30 December 2013 (mongabay.com) – Like every year, wildlife conservation had its ups and downs in 2013. Elephant and rhino poaching hit levels unseen since the 1970’s, but there were nascent signs of growing awareness in China on the impacts of wildlife trade, including official bans on the serving of wildlife products at official state […]
By Tamasin Ford, with additional reporting by Iloniaina Alain Rakotondravony23 December 2013 CAP EST, Madagascar (The Guardian) – Blood-red sawdust coats every surface in the small carpentry workshop, where Primo Jean Besy is at the lathe fashioning vases out of ruby-coloured logs. Besy and his father are small-scale carpenters in Antalaha in north-east Madagascar, and […]
10 December 2013 (ABC) – The Australian Government says it intends to honour its promise to send a Customs ship to monitor Japanese whalers. But the Australian Environment Minister Greg Hunt says he’s still working through some of the “operational issues”. “We will have clear monitoring in the Southern Ocean, and I just ask for […]
SHIMONOSEKI, YAMAGUCHI PREF., 7 December 2013 (KYODO) – Three ships have left Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi Prefecture, to join the mother vessel Nisshin Maru and hunt up to 935 Antarctic minke whales and 50 fin whales through March. The Fisheries Agency had kept secret the departure date of the whaling fleet as a precaution against obstruction by […]
By Laura Beans 6 December 2013 (EcoNews) – New data pointing to a dramatic rise in polar bear hunting surfaced this week as the biennial meeting of the international Polar Bear Agreement kicked off in Moscow, Russia. Clearly, climate change isn’t the only challenge facing Polar Bears. Hunting of Canadian polar bears is rising at […]
By Jeff Barbee and Mira Dutschke in Nata, Botswana, David Smith in Johannesburg 17 November 2013 (The Guardian) – Botswana has been accused of sacrificing the Kalahari, one of the world’s most precious wildlife reserves, to commercial fracking while ignoring the concerns of environmentalists and communities who could lose access to scarce water. Hydraulic fracturing, […]
WASHINGTON, 23 November 2013 (AP) – A major U.S. power company has pleaded guilty to killing eagles and other birds at two Wyoming wind farms and agreed to pay $1 million as part of the first enforcement of environmental laws protecting birds against wind energy facilities. Until the settlement announced Friday with Duke Energy Corp. […]
By Jon Swaine17 November 2013 (Sydney Morning Herald) – A US television presenter has prompted outrage after boasting online that she had killed a lion in South Africa. Melissa Bachman, a keen hunter who produces programs on the American outdoors, posted a photograph on Facebook and Twitter of her holding a rifle and smiling beside […]
By Oliver Milman 16 October 2013 (theguardian.com) – Australian researchers have developed the “first rigorous framework” on how to relocate animals displaced due to climate change. The study, conducted by academics from four Australian universities and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), devised a formula on how to decide whether to relocate a […]
By Oliver Joy16 October 2013 (CNN) – Using military-grade helicopters, night-vision equipment and guns fitted with stealth silencers, organized crime syndicates are taking rhino poaching to a whole new level and conservation parks are struggling to keep up. Sabi Sand — South Africa’s oldest private game reserve — is now spending half of its annual […]
