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Mail & Guardian
international union for conservation of naturelatest news & developments
Glaciers in a third of all World Heritage sites, including Africa’s last remaining glaciers, are “condemned to disappear by 2050”. (AFP)

Africa will lose its few remaining glaciers by 2050

Globally glaciers in World Heritage sites outside the polar ice sheets with areas less than 10km² may almost disappear

Rhino poaching and illegal horn trade declining in Africa and Asia

Despite the decline in rhino poaching, there are critical threats to the survival of these iconic animals

Heavy going: A man pulls a boat through water hyacinth that prevents fishers from working on Lake Victoria at Kichinjio Beach in Kisumu, Kenya. The plant is an invasive species from the Amazon Basin that suppresses local biodiversity and obstructs river flows. Photo: Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP

Climate change plans ‘fail to tackle invasive species’

A new study has found a lack of co-ordinated policy response to these interconnected issues

More rhinos, more money: The rhino bond’s returns are linked to population growth. (Philippe Lopez/AFP)

‘Rhino bond’ charges onto markets to save South African animals

Investors will see returns if the critically endangered rhino population increases in two designated South African parks

Flutter: Become a citizen scientist and take photos of butterflies. Photo: Sanjay Hadkar/The Times of India/AFP

Snap a butterfly and Whatsapp it to global census

Butterfly and moth species, which are indicators of change in ecosystems, are declining with some becoming extinct.

Long-term view: The Giraffe Conservation Foundation says the animals are still in trouble in Africa, but there is hope as their numbers are ‘showing a positive upwards trend’. Photo: Johan Swanepoel/Science Photo Library/AFP

Giraffes stick their survival necks out

New assessment puts their numbers in Africa at more than 117 000, up by 20% since 2015.

Photo: Laura Lezza/Getty Images

The Mediterranean sea of plastic

The quantity of rubbish in the sea is driving a growing alarm among countries whose economies rely on tourism

Power of nature: Water at the top of the Thina Falls is diverted to a pipe and turns the turbines that supply electricity to about 50 households in KwaMadiba village. The components are in a shipping container at the bottom of the falls.

Micro-hydropower lights up an Eastern Cape village

There is hidden potential for small hydropower plants in South Africa

Eating into land: Only 12% of the earth’s rangelands are protected and industrial-scale farmers as well as pastoralists such as these from Nigeria are causing these areas to shrink. Photo: Luis Tato/AFP

First-of-its-kind rangeland atlas pushes for protection

Rangelands are ‘nature’s gift to humanity’, but have been overlooked, neglected

The women of Mfolozi and eXolobeni do not feel safe approaching law enforcement as their aggressors will be treated with impunity, exposing them to further harassment, and driving more potential women activists into the shadows

Women environmental activists often pay the ultimate price

The violent murder of Mam’ Ntshangase is not the first of its kind and will most certainly not be the last

Sixteen southern white rhinos have been moved from &Beyond Phinda Private Game Reserve in KwaZulu-Natal to Garamba National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
(Photo by Wolfgang Kaehler/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Kruger loses 70% of rhinos in 10 years

The good news is that the drought has eased, poaching is down and the environment department is now not only focusing on the poachers but is going after crime syndicates

Nearly half of South Africa’s Protea species on the brink of extinction

Loss of habitat to agriculture, the spread of invasive species and changes to natural fire cycles are biggest culprits

The mountain gorilla’s habitat is restricted to protected areas covering nearly 800 square kilometres in two locations — the Virunga Massif and Bwindi-Sarambwe — which stretch across the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda. (AFP)

Fin whale, mountain gorilla populations rise amid conservation action

The mountain gorilla has been moved from the ‘critically endangered’ category to ‘endangered’

The two cubs, a male and female, born on August 25 are healthy and normal, said Andre Ganswindt, the director of the University of Pretoria’s mammal research institute. (AFP)

South African lion cubs conceived artificially in world first

Lions are extinct in 26 African countries, and numbers in the wild have plummeted 43% over the last two decades, with roughly only 20 000 left

Fight to stop last croak of African giants

A new shopping centre and housing estates are threatening the last major breeding grounds of a very special amphibian, reports Sipho Kings.

(AFP)

Caribbean coral reefs on the verge of collapse

With less than 10% of the Caribbean’s reefs showing live coral cover, one of the world’s most important ecosystems is in danger of utter devastation.

SA’s water puts species at risk

The quality of South Africa’s fresh water is so compromised that the survival of some species in our rivers, lagoons and dams are at risk.