Dramatic decline of Borneo orangutans – Global demand for natural resources has reduced the orangutan population by more than 100,000 in the last 16 years

15 February 2018 (Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology) – Nearly 50 years of conservation efforts have been unable to prevent orangutan numbers on Borneo from plummeting. The latest data published by a team from 38 international institutions, led by researchers of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, the German Centre […]

Study reveals high percentage of illegal timber exported from Peruvian Amazon – “There is a status quo that does not care about the legal status of the exported wood”

By Yvette Sierra Praeli; Translated By Romina Castagnino 13 February 2018 LIMA, Peru (Mongabay) – More than two years after a massive seizure of illegal timber sent from Peru to international markets in the Dominican Republic, Mexico and the United States, much of Peru’s exported wood is still illegal according to a new report. The […]

New data reveals 197 land and environmental defenders murdered in 2017, nearly four per week – Agribusiness overtakes mining for most killings

By Jonathan Watts 2 February 2018 (The Guardian) – The slaughter of people defending their land or environment continued unabated in 2017, with new research showing almost four people a week were killed worldwide in struggles against mines, plantations, poachers and infrastructure projects.The toll of 197 in 2017 – which has risen fourfold since it […]

Cambodia forest protectors slain after confronting loggers – “The three were killed not by robbers or a guerrilla group but they were shot by government armed forces who backed the illegal timber cutting”

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia, 31 January 2018 (AP) – Soldiers in northeastern Cambodia, an area where illicit logging and smuggling are rife, killed a forest protection ranger, a military police officer and a conservation worker in apparent retaliation for their seizure of equipment from illegal loggers, officials said Wednesday. Keo Sopheak, a senior environmental official in […]

Indigenous Amazon forest defender Sairá Ka’apor murdered

By Jonathan Watts 20 January 2018 Mananhão, Brazil (The Guardian) – Sairá Ka’apor patrolled one of the most murderous frontiers in the world, a remote and largely lawless region of the Brazilian Amazon where his indigenous community has fought for generations to protect their forest land.Armed with clubs, bows and arrows, GPS trackers and crude […]

Astronaut Mark Kelly: This year has been an unequivocal disaster for the future of the planet

By Mark Kelly 26 December 2017 (CNN) – In 2001, I flew my first flight into space aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour. Roughly a decade later, I commanded that same space shuttle on its final flight. That trip was my fourth journey — and at least for now, my final one — from this planet into […]

Number of natural World Heritage sites affected by climate change nearly doubles in three years

Bonn, Germany, 13 November 2017 (IUCN) – The number of natural World Heritage sites threatened by climate change has grown from 35 to 62 in just three years, with climate change being the fastest growing threat they face, according to a report released today by IUCN, International Union for Conservation of Nature, at the UN […]

Thousands of scientists issue bleak “second notice” to humanity – “Humanity has failed to make sufficient progress in solving these foreseen environmental challenges, and alarmingly, most of them are getting far worse”

By Sarah Kaplan 13 November 2017 (The Washington Post) – In late 1992, 1,700 scientists from around the world issued a dire “warning to humanity.” They said humans had pushed Earth’s ecosystems to their breaking point and were well on the way to ruining the planet. The letter listed environmental impacts like they were biblical […]

Photo of baby elephant on fire after being attacked by mob wins international award – “The calf screams in confusion and fear as the fire licks at her feet”

By May Bulman 8 November 2017 (The Independent) – An image of a baby elephant fleeing a mob that has just set it on fire has won top entry in a pan-Asian wildlife photography competition, the Sanctuary Wildlife Photography Awards 2017. It shows the calf and its mother running across a road close to a […]

The Paradise Papers: Leaked records reveal offshore’s role in forest destruction

By Scilla Alecci 8 November 2017 (ICIJ) – On the island of Padang, in the heart of Indonesia’s industrial logging country, a group of teenagers pointed to the charred remains of sago palm trees – the remnants of the fires that have scorched the archipelago nation’s lush forests for two decades. “There’s a sense of […]

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