news.mongabay.com

A new study attempts to place a value of goods and services afforded by the ocean, estimating that if the planet’s seas were classified as a country, it would rank as the world’s seventh largest economy.

A city-sized resort complex in Laos is facilitating large-scale wildlife trafficking for Chinese tourists, exacerbating commercial poaching in the Southeast Asian nation and providing cover for the trade in tiger parts, warns a new report published by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA).

Researchers are planning to use drones equipped with vegetation-penetrating lasers to scan the Amazon rainforest for signs of past civilizations, reports the University of Exeter.

The government of Madagascar has established the Indian Ocean island’s first shark sanctuary in an area famous for its marine biodiversity, reports the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).

IOI Corporation officially committed to what its subsidiary, palm oil trader IOI Loders Croklaan, pledged last November: it will no longer source palm oil linked to deforestation and human rights abuses.

For the first time, Indonesia has sentenced an illegal manta ray trafficker to jail time and a fine, reports the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).

Myanmar (commonly called Burma) is home to at least 1,114 bird species after researchers identified 20 previously undocumented species during recent surveys, reports The Myanmar Times.

155 Chinese citizens have been arrested in Myanmar, commonly known as Burma, for illegal logging, reports Agence France-Presse.

Seven conservation societies have joined a campaign to push the Obama administration to end old-growth forest logging in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest.

Agriculture has surpassed deforestation and land use change as a driver of greenhouse gas emissions, argues a paper published in Global Change Biology.