Tsai Ing-Wen
Land Use/Forests

Land Use Challenges Taiwan’s First Female President

TAIPEI, Taiwan, June 6, 2016 (ENS) – Taiwan’s first female president, Tsai Ing-wen, has pledged to develop a program that will integrate national land-use planning, regional development and environmental sustainability. But civic groups are concerned about her lack of strong commitment and lack of detail about the policy. […]

visitors
Land Use/Forests

Chinese Oil Search Shuts Ecolodge at Amazon Headwaters

QUITO, Ecuador, May 25, 2016 (ENS) – Seismic explorations planned by Chinese oil company Sinopec at the headwaters of the Amazon in the remote jungles of Ecuador have led the Ecuadorian eco-tourism company, Tropic, to close the internationally recognized and award-winning Huaorani Ecolodge. […]

water
Land Use/Forests

UN: Water, Forests and Jobs All Interdependent

ROME, Italy, March 22, 2016 (ENS) – Nearly half of the world’s workers are employed in water-related sectors, while at the same time, the water security of eight out of 10 people is under threat, the United Nations said today, highlighting the links between water, forests and jobs. […]

Berta Cáceres
At Risk

Goldman Prize Winner Murdered in Honduras

SAN FRANCISCO, California, March 3, 2016 (ENS) – A indigenous Lenca woman who was honored with a 2015 Goldman Prize last year for her fight against a destructive dam, was killed by gunmen last night in her home in La Esperanza, Honduras. […]

camping
Land Use/Forests

Obama Shelters Wild California in Three New Monuments

WASHINGTON, DC, February 12, 2016 (ENS) – President Barack Obama today designated three new national monuments encompassing nearly 1.8 million acres of existing federal lands in southern California: Mojave Trails National Monument, Sand to Snow National Monument, and Castle Mountains National Monument. […]

Clark, Smith
Land Use/Forests

British Columbia Protects Great Bear Rainforest

VICTORIA, British Columbia, Canada, February 3, 2016 (ENS) – First Nations, environmental groups and coastal forest industry representatives joined the provincial government Monday to celebrate achieving ecosystem-based management in the Great Bear Rainforest. […]

smoke
At Risk

Smoke From Indonesia’s Illegal Fires Chokes SE Asia

JAKARTA, Indonesia, October 19, 2015 (ENS) – Fires started illegally to clear land for oil palm and acacia pulp plantations in Indonesia are sending thick smoke over the Southeast Asian region, making breathing painful, closing schools, canceling outdoor events and disrupting air traffic. […]

forest
Land Use/Forests

Global Deforestation Slows But Forests Still Shrinking

DURBAN, South Africa, September 15, 2015 (ENS) – Over the past 25 years the rate of global deforestation has slowed by more than 50 percent, even though the world’s forests continue to shrink as populations increase and forested land is developed, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization reports. […]

construction
Land Use/Forests

Losing Farmland, Taiwan Seeks to Limit Development

TAIPEI, Taiwan, June 7, 2015 (ENS) – Prime farmland is being lost to development across Taiwan, posing threats of food shortages and environmental pollution and causing farmland prices to soar. To keep farmland for agriculture, rules that limit purchase or construction of farmhouses to farmers could take effect as early as June 30. […]

Yanomami leader
Land Use/Forests

Brazil Pursues Illegal Miners on Indigenous Land

BRASILIA, Brazil, May 11, 2015 (ENS) – Federal Police officers from the states of Roraima, Rondônia, São Paulo, Amazonas, and Pará are in the process of serving 313 warrants against people suspected of clandestine gold and gemstone mining on indigenous lands. […]

Everglades
Air/Climate

U.S. Builds Climate Resilience of Lands, Waters

WASHINGTON, DC, April 22, 2015 (ENS) – U.S. government agencies have entered into four collaborative landscape partnerships – in southwest Florida, Hawaii, Washington and the Great Lakes region – to help build resilience in regions vulnerable to climate change. […]

patrol
At Risk

Illicit Wildlife, Gold, Timber Trade Funds DRC Conflict

NAIROBI, Kenya, April 16, 2015 – Organized crime funded by illegal trade in natural resources is fueling the 20-year-long conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, DRC, that has cost the lives of several million people, the United Nations Environment Programme reports. […]

warbler
Land Use/Forests

Colombia Plants Trees to Rescue Bright Blue Warbler

WASHINGTON, DC, April 10, 2015 (ENS) – Three bird conservation groups have succeeded in their 10-year effort to establish a conservation corridor in Colombia that offers crucial winter habitat to help reverse the decline of Cerulean warblers – small sky-blue songbirds that migrate between North and South America. […]

trees
Air/Climate

Earth’s Green Cover Increasing Despite Deforestation

SYDNEY, Australia, March 31, 2015 (ENS) – China’s large-scale tree planting efforts and increasing rainfall on three continents have contributed to an increase in the total amount of vegetation on Earth over the past decade – reversing previous global forest loss, an international team of scientists reports. […]

planting tree
Land Use/Forests

Global Forest Restoration Goal Grows

BONN, Germany, March 23, 2015 (ENS) – New forest restoration initiatives were announced by Latin America, Southeast Asia and Africa at the second international Bonn Challenge conference on forest landscape restoration taking place in Germany on the weekend. […]