Biodiversity

ENVIRONMENT: Weed Threatens Indian Rhino’s Last Refuge

By Ranjita Biswas
While shoot-at-sight orders are now effectively keeping rhinoceros poachers at bay, an aggressive weed is threatening the one-horned ungulate in one of its last retreats - the Kaziranga National Park (KNP) in eastern Assam state.

ARGENTINA: Parana River Not What It Used to Be

By Marcela Valente
Lower water levels and increasing pressure from overfishing in the Paraná river are causing an unprecedented decline in fish stocks in the river that is regarded as the second most biodiverse in South America after the Amazon river.

TRINIDAD: Training the Leaders of “Generation Climate”

By Peter Richards
With climate change advancing to the forefront of the most urgent issues facing the islands of the Caribbean, young people – who arguably have the most to gain and lose in future scenarios – are becoming increasingly engaged in charting a path to environmental sustainability.

EUROPE-DEVELOPMENT: Mapping Out the EU’s Harmful Projects

By Bari Bates
Dozens of European Union-funded projects across several countries are ‘environmentally or socially unsound’, according to a map created by a joint effort between CEE Bankwatch Network and Friends of the Earth Europe.

Chinese Feed Illegal Ivory Trade

By Cam McGrath
The illegal trade in ivory continues in Egypt, with ivory products sold openly in local tourist markets by traders who operate with impunity, a new study by the conservation group Traffic has found.

PUERTO RICO: Cleaner Energy Sources Prove Divisive

By Carmelo Ruiz-Marrero
As Puerto Rico seeks to lower soaring utility rates while simultaneously shifting toward cleaner energy sources, it faces grassroots opposition to two major projects even though at least one is 100-percent renewable.

CHILE: Recovery from Forest Fire Could Take 80 Years

By Pamela Sepulveda
"It's extremely serious, a full-blown environmental catastrophe," environmentalist Sara Larrain told IPS, describing the impact of the fire that has been raging through the Torres del Paine National Park in Chilean Patagonia since Dec. 27.

KENYA: Key Lakes Succumb to Human Activities

By Peter Kahare
Several years ago, Lakes Kamnarok and Ol Bollosat in Kenya were vibrant water bodies that supported and shaped the ecosystems around them. But today they are shells of their former selves, due to heavy siltation caused by human activities.

INDIA: Indigenous Rights Versus Wildlife Rights? – Part 2

By Malini Shankar
As the amount of protected forest dwindles rapidly in India, indigenous groups and wildlife find themselves living cheek to jowl in an increasingly contested space.

INDIA: Indigenous Rights Versus Wildlife Rights? – Part 1

By Malini Shankar
Tucked away in a dense and ecologically diverse tiger reserve in Southern India, tribes-people and wildlife defenders are locked in a battle of indigenous peoples’ rights versus wildlife rights.

Rio+20: The Moment When Everything Changed?

By Stephen Leahy
Humanity is driving Earth's climate and ecosystems towards dangerous tipping points, requiring radical new forms of international cooperation and governance, experts say.

SOUTH AMERICA: Responsible Tourism at the “End of the World”

By Marcela Valente
An innovative responsible tourism initiative in the Beagle Channel - a narrow strait linking the Atlantic and Pacific near the southernmost tip of South America - ensures the compatibility of the observation and conservation of unique bird and mammal species.

JAMAICA: Hazard Mitigation Funds to Rescue Tourist Mecca

By - - and Zadie Neufville
In the latest efforts to mitigate the hazards associated with climate change, the Jamaican authorities are turning their attention to Negril, where decades of unplanned development is destroying the local ecosystem and eroding the famous beach.

Q&A: Tuna Fisheries Must Make Short-Term Sacrifices

By Julio Godoy
For the last ten years, environmentalists and marine biologists have repeatedly warned that the world’s tuna populations, and particularly bluefin tuna, are being overfished to the verge of extinction.
A large part of the eggs laid by turtles on the beaches of the Xingu river are lost due to different causes. Credit: Mario Osava/IPS

BRAZIL: Amazon Turtles – Illegal Protein for the Poor, Delicacy for the Rich

By Mario Osava
"Many people lie" about the common practice of poaching turtles to eat or sell, said a man renowned for his fishing skills who lives on the banks of the Xingu river in Brazil's eastern Amazon jungle region.
At home in Hula Valley. Credit: Pierre Klochendler/IPS.

ISRAEL: Togetherness Takes Wings

By Pierre Klochendler
Hasn't anyone dreamt once of taking refuge under the shelter of a bird's wings, coiled up in its feathers, catching a bird's eye view of what looks from above like paradise?

INDIA: Industrial Pollution Brings Crocodile Tears

By Malini Shankar
Industrial pollution from a paper manufacturing factory in one of India's most precious biodiversity hotspots is wreaking havoc on the local ecology, driving up the population of wild crocodiles in the area while simultaneously destroying the creatures' habitat and food supply.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Kashmiri Farmers Left High and Dry

By Athar Parvaiz
Sammad Sheikh of Tangchekh village in north Kashmir cannot understand why the rice fields that his family cultivated for generations are drying up.

ENVIRONMENT: Seeing the Trees In The Year Of Forests

By A. D. McKenzie
When firefighters arrived to put out a blaze that was engulfing the home of Elise Inversin on the French island of Corsica, the 66-year-old grandmother told firemen to forget about her house and save a neighbouring 900-year-old Mastic tree. The house could be rebuilt, she said.
Elephants roaming free in the forest, away from their trainers. Credit: Malini Shankar/IPS

INDIA: Elephants and Mahouts Held Captive by Tradition

By Malini Shankar
As the number of captive elephants grows to 35 percent of the wild population of the world’s largest land-dwelling mammal, elephant trainers, or mahouts, find themselves just as chained to hardships as their charges.
The Aral Sea yields fish again. Credit: Christopher Pala/IPS.

KAZAKHSTAN: Sea Reclaimed as Lake

By Christopher Pala and - -
Just six years after the completion of a dike that raised the level of the northern part of the Aral Sea by two metres and slashed its salt content by two-thirds, this remote Central Asian lake once synonymous with ecological catastrophe has become a model of environmental recovery.
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