Climate change threatens rare species in Mekong: WWF

By Thin Lei Win BANGKOK (Reuters) – Climate change is threatening 163 rare species discovered only last year in the Greater Mekong region, conservation group WWF said Friday. Events such as frequent droughts and floods plus a rise in sea levels spell danger for species in what WWF called in a report “one of the world’s last biological frontiers,” a region spanning Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and China’s Yunnan province. “Forecasts for the Greater Mekong region show that climate change will dramatically alter ecosystems,” Geoffrey Blate, WWF’s regional climate change coordinator, told Reuters. “Species most at risk are those with the least physiological tolerance to changes in temperature and precipitation, and those species with narrow or very restricted habitats.” …