By Arti Ekawati & Fidelis E Satriastanti Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan on Tuesday defended a presidential decision to open protected forests to development, saying only underground mining activities would be allowed, thus minimizing damage to the environment. The regulation, which has reportedly been signed by the president, is yet to be issued, he said, adding […]
By Karin Kloosterman on March 5, 2010 – 12:09 pm Coastal waters are evolutionary hotspots, says Jerry Berne, a shoreline expert from the NGO Sustainable Shorelines in the US. Based in Charlotte, NC, USA, Berne is concerned about the toll construction and shoreline projects are having on the world’s marine ecosystems. Looking at the intensive […]
Contact: Eleni Kanavasekanavas@utsc.utoronto.ca416-208-5103University of Toronto (University of Toronto) The levels of contamination to water and sediment in Frenchman’s Bay in Pickering, Ontario, greatly exceed provincial water quality standards, in some cases by as much as 250 per cent, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Toronto, Scarborough. This is largely due […]
By BEN CUBBYFebruary 18, 2010 EIGHT swamps inside a conservation area which provide habitat for endangered native animals are likely to be lost if BHP Billiton is allowed to go ahead with plans to develop giant coalmines on Sydney’s south-western outskirts. The company has conceded that the swamps – natural filters that keep the Georges […]
By RANDY LEE LOFTIS / The Dallas Morning Newsrloftis@dallasnews.com, 12:00 AM CST on Sunday, February 7, 2010 From North Texas to Florida, a high-pitched voice is strangely missing from the chatter of wintering birds. The rusty blackbird, a winter visitor to Dallas-Fort Worth, has suffered one of North America’s steepest and least understood declines. Since […]
By TOM ALLARD, KALIMANTANDecember 14, 2009 A BOAT trip down the wide brown waters of the Kapuas River and the canals that flow off it, crisscrossing the hinterland of Central Kalimantan, makes for a depressing tour. What was once one of the world’s great swamp peat forests is a tangle of weeds and burnt trees. […]
By TOM ARUPJanuary 13, 2010 THE NSW Government has agreed to allow some of the floodwater finding its way into the Murray-Darling river system to flow through to the endangered Coorong wetlands at the mouth of the Murray in South Australia. The decision by the Premier, Kristina Keneally, yesterday comes after immense pressure from the […]
Human expansion is wiping out species at about 1,000 times the “natural” or “background” rate and something must be done to slow the decline, according to the United Nations. The UN will launch the International Year of Biodiversity today, warning that the on-going loss of species around the globe will seriously affect the future of […]
First it was colonists who put the Ogiek on reserves in Mau Forest. After freedom corrupt officials drove them out as they set up farms. Now a reforestation effort has forced them even farther away. By Robyn Dixon, January 4, 2010 Mau Forest, Kenya – For centuries, the little-known Ogiek people foraged wild honey and […]
By Cain Burdeau4:00 AM Wednesday Jan 6, 2010 …Bourg is a tidy Cajun bayou town a few kilometres north of Dardar’s hurricane-smashed Indian village, in the marsh to which holdout families are being urged to move by a tribal chief, scientists and public officials. Why? Because life on this spit of soggy land 10km from […]
