KATHMANDU — Nepal’s government has proposed zoning of protected areas, where human activities have long been highly restricted, to accommodate “adventure tourism” activities such as canyoning, mountain biking and motorboating. The sweeping changes have been proposed under the new draft National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Regulations, which have been in the works for a few […]
Biden Administration Restores Protections for Threatened Species
The Biden administration restored protections to threatened species in the U.S. on March 29 — protections that had previously been rolled back in 2019 by the Trump administration. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA Fisheries) finalized three rules to protect threatened species […]
Heartbreaking footage of baby orca refusing to leave lagoon where its mother died is captured off Vancouver Island coast – as rescues scramble to save the young whale’s life
A two-year-old orca has been circling a Canadian lagoon for days, refusing to leave the area where its mother died on the shore. The young whale’s mother, named Spong, passed away after she became trapped in the shallow waters off the west coast of Vancouver. Wildlife officials and scientists are now in a race against […]
Nepal mulls policy shift to allow hotels back into tiger strongholds
KATHMANDU — Nepal’s Ministry of Forest and Environment is preparing fresh regulations to allow hotels to return to national parks such as Chitwan, a decade after they were shut down based on environmental concerns. Although rumors were doing the rounds in the corridors of the ministry and the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation […]
Python Meat Might be Added to Menus
In the hunt for sustainable food sources amidst challenges of food security and Climate change, unconventional options are gaining traction. One alternative gaining attention is the commercial farming of pythons. Dr. Daniel Natusch and Dr. Patrick Aust, leading researchers in this field, advocate for the incorporation of pythons into the agricultural mix as a sustainable […]
Chick killer on the loose: Officials hunt for person who shot endangered baby whooping crane to death in Louisiana – and are offering a $12,500 reward for information leading to arrest
Officials are on the hunt for the killer of an endangered chick found dead in Louisiana. The Dallas Zoo, where the chick was born, announced the death last week, saying the bird was found with gunshot wounds two months after being released into the wild – it was part of a conservation program to increase […]
Irrawaddy dolphin death in Thailand’s Songkhla Lake underscores conservation needs
The recent death of a critically endangered freshwater Irrawaddy dolphin in southern Thailand’s Songkhla Lake has brought the plight of the waterbody’s tiny remaining population into stark focus. As few as 14 of the dolphins, Orcaella brevirostris, are thought to survive in the lake amid a slew of threats ranging from entanglement in fishing gear […]
Are biodiversity credits just another business-as-usual finance scheme?
Nature is in crisis. Yet, there’s a massive $700 billion gap between the financing needed to stop biodiversity collapse versus what’s available each year. In December 2022, nearly 200 governments agreed to close this financial gap by 2030 by signing the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) at COP15. With this goal only six years away, […]