Protected Areas
Raise-and-release program keeping Nepal’s gharials alive can be improved, study says
KATHMANDU — A spark of good news for the gharial crocodile (Gavialis gangeticus) in Nepal last month shouldn’t obscure the challenges that remain in conserving the critically endangered species, experts say. On June 15, just two days before World Crocodile Day, 28 gharial hatchlings were spotted in a tributary of Nepal’s Karnali River — the […]
As Nepal’s tigers thrive, Indigenous knowledge may be key in preventing attacks
KATHMANDU — On June 6, a 41-year-old woman was attacked by a tiger while she was collecting firewood in a forest in Nepal’s Bardiya district, a key habitat for endangered Bengal tigers (Panthera tigris tigris). Following the incident, villagers from Bardiya took to the streets demanding that the government act immediately to address the problem […]
Miners, drug traffickers and loggers: Is Costa Rica’s Corcovado National Park on the verge of collapse?
News articles and opinion pieces have popped up in the pages of different Costa Rican newspapers over the past several years, warning of the imminent collapse of Corcovado National Park, one of the country’s most treasured protected areas. The park is in “agonizing” condition and “on a downward spiral,” some of the opinion pieces said. […]
Carnivore sightings highlight richness of Nepal’s Trans-Himalayan region
KATHMANDU — Scientists in Nepal have recorded three carnivore species outside the country’s protected area network for the first time, highlighting the potential for more discoveries in the little-explored Trans-Himalayan region. The steppe polecat (Mustela eversmanii), Pallas’s cat (Otocolobus manul) and the Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) were documented between July and September 2021 in Limi […]
New report pieces together toll of environmental damage in Venezuela in 2021
While trying to put together a review of what happened to Venezuela’s environment in 2021, conservationists ran into a problem. The government publishes virtually no statistics on things like deforestation, infrastructure or mining, and it often actively blocks researchers from investigating threats to local ecosystems. Last year, the government appeared to lean more heavily on […]
Sharing a marine reserve with fishers: Q&A with Belize Fisheries’ Adriel Castañeda
Glover’s Reef, part of the Belize Barrier Reef, is one of only four atolls in the Western Hemisphere. The rare, ring-shaped island of coral surrounds a lagoon 45 kilometers (28 miles) off the Belize coast, and takes up 35,000 hectares (86,000 acres). The reef is home to dozens of species of sharks, including the endangered […]
Razing of Indigenous hamlet highlights Nepal’s conservation challenge
KATHMANDU — On the evening of March 27, as residents of the settlement of Kusum Khola, on the fringes of Nepal’s Chitwan National Park, were preparing dinner, they heard footsteps crunch past fallen leaves, disturbing the quiet of the night. As the footsteps drew closer, the residents realized they were under attack — not by […]
Probe finds palm oil firm illegally clearing forest in Sumatra wildlife haven
JAKARTA — A palm oil company responsible for clear-cutting forests in an Indonesian ecosystem that’s the only place on Earth where tigers, orangutans and rhinos roam appears to be doing so illegally, a new investigation shows. PT Nia Yulided Bersaudara (NYB) holds a 2,940-hectare (7,260-acre) concession to cultivate oil palms inside the Leuser Ecosystem in […]
Road project threatens to derail Nepal’s conservation gains, study says
KATHMANDU — Nepal entered 2022 with encouraging news related to its tiger population. As a census gathered pace, Bardiya National Park, home to 87 of Nepal’s estimated 235 tigers, received the TX2 Award for doubling the population of the endangered species since 2010. Amid the celebrations, conservationists feared the precariousness of that success as they […]
New law would tie U.S. conservation funding to human rights protection
Lawmakers from the U.S. House of Representatives have introduced a bill that, if passed, would require human rights safeguards to be embedded in Department of Interior grants given to conservation organizations working overseas. Co-sponsored by Arizona Democrat Raul Grijalva, chair of the House Committee on Natural Resources, and Bruce Westerman, an Arkansas Republican, the bill […]