General

There are fewer birds in Wales than a decade ago. The Wetland Bird Survey shows that around half our wintering waterbirds have declined over the last 10 years, including familiar species such as Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) , Mute Swan (Cygnus olor) and Great Crested Grebe (Podiceps cristatus).

A decline in bird populations is the first indication that something is ecologically amiss, according to an expert from a wildlife organization. "Birds are the first stimulus of degradation in an area. If there is a decrease in the bird populations somewhere, it indicates that something is wrong there," Ahmet Emre Kutukcu, a wildlife expert from World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Turkey, told Anadolu Agency (AA).

Laut Industrieverband Agrar (IVA) hat das Insektensterben viele Gründe. Problematisch sei, dass es in der heutigen Landschaft weniger Ruderalstandorte gebe, weniger extensive Wiesen und Weiden, weniger Blütenpflanzen, weniger Feuchtgebiete, Hecken, Feldränder und Rohböden.

Auch in einer intensiven Landwirtschaft gebe es viele Möglichkeiten, die Artenvielfalt zu erhöhen. Dazu brauche es Nahrungs- und Nisthabitate, erprobte Hilfen, wie Lerchenfenster, oder größere Abstände bei Saatreihen auf Teilflächen im Getreide. Vor allem aber seien die Hilfen zu planen und zu managen.

The renowned author and whistleblower Evaggelos Vallianatos describes British environmentalist and campaigner Dr Rosemary Mason as a “defender of the natural world and public health.” I first came across her work a few years ago. It was in the form of an open letter she had sent to an official about the devastating environmental and human health impacts of glyphosate-based weed killers. What had impressed me was the document she had sent to accompany the letter.

Les abeilles meurent, l’Europe détourne les yeux. A la mi-juillet, un comité technique de l’Union européenne a décidé d’adopter un texte qui repousse encore un peu plus la mise à jour du système d’homologation des pesticides qui permet toujours la commercialisation de molécules dangereuses pour les pollinisateurs. En passant outre l’avis de ses propres experts et de la communauté scientifique, révèle ce mardi 27 août « le Monde ».

The Mojave occupies nearly 50,000 square miles, mostly in southeastern California and Nevada, and it’s considered to be North America’s driest desert. Desert birds help pollinate flowers and disperse seeds, control insect outbreaks, and keep rodent populations in check. They also fill the silence with the sound of their calls. As UC Berkeley ecologist Steven Beissinger puts it: “A desert without birds is half empty. A desert without birds is a quiet place.”

A recent study concludes that the birds of Canada and the United States have taken a substantial hit in the last 49 years. Researchers from several institutions in the U.S. and Canada, including the American Bird Conservancy, the Bird Conservancy of the Rockies, the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, and Environment and Climate Change Canada, joined forces for the study.

America’s agricultural landscape is now 48 times more toxic to honeybees, and likely other insects, than it was 25 years ago, almost entirely due to widespread use of so-called neonicotinoid pesticides, according to a new study published today in the journal PLOS One. This enormous rise in toxicity matches the sharp declines in bees, butterflies, and other pollinators as well as birds, says co-author Kendra Klein, senior staff scientist at Friends of the Earth US. “This is the second Silent Spring.

Cambodia's population of Bengal Florican (Houbaropsis bengalensis) has sharply declined since 2012 according to a recent survey conducted by Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and Cambodia's Ministry of Environment.