habitat protection
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Everglades restoration going slowly, poorly, federal report says
The roughly $10 billion restoration of the Everglades is “making scant progress toward achieving its goals” due to built-in bureaucracy, funding troubles, and more, according to a report from the National Research Council. The report paints a bleak picture of federal and state rescue efforts, which together comprise the largest ecosystem restoration project in history. […]
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Al Gore, Wangari Maathai urge U.N. to tackle deforestation in next climate treaty
Nobel Peace Prize winners Al Gore and Wangari Maathai urged United Nations countries on Monday to pay special attention to tropical deforestation in their next international climate treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol. Preserving forests, they said, will help local communities, fight poverty, and may substantially slow global warming since deforestation accounts for about one-fifth […]
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Everglades restoration deal could still benefit Big Sugar
When Florida Gov. Charlie Crist announced in June that the state would buy 187,000 acres of land from U.S. Sugar Corp. to “jump start” an Everglades restoration effort, environmentalists cheered visions of flowing, fresh water and pristine, untouched habitat. But that may not turn out to be exactly the case. Crist initially said he would […]
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Cameroon and Nigeria team up to protect endangered gorilla
Cameroon and Nigeria will partner up to protect the world’s most endangered gorilla under an agreement facilitated by the Wildlife Conservation Society. Only some 300 Cross River gorillas remain, all of which live only in those two Central African countries. Gorilla gorilla diehli is threatened by illegal logging, agricultural conversion of its habitat, and poaching […]
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New Ecuador constitution would give nature inalienable rights
Ecuador’s environment will be given inalienable rights if residents of that country vote yes Sept. 28 on a referendum to overhaul the constitution. One of the draft document’s 444 articles gives nature the right to “exist, persist, maintain, and regenerate its vital cycles, structure, functions, and its processes in evolution.” The controversial constitution, which would […]
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EPA puts kibosh on wetland-destructive Army Corps project
The U.S. EPA has vetoed a giant, expensive plan to build the world’s largest water pump in the Mississippi River delta. The so-called Yazoo Pump flood-control project would have sucked 6 million gallons of water a minute from 67,000 acres of wetlands along the Yazoo River. The scheme, proposed by the U.S. Army Corps of […]
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Tigers and elephants applaud expansion of Sumatra park
Sumatra’s Tesso Nilo National Park will be doubled in size in an effort to help out the endangered elephants and tigers that live there. Riau province, which contains the park, houses some 210 elephants (down from 1,250 just a quarter-century ago) and 192 tigers (down from 650 in that same time period). Sixty to 80 […]
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Cleanup funding inadequate for Bush-designated marine monument
Remember when President Bush designated the world’s largest protected marine area in Hawaii in 2006? Environmentalists cheered, fish clapped their fins, and Bush aides crossed “burnish green reputation” off the presidential to-do list — but the aftermath has been underwhelming. Tons of debris drift into the 140,000-square-mile Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument each year, posing a […]
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EPA and Florida sucking at Everglades cleanup, says judge
Florida and the U.S. EPA have been skewered by a federal judge for their Everglades cleanup efforts (or rather, lack thereof). In 2003, Florida pushed back a deadline for reducing phosphorus pollution in the River of Grass from 2006 to 2016. By doing so, the state “violated its fundamental commitment and promise to protect the […]
