Trump appoints endangered species foe to oversee protection of America’s most imperiled wildlife – “Putting Combs in charge of the Fish and Wildlife Service is like appointing an arsonist as the town fire marshal”

WASHINGTON, 30 March 2018 (CBD) – The Trump administration has quietly named Susan Combs — an outspoken foe of endangered species and a climate change denier — as acting assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks. She now oversees the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the endangered species it protects. “Putting Combs in charge […]

Asia wildlife trafficking kingpin Boonchai Bach arrested

20 January 2018 (BBC News) – Thai police have arrested a man alleged to be the head of Asia’s biggest illegal wildlife trading networks. Boonchai Bach, a 40-year-old Thai of Vietnamese origin, was detained in a town on the border with Laos. He faces up to four years in jail for smuggling protected animal parts […]

Brazil’s Chapada dos Veadeiros park ravaged by largest fire in its history

By Angela Boldrini 27 October 2017 (Folha de São Paulo) – More than a quarter of Chapada dos Veadeiros National Park has been consumed by the largest fire in its history. According to the latest report, on Tuesday (24th), 64,000 hectares (about 158,000 acres) of the Park’s 240,000 hectares (593,000 acres), were hit by the […]

New UN-led partnership to help curb unsustainable wildlife hunting, protect biodiversity – 4.6 million metric tons of wildmeat are consumed annually in the Congo Basin

10 October 2017 (UN News) – To help African, Caribbean, and Pacific countries stop unsustainable wildlife hunting, conserve natural heritage and strengthen people’s livelihoods and food security, the United Nations agriculture agency launched on Tuesday a €45 million multi-partner initiative.Funded by the European Commission, the seven-year Sustainable Wildlife Management programme will be led by the […]

Another victim of Hurricane Maria: Puerto Rico’s treasured rainforest – “The whole forest is completely defoliated”

By Luis Ferré-Sadurní 11 October 2017LUQUILLO, Puerto Rico (The New York Times) – When you looked up, you could once see nothing but the lush, emerald canopy of tabonuco and sierra palm trees covering El Yunque National Forest. That was before Hurricane Maria obliterated the only tropical rain forest in the United States forest system. […]

National Butterfly Center issues plea for help against imminent destruction for Trump border fence

20 July 2017 (National Butterfly Center) – The surveyor’s stakes marking the 150 ft “clearing zone” for Trump’s Border Fence appeared at the National Butterfly Center in Mission, TX, on Thursday, 20 July 2017, along with a work crew with chainsaws and heavy equipment.  When Marianna Trevino Wright, executive director of the nonprofit center confronted […]

Record flooding affects 16 million in Nepal, Bangladesh, and India – “This is fast becoming one of the most serious humanitarian crises this region has seen in many years”

18 August 2017 (Hindustan Times) – A humanitarian crisis is unfolding across large areas of South Asia, with more than 16 million people affected by monsoon floods in Nepal, Bangladesh and India, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said in statement in Kathmandu on Friday.  “This is fast becoming one of […]

Army Corps of Engineers invades South Texas to clear the way for Trump’s border wall – Wildlife reserves and private property fall, National Butterfly Center sacrificed

By Jude Lieber 14 August 2017 (Liberty and Justice) – Marianna Trevino Wright: “This was a surreal moment for me, where reality is being denied, not only to me, but in the public realm, and the government has undertaken a campaign of deceit and deliberate misinformation.  People believe that this wall is going to be […]

Snow-free season is lengthening on Alaska’s North Slope – “It’s remarkable how rapidly things are changing in the Arctic”

3 August 2017 (CIRES) – On the North Slope of Alaska, snow is melting earlier in the spring and the snow-in date is happening later in the fall, according to a new study by CIRES and NOAA researchers. Atmospheric dynamics and sea ice conditions are behind this lengthening of the snow-free season, the scientists found, […]

Global tree cover loss remains high – In 2015, the world lost nearly 20 million hectares of tree cover, an area the size of Uganda

By Mikaela Weisse, Elizabeth Dow Goldman, Nancy Harris, Matt Hansen, Peter Potapov, and Svetlana Turubanova 17 July 2017 (World Resources Institute) – Global Forest Watch released new satellite-based data showing how forests around the world changed in the year 2015. The data, produced through the analysis of roughly a million satellite images by the University […]

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