Conservation

The 11th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties (CMS COP11) to the UNEP Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) will take place from 4-9 November 2014 in Quito, Ecuador. A High Level Ministerial Panel will be held on 3 November to discuss how to reconcile the rights of nature with the green economy in ...

The Brazilian Federal Government has announced the creation of over 58,000 hectares of new marine Protected Areas in the northern state of Pará, in the Amazon region.  Decrees published on Monday 13 October by the Presidency of Brazil with the Ministry of Environment established three new marine extractive reserves and expanded an existing marine extractive reserve. The measures will underpin biodiversity ...

Bold and innovative action is urgently required if governments are to meet the globally-agreed Strategic Plan for Biodiversity and its Aichi Targets by 2020, says a United Nations progress report on the state of global biodiversity. Launched on Monday (October 6, 2014) one year before the halfway point of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 and the United Nations Decade ...

An innovative public-private partnership of multinationals, governments, civil society and indigenous peoples today pledged to cut the loss of forests in half by 2020 and end it a decade later in 2030 – a move that will eliminate the emission of between 4.5 and 8.8 billion tons of carbon dioxide each year. That is equivalent to removing the carbon emissions ...

Tortoises and freshwater turtles may be slow movers, but they are being smuggled at lightning speed through Thailand, with close to 19,000 seized in six years. A new TRAFFIC report, Seizures of Tortoises and Freshwater Turtles in Thailand 2008-2013, analyses 53 reported seizures of tortoises and freshwater turtles in Thailand, over half of which took place at Suvarnabhumi International Airport in ...

Five species of sharks and two manta ray species on Sunday, September 14 received protection under the United Nation’s Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) when formal measures to regulate their international trade came into effect. The five sharks and two manta rays species include Scalloped Hammerhead Shark Sphyrna lewini, Great Hammerhead Shark ...

Conservation Partnership – BirdLife International – has announced that vultures have rapidly become one of the most threatened families of birds on the planet. In a bid to stop this important family of birds slipping towards extinction in Europe and Africa, they have launched a global campaign asking for public support to Stop Vulture Poisoning Now.   Following recent catastrophic declines ...

Illegal wildlife trade, including poaching has been identified as a major source of funding for the deadly terrorist organisation Boko Haram, a new report by the New Scientists has said. The illegal trade, it has also been found, rake an estimated $20 billion a year from sale of ivory, rhino horn and tiger penis, part of which the report said is ...

Ahead of the expected presidential flag-off of the Great Green Wall project in 11 frontline states in northern Nigeria, Environment Minister, Laurentia Laraba Mallam, has directed the active and full involvement of the Department of Forestry in the Federal Ministry of Environment in the implementation of the Great Green Wall project without delay. She has asked the three Directors of ...

A delegation of South African businessmen have expressed willingness to partner their Nigerian counterparts to boost job creation in Nigeria through investments in the nation’s non-oil sector.   The leader of the delegation, Mr Michael Gamwo, from Wesgro, a South African Trade Promotion Group, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in ...