U.N. urges foreign fishing fleets to halt ‘ocean grabbing’

By Alister Doyle; Editing by Andrew Osborn30 October 2012 OSLO (Reuters) – “Ocean grabbing” or aggressive industrial fishing by foreign fleets is a threat to food security in developing nations where governments should do more to promote local, small-scale fisheries, a study by a U.N. expert said on Tuesday. The report said emerging nations should […]

Smuggling of illegally logged rosewood in Madagascar continues, report alleges

25 October 2012 (mongabay.com) – Timber traders in Madagascar are smuggling illegally logged rosewood despite an official export ban, alleges a new report published by a Malagasy researcher. The report, authored by Hery Randriamalala and based on press clippings, cargo manifests, and eye-witness accounts, indicates that traders are covertly reducing rosewood stockpiles accumulated during a […]

Illegal hunting threatens iconic animals across Africa’s great savannas, especially predators

By Jeremy Hance25 October 2012 (mongabay.com) – Bushmeat hunting has become a grave concern for species in West and Central Africa, but a new report notes that lesser-known illegal hunting in Africa’s iconic savannas is also decimating some animals. Surprisingly, illegal hunting across eastern and southern Africa is hitting big predators particularly hard, such as […]

South Africa hits another new record in rhino killings – Two rhino subspecies declared extinct

By Jeremy Hance18 October 2012 (mongabay.com) – Four hundred and fifty-five rhinos have been killed by poachers in South Africa since the beginning of the year. The number surpasses the record set last year (448) and proves that national efforts to stem poaching have not yet made a dent in actual killings. The mass killing […]

Authorities confiscate 600 dead elephants’ worth of ivory in Hong Kong

By Jeremy Hance22 October 2012 (mongabay.com) – Hong Kong authorities have confiscated two massive shipments of elephant tusks, totaling 1,209 tusks, stemming from Kenya and Tanzania. Representing over 600 poached elephants, the shipments are estimated to be worth $3.4 million on the black market. African elephants are being decimated for their tusks in recent years […]

How organized crime is destroying the rainforests

By Sara Reardon and Rowan Hooper 1 October 2012 It’s not as glamorous as chercocaine or diamonds, but the illegal logging industry has become very attractive to criminal organisations over the past decade. A new report finds that up to 90 per cent of tropical deforestation can be attributed to organised crime, which controls up […]

Great ape habitat in Africa has dramatically declined – ‘Many of the ape populations we still find today will disappear in the near future’

By Matt Walker, Editor, BBC Nature28 September 2012 Great apes, such as gorillas, chimps, and bonobos, are running out of places to live, say scientists. They have recorded a dramatic decline in the amount of habitat suitable for great apes, according to the first such survey across the African continent. Eastern gorillas, the largest living […]

Image of the Day: Satellite view of deforestation in Rondônia, Brazil, 1975 and 2012

Caption by Aries Keck8 August 2012 Deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest takes on many different patterns. In Rondônia, a state in Western Brazil, deforestation took on the fishbone pattern revealed in these Landsat images from 1975 and 2012. Access to this remote region began with the building of a major road stretching from north to […]

Lemurs far more endangered than previously thought

By Richard Black, Environment correspondent, BBC News13 July 2012 A new survey shows lemurs are far more threatened than previously thought. A group of specialists is in Madagascar – the only place where lemurs are found in the wild – to systematically assess the animals and decide where they sit on the Red List of […]

Worst flooding in more than a decade inundates 2,000 villages in India – Over 1 million displaced – Rhinos vulnerable to poaching

GAUHATI, India, 1 July 2012 (AP) – The death toll from monsoon rains in northeastern India has risen above 60, with more than 2,000 villages inundated as rivers breached their banks, an official said Sunday. More than a week of heavy rains in Assam state has caused the massive Brahmaputra river — one of Asia’s […]

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