conservation

Sea sponges. They’re not exactly the cuddliest of creatures. They don’t have eyes, limbs, ears, a mouth or even a brain. They can’t move and some of them look a bit like Wotsits.

Bad news from the 2016 International Whaling Commission meeting – as the first significant vote was another disappointment for whales and supporters of conservation. Despite getting a majority of votes in favour, the proposal to create a South Atlantic Whale Sanctuary did not pass, because it was short of the three-quarters majority needed.

Whales are special. No, not for any stereotypical hippy la-la reasons, this is *science*!

Healthy oceans need lots of healthy whale populations: they keep things in balance, help disperse and mix nutrients, support entire ecosystems and help fight climate change.

Surprised? Read on…

Good news for rhino fans: last week, researchers announced the first live encounter with a Sumatran rhino in Borneo for over 40 years. But the human pressures that have pushed this species to the brink of extinction are still very much in play.

At the end of Shark Week, it’s time for some good news on sharks. Despite all the earlier blogs this week, this is not me trying to convince you sharks are huggable and loveable (though, they are, obviously), rather a round-up of some good conservation news for the world’s often-underappreciated shark species.

Asia Pulp and Paper – the company doing so much to jeopardise the future of Indonesia's rainforests – has done some pretty stupid things in the past. But pulping the trees in its own tiger sanctuary is astonishingly dumb.

And yet that's exactly what APP has done.

Lately, I've been working a lot on our palm oil campaign, so my spider senses are highly atuned to anything coming out of Sumatra and Indonesia in general. But two stories I found this morning, both on New Scientist, really underlined what's going on west of Java.

The first article features some astonishing images from the Zoological Society of London, caught by a motion-sensitive camera left in the middle of the forest. The impressive snaps include a herd of elephants and a golden cat, but the stand-out picture is of an inquisitive and rare Sumatran tiger, it's eyes glowing in the camera's flash. Take a look at the slideshow - they're incredble.