Mayors Leading an Urban Revolution

With presidents and prime ministers failing to take meaningful action to avert a planetary-scale climate crisis, the mayors of cities and towns are increasingly stepping up to enact changes at the local level.

Q&A: You Are One Percent Away from Being a Bonobo

When author Deni Béchard discovered bonobos shared almost 99 percent of human DNA, and based their relationships on cooperation and collaboration, he knew he had to write about them.

Kazakhstan’s Green Zone on Slippery Slope

A group of flashmobbers took to the slopes in southeastern Kazakhstan on a crisp March morning this year to spell out a heartfelt SOS with their bodies.

Guardians of the Land and Sea Meet in Darwin

“Are you a park ranger?” IPS asked. “No, I am one of the owners of the territory,” Ángel Durán responded in a firm voice. The Bolivian indigenous leader is in this northern Australian city along with 1,200 other native delegates from over 50 countries for the World Indigenous Network (WIN) conference.

Shadow Over Aichi Biodiversity Targets

With negotiations to mobilise resources for preservation of biodiversity at a major United Nations conference going nowhere, the Group of 77 and China have hinted at  possible suspension of the ‘Aichi targets’  under the Nagoya Protocol.

Culling or Conservation?

Midway through Wildlife Week in India, celebrations have been marred by news that 29.8 kilogrammes of ivory, worth 336,800 dollars, had been seized on the Andaman Trunk Road.

Saving the Top 100 Threatened Species – a Question of Valuing Life

The Red River Giant softshell turtle (Rafetus swinhoei) is the stuff of legend in Vietnam. The fabled turtle in Hanoi’s Hoan Kiem Lake is popularly known by the name Kim Qui or Golden Turtle God, and it made its first historical appearance in 250 BC.

Kenya’s Water Wars Kill Scores

Water scarcity is fuelling deadly inter-ethnic wars that continue to claim lives in Kenya, according to government officials. And if nothing is done to educate communities on how to conserve the valuable resource, the situation will escalate, governance experts and environmentalists warn.

Jeju Island Base Divides Korean, International Green Groups

As construction of a hotly contested naval base on South Korea’s Jeju Island advances, there’s a showdown underway.

Q&A: Sustainability Now a Matter of Life and Death

Humanity is living beyond its means with the growing demand for food, medicines and other nature-based products, making sustainable consumption and conservation a matter of life and death. This is according to the world’s oldest and largest global environmental network, the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

UNESCO Protection Crucial – and Controversial

It took six years for a dedicated team of scientists from the Wildlife Institute of India, wildlife officials from six Indian states and officials from the federal ministry to secure international protection for one of India’s most precious biological reserves.

Overpopulation on Uganda’s Mount Elgon Kills Hundreds

The Ugandan government says it will forcibly remove people settling on the steep slopes of Mount Elgon in eastern Uganda’s Bududa District, as the growing population has resulted in increased landslides in recent years.

Cameroon’s Baka Evicted from Forests Set Aside for Logging

As Lysette Mendum listens to the sound of bulldozers crashing through the forest clearing a road to a mining site near her small village of Assoumdele in the Ngoyla-Mintom forest block in Cameroon’s East Region, she has never been more fearful in her life.

In Antigua, Fishing Brings Both Income and Ecological Destruction

Eli Fuller is a third-generation Antiguan who, for the past two decades, has been exploring the Antigua and Barbuda coastline. But he laments the fact that he can no longer see the coral that he recalls were somewhat of an underwater jungle when he was a young boy, akin to what you'd see in the Amazon rain forest.

Indonesia Is Wilting

Unless the rapid deforestation in one of the world’s most richly-forested countries is controlled, Indonesians may one day wonder, "where are all the flowers gone." To those lyrics by legendary U.S. singer Joan Baez they might also have to add, and where are all the tigers, elephants, orangutans, birds and ancient forest communities gone.

Mangroves Lead Battle Against Rising Seas

Sea level rise near Papua New Guinea, a Small Island Developing State (SIDS) in the southwest Pacific, is estimated at seven millimetres per year, double the global annual average of 2.8-3.6 mm.

Can ‘Blue Forests’ Mitigate Climate Change?

Fifty-five percent of global atmospheric carbon captured by living organisms happens in the ocean.

‘Leave Nothing But Footprints’ on Philippine Beaches

Seashells and corals are competing with styrofoam packs, food wrappers, cigarette butts, and plastic bottles for space on some of the Philippines’ most scenic beaches. Graffiti mars tourist spots like lighthouses and caves, proclaiming the names of recent visitors.

Private Sector and Conservationists Meet on a Big Date

As schools of whales move to music undersea at image definitions of 6.54 million pixels on the giant ceiling mounted LED screen, 218 X 30 metres in length and width, expectations run high from the International Exposition Yeosu Korea 2012 at harbour town. The expo showcases 104 participating countries’ visions and achievements on the Expo theme: ‘The Living Ocean and Coast: Diversity of Resources and Sustainable Activities’.

More Japanese Turn Against Whaling

The arrest and release of a Dutch activist in Japan has put in bad light this country’s refusal to heed international calls to limit traditional dolphin and whale hunting practices in favour of conservation.

Paper Industry Decimating Indonesia’s Tigers

The survival of Sumatra's tigers, elephants, orangutans, rhinos, as well as indigenous communities, is threatened by the "world's fastest deforestation rate", caused by none other than the pulp and paper industry, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).