Biodiversity

"A new type of snub-nosed monkey has been found in a remote forested region of northern Myanmar which is under threat from logging and a Chinese dam project, scientists said on Wednesday."

"The financial risks posed by the loss of species and ecosystems have risen sharply and are becoming a greater concern for businesses than international terrorism, according to a United Nations report released [Wednesday]."

"A growing number of creatures could disappear from the earth, with one-fifth of all vertebrates and as many as a third of all sharks and rays now facing the threat of extinction, according to a new survey assessing nearly 26,000 species across the globe."

"The South Pacific island nation of Palau has declared all the waters within its Exclusive Economic Zone to be a marine mammal sanctuary for the protection of whales, dolphins, and dugongs."

"Scientists searching the Amazon have discovered new species -- creatures such as a baldheaded parrot, a blue-fanged tarantula and a bright red catfish -- at the rate of about one every three days for the past 10 years, the World Wildlife Fund reported Monday."

"Weak U.S. regulations on keeping captive tigers could be feeding the multimillion dollar international black market for tiger parts, according to a new analysis released by WWF and TRAFFIC, the world's largest wildlife trade monitoring network."

"A U.N. meeting to set targets to fight rising animal and plant extinctions inched on Friday toward agreement, but rich and poor countries remained split over details of a new framework on genetic resources."

U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan asked the Fish and Wildlife Service to explain why it determined that polar bears are merely threatened under the Endangered Species Act, not endangered. Environmentalists are in court seeking the more protective classification.

"U.S. environmental groups filed a suit on Wednesday against British-based oil giant BP Plc saying the world's worst offshore spill inflicted "ongoing unlawful" harm on endangered wildlife in the Gulf of Mexico."

"It might as well be called the God conference. Over the next 11 days, 193 national delegations will descend on Nagoya, Japan, in pursuit of a vexing goal befitting a deity: how to preserve life on Earth."