Conservation

A National Biodiversity Trust Fund may be created to aid the protection and conservation of biological diversity in the country. This idea was mooted recently in Port Harcourt, River State, at a stakeholders’/consultants forum by a team of experts, who gathered under the auspices of the Niger Delta Biodiversity Project (NDBP). Dr Mathew Dore, the NDBP national coordinator, said that ...

The management of the Jos Wide Life Park in Plateau State, Nigeria, has said that it invited troops to kill an escapee 43-year-old lion because it has no tranquilisers with which it could have sedated the animal. The lion had strayed away after escaping from its cage. John Doy, General Manager of the Park, said the organisation lacked tranquilisers because it ...

Only 25 individuals of the Hainan gibbon (Nomascus hainanus) are thought to be left in the wild, confined to a small patch of rainforest on Hainan island in south China. Similarly, around just 50 of Northern sportive lemurs (Lepilemur septentrionalis) remain in their native Madagascar. This about sums up the plight of 25 primate species believed to be critically endangered. ...

A global re-assessment of polar bears highlights loss of sea ice habitat due to climate warming as the single most important threat to the long-term survival of the species, according to the latest update of The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species released on Wednesday by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). According to the group, this update ...

Latest status review however shows that concentrated conservation actions can turn the tide Waterbird populations across the African-Eurasian flyway are on a downward trend, with declining populations outstripping growing ones by almost 50 per cent, shows the latest conservation status report compiled for the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) – an inter-governmental treaty administered by the ...

Saiga range countries and experts convene in Tashkent following saiga mass mortality event At a UN backed meeting organised by the UNEP-Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) from 26 to 29 October 2015 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, governments and conservationists agreed on a concrete set of measures to restore saiga populations in Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Russia, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. More than 70 participants attended ...

Six of Africa’s 11 vulture species – the continent’s largest and most recognisable birds of prey – are now at a higher risk of extinction, according to the latest assessment of birds for the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, carried out by BirdLife International – an IUCN Red List partner. The main causes of the drop in African vulture ...

A further 18 birds of prey species have been listed at an international meeting of government representatives and experts this week in Trondheim, Norway. Seven of these species under threat are critically endangered according to the IUCN Red List. The 2nd Meeting of the Signatories of the Memorandum of Understanding on the Conservation of Migratory Birds of Prey (Raptors MOU) ...

Thirty-one percent of cactus species are threatened with extinction, according to the first comprehensive, global assessment of the species group by IUCN and partners, published on Monday, October 5, 2015 in the journal Nature Plants. This places cacti among the most threatened taxonomic groups assessed on The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species – more threatened than mammals and birds. According ...

The decision of six Congo Basin countries to work with donors to protect their forests is a positive step, but will only be as successful as its implementation, Greenpeace Africa has said. The Central African Forest Initiative, announced during the UN Sustainable Development Summit in New York this week, will see donors including Norway, Germany, the UK and the European ...