Author: Rhett Butler

  • Small farmers cause substantial damage in the Amazon rainforest

    Small farmers are less likely than large landowners to maintain required forest cover on their property in the Brazilian Amazon, worsening the environmental impact of their operations, reported a researcher presenting at the annual meeting of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation (ATBC) in Bonito, Brazil. Fernanda Michalski, an ecologist with the University of…

  • Atrazine to be Banned? Frogs will be happy!

    The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will weigh a ban on Atrazine, a widely used herbicide linked to sex reversal and other reproductive problems in amphibians and fish. The chemical, which is manufactured by Syngenta, has been banned in the European Union since 2004 but some 80 million pounds Atrazine are applied to corn, sugarcane, sorghum…

  • Rangers now allowed to shoot tiger poachers on sight in Indian state

    In the wake of a surge in tiger poaching, the state government of Maharashtra, India will no longer consider the shooting of wildlife poachers by forest rangers a crime, reports the Associated Press.

  • Palm oil is a major driver of peatlands destruction in Indonesian Borneo

    Developers in Indonesian Borneo are increasingly converting carbon-dense peatlands for oil palm plantations, driving deforestation and boosting greenhouse gas emissions, reports a new study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The research concludes that nearly all unprotected forests in Ketapang District in West Kalimantan will be gone by 2020 given current trends.…

  • Greenpeace calls for zero deforestation globally by 2020

    Greenpeace reiterated its call for an end to deforestation in Brazil by 2015 and globally by 2020 during its launch of an awareness-raising expedition down the Amazon River aboard the Rainbow Warrior.

  • Deforestation and forest degradation down in the Brazilian Amazon since August

    Deforestation and forest degradation are down moderately from August through October 2011 relative to the same period a year ago, reports a satellite-based assessment released today by Imazon, a Brazilian group. Imazon’s near-real time system, which tracks change in forest plots 25 hectares (62 acres) or larger, found that 512 square kilometers of rainforest were…

  • 40% of Madagascar’s reptiles at risk of extinction

    40 percent of Madagascar’s terrestrial reptiles are threatened with extinction due to habitat loss and over-collection for the pet trade, reports the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in its latest update of the Red List of Threatened Species. Experts from around the world conducted the assessment of 370 native terrestrial reptile species found…

  • New ‘demon’ bat discovered in Vietnam

    Scientists have discovered three previously unknown bat species in southern Indochina, reports Fauna & Flora International. Researchers from Hungarian Natural History Museum (HNHM) and Fauna & Flora International (FFI) described the new species, which belong to a group known as tube-nosed bats.

  • Scientists discover massive underground river 13,000 feet beneath the Amazon

    Researchers at Brazil’s National Observatory have discovered evidence of a massive underground river flowing deep beneath the Amazon River, reports the AFP. Presenting this week at the 12th International Congress of the Brazilian Geophysical Society in Rio de Janeiro, Elizabeth Tavares Pimentel reported the existence of a 6,000-kilometer-long (3,700-mile) river flowing some 4,000 meters (13,000…

  • Proposed changes to Brazil’s Forest Code could hurt economy

    Proposed changes to Brazil’s Forest Code will hurt Brazilian agriculture, argues a leading conservationist. Carlos Alberto de Mattos Scaramuzza, WWF-Brazil’s director for conservation, says the reform bill currently being evaluated by Brazil’s Senate could have unexpected economic implications for Brazilian ranchers and farmers. Scaramuzza says a bill that grant amnesty for illegal deforesters and sanctions…