|
>U.S. to ban oil drilling in new Arctic reserves for polar bears
|
|
10/07/2008 06:00 AM
|
The U.S. Department of the Interior will designate two Arctic reserves in areas considered critical habitat for polar bears as part of a legal settlement with environmental groups, reports Reuters. The reserves will be off-limits of oil development and must be established by June 30, 2010.
|
|
Forest corridors key to maintaining biodiversity in fragmented landscape
|
|
10/07/2008 06:00 AM
|
Alta Floresta, a region in the Brazilian Amazon state of Mato Grosso, has experienced one of the highest deforestation rates on the planet since the mid-1980s due to the influx of colonists and ranchers who converted nearly half the region's forest land to pasture and agricultural plots. The change has had significant ecological impacts, including reducing the availability of water, increasing the incidence of forest fires, fragmenting remaining forest cover, and diminishing the quality of habitat for wildlife.
|
|
Half of the world's mammal species in decline (update)
|
|
10/06/2008 06:00 AM
|
Half of the world's mammal species are in decline, according to a new assessment of the planet's 5,487 mammals.
|
|
One quarter to one third of mammals threatened with extinction
|
|
10/06/2008 06:00 AM
|
One in four of the world's land mammal species and one in three marine mammal species is threatened with extinction, according to an update of the IUCN Red List, the gold standard for the conservation status of global biodiversity.
|
|
An interview with ringtailed lemur expert Alison Jolly
|
|
10/06/2008 06:00 AM
|
Madagascar has more than 100 types of lemurs, but the most famous species is the ringtailed lemur, a primate found widely in the southern part of the Indian Ocean island. The world's leading expert on ringtailed lemurs is Alison Jolly, presently a Visiting Scientist at the University of Sussex in the UK. Since arriving on the Indian Ocean island in 1963, Jolly has documented the behavior and population dynamics of ringtailed lemurs in Berenty, a small private reserve of gallery forest amid a sea of desert-like spiny forest in southern Madagascar.
|
