Rhino and elephant poaching has declined significantly this year in Namibia, home to the only free-roaming black rhinos left in the world, government data showed on Monday. Nine rhinos have been illegally killed by hunters so far in 2021, the lowest number in eight years for the period, according to the figures from the ministry of environment and tourism. Four elephants have been killed this way, a five-year low. FILE PHOTO: Foreign tourists in safari riverboats observe elephants along the Chobe river bank near Botswana's northern border where Zimbabwe, Zambia and Namibia meet. REUTERS/Peter Apps The southern African nation is home to the second-largest white rhino population in the world after South Africa and also accounts for a third of the world's remaining black rhinos. ...
Read MoreTag: conservation
Nolan Paquette started working part-time at his local sawmill more than 20 years ago while still at school, pushing a broom on the clean-up team. Now 38, Paquette drives trucks and operates machinery at the same Western Forest Products-owned mill in Duke Point, Nanaimo, the third generation of his family to work in forestry on British Columbia’s Vancouver Island. He is one of 38,000 workers in Canada’s westernmost province whose job, according to the industry, depends on the logging of towering old-growth trees, such as cedars, Douglas firs and western hemlocks aged at least 250 years, and in some cases more than a thousand. The dispute over felling British Columbia’s ancient forests has been thrust into the limelight by a months-long blockade of private logging company Teal Jones i...
Read MoreCoral reef restoration technology aims to reverse climate change damage
Marine scientist Deborah Brosnan remembers “feeling like a visitor at an amazing party” on her diving trips to a bay near the Caribbean island of Saint Barthelemy where she swam above coral reefs with nurse sharks, sea turtles and countless colorful fish. But on a return trip after Hurricane Irma ravaged the island in 2017, she dove the reef again - and was shocked by what she saw. “Everything was dead,” she recalled in an interview with Reuters. “There were no sharks, no sea turtles, no sea grass, no living coral. I felt like I lost my friends.” Marine scientist Deborah Brosnan does a research dive on a coral reef, in this undated handout in Antigua and Barbuda. Courtesy of Deborah Brosnan & Associates/Handout via REUTERS Recent research has shown that warmer atmospheric ...
Read MoreA young grey whale lost in the Mediterranean, thousands of miles away from its natural habitat in the Pacific ocean, is desperately seeking its way home, but biologists are worried it may not survive. Grey whales normally migrate along the U.S. west coast, but biologists think that with global warming opening northern routes, the whale became lost and swam into the Atlantic ocean via the Arctic. Thierry Auga-Bascou, scientist and member of the French Biodiversity Agency, takes a skin sample of Wally, the 15 month old gray whale, swimming in the Mediterranean Sea past the coast of Argeles-Sur-Mer, France, May 6, 2021. REUTERS/Alexandre Minguez Named Wally by biologists, the whale is around two years old and eight metres (26.25 ft) long, but his rapid weight loss is causing concern...
Read MoreSouth Africa will clamp down on captive lion breeding after a review panel concluded the industry risked the conservation of wild lions and harmed tourism, the environment minister said on Sunday. In the nearly 600-page report, the panel appointed by the ministry in 2019 recommended that South Africa end the breeding and keeping of captive lions for economic gain, including hunting them and tourist interactions such as cub petting. FILE PHOTO: Tourists interact with a lion cub at the Lion and Safari Park near Johannesburg, South Africa. Reuters/Tim Cocks The panel also recommended an immediate moratorium on the trade of lion derivatives such as bones, which they found to pose major risks to wild lion populations in South Africa. Barbara Creecy, Minister of Forestry, Fisheries ...
Read MoreSince embarking on the sustainability journey with a pledge to eliminate plastic straws, Avani Hotels has been committed to implementing eco-conscious initiatives focused on preserving the planet for future generations. In celebration of Earth Day on 22 April 2021, the brand shares select Sustainable Well-being stories from its properties worldwide. Reducing plastic In 2018, Avani Hotels introduced a ban on plastic straws, which today extends to all its 33 properties worldwide. Instead, paper, bamboo or other materials that reduce landfill waste are prioritised, alongside embracing other sustainable practices such as zero waste food management. Avani+ Samui Resort took the initiative one step further by phasing out plastic packaging completely and opting for reusable materials for i...
Read MoreNorwegian Cruise Line (NCL) has turned around global cruise travel, transcending many boundaries through its 54-year-old history. On the occasion of World Water Day 2021, the cruise company, that has always been mindful of preserving natural resources integral to our sustenance and survival, takes us through its water conservation and management practices. Under its Sail and Sustain Stewardship Program, the company has been working tirelessly to launch several innovative initiatives to minimize waste to landfills, reduce the CO2 emissions rate, increase sustainable sourcing and invest in emerging technologies. In 2019, NCL became the first major global cruise company to eliminate single-use plastic beverage bottles across its fleet and its private destinations, saving over six million ...
Read MoreIn the border district of Xishuangbanna in southwest China’s Yunnan province, the global pandemic has put residents of the small ethnic minority village of Mandian under pressure to change old habits. Behind a traditional homestead with a small garden of medicinal herbs and a veranda lined with beehives, a sign posted on the edge of the forest says, “Do not enter the protected zone without authorisation.” “Because of environmental protection, we aren’t allowed to go in anymore,” said local resident Yu Yao. She said inspectors come and visit every month to ensure the new restrictions are being enforced, adding that permission is needed even to fell a tree. Residents sit by a house at Mandian village in Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan province. REUTERS/David Stan...
Read MoreInternational Animal Welfare Organisation, World Animal Protection lauds and appreciates the recent legal directive of a court on the unethical and immoral practice of baiting lions for tourism in Gir National Park in Gujarat, as reported in the press. In the wake of this landmark legal directive that regulates the nature of wildlife tourism, two travel and tour operator companies, 1000 Islands Hotels and Resort and Wolf and Company, have undertaken to endorse the wildlife friendly pledge of World Animal Protection, that encourages travel operators to refrain from promoting the unethical exploitation of animals, including elephant rides and selfies with wild animals in tiger breeding establishments and other captive facilities. Recently, a court in Gir Somnath district of Gujara...
Read MoreImre Vida descends from the ancient people who once fished Hungary’s Balaton, one of Europe’s largest lakes, in boats hewn from oak trunks and who crafted simple shelters from the wetland’s reeds. The reeds lining the shores of the lake are still used today to thatch roofs or are burned for fuel. But conservations says the reeds, which act as a barometer for the health of the water are declining fast, as authorities eye the lake for tourism and the vegetation is sacrificed to give tourists a view. The BalaLand Residence is seen on the shore of Lake Balaton in Szantod, Hungary, February 23, 2021. REUTERS/Bernadett Szabo Vida used to spend the winter months on an amphibious truck cutting reeds sustainably to make thatched roofs and sell to customers as far afield as the Netherlands...
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