China restores ban on rhino and tiger parts, for now
China has backtracked on a recent decision to legalize the “controlled” use of rhino and tiger parts for cultural and medicinal use. In an announcement on Oct. 29, the Chinese…
Tigers News
Roads divide opinions along with forests, study finds
Politicians and planners often sell roads as wholly beneficial to communities. New arteries open up opportunities for employment, connections to markets and access to services such as health care, so…
China legalizes use of tiger bone and rhino horn for traditional medicine
China has legalized the “controlled” use of rhino horn and tiger bone for medical use and cultural purposes in the country, the government announced on Oct. 29. Rhino horn and…
Genome-wide study confirms there are six tiger subspecies
While there were perhaps as many as 1000,000 tigers in the world a century ago, scientists say that there are fewer than 4,000 today, occupying less than 10 percent of…
Indonesia’s Aceh sees harshest penalty yet for a wildlife crime
A court in Indonesia’s Aceh province has sentenced two men to four years behind bars for attempting to sell a tiger skin, in the toughest ever penalty handed down for…
New survey results show Nepal is on track to double its tiger population by 2022
A census led by the government of Nepal has found that the tiger population in the country nearly doubled over the past ten years. Data gathered from camera trap surveys…
Indonesia’s Teater Potlot takes on the plight of the Sumatran tiger
PALEMBANG, Indonesia — For those worried about the plight of the Sumatran tiger, of which only a few hundred remain, concern typically flows from a sense that all life is…
Conservation groups herald protection of tiger habitat in Malaysia
Tigers and other wildlife in Peninsular Malaysia now have a new refuge, as the state government of Terengganu recently axed plans to log more than 100 square kilometers (39 square…
DNA database helps Nepal’s officials monitor tigers, punish poachers
In December 2015, officials from Nepal's Central Investigation Bureau had a hunch that something was amiss with the country’s tigers. The bureau, in the past few months, had seized more…
Alan Rabinowitz, big cat evangelist and voice of the wild, dies at 64
The wildlife conservation community has lost a leader in big cat conservation. Alan Rabinowitz, an American zoologist dubbed the “Indiana Jones of wildlife protection” by Time magazine, died of cancer on…
Tiger, clouded leopard skins among illegal wildlife parts seized in Malaysia
Malaysian authorities have seized wildlife parts worth 500,000 ringgit ($124,000) and arrested six Vietnamese nationals during a raid in Kuala Lipis, a town located near Taman Negara, the country’s oldest national…
Animals are becoming night owls to avoid humans
Large mammals are spending more time hunting and foraging under the cover of darkness to avoid humans, a new study has found. Researchers compiled data from 76 studies, and analyzed…
‘Rarest’ ape’s path to survival blocked by roads, dams and agriculture
Even as scientists introduced the world to a new species of orangutan in 2017 — one of only seven non-human great apes alive today — they were already working to…
‘Rarest’ ape’s path to survival blocked by roads, dams and agriculture
Even as scientists introduced the world to a new species of orangutan in 2017 — one of only seven non-human great apes alive today — they were already working to…
Sumatran tiger blamed for killing two people is captured alive after marathon hunt
JAKARTA — Authorities in Indonesia have captured a Sumatran tiger blamed for killing two people earlier this year. They have moved the female tiger, nicknamed Bonita, to a wildlife rehabilitation…
Indonesian conservation bill is weak on wildlife crime, critics say
JAKARTA — Environmental advocates have warned that proposed revisions to Indonesia’s conservation act could provide new loopholes for wildlife traffickers, who already enjoy a thriving trade in one of the…
Indonesia races to catch tiger alive as villagers threaten to ‘kill the beast’
PEKANBARU, Indonesia — A wildlife conservation agency in Indonesia has deployed two special teams to capture alive a tiger blamed for killing two people this year, amid mounting calls for…
Villagers cite self-defense in tiger killing, but missing body parts point to the illegal wildlife trade
JAKARTA — Conservation authorities in Indonesia are investigating suspicions that the illegal trade in tiger parts drove the killing of one of the rare big cats earlier this month. The…
Ecotourism payments for more wildlife sightings linked to conservation benefits in Laos
Making ecotourism pay for local communities while also protecting wildlife has proven a challenge in many parts of the world. Often, the boost in a local economy doesn’t always convince…
Epic battle between tiger and sloth bear caught on film
A naturalist at an ecotourism lodge in India has captured footage of a battle between a tiger and a mother sloth bear protecting its cub. Akshay Kumar, the chief naturalist…
Tropical forest fragmentation nearing ‘critical point,’ study finds
Deforestation in the tropics is caused by many different human activities that vary in intensity depending on location. In South America, industrial agriculture is the big driver of deforestation while…
‘Photo Ark’ a quest to document global biodiversity: Q&A with photographer Joel Sartore and director Chun-Wei Yi
At turns haunting, humorous or just downright bizarre, the studio portraits of the thousands of animal species that photographer Joel Sartore has collected are more than just a catalog of…
Films celebrate big cats on World Wildlife Day
Big cats around the world face many challenges, from diminishing prey populations and habitat degradation, to poaching for their meat and body parts. A current spike in the killing of…
Sumatra’s ‘tiger descendants’ cling to their customs as coal mines encroach
SEKALAK, Indonesia — The inhabitants of Sekalak village, in this forested region of southern Sumatra, have for generations passed down the legend of Puyang Baju Lantung, a man who was…
Indonesian ex-soldier among three jailed for illegal trade in Sumatran rhino, tiger parts
MEDAN, Indonesia — A court in Indonesia has sentenced three men, including a former soldier, to two years in jail for illegally trading in body parts from a critically endangered…
Roads, dams and railways: Ten infrastructure stories from Southeast Asia in 2017
Around the world, there’s a push for rapid infrastructure development, and nowhere is that truer than in Southeast Asia. Roads, seen by the World Bank as a “blunt instrument” for…
Saving Sumatran orchids from deforestation, one plant at a time
When tropical forests are felled and converted into land for oil palm or rubber plantations, it’s easy to think of the orangutans or the tigers that may lose their lives…
Deforestation in Sumatra carves up tiger habitats into ever smaller patches
JAKARTA — Extensive deforestation in Sumatra has corralled the island’s native tigers into fragmented habitats, only two of which contain a sufficiently robust population of the nearly extinct big cat,…
The tenacity of tigers: how the biggest cat varies across its range (photos)
Throughout Asia – from muddy mangrove swamps in India to crisp temperate forests in the Russian Far East – there were once at least 100,000 tigers. Today about 3,500 of…
Top 10 most widely traded animals in the Golden Triangle identified in new report
Large casinos, hotels, shopping malls and markets flourish in Southeast Asia's Golden Triangle — the area where Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar converge. These gambling halls and markets, known to be…
Is Cambodia’s plan to reintroduce tigers doomed to fail?
In 1999, Cambodia had, by some estimates, the world's second-highest tiger population. Within a decade, the big cats had been all but eliminated from the country due to poaching and…
Photo of ‘resurrected’ extinct Indonesian tiger is actually leopard, scientists say
A recent photo that sparked speculation that an Indonesian tiger species had come back from extinction most likely shows instead a rare, but certainly not extinct, Javan leopard (Panthera pardus…
Special series
Forest Trackers
- In Brazil’s Amazon, land invasions — and fires — threaten a protected reserve
- A Guatemalan reserve turns from civil war refuge to deforestation hotspot
- Narco activity takes heavy toll on Colombia’s protected forests, satellite data show
- Photos confirm narcotraffickers operating in Peru’s Kakataibo Indigenous Reserve
Oceans
- Plan for close season rings alarm bells for Liberia’s artisanal fishers
- Lab-grown corals resisted bleaching during Caribbean’s worst marine heat wave
- Six months after first Houthi ship sinking, attacks slick Red Sea with oil
- $35m debt-for-nature deal aims to protect Indonesia’s coral reefs
Amazon Conservation
- ‘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
- ‘We need white men on our side to save the Amazon from destruction,’ 92-year-old Indigenous Chief Raoni says
Land rights and extractives
- Peruvian logger loses FSC label after latest clash with isolated Mashco Piro
- In the DRC, a government commission is taking funds owed to people relocated by mines
- A national park and its rangers in Bolivia endure persisting road construction, illegal mining
- Can nations ever get artisanal gold mining right?
Endangered Environmentalists
- Vietnam sentences yet another energy expert over renewables research
- Mother Nature Cambodia activists sentenced to prison — again
- Mongabay video screening at Chile’s Supreme Court expected to help landmark verdict in Brazil
- Indonesian activist freed in hate speech case after flagging illegal shrimp farms
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
- 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
- Small farmers in limbo as Cambodia wavers on Tonle Sap conservation rules
- To build its ‘green’ capital city, Indonesia runs a road through a biodiverse forest
