Biodiversity

"A unique species on Socotra in Yemen, famed for its bright red resin and umbrella-shaped crown, has been in decline for years. Now islanders are leading efforts to save it",

"A federal appeals court has vacated a ruling that would have helped to clear the way for a project to build a road through a national wildlife refuge in Alaska. The court said it would rehear the case, which involves a land swap that was approved by the Trump administration."

"Wisconsin wildlife officials on Thursday released their first new wolf management plan in almost a quarter-century but the document doesn’t establish a new statewide population goal, a number that has become a flashpoint in the fight over hunting quotas."

"A commission acknowledged concerns about the threatened shorebirds that rely on crab eggs as a critical food source around the Delaware Bay."

"A fisheries regulator on Thursday unexpectedly extended a ban on harvesting female horseshoe crabs from the Delaware Bay to help protect a vital food source for the red knot, a threatened shorebird that migrates via the bay’s beaches.

"For the first time in 10 years, a fisheries regulator is poised to restart the harvest of female horseshoe crabs in the Delaware Bay, a policy change that conservationists say will threaten the survival of the Atlantic species of the red knot, an imperiled shorebird."

"The National Park Service dropped an unusual warning recently, urging visitors to stop licking toads."

"On Nov. 4, the 41st annual meeting of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) closed without making significant progress toward the establishment of new marine protected areas (MPAs) and fishery regulations. The scientific community and most delegates to the meeting had urged the adoption of new protections for Southern Ocean ecosystems to buffer damage from climate change and fishing."

"CITES COP-19 starts in mid-November 2022 and is likely going to be a decisive meeting for the protection of species such as rosewood.

Both CITES and Madagascar have banned the export of rosewood and ebony, but there appears to be no end to the illegal trade, and the fate of nearly 40,000 illegally-exported rosewood logs seized in Singapore, Kenya and Sri Lanka in 2014 is still uncertain.

"Developing nations are reducing their debt by pledging to protect their resources in financial deals that could give them a bigger role in the fight against climate change."