Last year, the world witnessed a number of animals that went near or completely extinct. This includes the Chinese paddlefish, the Sumatran rhino and the Indochinese tiger – which is extinct in the wild but a rare few are still living in captivity. Malaysia’s last Sumatran rhino named Iman died in November 2019, making the extremely endangered species locally extinct.
A Malaysian state that is a major nesting site for turtles will ban the trade in their eggs, authorities said Thursday, in a boost for the threatened creatures. Turtles regularly crawl ashore to lay their eggs on beaches in northeastern Terengganu state, and the spectacle of babies hatching and scurrying into the sea is a major draw for tourists.But numbers have declined rapidly over the decades as they are hunted for their meat and shells, while rampant poaching of their eggs is als
The blame game has begun. The number of COVID-19 victims is still unknown, but there is a stream of hate and misinformation pervading timelines. The damage of disinformation and the virus itself to families and communities is equal to our failure to ensure that science, not rhetoric, shapes policy.Studies show that it is more common for viruses to be transmitted from animals to humans. Some erroneously say this is due to innocuous human errors.
22 April marked the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day, which was strikingly different from previous years. Countries across the planet are grappling with an unprecedent situation in which a seemingly innocuous virus illness spread into a global pandemic in less than 90 days. It has infected more than 2.4 million people in more than 200 countries, claimed over 170,000 lives, and has brought most economic activity to a standstill.
Diseases such as the COVID-19 pandemic sweeping the globe could become more common as human activity destroys habitats and forces disease-carrying wild animals into ever-closer proximity with us, a major study showed on Wednesday.Illegal poaching, mechanised farming and increasingly urbanised lifestyles have all led to mass biodiversity loss in recent decades, devastating populations of wild animals and increasing the abundance of domesticated livestock.Around 70 percent of human pathogens ar
Today, the world celebrates World Wildlife Day with the theme of “Sustaining all life on Earth”. According to the United Nations (UN), ‘All life on earth’ encompasses all wild animal and plant species as a component of biodiversity, as well as the livelihoods of people, especially those who live closest to nature.
97 kilometres of rocks in Thai waters stand between Beijing and dominance over the Mekong, a mighty river that feeds millions as it threads south from the Tibetan plateau through five countries before emptying into the South China Sea.China has long wanted to dredge the riverbed in northern Thailand to open passage for massive cargo ships – and potentially military vessels.Ultimately, a link could be carved from Yunnan province thousands of kilometres south through the Mekong countries – Myan
While its economic benefits and geopolitical implications are often splashed across the front pages of national newspapers worldwide, the impact of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) on the environment receives much less attention.An ambitious plan unveiled by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013 to boost connectivity in over 70 countries, the world’s largest ever infrastructure project includes the financing and building of everything from roads to airports and is estimated to cost anywh
Southeast Asia is known for its vast rainforests which constitute about almost 20 percent of forest cover with the richest biodiversity in the world. What the region is also known for is its alarming rate of deforestation. Southeast Asia has the highest rate of deforestation of any major tropical region followed by Latin America and Africa.
Illegal hunting poses a greater threat to ASEAN’s wildlife than earlier thought according to a study published in the Communications Biology journal last week.
The recent nomination of five protected areas to join the ASEAN Heritage Parks network marks another milestone in the region’s efforts to conserve its rich but highly threatened biodiversity – and sheds more light on this valuable network of nature reserves and marine parks.Managed by the ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity (ACB), ASEAN Heritage Parks are defined as “protected areas of high conservation importance which preserve complete spectrums of representative ecosystems of the ASEAN region.”A
Oceans cover more than 70 percent of the earth’s surface and provide for the coastal communities that accounts for 35 percent of the global population. ASEAN’s 173,000 kilometres of shorelines has at least 500 million coastal people living within 30 kilometres of the reef. This proximity has made nearshore ecosystems vulnerable to habitat change from destructive human activities such as overexploitation, pollution, ineffective governance and coastal development.
