[PODCAST] How nature protection and inspiring art are key to planetary health & preventing pandemics. This week's guest on the newscast is Neil Vora, an infectious disease expert turned conservationist. his long and storied medical career took him to the African continent where he helped combat the spread of deadly diseases like Ebola. Eventually Neil became increasingly drawn to protecting the natural world.
Conservation news
How nature protection and inspiring art are key to planetary health & preventing pandemics
Dr. Neil Vora is no stranger to dangerous diseases, as a former epidemic intelligence service officer with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and...
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A frog smaller than a pencil eraser has hopped into the record books as the one of the smallest vertebrates known to science. Researchers formally described the species in late October 2024 after encountering it in the Atlantic Forest in southeastern Brazil’s São Paulo state. At a length of 6.95 millimeters (0.27 inches), Brachycephalus dacnis has given scientists a new appreciation of just how small vertebrates can get. By Shanna Hanbury
Conservation news
One of the tiniest frogs ever is discovered in Brazil, defying size limits
A frog smaller than a pencil eraser has hopped into the record books as the one of the smallest vertebrates known to science. Researchers formally ...
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Facing sea level rise and food insecurity, 17 families from the Carteret Islands have relocated to nearby Bougainville, bringing hundreds of specimens of trees and plants, representing dozens of species, across a small stretch of ocean. They’ve planted more than 175,000 plants, breathing life into a forest on new lands donate by the Catholic Church. By Thibault Le Pivain
Conservation news
In a Noah’s Ark move, PNG migrants bring thousands of trees to safer ground
BOUGAINVILLE, Papua New Guinea — The climate is changing, science shows. And according to some estimates, it could create anywhere between 200 mi...
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Ship strikes are a leading threat to large whales, with global shipping routes overlapping 92% of their habitats, a new study finds. But protecting whales in the most dangerous collision hotspots would require action over just 2.6% of the ocean’s surface, researchers conclude, potentially saving thousands of whales with minimal disruption to global trade. By Shanna Hanbury
Conservation news
Protecting 2.6% of oceans could prevent deadly whale-ship collisions: Study
Ship strikes are a leading threat to large whales, with global shipping routes overlapping 92% of their habitats, a new study finds. But protecting...
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A 2020 government decree that transferred administrative control of nonprotected forests in Sri Lanka to local governments has been formally revoked by the country’s new government. The move follows its overturning by the country’s Supreme Court, where environmental activists argued it could allow the release of these forests for development projects without proper environmental assessments. By Malaka Rodrigo
Conservation news
Relief in Sri Lanka as key threat to nonprotected forests is repealed
COLOMBO — Environmental activists in Sri Lanka are celebrating the end of a 2020 decree that left the island’s nonprotected forests more vulner...
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The Chinese mountain cat is a little-known felid found only on the eastern edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, in northwestern China. The species was first photographed in the wild in 2007, and until recently, very little has been known about its distribution and basic ecology. By Ruth Kamnitzer
Conservation news
Easy to catch, yet little known: Meet the Chinese mountain cat
In 2018, Han Xue-song, then a researcher with the Beijing-based Shan Shui Conservation Center, was in the Sanjiangyuan region on the Qinghai-Tibet ...
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Researchers say carbon credit projects involving private companies, NGOs and logging companies have proliferated in the Democratic Republic of Congo. They’ve documented projects covering more than a quarter of the DRC’s nearly 200 million hectares of forest. Preliminary findings suggest that the DRC lacks the governmental guardrails to ensure these projects are helping to avoid deforestation and that they are not harming communities. By John Cannon
Conservation news
DRC carbon credit projects surge amid lack of regulation
Carbon markets are among the proposed solutions for financing the protection of forests that sequester carbon and hold biodiversity. In the Democra...
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In Indonesian Borneo, a community of Indigenous Dayak Iban have fought for the past four decades to protect vast swaths of rainforest that are home to a diverse number of songbirds. For the Sungai Utik community members, these birds are regarded as messengers sharing omens and warning from spirits, and must therefore be protected under customary laws that restrict deforestation and the hunting and trading of the birds. By Soma Lama Hyolmo
Conservation news
Borneo’s ‘omen birds’ find a staunch guardian in Indigenous Dayak Iban elders
Deep in the rainforests of Indonesia’s West Kalimantan province, the piercing calls of birds reverberate to the rhythm of the gushing Utik River ...
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The head of the African Development Bank has made the case for valuing Africa’s natural wealth more fairly, given its importance in the global fight against climate change. Akinwumi Adesina notes that the continent’s GDP in 2018 was estimated at $2.5 trillion, yet the value of its natural capital was assessed at $6 trillion. By David Akana
Conservation news
African Development Bank chief calls for ‘green-rich’ continent to also be ‘cash-rich’
BAKU, Azerbaijan — A top African policymaker at COP29, the ongoing global climate summit in Baku, Azerbaijan has called for a better evaluation o...
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A study on the genetic history of Asian elephants in India has revealed that there are actually five genetically distinct populations in the country, more than earlier estimates. These populations were also found to have diverged from each other much earlier than previously thought, reports Arathi Menon for Mongabay India.
Conservation news
Genome study shows five distinct elephant populations in India
A study on the genetic history of Asian elephants in India has revealed that there are actually five genetically distinct populations in the countr...
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