Help support our writers and journalists.

donate now

Commentary

With fewer animals to spread their seeds, plants could have trouble adapting to climate change

With fewer animals to spread their seeds, plants could have trouble adapting to climate change

By Alejandro Ordonez, Evan Fricke, Haldre Rogers & Jens-Christian Svenning Picture a mature, broad-branched tree like an oak, maple or fig. How does it reproduce so that its offspring don’t grow up in its shadow, fighting for light? The answer is seed dispersal. Plants have evolved many strategies for spreading their seeds away from the parent plant. Some produce seedlings that float on the wind. Others have fruits that actually explode, ejecting their seeds. And more than half of all plants rely on wildlife to disperse their seeds. This typically happens when animals eat...

read more
Botswana’s big problem is not elephants, but runaway bushfires

Botswana’s big problem is not elephants, but runaway bushfires

By Don Pinnock - Daily Maverick The debate on what to do about elephants in Botswana is frequently divided into those who want to cull them and those who don’t. At one extreme are hunter Ron Thomson and his followers, who have been lobbying the government of Botswana to cull more than 60,000 of its elephants. At the other end are those who believe natural systems and processes must take their course. Then there are those like Peace Parks and Kaza who want to reconnect Botswana’s migration corridors with their former ranges in southern Angola and Zambia in particular. This would take them...

read more
Why Hong Kong’s ivory ban is not enough to end demand or save elephants

Why Hong Kong’s ivory ban is not enough to end demand or save elephants

By Jovy Chan Banning the ivory trade without addressing the demand for ivory products only forces the trade underground and makes it even harder to stopHong Kong needs to ban the sale of antique ivory and remove demand before it can give elephants the protection they deserve On December 31, 2021, Hong Kong at last officially banned the sale of elephant ivory. The culmination of a three-year-long process, the ban prohibits its import, re-export and commercial possession, with a maximum penalty of 10 years imprisonment and a HK$10 million (US$1.3 million) fine. The commercial possession of all...

read more
Unique Traits Shouldn’t be the Key Reason for Protecting a Species

Unique Traits Shouldn’t be the Key Reason for Protecting a Species

By MERRILL SAPP - Earth Island Journal Every animal has a role within its ecosystem, even if we have little knowledge of what that role is. Over summer last year, giraffes were elevated to a new height. Though they are an iconic species, giraffes have never gotten the kind of attention their charismatic African savannah neighbors, such as elephants or even baboons, who can often be obnoxious, draw. As ungulates, giraffes have been viewed roughly as glorified cattle. One writer even claimed that a giraffe is “the herbivore that does the least to reward the fascination it inspires in visitors…...

read more

Recent Posts

Categories

archives

Archives

Pin It on Pinterest