COLOMBO — When fishermen in southern Sri Lanka recently caught a giant oceanic manta ray, they needed a backhoe to haul it out of the water once they reached land. Weighing 800 kilograms, or nearly 1,800 pounds, the catch drew much local attention. It …
Ray care center: Indonesia’s Raja Ampat a key nursery for young reef mantas
JAKARTA — Researchers have confirmed that a lagoon in Indonesia’s Raja Ampat archipelago, a popular dive site, is a nursery for newborn and juvenile manta rays, cementing the area’s status as a key sanctuary for the species. In a recently published stu…
Report sums up wealth of Sri Lanka’s biodiversity — and the threats it faces
COLOMBO — Sri Lanka has submitted its 6 National Report to the Convention on Biological Diversity, offering the most comprehensive view yet of the country’s wealth of plant and animal life and the threats they face. More than 100 experts collaborated o…
California court ruling opens door for protection of insects as endangered species
A California court has ruled that state legislation on endangered species can apply to invertebrates. The decision this week by the Third District Court of Appeal means insects, including four endangered native Californian bumblebee species and the mon…
Opaque infrastructure project ‘a death sentence’ for Cambodia’s Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary
PHNOM PENH — At last year’s COP26, the annual U.N. climate summit, Cambodian Environment Minister Say Samal voiced his support for more carbon credit projects in the country as part of his request for greater climate financing. Notably, though, he avoi…
How Brazil is working to save the rare lion tamarins of the Atlantic Forest
The Atlantic Forest that hugs the coast of Brazil is home to four small primates found nowhere else on Earth. The most famous of them, the golden lion tamarin, appears on Brazil’s 20-real bill, a part of the day-to-day interactions of people across the…
In Jordan, the Middle East’s first Miyawaki-style ‘baby’ forests take root
AMMAN, Jordan — It’s a quiet day in Omar al-Faisal Park, in the impoverished industrial outskirts of Jordan’s capital, Amman. Sandwiched between the runway of a military airport and residential streets, the park seems unimpressive at first glance, but …
‘What’s lacking is respect for Mayan culture’: Q&A with Pedro Uc Be on Mexico’s Tren Maya
UPDATE: *On March 30, 2021, a press release announced that the Collegiate Court of Circuit in Work and Administration Matters had reversed the decision to suspend activity on Sections 1, 2, and 3 of the Tren Maya project, giving the go-ahead for the wo…
Draft-Push for potash mine in Brazil’s Amazon looms over Indigenous people
Packed into a thatched-roof meeting hall in the village of Urucurituba, deep in the Brazilian Amazon, hundreds of Mura Indigenous people mulled over whether to allow a massive potash mine on their lands. Some worried it could pollute their rivers, kill…
Indigenous community mounts legal challenge to Thai coal mine development
Local opposition to a planned coal mine in northern Thailand escalated in April when plaintiffs representing more than 600 villagers filed a lawsuit requesting the revocation of an environmental impact assessment conducted and approved more than 10 yea…