By University of East Anglia More than half of common plants and one third of the animals could see a dramatic decline this century due to climate change – according to research from the University of East Anglia. Research published today in the journal Nature Climate Change looked at 50,000 globally widespread and common species […]

By Mongabay More than 60 percent of Africa’s forest elephants have been killed in the past decade due to the ivory trade, reports a new study published in the online journal PLOS ONE. The study warns that the diminutive elephant species — genetically distinct from the better-known savanna elephant — is rapidly heading toward extinction. […]

By Jeremy Hance / Mongabay A biofuel plantation near Yala National Park has landed Lanka Orex Leasing Company PLC (LOLC) in Sri Lanka’s highest court. Environmentalists say the company is illegally bulldozing Asian elephant habitat, including scrubland and tree stands, near the buffer zone of Yala National Park for gliricidia (Gliricidia sepium) biofuel plantation. “This […]

By John Vidal / The Guardian Nearly one in five of the world’s estimated 10,000 species of lizards, snakes, turtles, crocodiles and other reptiles are threatened with extinction, according to a study conducted by 200 experts. But the risk of extinction was found to be unevenly spread throughout the extremely diverse group of animals. According […]

By Mongabay China’s decision to open up collective forest for sale by individuals to outside interests will put 345,700 hectares or 15 percent of the giant panda’s remaining habitat at risk, warns a letter published in the journal Science. The letter, authored by a team of researchers including scientists from Conservation International and Chinese institutions, […]

By Gaia Vince / BBC News Global fish stocks are exploited or depleted to such an extent that without urgent measures we may be the last generation to catch food from the oceans. It has been some time since most humans lived as hunter-gatherers – with one important exception. Fish are the last wild animal […]

By Inter-Press Service Limiting climate change to two degrees C won’t save most coral reefs, according to new, state-of-the-art research. About 70 percent of corals are projected to suffer from long-term degradation by 2030 with two degrees C of warming, the first comprehensive global survey reported Sunday in the journal Nature Climate Change. The planet […]

By Zoological Society of London One fifth of the world’s invertebrates may be heading for extinction according to ‘Spineless’, a report published today (Friday 31st) by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), in conjunction with IUCN and the IUCN Species Survival Commission. Digging up earthworms, chasing butterflies and collecting clam shells could become a thing […]

By US Geological Survey From 1900-2010, freshwater fish species in North America went extinct at a rate 877 times faster than the rate found in the fossil record, while estimates indicate the rate may double between now and 2050.  This new information comes from a U.S. Geological Survey study to be published in the September […]

By Russ McSpadden / Earth First! Journal The U.S. Fish and Wildlife service has ordered the killing of an alpha female Mexican gray wolf for crimes against the cattle industry. She is accused of being the ringleader of a six member pack that has killed four cows in southwestern New Mexico over the last several […]