Environmental conservation

A warming island’s mice are breeding out of control and eating seabirds. An extermination is planned

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CAPE TOWN, South Africa — Mice accidentally introduced to a remote island near Antarctica 200 years ago are breeding out of control because of climate change, and they are eating seabirds and causing major harm in a special nature reserve with “unique biodiversity.” Now conservationists are planning a mass extermination using helicopters and hundreds of … Read more

In water-stressed Singapore, a search for new solutions to keep the taps flowing

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SINGAPORE — A crack of thunder booms as dozens of screens in a locked office flash between live video of cars splashing through wet roads, drains sapping the streets dry, and reservoirs collecting the precious rainwater across the tropical island of Singapore. A team of government employees intently monitors the water, which will be collected … Read more

Kenya embarks on its biggest rhino relocation project. A previous attempt was a disaster

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NAIROBI, Kenya — Kenya has embarked on its biggest rhino relocation project and began the difficult work Tuesday of tracking, darting and moving 21 of the critically endangered beasts, which can each weigh over a ton, to a new home. A previous attempt at moving rhinos in the East African nation was a disaster in … Read more

Deforestation in Brazil’s savanna region surges to highest level since 2019

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RIO DE JANEIRO — Deforestation surged in Brazil’s Cerrado, a vast tropical savanna region, by nearly 45% in 2023 compared to 2022, according to full-December data released Friday by the government’s monitoring agency. The National Institute for Space Research reported that 7,852 square kilometers (3,000 square miles) of vegetation had been torn down in the … Read more

Takeaways on AP’s investigation into cocoa coming from a protected Nigerian rainforest

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OMO FOREST RESERVE, Nigeria — Habitat for a dwindling population of critically endangered African forest elephants is under threat, a casualty of the world’s appetite for chocolate. Deforestation driven by planting cocoa, the main ingredient in chocolate, is whittling down Omo Forest Reserve, a protected rainforest in southwestern Nigeria that helps combat climate change and … Read more

As Mexico marks conservation day, advocates say it takes too long to list vulnerable species

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MEXICO CITY — Residents of Mexico’s Caribbean reef island of Banco Chinchorro near Belize have hunted the meat and salmon-pink shells of queen conch for generations. As populations have shrunk in recent decades, Mexico has enforced limits and bans on catching the shellfish. The species has continued to decline despite these measures, which included a … Read more