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
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…
Australian freshwater mussels are under threat from habitat erosion.
Crawford River/Photo by MW Klunzinger
Freshwater mussels, like other freshwater animals, are disappearing at an alarming rate. They are invertebrates, and while invertebrates may account for 95-99% of animal biodiversity, they are scarcely…
A tiny male Red-finned Blue-eye, half the size of your little finger.
Adam Kereszy
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
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
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
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…
More than 400 amphibian species are in decline, but at least one - the Fleay’s barred frog - is showing strong signs of recovery.
Froggydarb/Wikimedia Commons
Globally, amphibians have suffered serious declines and extinctions over the last 30 years. But our research, published today, shows that at least one subtropical rainforest frog is recovering. The most…
At the moment, estimating tuna numbers - these are skipjack - is a kind of sophisticated guesswork.
Flickr/dachalan
Tuna are vital to the ecology and economy of the Pacific, and maintaining their stocks at a sustainable level exercises the minds of thousands of scientists, bureaucrats, fishers, consumers and conservationists…
The Mekong in Xayaburi Province, Laos – the site of a proposed dam. But what will happen to biodiversity and people? Flickr/International Rivers.
When Australians think of the Mekong they think cheap holidays or Vietnamese restaurants. Biodiversity-wise however, the Mekong is a frontier, a place where biological riches collide with human pressure…
Its not just the forests that make the Tarkine distinctive - it is habitat for 117 threatened species of flora and fauna.
Jennifer Evans
Tasmania’s Tarkine is now instantly recognisable, evoking ancient forests and environmental controversy. It hasn’t always been so, however, with research and celebration building over the past 40 years…
Mornington Wildlife Sanctuary in the Kimberley is one of the Australian Wildlife Conservancy’s properties. Who else is privately conserving biodiversity?
dracophylla/Flickr
There is general agreement that the Commonwealth and state governments lack the commitment, and hence funding, to preserve Australia’s biodiversity. Professor Tim Flannery addressed these issues in his…
Sewer infrastructure isn’t ready for our water saving techniques.
gnackgnackgnack/Flickr
Saving water is a good thing, right? But what if I told you it could also cause problems. A recent study from Victoria University indicates water-conservation can have unintended consequences for residents…
We’re happy to kill individual creatures in large numbers - what’s stopping us wiping out the biosphere?
Darren Harmon
The environmental crisis has never loomed so large nor been so extensively debated as in the last few years. But at the same time we have never heard less about environmental ethics - the bio-inclusive…
You have probably heard someone utter the cliché “I grew up in a different era”. Compared to today, my youth was technologically anorexic. It was a time where you would never be told “Please turn off your…
A squirrel glider crosses a rope bridge over the Hume Freeway.
Kylie Soanes
Wildlife can have a tough time crossing roads. Noisy, fast vehicles and wide, open gaps in habitat make it an uninviting and risky venture. This means some animals are cut off from food, shelter or loving…
Only 3-8% of the original number of Southern Bluefin Tuna still exist.
AAP
Note: Southern Bluefin Tuna is listed as Critically Endangered by the IUCN, but only as conservation dependent under Australian legislation. Southern Bluefin Tuna (Thunnus maccoyii) are majestic, temperate…
Australia’s marine parks are all show, no substance, so why are conservation groups so supportive?
AAP Image/Dean Lewins
On land and in the sea, we’re losing sight of what nature conservation is about. We’ve become dangerously focused on protected areas, but rarely consider what they’re supposed to achieve. One result is…
Logging of Mountain Ash doesn’t make the sustainable forestry grade.
lizardstomp/Flickr
By any scientific yardstick, forestry operations in Victoria cannot be regarded as ecologically sustainable. Much of the attention of politicians, policy makers and the general public has been on the tall…