Category: Uncategorized

This Editor?s note precedes the post:
“The IUCN World Conservation Congress 2016 will be the first major international conservation event held in the United States in decades, and the decisions made there will have impacts that last for generations. National Wildlife Federation, as a founding member of IUCN back in 1948, has worked alongside the State of Hawai?i , our state affiliate the Conservation Council of Hawaii, Hawaiian cultural leaders and leading national conservation organizations to help bring this important global gathering to the US for the first time.
“September 1 marks one year before the IUCN World Conservation Congress and the beginning of a pivotal year for our world?s future. Later this month, the world will commit to deliver Sustainable Development Goals with a timeframe of 15 years ? an ambitious agenda for improving human living conditions for all. In December, world leaders will meet in Paris to set…

Glacier National Park is Blackfoot ancestral land. The Blackfoot people believe that grizzly bears can see into a human heart and read a person’s intentions. This is mama grizzly and her cub when we first encountered her on the trail and she went into high alert.

Here is mama after she looked into our hearts, approved our intentions, and took one of several naps. We spent several hours watching mama and cub, and have encountered bears every day since, both in Glacier and Waterton National Parks.

Here mama and cub are both relaxed enough to nurse in our presence!

She knew we were here, and looked at us regularly. We respected her space and never moved close enough to provoke any anxiety.

We watched her forage,

turn over rocks, hunt for rodents,

and fish.

We watched baby bear scratch his back on a little pine tree,

and we saw mama…

Geneva (AFP) – Pollution, industrial fishing and climate change have killed off half of marine life in the last four decades, according to a WWF report released on Wednesday.

Species essential to global food supply — especially in poorer nations where fish provide essential dietary protein — were among the hardest hit, the conservation group’s Living Blue Planet Report said.

The family of fish that includes tuna and mackerel, for example, has declined by three quarters since 1970.

Continue reading:  Marine life slashed by half since 1970: WWF

Related story:  Warming Arctic will increase mosquito populations

Mandy Gull holds back tears as she steps off the helicopter in northern Quebec. “I’ve never seen anything so sad,” says the young woman whose aboriginal tribe is seeing its ancestral lands eroded by logging.

“If my grandfather knew,” says the deputy leader of the Cree tribe, one of 11 indigenous ethnic groups present in Quebec.

The flyover of the Boreal forest, pockmarked by clear-cuts, both saddens her and toughens her resolve to end deforestation in the region.

“We don’t own this land… as Cree, we know that we’re stewards of the land, (and) we’re here to protect the land,” she said.  Sourced through Scoop.it from: phys.org

GR:  Faced by rapacious loggers and their government representatives, defenders of the forests have many roadblocks to success, not the smallest being personal danger of injury and incarceration.

The New Wild: Why Invasive Species Will be Nature’s Salvation / Beacon Press

Conservationists are becoming enemies of nature, according to a new book The New Wild: Why Invasive Species Will Be Nature’s Salvation by environmental journalist Fred Pearce. Drawing primarily on examples from the United Kingdom and remote islands across the world, the book challenges the long-held belief that keeping out non-native species and returning ecosystems to a pre-human state are the only ways to save nature as we know it. Calling this line of thinking unproductive at best, Pearce states that seeking only to conserve and protect endangered and weak species becomes a brake on evolution, a douser of adaptation. “If we want to assist nature to regenerate, we need to promote change, rather than hold it back,” he writes.

Though his criticism of traditional conservation perspectives that advocate for restoring ecosystems may appear controversial, Pearce isn’t pushing…

By Sharon St Joan

To read part one first, click here.

Meanwhile, Gauri Maulekhi, of HSI and PFA, appealed to the Supreme Court of India, which then issued a directive to close the India-Nepal border to any transport of animals into Nepal during the weeks preceding the festival.

Since most of the animals to be sacrificed came from India, closing the border had a momentous effect.

Large numbers of volunteers from Indian animal welfare groups arrived to assist the Border Patrol in spotting people trying to take animals to Nepal. They spoke with farmers and other animal transporters and, if they did not turn back, the volunteers followed up with the Border Patrol to make sure they were sent back.

Dawn Williams and his team from Blue Cross of India played a leading role in tracking down those attempting to smuggle animals into Nepal. A former commando, Dawn Williams…