‘Early turtle’ fossil discovered

Scientists from University of Portsmouth say a 120-million-year-old fossil discovered in Brazil is in all likelihood the oldest known creature that resembles a modern turtle. The find is linked to present-day representatives by its heavily webbed, paddle-shaped foot. The researchers have enough of the specimen to determine it belongs to a new species, which they have named Araripemys arturi.The details are appearing in the latest issue of the journal Paleontology

Global warming and the danger of killer caterpillars

Lee Dyer a researcher at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana, warn that with global warming, parasitism against caterpillars will decrease. This in turn will free the caterpillars to devour agricultural fields and forests. Dyer and his team point out that parasitism decreases as climate variability increases. The researchers are uncertain as to the exact mechanisms that cause parasitism in caterpillars to decrease as climate variability increases The details of the research are given in an upcoming edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Mediterranean Sea – Threat to Bluefin Tuna

Blufefin Tuna is under threat in Mediterranean due to over fishing. According to WWF sources it is a real crisis for Bluefin Tuna in the Mediterranean. It is estimated that 45,000-50,000 tonnes of bluefin tuna were caught in 2004, well beyond the 32,000 tonne quota allowed by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT). Current levels of fishing are 2.5 times higher than the Bluefin Tuna populations can sustain. WWF says unless something concrete is not done we will soon reach commercial extinction of Bluefin Tuna

175th Birthday Bash for Harriet the Tortoise

The Australia Zoo has celebrated the 175th birthday of Harriet, the Galapagos Tortoise (Geochelone nigra).The day was marked with a pink hibiscus flower cake. It is believed that British naturalist Charles Darwin studied Harriet The age was assessed by DNA testing. Harriet now weighs 150kg and is roughly the size of a dinner table.

US - Reprieve for California's Giant Sequoia

California's Giant Sequoia trees have got a reprieve from being hacked down. A federal judge has temporarily barred a logging project. The project had envisaged thinning trees across 535 hectares, a quarter of which are within the Giant Sequoia National Monument. US District Judge Charles Breyer granted the request for an injunction, saying the project's potential effect on wildlife had not been properly evaluated.

New Books For you - The Smaller Majority by Piotr Naskrecki

Most of Earth's inhabitants, including insects, amphibians, and crustaceans, are smaller than a human finger. In this fascinating book Naskrecki, an entomologist, brings these creatures into sharp focus with more than 400 full-colour photographs. The author vividly describes some of the fascinating small creatures, including scorpions that glow under ultraviolet light, butterflies that drink 600 times their own weight in water at a sitting, and geckos that slip out of their skins to evade predators. To top it the author describes photographic techniques also. Published by Belknap Press, 2005, 288 p., color photos, hardcover, $35.00.

Deforestation slowing down says FAO

UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, presenting details from a new report says global deforestation is slowing down. This is attributed to planting new trees and restoring degraded lands as well as natural forest expansion in some regions. But the world's forests are still being destroyed at an alarming rate, says the report “Global Forest Resources Assessment 2005”. An average 7.3 million hectares was lost annually over the last five years. Deforestation, mainly conversion of forests to agricultural land, continues at a rate of about 13 million hectares (32 million acres) per year. The full report will be released in January 2006.

UK - Greenpeace dumps coal outside the Prime Minister's residence

Greenpeace dumped five tonnes of coal outside the Prime Minister's London residence in protest at what they said was his tardiness in tackling global warming. The World Wide Fund for Nature UK, says the Prime Minister speaks one thing but does the opposite on climate change. Tony Blair had made global warming one of the key themes of Britain's G8 presidency. Greenpeace spokesman Ben Stewart and WWF-UK director Andrew Lee accused the Prime Minister of not practising what he preaches on Global Warming.

USA - New Bison preserve in the offing

The vision by conservationists for a new Bison Preserve will begin to take shape this week. The preserve is about 50 miles south of Malta in Montana.On Thursday, 16 buffalo(Bison) will be released from a holding pen onto a portion of the nearly 32,000 acres of land that has been purchased or leased as the start of Bison reserve. The bison being released on the preserve came from Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota. The conservationists hope it will eventually grow to hundreds of thousands of acres. The Montana project began four years ago when the World Wildlife Fund found mostly pristine prairie in a patchwork of public and private land neighbouring the 1.1 million-acre Charles M. Russell Federal Wildlife Refuge. World Wildlife Fund has high hopes about this project.

A new guide to developing GEF project proposals on land degradation

A new guide entitled “Land Degradation and the GEF”
Intended for developing project proposals on land degradation
has just been launched by the World Conservation Union (IUCN), the GlobalEnvironment Facility (GEF), the United Nations Environment Programme and other partners at the seventh Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification held in Nairobi. This guide is an excellent and very practical tool not only for NGOs, government agencies and other stakeholders to understand how GEF works, but also how to apply for projectfunding for sustainable land management. The guide is designed to avoid bureaucratic language and unnecessary detail.
For more information contact:
Joachim Gratzfeld, Programme Officer,
Ecosystem Management Programme, Tel. +41 22 999 0267; Fax: +41 22 364 9720;

To dam or not to dam? Five years on from the World Commission on Dams

WWF has made a fervent plea, in its report To dam or not to dam? Five years on from the World Commission on Dams, to have a rethink on big dams. The World Commission on Dams was established in 1998 as an independent, international, multi-stakeholder process to address what had become one of the most controversial areas of infrastructure development. The report shows that dams can damage drown or even dry out wetlands, an important source of water. They also destroy fisheries and threaten endangered species. WWF adds, “This is not the engineering heyday of the 1950s when dams were seen as the hallmark of development. We know dams can cause damage and we must put this knowledge to work," In Belize, the US$30 million Chalillo Dam was meant to reduce electricity imports and lower electricity prices. Yet since its recent completion, local people have seen an average increase of 12 per cent in electricity prices while the dam has also flooded 1,000ha of pristine rainforest.

Want to host Olympics? The Key - Care for the environment

Competence in tackling environmental issues is of paramount in the bidding process for Olympics. Pat Schmitt, chairman of the IOC Sport and Environment commission revealed this at the sixth World Conference on Sport and Environment at the United Nations Environmental Programme, which is based in Kenya. He was speaking to the representatives of future Olympics. He reiterated that athletes want clean air, clean water and healthy food to compete at the highest level. Sustainable development and peace are essential adjuncts.

Hi Guys Next update will be on 14th

I am out in the field for 3 days where I have no access to Internet. So the next update will be on 14th. Bye for now.

Endangered lemur named after comedian John Cleese

The lemur Avahi cleesei was discovered in western Madagascar in 1990 by a team of scientists from Zurich University. The lemur has been now named after comedian John Cleese by the team of scientists, led by anthropologist Urs Thalmann and his colleague Thomas Geissman,in tribute to Cleese's promotion of the plight of the animal. Lemurs are considered the most endangered of all primates

Remains of 'Godzilla' crocodile discovered

A US-Argentine team of researchers have discovered fossilised remains of a crocodile that ruled the oceans 140 million years ago in Patagonia. Because of its dinosaur-like snout and jagged teeth scientists have nicknamed the creature Godzilla.The species is formally known as Dakosaurus andiniensis. It hunted large marine vertebrates such as the giant marine reptile, Ichthyosaurus, rather than small fish. Details have been published in the latest issue of journal Science.

Europeans descended from Hunters, not Farmers, new study reveals

A study by anthropologist Joachim Burger of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, in Mainz, Germany, based on DNA evidence has come to the conclusion that Europeans owe their ancestry mainly to Stone Age hunters, and not to migrants who brought farming to Europe from the Middle East. The immigrant farmers left a cultural legacy by introducing agriculture some 7,500 years ago, the researchers say. The findings are published in the latest issue of the journal Science.

50 MEDITERRANEAN PLANTS THREATENED WITH EXTINCTION – World Conservation Union(IUCN) takes initiative to stem the tide.

Many of the close to 25,000 Mediterranean native plants that make the region one of the world’s 34 biodiversity ‘hotspots’ are disappearing. 50 species are on top of the list. A new conservation tool, The Top 50 Mediterranean Island Plants, launched yesterday by the World Conservation Union (IUCN) at the 14th meeting of the Barcelona Convention on Protection of the Mediterranean Sea, lays out a conservation strategy for species from the familiar hyacinth, carnation, and violet families, along with less known, plants such as moon trefoil, Lefkara milkvetch, Troodos rockcress, and Casey’s larkspur. The handbook aims to reverse the decline of these natural treasures by helping policy makers in the respective countries take appropriate decisions to protect their natural heritage.

Panda Wedding in Thai Zoo

Two pandas, 5-year-old male Chuang Chuang and 4-year-old female Lin Hui, were married in northern city of Chiang Mai Thailand, on Wednesday to mark the 28th birthday of their zoo in a traditional Chinese ceremony. Chiang Mai is Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's hometown. To avoid offending conservatives who think "marrying" animals is undignified, a proxy wedding by two proxies was arranged. The pandas live in a $1 million refrigerated cage. After the ceremony, the real pandas, which eat only bamboo, were showered with fruit. Their human proxies were sprinkled with water to fight the heat. Thailand's hot climate is expected to bring forward the pandas' mating season to November from the March-May period in their native China.

The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands- 9th Conference of Parties (CoP) on at Kampala,Uganda.

The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands has started its 9th Conference of Parties (CoP) in Kampala,Uganda, against evidence of accelerating loss and degradation of wetlands around the world. The theme of this year’s conference is “Wetlands – supporting life, sustaining livelihoods”. This is shown by the Wetlands Synthesis Report of the Millennium EcosysteAssessment(MEA), which will be released at the CoP this week.

Achim Steiner,Director General of the World Conservation Union (IUCN) in his opening address said “The gap between the spirit and guidance of this Convention and the state of wetlands is becoming bigger. It is clear that such an assessment [the MEA] requires a clear response from the Contracting Parties and the organisations that work closely with them,”. Steiner urged participants to follow that example and integrate wetland conservation into otherPolicies and sectors. “The key principles of this convention must be integrated into Poverty Reduction Strategy papers, and be the basis for our engagement with the water sector, finance ministries and development agencies,” he suggested.

China – Rare butterfly disappearing

A rare butterfly in Nanjing, capital of East China's Jiangsu Province, is disappearing because of the city's expansion. The butterfly, the Chinese Tiger Swallowtail, is found only in China and has been around for about 80 million years. The fast disappearance is attributed to Falling plant diversity. The Chinese Tiger Swallowtail butterfly likes eating wild ginger, a plant that has disappeared rapidly during the city's development. Chinese environmentalists have urged the Government to take appropriate measures before it is too late.