Mongabay
App combines computer vision and crowdsourcing to explore Earth’s biodiversity, one photo at a time
Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection was developed in large part from the observations and collections of plants, animals and fossils that he made in the Galapagos islands and other stops during his voyage aboard the HMS Beagle. However, Darwin was an amateur ...
Colleen O'Brien
Re-peeling the effects of degradation: low-tech application of orange crop waste shows potential to restore tropical forests
Researchers have come upon a new low-tech tropical forest restoration strategy, beginning with agricultural waste. They studied the effects on soil and forest health of the purposeful deposition of tons of processed orange peels and pulp on centuries-old rangeland remaining inside Guanacaste National Park in ...
Good quality monitoring surveys key to wildlife conservation: new study
A biodiversity crisis is looming upon us. We are now in the middle of a “sixth great extinction” of animal species, scientists warn, with loss of species about 1,000 times higher than it would have been without human impact.Nearly every country in the world has ...
HydroCalculator: new, free, online tool helps citizens assess dams
Mega-dam construction is booming around the world, with promoters hyping hydropower as a green, renewable source of energy and a means of curbing climate change. But as these dams are built in the Amazon, Mekong and elsewhere, they’re doing great environmental and social damage and ...
Seafood giant Thai Union commits to clean up supply chains following pressure campaign
After a two-year-long campaign that saw nearly 700,000 people call on Thai Union Group to shift to more sustainable and ethical canned tuna, the global seafood giant has committed to a series of reforms to clean up its supply chains. Said to be the largest ...
Trump’s policies could put Cambodia’s environment on chopping block
“I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris,” U.S. President Donald Trump declared during a speech announcing his decision to pull the United States out of the Paris Climate Agreement. In so doing, Trump sent a message to the world: that his ...
The Chinese town at the epicenter of the global illegal ivory trade
When China announced at the end of 2016 that it would close its domestic ivory market within a year, the news was hailed as a “game changer” for African elephants, whose numbers are being driven down across the continent by poachers eager to meet the ...
As habitat fragmentation increases, so does extinction risk: study
Researchers have long assumed that when animals are left without large areas of intact habitat, they are at greater risk of extinction: fragmentation leaves animals confined to ever-smaller areas, restricting movement and gene flow and leaving species vulnerable to threats ranging from poachers to climate ...
FSC to investigate Korean conglomerate’s palm oil operations in Indonesia
The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), one of the world’s most influential sustainable forestry certification bodies, has announced that it will investigate the Indonesian oil palm operations of Korean agribusiness conglomerate Korindo in response to a formal complaint submitted by environmental group Mighty Earth. The group ...
Indonesia’s plantation lobby challenges environmental law
Palm oil and paper lobby groups have asked Indonesia’s highest court to strike down rules holding plantation firms strictly liable for fires that occur on their land. The groups have also asked the Constitutional Court to eliminate a regulation letting small farmers practice slash-and-burn techniques, the ...