Despite a global trend towards urbanization some 1.2-1.7 billion people worldwide remain primarily dependent on forests for their livelihoods, reports a review published by the Forest Peoples Programme. The figures exclude people who are indirectly de…
Read the rest of this entry »May 17
May 17
New population of Myanmar snub-nosed monkey discovered in China
Scientists in China have located a second population of the Myanmar snub-nosed monkey (Rhinopithecus strykeri), a primate that was only first discovered two years ago in Myanmar, also known as Burma. Long Yongcheng, scientist with the Nature Conservanc…
Read the rest of this entry »May 17
Jaguar v. sea turtle: when land and marine conservation icons collide
At first, an encounter between a jaguar (Panthera onca) and a green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas) seems improbable, even ridiculous, but the two species do come into fatal contact when a female turtle, every two to four years, crawls up a jungle beach to…
Read the rest of this entry »May 16
Asia Pulp & Paper to temporarily suspend rainforest clearing in Indonesia
Asia Pulp & Paper (APP), a forestry giant that has been heavily criticized for destroying rainforests and peatlands in Indonesia, will temporarily suspend clearing of natural forest areas until conservation assessments have been conducted.
Read the rest of this entry »May 16
Consumption, population, and declining Earth: wake-up call for Rio+20
Currently, human society is consuming natural resources as if there were one-and-a-half Earths, and not just a single blue planet, according to the most recent Living Planet Report released today. If governments and societies continue with ‘business-as…
Read the rest of this entry »May 16
Wildlife in the tropics plummets by over 60 percent
In 48 years wildlife populations in the tropics, the region that holds the bulk of the world’s biodiversity, have fallen by an alarming 61 percent, according to the most recent update to the Living Planet Index. Produced by the World Wide Fund for Natu…
Read the rest of this entry »May 15
U.S. car manufacturers linked to Amazon destruction, slave labor
According to a new report by Greenpeace, top U.S. car companies such as Ford, General Motors, and Nissan are sourcing pig iron that has resulted in the destruction of Amazon rainforests, slave labor, and land conflict with indigenous tribes. Spending t…
Read the rest of this entry »May 15
Global wetlands shrink 6% in 15 years
Global wetlands declined by six percent between 1993 and 2007 due to conversion for agriculture, drainage, and water diversion, reports a new satellite-based assessment published by European researchers in Geophysical Research Letters.
Read the rest of this entry »May 15
Emissions from deforestation depend on fate of cleared trees
Carbon emissions from deforestation vary greatly depending on whether timber stocks are turned into finished wood products, converted into bioenergy feedstocks, or burned outright, reports a new study published in Nature Climate Change.
Read the rest of this entry »May 15
