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Articles on Conservation

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This Yellow Wagtail is a fugitive in flight, but forensic technology will track him down. Flickr: jcoelho

CSI: Birding … barcoding the past, present and future

The extinction of an animal is no longer the end of our opportunity to learn new things about its ecology and biology. The same technology that recently reconstructed the genome of the Neanderthal man…
According to new research, Australian biodiversity is drastically underfunded. Flickr/edwin.11

Australia is underfunding biodiversity conservation

When it comes to biodiversity spending, Australia is one of the bottom 40 countries in the world. It’s not the only rich country to feature low on the list (Finland, for example, also did pretty badly…
Without taking action we’ll soon see the back of many species. Chris Ison/PA

Are birds worth the billions?

Birdlife International’s new report recommends a US$80 billion increase in annual spending in order to fully protect important bird biodiversity areas. This surely poses the question: are birds really…
Even starlings are “red listed” as threatened in the UK. Clive Gee/PA

An $80bn cry for help that will save more than just birds

BirdLife International’s State of the World’s Birds report hopes to demonstrate an urgent need for funding, advocacy, conservation action and monitoring to halt the global loss of birds and other wildlife…
The decline of this Indian vulture species has costed the economy $30 billion. Bharat Balasubramanian

Neither the charismatic nor the iconic: rethinking conservation

The rate of extinction of species today is many thousand times the natural rate. There are even examples that such loss can have serious impact on humans. So a critical question is: what is the role species…
“Averted loss” biodiversity offsets rely on ongoing biodiversity declines to work. Kenneth Pinto

Biodiversity offsets could be locking in species decline

In a recent interview, the Opposition environment spokesperson Greg Hunt promised to reverse biodiversity decline in five years if the Coalition wins the forthcoming election. Is this goal achievable…
We have to get smarter about the way we manage Australia’s national parks. Nic Prins

Our national parks must be more than playgrounds or paddocks

It’s make or break time for Australia’s national parks. National parks on land and in the ocean are dying a death of a thousand cuts, in the form of bullets, hooks, hotels, logging concessions and grazing…
It’s rough out there: the waters off Townsville present many more threats to dugongs than do the hunters of the Torres Strait. Francisco Martins

Dugongs are safer in Torres Strait than Townsville

“How many are there?” and “how are they doing?” are the first questions people usually ask about species of conservation concern. These seemingly straightforward questions are tough to answer when it comes…
This is what a dysfunctional ecosystem looks like: central Asia’s Aral Sea. PhillipC/Flickr

Identifying ecosystems at risk – the new IUCN Red List

We know quite a lot about which species around the world are most endangered. The Red List of threatened species, developed by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), identifies…
The lack of biological information about some species may be keeping them off the IUCN critically endangered list. Mariana Campbell

Protecting endangered species we don’t know much about

The World Conservation Union (IUCN) uses set criteria to define species extinction risk. At the pointy end of the wedge, species are classed as Critically Endangered, Endangered or Vulnerable. Overall…
Maasai herders have made life harder for Tanzanian wildlife, but that doesn’t mean one of them has to go. mar is sea Y/Flickr

Maasai versus wildlife: it’s an unnecessary choice

Tanzanian government plans to exclude Maasai from some traditional pastoral lands in the name of wildlife conservation have met with protest and global media attention. This is certainly not the first…
The endangered dugong is being hunted unsustainably using a cruel harpoon technique. Nicola Sfondrini

In the name of culture: dugong hunting is simply cruel

Many Australians are rightly appalled by the slaughter conducted by the Japanese whaling fleet under the guise of “scientific research”. This is not only because whaling is cruel but also because whales…
A tiny male Red-finned Blue-eye, half the size of your little finger. Adam Kereszy

Australian endangered species: Red-finned Blue-eye

The Red-finned Blue-eye (Scaturiginichthys vermeilipinnis) grows to a maximum of three centimetres long. As males reach adulthood they develop the vivid colouration suggested by their common name. In contrast…
In the Coral Triangle, conservation plans that helped fish were unfair for people. Zona Retiro/Flickr

Equity, economy or environment: you can’t have it all

You can’t get a project approved these days unless it satisfies the triple bottom line: equity, cost-effectiveness and environmental sustainability. But our research shows that getting all three is almost…
The demand for shark fins has pushed threatened shark species from 15 in 1996 to 180 in 2010. Choo Yut Shing

Small win for big fish: convention moves to protect sharks

Each year around 100 million sharks are killed for their fins. The sharks are often pulled from the water, their fins are sliced off and they are thrown back in to drown. The industry is built on the high…
Dead as a … extinct species should stay extinct, and we should focus on saving the ones still living. Jebulon

De-extinction is about as sensible as de-death

On Friday, March 15 in Washington DC, National Geographic and TEDx are hosting a day-long conference on species-revival science and ethics. In other words, they will be debating whether we can, and should…

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