By Jeremy Hance, www.mongabay.com16 May 2011 The wild rivers of Patagonia may soon never be the same. Last week, Chile’s Aysén Environmental Review Commission approved the environmental assessment of a five dam proposal on two rivers. The approval, however, is marred in controversy and has set off protests in many cities, including Santiago. Critics say […]
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia is preparing to greenlight the construction of several highways through a park that has one of the world’s few viable populations of wild tigers, conservationists warned Thursday. The move would be especially alarming, they said, because it would come just months after the government signed a deal in Russia promising […]
By Stephen Messenger, Porto Alegre, Brazil 3 May 2011 In the forests of Italy’s Abruzzo National Park live one of the rarest creatures on Earth: the Marsican brown bear. For the last several decades the species has been on the brink of extinction — with current estimates putting their population at less than 50 individuals, […]
Contact: Todd Datz, 617.432.8413, tdatz@hsph.harvard.edu18 April 2011 Boston, MA – Using 120 years of feathers from natural history museums in the United States, Harvard University researchers have been able to track increases in the neurotoxin methylmercury in the black-footed albatross (Phoebastria nigripes), an endangered seabird that forages extensively throughout the Pacific. The study shows that […]
Contact: Nicki Chadwick, Media Relations Officer, IUCN Office, t +41 22 999 0229, m +41 79 528 3486, nicki.chadwick@iucn.org;19 April 2011 More than 40 species of marine fish currently found in the Mediterranean could disappear in the next few years. According to a study for the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™ on the status […]
By LESLIE KAUFMANPublished: April 15, 2011 Weeks after he was sworn in as governor of Maine, Paul LePage, a Tea Party favorite, announced a 63-point plan to cut environmental regulations, including opening three million acres of the North Woods for development and suspending a law meant to monitor toxic chemicals that could be found in […]
Contact: Dr. Herilala Randriamahazo, Madagascar Tortoise Conservation CoordinatorTurtle Survival Alliance/MadagascarPhone: +261 0331187993, +261 0343776701Email: herilala@turtlesurvival.org Antananarivo, Madagascar, April 8 — Despite being one of the most culturally significant and iconic species in Madagascar, the Radiated Tortoise (Astrochelys radiata) is being catapulted to extinction because it is a source of food for local people and a […]
By Martin Hickman11 April 2011 An “upside-down forest” of small trees with deep roots, Brazil’s wildlife-rich outback is home to a 20th of the world’s species, including the spectacular blue and yellow macaw and giant armadillos. Yet this vast wilderness – as big the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain put together – is being […]
April 14 (Coastweek) – The Mountain Bongo (Tragelaphus eurycerus isaaci) is on the edge of extinction mainly due to genetic factors, predation, disease, and forest habitat threats. This has been confirmed by both the Director of Kenya Wildlife Service Julius Kipng’-etich and Dr Jake Veasey, Co-ordinator for Bongo, IUCN Antelope Specialist Group. A recent joint […]
By Jessica Marshall11 Apr 2011 Numbers of Chinstrap and Adélie penguins in the Antarctic Peninsula region have dropped by more than 50 percent in the last 30 years, driven mainly by dramatic declines in supplies of tiny, shrimp-like krill, their main prey, says a new study. Krill, meanwhile, have declined by 40 to 80 percent, […]
