The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) is an intergovernmental (UN) body that assesses the state of biodiversity and the ecosystem services provided to society. It was established by member states in 2012 and its objective is to strengthen the science-policy interface...
On 16 May (2019), the Sanger Institute outside Cambridge in the UK announced it would be closing its laboratory animal facility in the next few years. It came to this decision “following a rigorous review” of its scientific strategy and after consulting with the Wellcome...
WellBeing International is reaching out to engage with and support organizations that are implementing humane dog management projects around the globe. One of these is the Kabul Dog Project in Afghanistan that is run by Mayhew Afghanistan, a division of the Mayhew Home for Animals...
In 2009, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Bosnia performed a nationwide survey asking people about the threats in their local communities. Unexpectedly, the results highlighted concerns about roaming dogs (rather than mine fields, crime or some other social ill). More specifically, the complaints...
In March of 2019, the First African Conference on Linear Infrastructure and Ecology (ACLIE) was held in South Africa. Our partner organization, the Center for Large Landscape Conservation (CLLC) produced an excellent and eye-opening report for the conference on investments in linear transportation infrastructure (such...
Across the globe, the movement of species and the flow of ecological processes are being interrupted by human development. Natural areas are losing vital connections once used by wildlife to migrate, disperse, mate, feed, and thrive. This ongoing fragmentation is leaving nature susceptible to a...
In 1995, I was a coauthor with Bob Hoage (then a Public Affairs Officer for the National Zoo in Washington) on the changing animal protection movement and on the evolution and role of zoos and aquaria. Bob contributed the section on zoo evolution and he...
From 19-22 March of this year, several hundred conservation biologists, activists, economists, lawyers and political scientists convened in the Sultan Nazrin Shah Centre in Worcester College, Oxford to discuss global-scale challenges to wildlife and how the assembled cornucopia of disciplines could help to address and...
By any account, these are not good times for wild animals. Global climate change threatens many species (such as polar bears) with rapid habitat changes to which they might not be able to adapt. Poaching threatens many others, including the culturally significant rhinoceros and elephant...
In the last few months, a number of scientific papers have appeared that report declines—including some dramatic declines—in the number of wild animals sharing our planet. Most people familiar with this issue know about the finding that only 4 percent of mammalian terrestrial biomass consists...
