Climate change, logging, oil and gas prospecting, and other industrial activities are being blamed for the decrease in most reindeer populations around the world. A new study has found that populations all over the world were decreasing, with some being harmed by warming arctic temperatures and others by habitat destruction.
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Afghanistan has published its first list of threatened wildlife that can no longer be hunted or harvested. The list currently includes 20 mammals, 7 birds, and 4 plants, although they hope to expand the list to as many as 70 species by the end of the year.
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A new analysis has found that Indonesian rainforest could be worth more left standing under a proposed scheme called Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (Redd). This would make the trees more valuable standing than destroyed and replanted with palm oil plantations. These palm oil plantations have been contributing to climate change and also damaging the local ecosystem and endangering animals such as orangutans.
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Last year, Peruvian president Alan Garcia signed a series of laws vastly decreasing forest protection, opening up 111 million acres for potential development. The laws also authorize the government to approve development projects in the region without consulting existing residents. These and other laws essentially nationalize the ownership of much land, water and oil, in addition to other resources. Meanwhile, they push for formal, private ownership of agricultural land, which is incompatible with current communal systems and may reduce agricultural sustainability at a national level. As various jungle oil concessions were granted in April, Amazonian residents instituted a months-long road-block in protest of these laws, blocking oil lines and leading to a spike in oil prices in the capital. A State of Emergency was declared, allowing police to break the road block with violent measures on Friday, June 5. A reported 60 were killed that day, although some say the numbers are higher. Facing widespread popular resistance, the government temporarily suspended the laws on June 10. Protests continue throughout the country.
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UK and US scientists are working together to put together a global database of information on all living things. This information would include research findings, descriptions, pictures, genetic information, and updates on sightings from citizen scientists.
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A new report found that 88% of the habitat for cetaceans (dolphins, porpoises and whales) is expected to increase in temperature as a result of climate change. This is a problem because they are temperature sensitive and also only able to go so deep to find cooler temperatures.
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Scottland has begun a trial program to reintroduce beavers for the first time in 400 years.
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Africa's forests are disappearing faster than those in other areas of the world due to a lack of land ownership.
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Yosemite National Park is seeing a decrease in the average size of their largest trees (as a result of larger trees dying), likely as a result of climate change. The dying off of large trees is concerning because it is occurring in one of the world's most protected parks.
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The Natrue Conservancy published reports of its study showing that many reefs all around the world are now functionally extinct due to fishing practices and coastal developments. This is having a hugely negative effect on shellfish populations and damaging entire sensitive ecosystems. As a specific example, it points out that 85% of the world's ocean reefs have already been lost.
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Cornell University is recruiting citizen scientists all over the country to report on different ladybugs that they see and in what quantities to try to track the movements of lady bug populations that appear to be inexplicably moving or disappearing.
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Band-e-Amir has been declared Afghanistan's first national park.
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A number of groups in the UK are asking average citizens to take stock of the reptiles and amphibians found in their gardens and report back. Many are relying on citizen scientists, as those who volunteer to report this information are called, to get a better idea of the state of reptile and amphibian populations across the region.
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Problems with overfishing and the ineffectiveness of voluntary measures to fish more sustainably.
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The article discusses why it is important to conserve secondary growth forests and agroforestry areas in addition to primary forests. These areas are important for biodiversity and support a variety of bird populations and other animals. This is a summary of a symposium given by Robin Chazdon, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Connecticut.
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Researchers in every field of "Big Science" are more and more frequently turning to a legion of "citizen scientists"--average people, interested in science, who commit to gathering mountains of detailed data to assist in the process of answering big, long-term science questions.
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Fisherman world-wide are catching fewer, smaller fish. It is predicted that if things continue as they are, none of the fishes consumed by humans may remain viable in the wild.
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A new survey by more than 1700 scientists found that of the world's 5,487 mammal species, one in four are facing imminent extinction and about half are in decline while only 5% are mounting a recovery. Reasons for this decline range from hunting to habitat loss to even some attempts to curb climate change that do not look at all their impacts. Climate change looks to only make this situation worse, but supposed fixes to reduce carbon must also look at impacts on wildlife.
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The federal government took a new, ecosystem-based approach to the endangered species list on Tuesday, proposing an all-at-once addition of 48 species, including plants, two birds and a fly, that live only on the Hawaiian island of Kauai.
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(from the article) "When a group of environmentally concerned friends in San Francisco decided to buy nothing for a year, they unwittingly sparked an international trend."
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Article about attempts to protect sacred areas of Native American tribes, as well as native tribes all over the world, that are also natural spaces.
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Oakville is setting aside 100 acres of environmentally important green space to be added to Ontario's greenbelt and be preserved from development.
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