By Lindsay Fendt 3 September 2013 (Tico Times) – Hours before his murder, sea turtle conservationist Jairo Mora came upon poachers digging up turtle eggs at the notoriously dangerous Moín Beach, near Limón on Costa Rica’s northern Caribbean coast. Mora reasoned with the poachers, perhaps explaining that leatherbacks – enormous, prehistoric-looking turtles – are endangered. […]
By Rhett A. Butler4 September 2013 (mongabay.com) – Data released this week by Terra-i, a collaborative mapping initiative, shows that deforestation in Ecuador for the first three months of 2013 was pacing more than 300 percent ahead of last year’s rate. The report comes shortly after Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa killed off a proposed plan […]
By Zach Dyer 26 August 2013 CABO BLANCO, Puntarenas (The Tico Times) – With the Pacific Ocean crashing against the beach at Cabo Blanco Absolute Nature Reserve, the Costa Rican National System of Conservation Areas and the Ministry of the Environment and Energy (MINAE) posthumously honored Jairo Mora for his dedication to marine conservation during […]
By Rhett A. Butler3 September 2013 (mongabay.com) – Conversion of forests for palm oil production now appears to be the single largest driver of deforestation in Indonesia, accounting for roughly a quarter of forest loss between 2009 and 2011, asserts a new Greenpeace report that accuses the sector’s main certification standard of failing to stop […]
[Keep in mind that Japan still poaches dolphins at Taiji and whales in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary; Iceland and Norway continue to poach whales in the Atlantic.] By Erwin Vermeulen 28 August 2013 (SSCS) – On 27 August 2013, around 2pm local time, another 51 Pilot whales were butchered in the Ferocious Isles. This time […]
By Elga Reyes 28 August 2013 (Eco-Business) – The province of Riau in Sumatra, Indonesia has been covered in smog since early this week when the number of fire hotspots spiked at 488, the highest level in two months following Southeast Asia’s worst haze pollution in 16 years. The smoke, mostly contained in the provincial […]
By Frank Bajak20 August 2013 LIMA, Peru (AP) – Members of an Indian tribe that has long lived in voluntary isolation in Peru’s southeastern Amazon attempted to make contact with outsiders for a second time since 2011, leading to a tense standoff at a river hamlet. Authorities are unsure what provoked the three-day encounter, but […]
14 August 2013 (WDC) – Latest figures (August 12th) from the Iceland Fisheries Directorate give a shameful total of 89 fin whales killed by Kristjan Loftsson’s fleet so far this season. Loftsson could slaughter as many as 184 fin whales under a self-allocated quota, but the rationale behind the hunt is looking increasingly shaky. There […]
By Richard Branson and James CameronAugust 18, 2013 We share a deep and abiding passion for and fascination with the ocean that has led us since childhood to wander the world under the waves. We also share an increasing concern that the health of the ocean is rapidly deteriorating under the strain of human pressure […]
By Matt McGrath, Environment correspondent16 August 2013 (BBC News) – Macaque monkeys that have developed the ability to use stone tools to open shellfish are in danger of losing the skill because of human development. Scientists found that illegal palm oil and rubber plantations in Thailand are disrupting the monkeys’ feeding behaviour. Dogs brought in […]
