Wildlife and conservation new, wild travel information and links for booking
The Vaquita is a small porpoise that is severely endangered. Up until now there has been a no take zone in the upper gulf of California, in order to avoid accidental bycatch, but unfortunately that has been eradicated.
With fewer than a dozen Vaquita left, this is likely to be the end, as bycatch of even just a couple a year will mean the little porpoise is no more very soon
Time will tell if conservationists are correct
A company owned by the Pahang states royal family plans to mine iron ore from a forest reserve that currently hosts a variety of important mega fauna, including tigers elephants sun bears and leopard.
In past governments indigenous land was out of bounds, yet under Bolsonaro there is currently 1265 requests to mine in Indigenous territories pending. This behaviour is prohibited by the Brazilian constitution, which shows how bad this is. If the mining is illegal what is the ned for it to even be looked at?
Given in these cases this land has been given over to the tribes, it is not the governments to hand over to miners.
The big concern is that even if Bolsonaro is voted out after just one term, he may have destroyed most of the countries remaining forests and indigenous areas, meaning there will be little for his replacement to save.
One of the companies wrote to Mongabay after the article was originally published, they claimed that they did not know anything about it. Unfortunately the record of the request is clear, and it is worth noting that while denying the existence, they did not cancel any of the requests at all
Jair Bolsonaro and his supporters are getting frustrated. The whole world can see that the direction the country is taking is extremely dangerous. Rather than changing tack they have decided to silence the detractors.
Whether environmental researchers, academics or officials, it seems that no one is safe. Increasing numbers of these professions are being forced to seek safety abroad to avoid threats to their lives.
This is not the behaviour of a democracy leader, and it wont work
As with most primate species males are usually the dominant animal in a group setting. The one notable exception is bonobos which are a female led society.
For the last 3 years there has been a significant baby boom in the forests of the Virungas. This is highly encouraging for the long term survival of the mountain gorillas that live here.
Unfortunately many threats remain. Parts of the park are potentially about to be reclassified for mining, and there are invading armed groups in various parts of the forest.
Currently, the DRC section of the park contains roughly 350 gorillas, though this number includes all mountain and lowland gorillas. However, the armed groups often make money by hunting wildlife both for bushmeat and the pet trade.
In recent years, Mountain gorillas have been moved from critically endangered, to the endangered list. However, this generally is in relation to the reduction of the population over the last few years. If the population reaches a small size, then reductions of any level are likely to wipe them out. This has not happened, thankfully, but given a population of only 350 animals, it is foolish to think that this wildlife population is out of danger, quite the contrary, it would take very little for this population to disappear – STILL and so we must not relax.
Current threats thought to exist for the park long term, do not worry about poaching, so much as land lost to oil and mineral extraction. Remember that an area can be deforested in a matter of a few weeks, it can take a century for the forest to return.
Over 2 million acres of forest was lost from the Amazon this year, with 76% of this falling within the boundaries of Brazil.
Nearly 95% of deforestation is found within a small distance of roads or rivers. As a result, Bolsonaro and similar politicians can claim to build roads to help with developments, when actually their primary aim, is deforestation so that the land can then be used for more valuable purposes.
Most areas that have been deforested have then been burned, which gives way for grazing pasture.
If something is not done fast, it will not matter what Jair Bolsonaros replacement wishes to do, as there will be little rainforest left to protect.
When my wife and I spent 3 months on the edge of the Kruger in 2007, there was thought to be over 10,000 white rhino left in the park – around 90% of the worlds wild population.
Unfortunately, the poaching started in earnest in the following years, and now this population is thought to be 3,529, with about 268 black rhino.
Are we once again going to see the white rhino recover, or will this be its last few years?
It is absurd, as the horn doesnt have any of the medical benefits that it is claimed to have. The rhino is in danger of going extinct due to superstition.
The US department of Agriculture wildlife service branch has killed 8 pops from a wolf pack in Idaho, this despite the pack having been tracked by a school for 18 years.
The regulation that was issued earlier this year for Cambodias KohKong province supposedly took land from protected areas, and gave it to local people. Developments since, show that actually this was a scheme to benefit the political elite.
Politicians and companies have been grabbing the available land. In particular, a pocket has been bought by a company thought to be working for APP the huge palm oil company. They would clearly wish to raze this forest to the ground and replant with palm oil.
The area in question, accounts for around 500 square miles of land.