The latest news related to nature conservation from around the world. If there is
Why a sense of kinship is key to caring about the living world
Leading thinkers in environmental economics and conservation are asking a pressing question. Why are we ignoring the destruction of the living world?
Our environmental laws should be judged by one outcome
On Monday, Environment Minister Sussan Ley launched the long-awaited statutory review of Australia’s beleaguered national environment law, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. Ms Ley has set streamlining regulation as the key test of success for the review.
How do you save endangered gorillas? With lots of human help
Deep in the rainforest of Volcanoes National Park, a 23-year-old female gorilla named Kurudi feeds on a stand of wild celery. She bends the green stalks and, with long careful fingers, peels off the exterior skin to expose the succulent inside.
Biodiversity loss: the canary in the coalmine
With 30 percent of Australia’s threatened species living in cities, there is an urgent need to plan, design and manage urban landscapes to conserve and enhance life. Foreground spoke with Claire Martin about the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects’ biodiversity loss emergency declaration.
The last tiger in Lao PDR likely died in terrible anguish. Its foot caught in a snare, the animal probably died of dehydration. Or maybe, in a desperate bid to free itself from a snare crafted from a simple and cheap motorbike cable, it tore off a leg and died from the blood loss.
Biodiversity protection vital for survival
Concerted efforts should be made to mainstream and raise awareness of the economic and social benefits of biodiversity in the face of challenges that could lead to its loss.
The Real Case for Saving Species: We Don’t Need Them, But They Need Us
Conservationists argue that humans need to save species in order to save ourselves. The truth is we could survive without wild species — but they can’t survive without us, and the moral argument for protecting them and the beauty they bring to the world is overwhelming
India’s tigers seem to be a massive success story — many scientists aren’t sure
Researchers question official figures showing a sharp rise in the tiger population, and the country’s plans to protect the species.
Humans are drying out Europe’s ancient peat bogs
Climate change and peat cutting are altering ecosystems, some of them centuries old.
Scientists call for improved approach to biodiversity targets on invasive species
A Monash-led international commentary on the harm caused by biological invasions has urged policy makers to develop conversation targets in a unified framework informed by new data integration methods developed in the last decade.
3 global conditions – and a map – for saving nature and using it wisely
Nature urgently needs our help. Wild creatures, from songbirds to butterflies and from primates to tortoises, are disappearing so rapidly that they could be lost forever together with the wild forests, grasslands and other habitats that long sustained them. We humans already use nearly half of all Earth’s…
Rescuing the world’s endangered river dolphins takes cutting edge science and community
River dolphins in the Amazon and Orinoco are under ever increasing pressure from the impact of hydropower dams and mercury contamination from small-scale gold mining, according to results from the first ever river dolphin satellite tagging program released today to mark World River Dolphin Day.
Saving Our Oceans: A Plea for Action
This week, world leaders gather in Norway to focus on the health of our oceans at a critical time. For island nations such as the Federated States of Micronesia, threatened as never before by climate change, seriousness of purpose isn’t elective, it’s existential.
Abstract Marine protected areas (MPAs) are the preferred tool for preventing marine biodiversity loss, as reflected in international protected area targets. Concerns have been raised that opposition from resource users is driving MPAs into low‐pressure areas while high‐use areas remain unprotected,…
Spain offers to host UN climate conference after Chile cancellation
A digger drives past a sign at the site in Santiago, Chile, that had been due to host the COP25 UN climate conference in December. Photograph: Esteban Félix/AP Spain has offered to host the COP25 UN climate conference in December after weeks of violent protests forced the Chilean…
Study shows how climate change may affect environmental conservation areas
Brazil contains the largest expanse of tropical ecosystems within protected areas, but a significant proportion of these reserves may be vulnerable to the effects of ongoing global climate change, according to a study published in the journal Conservation Biology.
Largest mapping of breathing ocean floor key to understanding global carbon cycle
Marine sediments play a crucial role in the global carbon cycle due to the oxygen consumption and CO2 respiration of the organisms that live in and on the ocean floor. To help predict the changing contribution of this respiration to the carbon cycle in a warming world, researchers from the Royal Netherlands…
Educating Girls May Be Nigeria’s Best Defense Against Climate Change
The call-and-response is enthusiastic, rising above the sound of a fan whirring furiously in the corner of the room. About 50 women stand in a circle around the song leader, who pounds the air with an invisible hammer. When she gets to the second verse-“I will hammer with two hammers!”-she pumps both…
The real reason some scientists downplay the risks of climate change
Although the results of climate research have been consistent for decades, climate scientists have struggled to convey the gravity of the situation to laypeople outside their field. If anything, the wider public only recently seems to have awakened to the threat of the climate crisis. Why?
To fight climate change, science must be mobilised like it was in World War II
We’ve all but won the argument on climate change. The facts are now unequivocal and climate denialists are facing a losing battle. Concern has risen up the political agenda, and major economic institutions such as the World Trade Organisation and the Bank of England highlight the increasingly extreme…
Canadian kids sue government over climate change
Lawsuit alleges that the federal government has violated citizens’ rights by promoting and enabling fossil-fuel development.
