Pictures: Baby kinkajou
Baby kinkajou at Proyecto Asis rehabilitation center in Costa Rica
Cultural survival at stake for the rainforest Penan of Borneo
The Penan tribe in Sarawak, in the Malaysian part of the island of Borneo, are trying to stop logging and palm oil companies destroying their rainforest home. Survival International, the organisation supporting tribal peoples, is campaigning for the Penan’s rights to their land. Survival researcher Miriam Ross traveled to Sarawak to meet some of the tribe. In one nomadic Penan community, Pisang, a Penan hunter, told her his story.
Picture: puma in Belize
Puma in Belize.
Video: Mongabay’s Rhett Butler speaks with the Killen Report on deforestation
Michael Killen asks Rhett A. Butler about his interest in rain forests. Rhett says plans now exist to help save the Brazilian rain forests. He is now focused on increasing awareness of the need to save the Indonesian rain forest.
Pictures: nature in Mendocino, California
Photos taken last weekend in Mendocino, California.
Picture: baby sea turtle
Baby sea turtle heading out to sea in Costa Rica.
Hyena spotted in Armenia
Hyena in Tanzania. Photo by Rhett A. Butler 2007 Remains of a striped hyena have been found in southern Armenia, representing the country’s first confirmed hyena observation in over 60 years. Hyenas discovered in Armenia? Researchers find carcass,...
Photo: U.S. bans shark finning
In early January the U.S. Senate passed the Shark Conservation Act, legislation that bans shark finning in U.S. waters.
Picture: Snow leopard in the snow
Snow leopard in the snow at the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Central Park Zoo
Indonesia’s pulp and paper industry: Helping the poor or helping itself?
Giant Dipterocarp tree in Gunung Leuser National Park, North Sumatra. Photo by Rhett A. Butler in 2009 Over the past several years, Asia Pulp & Paper has engaged in a marketing campaign to represent its operations in Sumatra as socially and environmentally sustainable. APP and its agents maintain that industrial pulp and paper production — as practiced in Sumatra — does not result in deforestation, is carbon neutral, helps...
Picture: Leaf monkey in Sumatra
Thomas’ Leaf Monkey is a species found in Sumatra, Indonesia. It typically lives in groups from 10-20 individuals and feeds on fruit, young leaves, seeds, and occasionally insects.
The Initiative for Public Policy Analysis is a Nigeria-based palm oil lobby group
The Initiative for Public Policy Analysis (IPPA), which describes itself as a think-tank or public policy group, has launched a campaign targeting the World Bank on its palm oil lending policy.
Picture: a peaceful place in Arizona
Deer Creek, Arizona.
Photos from Halmahera, one of the world’s strangest and least recognized biodiversity hotspots
The following pictures were taken by Dmitry Telnov during visits to Halmahera, largest island in the Maluku Islands.
Picture: Iceland’s spectacular Gullfoss waterfall
Gullfoss or “Golden Waterfall”
Wikileaks: The EU and Germany Are Failing to Lead on Climate Change
Perhaps, prior to the Wikileaks scandal, small island nations which stand to be deluged by rising sea levels might have looked to the
European Union and, specifically, Germany to provide leadership on climate change. Recent disclosures, however, have probably dashed any such hopes.
Far from looking out for the interests of vulnerable countries imperiled by global warming, the European Union has conspired with the United States to
limit the scope of climate change reform in international negotiations.
Picture: a glorious tropical sunset
Sunset in Kauai, November 2010. Photo by Rhett A. Butler
Leaping lemur (picture & video)
Verreaux’s sifaka is a lemur which can be spotted in Madagascar’s deciduous forest habitats including Andohahela, Berenty, Beza-Mahafaly, Isalo, and Kirindy.
Wikileaks: From South Atlantic to South Pacific, It’s Open Season on Environmentalists
Though Wikileaks documents have illuminated the underhanded foreign policy shenanigans of governments world-wide, the cables also demonstrate that many states are intent on halting meaningful progress on the environment. Previously, I discussed how the U.S., as well as other emerging powers such as Brazil, sought to derail international climate change negotiations. In light of recent cables, however, it’s clear that these revelations merely represent the beginning of larger disclosures. From the South Atlantic to the South Pacific, governments are paranoid about environmentalists and worry that activists might get in the way of inhumane or polluting industries.
