Latest Biodiversity News

Indonesian maleo conservation faced setbacks due to development and plans for a new capital city

Dec. 07, 2023 00:16 AM EST

MAMUJU, Indonesia (AP) — A pair of tall birds with black feathers and pinkish breasts crossed a noisy road to reach a quiet part of a sandy tourist beach in the outskirts of Mamuju, a small town at the westernmost part of Indonesia’s Sulawesi island. There the maleos took turns...

Lebanon's Christians feel the heat of climate change in its sacred forest and valley

Dec. 05, 2023 01:06 AM EST

BCHARRE, Lebanon (AP) — Majestic cedar trees towered over dozens of Lebanese Christians gathered outside a small mid-19th century chapel hidden in a mountain forest to celebrate the Feast of the Transfiguration, the miracle where Jesus Christ, on a mountaintop, shined with light before his...

UK leader Rishi Sunak urges world to use AI and science to end malnutrition

Nov. 20, 2023 10:20 AM EST

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said Monday that the U.K. is setting up a new science initiative to help develop flood-tolerant rice, disease-resistant wheat and other crops that are more resilient to climate change. Sunak was joined by ministers, diplomats and...

Poverty is killing the Amazon rainforest. Treating soil and farmers better can help save what's left

Nov. 16, 2023 16:39 PM EST

TEKOHAW, Brazil (AP) — At dawn in this small Amazonian village in Brazil's Para state, flocks of noisy green parrots soar overhead as children run and play between wooden homes, kicking up sandy soil — in places white and bare as a beach. The ground reveals one of the paradoxes...

AP PHOTOS: The Brazilian Amazon's vast array of people and cultures

Nov. 16, 2023 16:28 PM EST

Renowned for its stunning biodiversity, the Amazon rainforest region is also home to a vast array of people and cultures. “People usually think that the environment doesn’t contain and include people, but it does,” said soil scientist Judson Ferreira Valentim, who lives in...

Poverty is killing the Amazon rainforest. Treating soil and farmers better can help save what's left

Nov. 16, 2023 10:41 AM EST

TEKOHAW, Brazil (AP) — At dawn in this small Amazonian village in Brazil's Para state, flocks of noisy green parrots soar overhead as children run and play between wooden homes, kicking up sandy soil — in places white and bare as a beach. The ground reveals one of the paradoxes...

As rainforests worldwide disappear, burn and degrade, a summit to protect them opens in Brazzaville

Oct. 26, 2023 10:56 AM EDT

Leaders from countries with the largest tropical forest basins are meeting in the Republic of Congo Thursday to work together to protect the forests from deforestation and destruction. Delegates from Brazil, Indonesia, Republic of Congo and dozens of other countries at the Three...

In a first, Massachusetts to ban purchase of single-use plastic bottles by state agencies

Sep. 21, 2023 16:02 PM EDT

BOSTON (AP) — Gov. Maura Healey signed an executive order Thursday that she says will make Massachusetts the first state to ban the purchase of single-use plastic bottles by state agencies. Massachusetts buys about 100,000 of the plastic water bottles each year. The...

Earth is outside its 'safe operating space for humanity' on most key measurements, study says

Sep. 13, 2023 14:04 PM EDT

Earth is exceeding its “safe operating space for humanity” in six of nine key measurements of its health, and two of the remaining three are headed in the wrong direction, a new study said. Earth’s climate, biodiversity, land, freshwater, nutrient pollution and “novel”...