Hand over forests for better management

Posted Tue, 12 Jul 2011 15:44:00 GMT by Colin Ricketts

A conference says Indonesia is losing out because of its failure to give proper land rights to its forest-dwelling citizens. In Indonesia, communities have rights to less than one percent of the country's forest land.

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IWC should have whale conservation as priority - WWF

Posted Mon, 11 Jul 2011 12:57:00 GMT by Martin Leggett

With the 63rd annual meeting of the IWC ongoing this week, the WWF has issued a call for the badly-split international organization to reform itself - and put the conservation of whales as its top priority. Threats from oil-and-gas exploration, ship strikes and noise pollution can - and should be tackled - whilst member nations remain deadlocked over whaling.

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Bluefin tuna at 'risk of collapse' without drastic action

Posted Thu, 07 Jul 2011 18:00:01 GMT by Martin Leggett

The first comprehensive assessment of tuna and billfish has put 5 of 8 tuna species on the Red List for threatened or endangered animals – and the IUCN is warning that Bluefin tuna are particularly vulnerable to vanishing, without the closure of fisheries. The report, out today in Science puts part of the blame on the higher prices of the remaining numbers of tuna and marlin.

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Save horseshoe crabs to save the red knot argues scientist

Posted Wed, 06 Jul 2011 20:19:00 GMT by Colin Ricketts

A tiny sea bird is reliant on the health of an American crab's breeding ground new research proves, meaning it's time to act on one to save the other. The horseshoe crab is used by fisherman as bait to catch other sea creatures and its blood is used by drug companies which prize its clotting ability.

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Sharks swim in safety, in The Bahamas at least

Posted Wed, 06 Jul 2011 20:09:01 GMT by Colin Ricketts

The Bahamas has outlawed the commercial fishing of sharks. The islands' government announced yesterday that the 630,000 square kilometers ( or 243,244 square miles) of the country’s waters are now off limits to commercial shark fishing.

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Conservationists appeal for tourists not to eat whale meat in Iceland

Posted Wed, 06 Jul 2011 12:04:00 GMT by John Dean

Conservationist groups have issued an appeal for tourists not to eat whale meat when they visit Iceland. Icelandic fisherman argue that hunting whales is part of the island's heritage but, according to IFAW, a Gallup poll from June 2010 showed just 5% of Icelanders claim to eat the meat regularly.

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Conservation mission to save petrels on Henderson Island underway

Posted Tue, 05 Jul 2011 18:38:01 GMT by Julian Jackson

Rats to be eradicated from unique bird sanctuary in remote part of the globe. Britain's Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) in partnership with the US Fish & Wildlife Service and other nature conservancy projects is funding a world-leading mission to Henderson Island in the Pitcairn Islands.

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Protecting the 'known unknowns' from extinction

Posted Mon, 04 Jul 2011 19:00:00 GMT by Martin Leggett

Making sure that we conserve those species not yet known to science is a tricky task – but one that researchers publishing in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences think they have moved forward on. Their model predicts that the majority of undiscovered species live in areas that are already top priority for conservationists.

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Europe clears own waters of fish this week

Posted Mon, 04 Jul 2011 17:49:00 GMT by Colin Ricketts

Yesterday, European Union waters were fished out for the year according to a new report, which says the day on which the continent has to rely on international waters is getting earlier each year. A report from OCEAN2012 and the new economics foundation says that the need to import seafood to the union comes six days earlier than it did last year.

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CSI Rainforest: genetic codes can catch out illegal loggers says study

Posted Sun, 03 Jul 2011 16:50:00 GMT by Colin Ricketts

Genetic fingerprinting can help track wood and ensure that illegal loggers are brought to book say an Australian team who are working on a DNA fingerprint for all the planet's grass and tree species. DNA fingerprinting has been used in Australia since 2007 to prove that timber is legally sourced and the practice has spread to Europe and the United States of America.

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Letting London's parks grow wild again key to bringing back wildlife

Posted Thu, 30 Jun 2011 22:27:00 GMT by David Hewitt

Central London's birding expert talks conservation, kestrels and keeping the public happy as he takes The Earth Times on a wildlife-themed tour of Regent's Park. Arguably the last place you'd think of if you were asked to name London's top havens for birds but the figures don't lie: last year alone, some 124 species of birds were spotted either just feeding or nesting in the Royal Park, among them ospreys, little owls common terns and peregrine falcons.

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Rainforest birds rebound in parts of Amazon laid low

Posted Wed, 29 Jun 2011 12:21:00 GMT by Martin Leggett

The tragic loss of biodiversity from rainforest destruction can be reversed, says a study just published on PLoS ONE, which recorded a return of tropical birds to parts of the Amazon previously felled. The fragments of Brazilian rainforest that recovered their brightly-colored birds were the larger of those left by the loggers - aided by the regrowth of secondary forest.

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Experts argue over future of 'Happy Feet' penguin

Posted Tue, 28 Jun 2011 09:25:00 GMT by Laura Brown

Penguin found washed up on New Zealand's coast could be released into wild or kept in captivity. The fate of a juvenile Emperor Penguin found washed up on a New Zealand beach has gripped the country and its media.

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Good news for wildlife in Afghanistan

Posted Mon, 27 Jun 2011 19:58:01 GMT by Ruth Hendry

Despite a decade of conflict in Afghanistan, the country's wildlife is holding on. A new survey carried out by Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) scientists has shown that large mammals are surviving in some areas of Afghanistan after ten years of conflict.

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How the genes of Cedric and Spirit can help save the Tasmanian devils

Posted Mon, 27 Jun 2011 19:01:00 GMT by Martin Leggett

Tasmanian devils, the pug-shaped ferocious predators of the marsupial world, are under mortal threat from a face-eating cancer. But ground-breaking new genetic research, online now in the latest Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is helping conservationists to form a plan to protect the last of the big carnivorous marsupials.

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World Heritage sites in danger

Posted Fri, 24 Jun 2011 20:09:00 GMT by Ruth Hendry

Over-exploitation of resources is damaging the world's valuable natural World Heritage Sites. IUCN have stated that mining and oil/gas exploration should not be permitted within World Heritage sites. African World Heritage sites are particularly at risk from commercial mining and oil/gas exploration, with a quarter of all sites threatened.

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