Biodiversity

BIODIVERSITY: Oil Spill Will Devastate the North Sea Warn Experts

By Julio Godoy
If an oil spill similar to that in the Gulf of Mexico were to happen in the North Sea, it would devastate the Wattenmeer, one of the most fragile and important biodiversity hotspots in northern Europe.
Residential complex biting into the Tampa biological reserve in the Romanian Carpathians. Credit: Claudia Ciobanu/IPS

BIODIVERSITY: Developers Stalk the Carpathians

By Claudia Ciobanu
When the Slovakian government moved to open Tatra National Park to developers, last month, it did not consult experts or the public. Other protected sites across Central and Eastern Europe are said to be equally vulnerable.
Bluefin tuna, relished in Japan, is in danger of extinction. Credit: Suvendrini Kakuchi/IPS

BIODIVERSITY: Prized Bluefin Tuna Adrift in a Sea of Conflicting Interests

By Suvendrini Kakuchi
Mounting international criticism against Japan’s Atlantic bluefin tuna imports linked closely to the extinction of the species has turned the spotlight, once again, on the lack of a viable means of protecting most of the world’s fast- depleting natural resources.
Mangroves on Mexico's Atlantic coast. Credit: Mauricio Ramos/IPS

BIODIVERSITY: We Can Live Without Oil, But Not Without Flora and Fauna

By Stephen Leahy
The policies and deals that contributed to the massive oil spill under way in the Gulf of Mexico are also jeopardising the Earth's vital biological infrastructure, according to the Global Biodiversity Outlook 3, published Monday.
Drying devil

BIODIVERSITY: Odds Stacked Against San Harvesters of Devil’s Claw

By Servaas van den Bosch
Nguni Diyasen gently loosens the earth with a hoe and then widens the hole with her bare hands. Fifty centimetres down she uncovers the light brown root of a devil's claw. Used to treat arthritis and rheumatism, the plant also constitutes her only income.
Zoological Foundation of Ecuador staff examine an Andean condor. Credit: Courtesy of FZE

ECUADOR: Saving the Condor – A Mission Possible

By Gonzalo Ortiz
Indiscriminate hunting and ecological changes in the Andean highlands have dramatically reduced the condor population in Ecuador. Experts say there are likely no more than 50 of these large birds of prey in this country. A century ago their numbers were in the thousands.

MALI: Farmers Restore Forests

By IPS Correspondents
Villagers in the interior delta of the Niger River, already experiencing the harsh impacts of climate change, have a good understanding of the need to restore forests decimated by drought. Where forest cover has been rehabilitated, it is already reshaping the surrounding environment - and economy.

ENVIRONMENT: Small Islands Urge Action at UN Oceans Meet

By IPS Correspondents
Faced with rising sea levels, dying coral reefs and decreasing fish stocks, small island developing states (SIDS) are feeling the effects of ocean decline, and they want wealthier countries to do more to ensure the survival of the world’s seas and other waterways.
Laurie Marker Credit: Courtesy of Laurie Marker

Q&A: World’s Fastest Cat on Its Ninth Life

By Jennie Lorentsson
Over the last century, 90 percent of the cheetah population in the world has been killed, and it is now the most endangered animal in Africa.
UNESCO flags replaced by fish floats for the Oceans conference. Credit: A. D. McKenzie/IPS

ENVIRONMENT: Oil Spill Gives Urgency to UN Oceans Meet

By IPS Correspondents
The disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has given increased urgency to the fifth Global Oceans Conference taking place here at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).
The Limón Dam, part of Project Olmos. Credit: Courtesy of Project Olmos

PERU: Murky Waters Cut Through Andes

By Milagros Salazar
The Olmos megaproject, which will divert water from the Huancabamba River through a trans-Andean tunnel to a desert area along Peru's northern coast, is being touted as a catalyst for development, but disputes are heating up over land, crops and water.

COSTA RICA: Holiday Homes, Hotels Endangering Ecotourism

By Daniel Zueras
The boom in construction projects on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica is threatening biodiversity and compromising the future of the country's widely promoted ecological tourism, says a study by Costa Rican and U.S. scientists.

2010 – International Year of Biodiversity Loss?

By IPS Correspondents
In 2002, world leaders committed to reduce the rate of global biodiversity loss by 2010, but the date has come and gone for these commitments to be fulfilled.
Sunflowers are "wildly attractive to bees", explains biologist Gretchen Lebuhn. Credit: Enrique Gili/IPS

Citizen Scientists on the Trail of Disappearing Bees

By Enrique Gili
It's the world's worst-kept secret: bees are in a state of crisis. One of nature's most benign pollinators is dying in record numbers, much to the alarm of beekeepers and gardeners.
Farming butterflies is providing forest dwellers sustainable alternatives to cutting down trees for firewood. Credit: Ntandoyenkosi Ncube/IPS

KENYA: Farming Butterflies Puts Food on the Table

By IPS Correspondents
For 10 years, Roselyne Shikami, sold boiled eggs at the bus station just outside the densely wooded Kakamega Forest in western Kenya, near the border with Uganda. Now she is selling butterflies.
On the Okavango in northern Botswana: development needs must be carefully balanced with conserving biodiversity in this river basin. Credit: Wikicommons

SOUTHERN AFRICA: Sharing the Okavango

By Meekaeel Siphambili
Each January, a giant pulse of water from heavy summer rains over the south of Angola enters the Okavango River system and begins a five-month journey through Namibia to a richly biodiverse swamp in Botswana's Kalahari desert. The river is a rarity, scarcely disturbed by human development along its 1,100 kilometre length: shaping its future is the delicate task of the Okavango River Basin Commission.
Agnes Mbuvi from Ebukanga village near Lake Victoria is one of Kenya's growing number of farmers using green "push-pull" technology. Credit: Isolda Agazzi/IPS

EAST AFRICA: Green Agriculture Growing in Leaps and Bounds

By Isolda Agazzi
Organic agriculture using natural farming methods rather than fertilisers and pesticides has made significant gains in African countries – not just among farmers but among consumers too.

Crunch Time for Ecuador’s Biological Treasure Trove

By Gonzalo Ortiz
These are decisive days for the Yasuní National Park, one of the world's most biodiverse areas, because of the danger that its wealth of underground oil poses to this unique and fragile ecosystem in Ecuador's Amazon jungle region.
The giant Thioploca spp bacteria from ocean waters off Chile and Peru. Credit: NOAA

ENVIRONMENT: Giant Bacteria Colonise the Oceans

By Stephen Leahy
A mat the size of Uruguay composed of giant bacteria has been discovered in the mid-depths of the ocean off the coasts of Chile and Peru, report scientists who are working on a series of studies of the ocean's smallest life forms.
Kenyan farmers attending training on so-called push-pull natural farming methods. Credit: Isolda Agazzi/IPS

AFRICA: Foreign Investors Safeguarded From Obligations to Locals

By Isolda Agazzi
Parts of the Tana Delta on Kenya’s northern coastline are being leased to foreigners to grow food and bio-fuels for export. Civil society organisations are worried about such deals as they are done without public consultation while safeguarding investors from requirements that could benefit local communities, such as technology transfer.
Villagers near the Bandipur reserve are accuses of conniving with poachers. Credit: Malini Shankar/IPS

INDIA: Balancing Biodiversity and Livelihood A Juggling Act

By Malini Shankar
Hanumantha Nayak had not ventured too far into the forest in search of firewood. But, while he was apparently attempting to tear up a cluster of dried bamboo, a tigress leapt onto his back, bit his forearm, and then went for his throat. Nayak, 50, never stood a chance.
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