NEAR MEKINOCK, N.D. – Trees and brush are the bane of prairie wildlife managers, and keeping the woody invaders at bay is an ongoing challenge. With that in mind, faculty from UND and North Dakota State University, along with personnel from several agencies and conservation groups, recently hosted a Woody Encroachment Workshop to teach aspiring wildlife managers about tools and techniques for mitigating invasive species on prairie landscapes. More than 20 students from UND and NDSU attended the workshop Friday, Sept. 18, on the Mekinock Waterfowl Production Area northwest of Grand Forks and adjacent private land enrolled in the federal Conservation Reserve Program. Also attending were Emily Fernan, a refuge manager for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Devils Lake; Matt Parvey, private lands biologist for the North Dakota Game and Fish Department in Devils Lake; and personnel from Audubon Great Plains, North Dakota Natural Resources Trust, North Dakota Wildlife Federation and Pheasants Forever. The goal of the inaugural workshop was to give students a firsthand look at Mekinock WPA – one of the finest prairie landscapes in Grand Forks County – and highlight challenges facing prairie lands everywhere, said Susan Felege, UND professor of Wildlife Ecology and Management...

EL PASO—Federal Judge Kathleen Cardone granted a preliminary injunction Friday to halt construction on the border wall in Texas’ expansive Big Bend sector, including the national and state parks. Cardone read a brief order from the bench after hearing more than four hours of testimony from conservation groups and residents of the Big Bend region, known internationally for its dark night skies, abundant biodiversity and rugged river canyons. Cardone said that the plaintiffs are likely to succeed on the merits in at least one of their claims and to suffer irreparable harm if construction continues. Her ruling stops border barrier construction in the entire Big Bend sector—which spans more than 500 miles across West Texas—until the federal government complies with all applicable laws. The ruling applies to all of Big Bend National Park, Big Bend Ranch State Park and the border along the Rio Grande in the rest of the sector. The injunction will remain in place while the court considers the lawsuit, which was filed in April. Plaintiffs and their supporters embraced and wept outside the federal courtroom in El Paso Friday afternoon following the ruling. Many had traveled hundreds of miles from Big Bend communities, including Terlingua and...

Mobilising finance at scale is essential to halt and reverse biodiversity loss. This paper provides a comprehensive assessment of global biodiversity finance from all sources – public and private, dom...

Land sparing is a seductive story. Farmers become more productive. We need less land to produce the same amount of food. The land we no longer need can be spared for nature. No need for that tricky la...

to paper

With illegal logging and agricultural expansion closing in on their lands, four Indigenous Wounaan and Emberá-Wounaan villages in Panama’s Darién forest started a biodiversity monitoring project to document their forests’ conservation status, reports Mongabay contributor María Paula Rubiano A. Their biodiversity monitoring project recorded more than 200 species across 18,000 hectares (44,500 acres) of threatened forest, including three “umbrella” species: Jaguars (Panthera onca), Baird’s tapirs (Tapirus bairdii) and crested eagles (Morphnus guianensis). At least 15 of the species they documented are classified as threatened. The communities are now using the data as a baseline for joining the biodiversity credit market, which they hope can generate revenue in an area where there are few opportunities to earn money. The communities are using bioacoustic monitoring and camera-trapping with the support of the Panama-based NGO FSC Indigenous Foundation and Health In Harmony, an international nonprofit. They are employing a methodology developed by Savimbo, a biodiversity credit company co-founded by Indigenous community members, that uses 15 indicator species as a proxy for forest health. Samuel Cheucarama, who lives in an Indigenous Wounaan village, told Rubiano the efforts have already changed behavior in the communities. “People don’t go hunting anymore. They’re saying, ‘We’re going to...

There is perhaps no other continent on earth that possesses as diverse an ecosystem, biodiversity and cultural diversity as Asia. Yet, biodiversity conservation in Asia is in constant crisis, due to u...

BENGALURU: All efforts are being made to protect the myristica swamps in Karnataka and ensure they are protected and declared as eco-sensitive areas and biodiversity heritage sites. Mohammad Tabrez Alam Sharif, Chairman of the Western Ghats Conservation Task Force Committee (WGCTFC), said there are 500 myristica swamps in Karnataka that need to be protected for their rich biodiversity and heritage value. A letter for the same was penned to the Karnataka Biodiversity Board, the National Biodiversity Authority and the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC). A dedicated team from the Centre will soon be coming to the state to assess them and provide the special status, he said. Pertaining to the myristica swamps, Sharif said, protecting them is essential as they are a source of water for major rivers. These locations have fresh water round the year and are the lifeline of the forests and the surrounding areas. A joint conservation plan with the forest department and biodiversity board is required for protecting the region, he said. Sharif was speaking at the sidelines of the flag-off of the wildlife week on Friday. On the occasion, a special commemorative postcard series of 10 Western Ghats districts was released by...

Abstract. Reductions in insect biodiversity are widely documented and result from numerous pressures that operate from local to global scales. Identifying

With illegal logging and agricultural expansion closing in on their lands, four Indigenous Wounaan and Emberá-Wounaan villages in Panama’s Darién forest started a biodiversity monitoring project to…

Conservation groups updated their legal challenge to the Trump administration's recent harmful changes to the Endangered Species Act.

The role of finance in biodiversity is growing, yet gaps between financial and conservation expertise limit effective scrutiny. This Review examines and explains biodiversity finance mechanisms such a...

The Borrowed Earth Project was lucky to have been able to interview Peter Bennett, Founder and Director of Rainforest Concern about his phenomenal work in building up a network of inter...

Where cattle production expands into natural ecosystems, it typically leads to stark social–ecological impacts, including greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity losses, and ecosystem degradation. This...