River bank work improves Aberystwyth water
vole habitat
Conservationists and
a council have joined forces to try and save a dwindling population of water voles.
Ceredigion council, the Environment Agency and the Countryside Council for Wales
are working to improve habitats for the mammals in Aberystwyth.
Outrage as wildlife sheriff tells police officer to ‘get a life’
One of Scotland’s top sheriffs is
under pressure to quit his leading role in combating wildlife crime after allegedly
telling a former police officer concerned about the soft sentences given to those
convicted to “get a life”.
Police forces in Scotland have
been accused of failing to tackle wildlife crime after it was revealed that just
24 cases of illegal killing of birds of prey have been taken to court in five
years.
Conservationists concerned as numbers
continue to plummet
Figures for butterfly
sightings in 2009 have raised fears that five of Britain's rarest butterflies
face a growing risk of extinction. Their numbers last year either continued to
plummet or remained at near rock bottom levels.
The Department of the
Environment yesterday confirmed that it is to spend over €200,000 on a conservation
programme for one of Ireland’s most endangered species – the corncrake.
Major plan for houses to
be built on habitat of rare bee rejected
Objectors
to a major housing estate planned for the outskirts of Grantown were last night
raising a glass to a rare bee that helped them get the 193-house application turned
down yesterday.
Four Edinburgh shops have been raided as part of a worldwide
operation targeting the illegal trade in traditional medicines made using endangered
animals.
A project to restore an ancient
North York Moors wood which provides a key habitat for many animals to its historic
roots has secured £40,000 of funding.
The Trap Grounds in
North Oxford – designated a Town Green after a hard-fought community campaign
– will soon be open to more visitors after a new walkway is completed.
Supreme court preserves
Coatham Common from housebuilding
Britain's
highest court today overturned a series of rulings and backed a campaign to save
an undeveloped oasis on industrial Teesside as a village green.
The cottages around Askam
wind farm occupy the perfect spot, looking out to sea over to the isle of Man
and inland to the Lake District. The only problem is the noise.
World
cops target traditional healers over smuggled wildlife
Police seized tiger bones, anteater scales and bear gall bladders
in an international operation against the use of endangered plants and animals
in traditional medicine, officers said Friday.
Rhinos, among the world’s
most endangered and iconic animals, are being farmed on Chinese wildlife reserves
in order to harvest their horns, a report by international conservation monitors
has suggested.
Tanzania said Saturday it will press
for permission to sell around 100 tonnes of elephant tusks to reduce its huge
stockpile and use the money to combat poaching.
The first
sound of spring is illegal bird slaughter
It
has started. If it happened all at once and in daylight, the great migration would
be astonishing to behold: 16m birds streaming into Britain from Africa, stretching
from horizon to horizon.
The British island
territory of South Georgia in the south Atlantic is to embark on the biggest ever
cull of rats in a bid to save its population of endangered birds.
Kyrgyz alpine lake's beauty could be
its undoing, some warn
Lying 1,600
meters above sea level in the "Heaven's Mountains" of eastern Kyrgyzstan, the
glistening waters of Issyk-Kul have long been a point of national pride and global
ecological significance.
The five-year race
to save India's vanishing tigers
With
some conservationists claiming only 800 tigers still live in the wild, radical
steps are needed if the species isn't to disappear from India within five years
Japan extends support for Lao environmental
projects
The government of Japan
will extend four environmental projects under a 2.95 billion yen grant aid programme,
according to a press release from the Embassy of Japan to Laos.
A
major study for the UK government has cast doubt over claims that rising temperatures
are causing soil to pump greater amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere,
further fuelling global warming.
Europe's new foreign service could
provide an opportunity for more effectively addressing the challenges of climate
change
The Lisbon Treaty provides
new tools for the Europe Union to combat climate change. But Brussels will have
to figure out how to put its new foreign service to use in order to avoid another
failure of global environmental leadership like the one seen Copenhagen.
Climate deniers, global warming, and Darwin’s theory of evolution
Yes, the resurgence of the "climate-deniers" -- like weeds, or
zombies -- is discouraging. But this resistance to scientific knowledge has a
long history in the United States.
Fears over delay to feed-in tariff designed to kickstart domestic
energy revolution
The government will
come under fire tomorrow from a renewable energy sector increasingly concerned
about potential delays in the implementation of a "feed-in tariff" meant to kickstart
a domestic green power revolution.
Global leaders in the energy business say they want some certainty
in U.S. climate policy to encourage development of new technologies and other
investment, but they do not expect federal legislation to pass this year.
The
European Union's development chief may be forced to name and shame France, Germany
and Italy for not living up to their aid commitments, contributing to a roughly
$17 billion funding gap this year.
