Contact: Victoria Picknellvictoria.picknell@zsl.org020-744-96361 AFRICAN national parks like Masai Mara and the Serengeti have seen populations of large mammals decline by up to 59 per cent, according to a study published in Biological Conservation. The parks are each visited by thousands of tourists each year hoping to spot Africa’s ‘Big Five’ – lion, elephant, buffalo, […]
By DAN JOLING (AP) – 10 July 2010 ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The Interior Department is offering oil and gas leases on 1.8 million acres of Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve while promising to protect critical migratory bird and caribou habitat. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Friday that the Bureau of Land Management will offer 190 tracts, […]
ScienceDaily (July 7, 2010) — Faced with threats such as habitat loss and climate change, thousands of rare flowering plant species worldwide may become extinct before scientists can even discover them, according to a paper published today by a trio of American and British researchers in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. “Scientists […]
By John Talberth and Stephen Posner on July 7, 2010 The BP oil spill will degrade critical ecosystem services and their economic benefits for decades to come. BP’s massive oil spill jeopardizes the underpinning of economic wealth in the Gulf of Mexico region – the diverse coastal and marine ecosystems that generate a bounty of […]
The Associated PressAssociated Press Writer Mary Foster contributed to this report from Grand Isle, La.Published: Wednesday, July 07, 2010, 2:29 PM GULF SHORES, Ala. — There’s a dirty secret buried under Gulf of Mexico beaches after cleanup workers scrape away the oil washing ashore. Walk to a seemingly pristine patch of sand, plop down in […]
By Jeremy Hance, www.mongabay.comJuly 07, 2010 An interview with Faith Doherty. The European parliament made a historical move today when it voted overwhelmingly to ban illegal timber from its markets. For activists worldwide the ban on illegal timber in the EU is a reason to celebrate, but for one activist, Faith Doherty of the Environmental […]
In Indonesia, forests cover 463,000 square miles, which ranks behind only Brazil and the Democratic Republic of Congo in size. But rampant illegal logging has made those forests among the most endangered on the planet and has depressed timber prices worldwide. In the 1960s, about 82 percent of Indonesia was forested. By 1995, forest cover […]
By TODD PITMAN, Associated Pressupdated 7/3/2010 9:39:02 PM ET THE ITURI FOREST, Congo — They emerge from the stillness of the rainforest like a lost tribe of prehistoric warriors forgotten by time — a barefoot band of Mbuti Pygmies wielding iron-tipped spears. The men come first, cloaked head to toe in coiled hunting nets shaved […]
By JOHN COLLINS RUDOLFPublished: July 6, 2010 With oil hitting Barataria Bay, a vast estuary in southeast Louisiana that boasts one of the most productive fisheries in the country, local parish officials hatched a plan in May to save the fragile ecosystem: they would build rock dikes across several major tidal inlets between the bay […]
By Bradley Bouzane, Canwest News Service July 5, 2010 OTTAWA — Tens of thousands of Canadian migratory birds are threatened by the environmental crisis caused by a spreading slick of oil in the Gulf of Mexico, says a Canadian bird expert. While news reports continue to show images of oil-soaked birds around the Southern […]
