Wildlife

Peat is made up of partly decomposed vegetation and is formed over centuries in anaerobic, waterlogged conditions. Peat has been on our planet for around 360 million years.

By Tim Christophersen, originally posted at the UN-REDD Programme The lack of knowledge on peatlands must be addressed urgently. An often neglected ecosystem, and significant contributor to climate change, is peat. When it burns or dries up huge amounts of CO2 are released. The UK Met Office says carbon dioxide levels have seen a surge in recent months as […]

Originally posted at the UN-REDD Programme Indonesia’s president Joko Widodo announced the other week a landmark moratorium banning all peat-damaging activities. At the Climate COP in Marrakech a new UN Environment-led global initiative, the Global Peatlands Initiative, was launched. Why that sudden focus on protecting peatlands, an ecosystem so far not on the radar of […]

#ListenToTheYoungVoices was the theme of the day, going into the UN 2017 World Wildlife Day. We held a rousing Q&A session on twitter and learned from our social media community about the relationships between wildlife, habitat protection, agriculture, and development. Here are our top 6 takeaways from that discussion. 1. Habitat loss for increased food […]

Originally published on the Conservation International Blog. By Bruno Vander Velde  The world watched as wildfires raged in parts of Indonesia last month, filling the skies with smoke and even causing the country’s president to cut short a trip to Washington. Not making headlines, however, is a recent bit of good news from the Southeast […]

Originally posted on CIFOR’s Forests News. By Jack Hewson. BOGOR, Indonesia—A 90 kilogram full-grown male orangutan is sitting in your garden, eating mangoes stolen from your mango tree. You are unhappy about this. So how do you get rid of him? According to conservation scientist Erik Meijaard, the best method is to find some friends, […]