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Every year, thousands of people die due to rabies, a deadly but preventable disease. WSPA-trained workers from the local Animal Disease Control Centre vaccinating a dog against rabies during the launch of a new mass dog vaccination pilot project in Jieshou City, Anhui Province. The red collar shows local people that the dog has been vaccinated against this deadly disease. Over...

GENEVA—European Union biofuel policy is pushing up demand for palm oil, says a report released today by the International Institute for Sustainable Development. The report, "The EU Biofuel Policy and Palm Oil: Cutting subsidies or cutting rainforest?", highlights a tension in the EU's environmental policy—support for biodiesel may be undermining efforts to preserve globally significant carbon stocks such as rainforest...

The National Marine Fisheries Service today declined to protect great white sharks off the coast of California under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Although peer-reviewed scientific population estimates at the two primary white shark aggregation sites indicate fewer than 350 adults and sub-adults, the agency denied protections to the sharks. This decision follows a NMFS finding that this white...

New York, USA, 29th May 2013—The United Nations Security Council will be briefed today on the severe and escalating threat to peace and security posed by Central Africa’s heavily-armed elephant poaching gangs. In a report to the world’s highest international security body, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says, “Poaching and its potential linkages to other criminal, even terrorist, activities constitute a...

WWF and WCS have received alarming reports from their field operations that elephants are being slaughtered in the violence-ridden Central African Republic (CAR), where new powers in place struggle to gain control over the situation. The conservation organizations are issuing today a joint call for immediate action. Dzanga-Ndoki National Park, Central African Republic. Forest Elephant killed by poachers being inspected...

With hundreds of scientist-volunteers at its heart, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is the world’s preeminent body for reviewing and synthesizing research on climate change. A single statement from the IPCC can reverberate for years. It can also be prone to misinterpretation in a variety of ways. NCAR scientist Tom Wigley and longtime colleague Ben Santer (Lawrence Livermore National...

The first meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee for a new legally binding treaty to end plastic pollution concluded today in Punta del Este, Uruguay. WWF welcomes the strong support shown for an ambitious global plastics treaty demonstrated at the meeting, but cautions that this is just the first step in the two-year road to a global plastics treaty. More...

Vietnam’s pangasius sector will achieve its target to certify ten per cent of the country’s pangasius production under the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) standard by the end of 2012. Vietnam’s pangasius sector will achieve its target to certify ten per cent of the country’s pangasius production under the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) standard by the end of 2012. This achievement...

Bella Bella, British Columbia – On the heels of the coastal First Nations’ declaration opposing the hunting of grizzly and black bears on the central and north coast of BC, Raincoast Conservation Foundation has now secured the commercial trophy hunting rights across a large portion of the Great Bear Rainforest.  A new purchase, completed this week, abuts another exclusive...

The Australian Greens said today that 60% of Australians do not support the processing of gas in the Kimberley. Speaking  today at the announcement of the Sea Shepherd’s visit to Broome and the Kimberley Senator Rachel Siewert, said polling release today made it clear that Australians say ‘No’ to the development of a gas hub in the Kimberley. Australian Greens spokesperson...

Libreville, Gabon, 27th June 2012 – In a bold move against poaching and illegal wildlife trade, Gabon is expected to burn its government-held ivory stockpile today. The decision comes at a time of intense poaching pressure in Central Africa, where the illegal killing of elephants for ivory is at record levels. Gabon’s President Ali Bongo will ignite the ivory...

For more than half a century, surface longline fishing has wastefully caught and killed Atlantic bluefin tuna and other nontarget ocean wildlife in the Gulf of Mexico, including white marlin, swordfish, and endangered sea turtles. The western Atlantic bluefin is particularly at risk from surface longlines, which average 30 miles long and suspend hundreds of hooks, because it is a...