocco’s king had the privilege of powering up the first phase of the country’s massive…
With haze threatening return, Indonesian forestry giant pushes peatlands restoration model
Last year some two million hectares of land in Indonesia went up in flames across Sumatra, Borneo, and the Western half of New Guinea. The conflagrations caused choking air pollution,…
Indonesia appoints conservationist to save country’s declining peatlands
Indonesian President Joko Widodo has appointed conservationist Nazir Foead to head up a newly-created peatland restoration agency, which aims to resurrect peatlands devastated by recent fires. The establishment of the…
Technology for Restoring Wildlife to the Wild, Wild West
Lead Scientist at American Prairie Reserve, Kyran Kunkel, discusses present and future technologies for wildlife management and restoration.
Saving the unicorns: using the sun to produce freshwater and restore an endangered species
Solar-powered desalination plants are used in the Middle East to rehabilitate the arid habitat of the vulnerable Arabian oryx. Do the benefits of restoring habitat outweigh the drawbacks of desalination plants?
A bird’s-eye view of forest restoration
Using sophisticated software to analyze images from drone-mounted cameras could provide cheap, timely and detailed information on tree growth, seasonal forest dynamics and other key metrics.
Seed dispersal by fruit-eating bats essential to tropical reforestation
The world’s tropical forests are threatened by deforestation due to agricultural, industrial and urban expansion; as well as by drought, fire, and disease, all worsened by climate change. Human reforestation…
Can a wild fishery be bred? Indonesia’s plan to restock its oceans
bdul "Bolong" Hanan had a baby turtle in one hand and a toothbrush in the other. He scrubbed the squirming two-month-old vigorously before plopping it back into one of the…
New genetic analysis aims to guide restoration of overharvested Myanmar teak forests
A teak tree in flower. Photo by: Challiyan. Teak (Tectona grandis) is one of the most valued tropical hardwoods for its beauty, durability, and versatility. Teak trees naturally occur in…
Long considered tree-killers, lianas may actually help rainforest restoration
Lianas, climbing woody vines, can harm rainforest trees, particularly young saplings. Credit: Alex eflon. Since the 1970s, research into climbing woody vines called lianas has focused primarily on the harm…
Large animals invaluable for tree-seed dispersal and regeneration of tropical forests
Nearly two-thirds of tropical forests in Southeast Asia have been degraded by logging, agriculture and other human uses, and their fauna have been decimated by hunting and the bushmeat trade.…
Just how useful is forest restoration? New study seeks to find out
Sumatran elephants in Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Across the world, scientists estimate there are about two billion hectares of degraded forestland. In Indonesia alone,…
Plant wars: some tree species compete better against grasses for reforestation
Biologists may have discovered essential information that could help trees overcome specific grass species on tropical forest restoration sites What happens to degraded pastureland once the cows are kicked out?…
Initiative to restore 50M acres of degraded Latin American ecosystems by 2020
Rainforest in Costa Rica. A coalition of governments and organizations today pledged to restore 20 million hectares (50 million acres) of degraded forests and ecosystems across Latin America by 2020…
‘New normal’ approach to conservation comes under fire
New study faults adaptive 'Novel Ecosystems' concept with ignoring true values of biodiversity, restoration Over the past few years a new conservation approach known as the "novel ecosystems" concept has…