Pictures: Primary forests included, secondary forests excluded in Indonesia’s moratorium
This week Indonesia officially signed a moratorium on the granting of new logging and plantation permits in primary forests and peatlands. Secondary forests are excluded from the measure.
Greenwashing scandal hits Conservation International
Questions are being raised about Conservation International (CI), one of the world’s largest conservation groups, after it was the target of a “sting” video by Don’t Panic magazine. Reporters from Don’t Panic posed as representatives from Lockheed Martin, an arms manufacture, and secretly recorded conversations with CI development representative. They asked whether CI could help Lockheed Martin build a...
Brazil’s largest miner to fund destructive Amazon dam
Vale, a Brazilian mining company that frequently touts its environmental stewardship, will invest $1.4 billion in the controversial Belo Monte dam. The project will flood nearly 200 square miles (500 square kilometers) of rainforest and impact up to 50,000 indigenous people.
Pictures: Happy Cinco de Mayo
To Celebrate Mexico’s Independence Day (Cinco de Mayo), here are some photos of beach sunrises in and around...
Photos: Meerkats celebrating Easter
Keepers at ZSL London Zoo use Easter eggs as an enrichment activity for meerkats. The keepers filled a giant “egg” with mealworms — beetle larvae — and provided colored hard-boiled eggs to the group of eight meerkats. “Not only does the act of cracking open the eggs give the meerkats good enrichment but the hard-boiled eggs are a tasty and healthy treat,” said Caroline Westlake, a keeper at ZSL. Photos...
Photo: A giant tree
Me in front of a giant kapok or ceiba tree on Barro Colorado Island in Panama. This is nowhere near the largest kapok tree I’ve ever seen — they get considerably bigger — but it is nonetheless gigantic. The same ceiba, which is called “The Big Tree”, seen from a distance. The same ceiba tree seen from a boat on Lake Gatun (e.g. Panama Canal). Looking up the trunk of the kapok tree Again, me for...
Pictures: Saving threatened frogs
Hand-feeding a sick Hyloscirtus colymba tree frog. The Panama Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Project is racing to save amphibians as the deadly chytrid fungus spreads down Central America. The disease is presently between Panama City and Colon. Juvenile Atelopus certus. Pristimantis species. Undescribed Pristimantis species. Juvenile Atelopus certus. Atelopus limosus. More photos to come. All photos by Rhett A....
Oyster reefs a cheaper and more effective way to clean coastal waters
This post originally appeared ASLA’s “The Dirt” blog as Oyster-Tecture in Action Sustainable designer Neil Chambers, author of “Urban Green: Architecture for the Future,” made the case for using natural systems to clean and manage water at a conference organized by The Economist. In Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, beach tourism had been negatively impacted by heavy water pollution. Instead of re-engineering...
The importance of good tree-climbing skills (video)
Imagine for a moment that you live in a tropical rain forest and that calorie-rich palm tree fruits are an important part of your diet. Cutting a palm down for its fruit would be pretty shortsighted, right? Still, you might do just that–if the fruit dangled 20 meters above the rain forest floor, you lacked climbing skills, and you were hungry. But, if you had climbing skills–and gear when you needed it–and if...
‘My Pantanal’: short film about jaguars and a young cowboy in Brazil (video)
My Pantanal Written and Directed by Andrea Heydlauff Produced by Panthera tan‘My Panal’ is a film about a boy named Aerenilso, who lives on a fazenda (ranch) in the Pantanal, the world’s largest and wildest wetland, in Brazil. Aerenilso shows us what it is like to be a Pantaneiro (a cowboy), riding his horse, doing his chores, and exploring this incredible landscape that is teeming with wildlife, including the jaguar. We hear and see...
Grasshoppers use Apple products apparently [pic]
Grasshopper apparently doing a little blogging in Borneo.
Rainforest stream in Borneo
A rainforest stream in Gunung Palung National Park, West Kalimantan in Indonesian Borneo. Photo taken by Rhett A. Butler in March 2011.
Picture: baby dinosaur hatching?
Not a dinosaur, but this photo shows a baby Mertens’ water monitor hatching from its egg in the World of Reptiles nursery at the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Bronx Zoo.
Last chance to see: Visit Tanzania before “The Migration” is destroyed
With the government bent on building a road that scientists say will reduce the wildebeest herd by 500,000 animals, 2011 is the year to visit Tanzania to witness one of the world’s most incredible wildlife spectacles: the migration of more than a million wildebeest, zebra, and other animals across the Serengeti.
Quick summary (by handpuppets) of what happened at COP16 in Cancun
Quick summary (by handpuppets) of what happened at COP16 in Cancun
Animation: the challenges facing freshwater ecosystems
The European Union-funded BioFresh project has released a four minute animation that outlines the challenges (such as pollution, species invasions and dam building) facing freshwater ecosystems. It illustrates how BioFresh aids the translation of scientific data on these systems into environmental policy through the European Union.
Wildlife crossings can be designed to be safer for humans and animals
The ARC International Wildlife Crossing Infrastructure Design Competition, the first international competition of its kind, says collisions between wildlife and cars in the U.S. have increased by 50 percent in the past 15 years. Not only do these collisions take a huge toll on both wildlife and people, but they also cost the U.S. some $8 billion per year.
Picture: Happy Year of the Rabbit
Weighing about 18 pounds, the Flemish giant is one of the largest breeds of domestic rabbit in the world.
Picture: Baby elephant drinking milk
Orphaned elephant drinking milk at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in Kenya.
Endangered baby crocodile newt
Anderson’s crocodile newt (Echinotriton andersoni) larvae. Photo by Rhett A. Butler Anderson’s Crocodile Newt is found in a range of tropical and subtropical habitats Japan and Taiwan, but is listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List due to habitat loss. This individual is part of a captive-breeding program at the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Bronx...
