Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – The Year of the Tiger in the Chinese lunar calendar comes to an end on Wednesday having yielded big results for its namesake – an unprecedented swell of public and government support to save tigers in the wild, including a historic global recovery programme.

[KUALA LUMPUR] Malaysian engineers are harnessing the country’s biodiversity to find alternative raw materials for high-tech electronic products such as electric vehicle batteries. They have discovered that bamboo, coconut shells and durian fruit skins can be converted into an activated form of carbon used to make the components of electric batteries known as ‘supercapacitors’.

…Well, maybe not mollusks, but actually muscles, those black bivalves better known for their culinary attributes (and especially delicious when prepared with white wine and garlic).

Last week a new multi-stakeholder group was formed, dubbed the Stewardship Action Council, to provide a cross-functional collaboration space for the business, investment, governmental and NGO communities to come together and drive sustainable business practices forward. The group’s main goals are to create a multi-stakeholder learning network, creating collaborative partnerships to address local and regional…

Heavy rain triggered flooding in Sri Lanka that killed at least 11 people and is threatening up to 90 percent of the staple rice crop, heightening concern about supply shocks and inflation, officials said on Sunday. Heavy monsoon rain caused flooding across the Eastern, Northern and North Central provinces for the second time in less…

A pipeline rupture in Iran has caused a 20-kilometre oil slick along the shores of the Gulf, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported on Sunday. The spill was caused by an explosion in a corroded pipeline at the port city of Daylam in Bushehr province, Mehr said. “The pipeline blast and the subsequent discharge of…

For 15 million years, an icebound lake has remained sealed deep beneath Antarctica’s frozen crust, possibly hiding prehistoric or unknown life. Now Russian scientists are on the brink of piercing through to its secrets. “There’s only a bit left to go,” Alexei Turkeyev, chief of the Russian polar Vostok Station, told Reuters by satellite phone.…

The word oyster is used as a common name for a number of distinct groups of bivalve molluscs which live in marine or brackish habitats. A new, wide-ranging survey that compares the past and present condition of oyster reefs around the world finds that more than 90 percent of former reefs have been lost in…

KANSAS CITY/WASHINGTON, Jan 27 (Reuters) – The United States said on Thursday farmers could proceed with planting genetically altered alfalfa without any of the restrictions that opponents say are crucial to protect organic and conventional farm fields from contamination.The decision, closely watched by supporters and protesters around the world for its potential implications on biotech…

When thinking of the wettest place on land, most people think about rainforests such as the Amazon, which can get up to 78 inches of rain per year. All this precipitation supports the Amazon’s rich plant life which helps moderate carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. It is then quite alarming to learn that the…