Hong Kong seizes record 8 tons of endangered pangolin scales
Hong Kong customs officers unveiled a record seizure of pangolin scales on Friday, the latest huge haul to underscore the city's central role in the lucrative and booming illegal wildlife trade. Officials said they conducted a joint investigation with mainland customs officers on Jan. 16, ...
The world's biggest growers of palm oil say they're stepping up efforts to produce the contentious commodity more sustainably, but consumers are unwilling to pay more for environmentally friendly supply. Production of sustainable palm oil has jumped to a record 13.6 million tons a year, ...
Profit-hungry tiger breeders behind push to lift China's trading ban
At the Siberia Tiger Park in the frigid Chinese city of Harbin, visitors can learn about the facility's successful breeding program — and buy chicken carcasses to toss to around 20 tigers pacing the snow-flecked ground of their enclosure. At the park gates, a shop ...
Battling 'biopiracy', scientists catalog the Amazon's genetic wealth
In a bid to stop "biopiracy," researchers are building a giant database to catalog genetic material from the world's largest rainforest. From the rubber in car tires to cosmetics and medicines, genetic material contained in the Amazon region has contributed to discoveries worth billions of ...
Buy green palm oil or forests will suffer, industry warns
New rules to stop deforestation caused by palm oil production can only succeed if brands and consumers buy larger amounts of oil certified as green and ethical, industry officials and environmental activists said. The Kuala Lumpur-based Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), a global watchdog ...
#MeToo, Brexit, and environmental issues inspire new dictionary entries
"Single-use" was named the Collins Dictionary word of the year on Wednesday, following a fourfold increase in usage since 2013 in a reflection of increased concerns about sustainability. It edged out "#MeToo" and "whitewash" to top the list of 10 new and notable words that ...
Plans for in Antarctic ocean sanctuary, world's largest, blocked by Russia, China and Norway
A plan to create the world's largest marine sanctuary in Antarctic waters has been shot down when a key conservation summit failed to reach a consensus, with environmentalists on Saturday decrying a lack of scientific foresight. Member states of the organization tasked with overseeing the ...
Handful of nations hold fate of world's vanishing wilderness
More than 70 percent of Earth's last untouched wilderness lies in the territories of just five countries, scientists said Wednesday — mostly nations that alarm environmentalists with their lukewarm response to climate change. True wild spaces — land and sea areas mostly unaffected by mankind's ...
Unbridled consumption has decimated global wildlife, triggered a mass extinction and exhausted Earth's capacity to accommodate humanity's expanding appetites, the conservation group WWF warned Tuesday. From 1970 to 2014, 60 percent of all animals with a backbone — fish, birds, amphibians, reptiles and mammals — ...
Awareness of Aichi Biodiversity Targets found to be lacking compared to climate change
The global community has less than two years to reach the Aichi Biodiversity Targets set for 2020, yet public awareness of biodiversity issues is still relatively low. Experts spoke of the need to raise awareness of how important biodiversity and ecosystems are at an interview ...
How the U.N. should regulate high-seas fishing
Clamping down on fishing far from coastal areas would boost fish stocks nearer land.
