Conservation News ~ 17 April 2020

• Brazilian indigenous chiefs act to halt illegal logging in historical landmark area
• Ring-tailed lemurs stink flirt
• Warmer temperatures drive up dengue fever cases in Indonesia
• Sri Lanka’s COVID lockdown sets wildlife free but raises poaching threats
• Fears of rise in poaching amid pandemic poverty
• Rwanda has made nearly 35% of the country’s two million hectare restoration goal a reality
• State biologists note 6 new wolf packs in Oregon
• New wilderness preserve created in Bridgewater
• New pit viper in Arunachal Pradash named after Harry Potter character
• New Orleans Flood Control harms endangered species, lawsuit says
• State Panel grants temporary endangered species status to Southern California cougars
• Evolutionary trees can’t reveal speciation and extinction rates
• Judge says that failure to help whales skirts the Endangered Species Act
• US judge cancels permit for Keystone XL pipeline after lawsuit
• Paul McCartney says China’s wet markets are Medieval and obscene
• Second city in China bans eating dogs, cats, and wild animals
• Brian May says veganism is the way forward from COVID
• Quarantining also means caring for our great ape relatives
• A comet may have destroyed a paleolithic village 12,800 years ago
• Rescuing orangutans doesn’t work for apes or forests
• Human handling stresses young Monarch butterflies
• China releases list of animals to be farmed after COVID
• Locust plague up to 20 times larger than last wave could devastate parts of East Africa
• Rapid deforestation of Brazilian Amazon could bring next pandemic
• Viral zoonotic risk is homogenous among taxonomic orders of mammalian and avian species
• EPA scientists said US should tighten key air pollution limit – the agency’s head just said no
• EPA can’t kick scientists off science advisory panels, court says
• White House redacts every single page of the science findings for copper mining research in the Boundary Waters
• Himalayas visible for first time in 30 years as pollution levels in India drop
• Solar-powered driveways are made from recycled plastic bottles
• Oregon coast spring Chinook Salmon one step closer to endangered species protections
• Data shows 30 percent drop in air pollution over Northeast US
• Study projects 30%more forest cover if wood biomass is managed right – critics call it a disaster
• In Colombian wetland, oil woes deepen with the arrival of fracking
• Land conflicts escalate with spread of COVID in Indonesia
• New species of black endemic iguanas in Caribbean is proposed for urgent conservation
• Ukraine wildfires draw dangerously close to Chernobyl
• Scientists Joshua Trees may warrant listing as threatened species
• With Yosemite National Park closed to visitors, bears are out and about
• Virginia governor rejects bill to censor vegan milk labels
• To cut carbon, a movement grows to electrify everything
• Deep sea expedition uncovers 30 new species
• Calls to declare koalas endangered as species races toward extinction
• Endangered species program challenge pushed to appeals court
• Endangered New Zealand bird sent to safety offshore despite COVID lockdown
• Brazil’s dictator hands indigenous land decisions back to farm sector
• Scientists have found oil from the Deepwater Horizon blowout in fish livers
• See Florida panthers fight over territory in first ever footage
• Offshore oil and gas platforms release more methane than previously estimated
• Virginia becomes first state in the South to target 100% clean power
• New renewable energy capacity hit record levels in 2019
• Hundreds of dead seals washing ashore in Nova Scotia
• Wildlife destruction not a slippery slope but a series of cliff edges
• Cuba found to be the most sustainably developed country in the world
• Americans disagree on animal protection; experts disagree on which ones need it
• New Zealand pushed to replace animal agriculture with plant-based crops
• Ganga River water becomes fit for drinking in Haridwar, Rishikesh during India’s lockdown
• Tiger King just made Virginia ban cub petting
• National Marine Fisheries Service found in violation of Endangered Species Act
• One of North America’s rarest mammals was just spotted in Yosemite
• Pope says COVID, fires, floods are nature’s reponses
• COVID forces Sea Shepherd to suspend patrols to protect last vaquitas
• Reproductive woes spell need for more viable females in Sumatran rhino program
• More than half of remote reefs in Coral Sea marine park suffered extreme bleaching
• Eating bats and pangolins banned in Gabon as a result of COVID pandemic
• White House to open more wildlife refuge land to hunting, fishing
• DC just banned the sale of Elephant Ivory and Rhino Horn
• Exploiting nature drives outbreaks of new diseases
• Logging begins in unburnt areas of Australia’s Nambucca State Forest
• New bird species showcases burgeoning biodiversity
• Federal Judge finds lobster fishery threatens endangered whale
• Norway and Canada give green light to cruel seal hunts during COVID
• Endangered Blue Whales spotted off New England coast
• 74 miles of Oakland streets will close to cars to give pedestrians, bicyclists exercise room
• New Yorkers will vote on a $3billion bond issue designed to address environment and climate
• EPA proposes big expansion of Port Everglades offshore dump