Greenpeace on Wednesday unfurled a massive "Resist" banner near the White House on Wednesday, a day after the president of the United States signed executive orders for two controversial oil pipelines. Seven activists scaled a construction crane just a few blocks from the president's official residence and deployed the banner, which is around 21 meters (70 feet) long and 10.5 meters (30 feet) wid...

The most recent book by publishing house Ojalá Ediciones, titled Greatest Wildlife Spectacles, documents 29 wildlife shows of migration, mating, nesting and gathering of animals in the Guanacaste area. (Watch the video at the end of the article too) The book is written in Spanish and English, it gives information and shows images of the agglomeration of ducks in Palo Verde National Park, the hu...

The Costa Rican Electricity Institute is installing artificial reefs in the province of Guanacaste as part of a project that began in 2016 with the purpose of contributing with the protection of marine ecosystems. With the help of a team of scuba divers, 52 artificial reefs were installed in Hermosa Beach for the benefit of marine life. During the next six months, the ICE with the assistance ...

Panama, Jan. 20 — The Government of Panama and various social organizations announced Friday the creation of the Legal Timber Network to strengthen measures to prevent illegal logging and timber smuggling. "Seventeen months ago, the Ministry of Environment initiated a national dialogue on timber, whose commitment included the agreements we signed today, and demonstrates that the National Govern...

The vaquita is a very small porpoise that lives solely in the Gulf of California, Mexico. The species is critically endangered primarily as a result of entanglement in fishing nets. Strong measures are needed to stop harmful fishing practices in its habitat or the species stands little chance of survival, says the World Wildlife Fund on their website. An ambitious, emergency plan to help save t...

Mexico City, Jan 18 (EFE).- A Mexican activist honored in 2005 with the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize for his work in the northern state of Chihuahua was murdered last weekend, a source in the state Attorney General's Office told EFE Wednesday. Isidro Baldenegro was fatally shot around 4:00 p.m. Sunday, but it took authorities several days to reach the crime scene in the remote indige...

Geneva, Jan. 18 — Last year was the hottest on record, with an average temperature 1.1 degrees Centigrade (2 degrees Fahrenheit) higher than in pre-industrial times, the World Meteorological Organization said on Wednesday. The WMO said it combined data from NASA, the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the British Meteorological Office and the European Centre for Medi...

Costa Rica has many beautiful beaches that attract local and foreign tourists alike; they are without a doubt one of the many treasures this country has, however, some of these beaches suffer from a certain level of pollution, like it happens in every country, naturally some of the most polluted beaches tend to be some of the most visited ones. Costa Rica makes big efforts in implementing diffe...

By Wendy Anders Buying and building property in the Poás region near the international airport in Alajuela in Costa Rica’s Central Valley, just got a little bone thrown in with a recent court decision. The Costa Rican Supreme Court (known in Spanish as the Sala IV) condemned the Municipality of Poás de Alajuela for approving multiple urban projects that put the county’s aquifers at risk, rep...

January 16, 2017: Forty of the world's biggest companies agreed Monday find sustainable ways to make and consume plastic as the waste threatens the globe’s eco-systems, especially oceans, said international media reporting on the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The planet's dangerously polluted oceans will contain more plastic waste than fish by 2050 if urgent action isn't taken, th...

By Wendy Anders Representatives from nine South American countries met this month to discuss the conservation of marine biodiversity in the open ocean, said the Costa Rican non-profit marine conservation group MarViva Foundation. Almost half the planet is covered by the high, or open seas, the waters found beyond countries’ territorial limits. Despite their abundance, these vast areas hav...

Sydney, Australia, Jan. 16 — The Australian government on Monday condemned Japan for resuming its whaling activities in Antarctic waters following the release of photographs of a dead protected whale aboard a Japanese ship inside Australia's Antarctic whale sanctuary. Environment Minister Josh Frydenberg said the Australian government was "deeply disappointed" after the Sea Shepherd organizatio...

Professor Donald Rodriguez from the California State University Channel Islands (CSUCI), is leading a team of 20 students in a ten-day trip in Costa Rica with the objective of mapping the locations of crocodiles with the help of a drone. Crocodiles in the Pacific of Costa Rica have become numerous, sometimes presenting a threat to humans, and this trip is precisely part of a larger project that...

Mexico City, Jan. 14 — A fish endemic to Mexico's Gulf of California has been the target of poaching for decades because its swim bladder is highly coveted in China, where it is believed to possess aphrodisiac and medicinal properties. Illegal fishing of the critically endangered totoaba furthermore threatens to drive another unique marine species to extinction, such as the vaquita, a type of p...

Santiago, Jan. 14 — An eco-terrorist group on Saturday said it was responsible for a parcel bomb that detonated at the home of the chairman of the board of Chilean state-owned mining giant Codelco, the world's biggest copper producer. In an Internet blog site, the group known as Individualists Tending toward the Wild (ITS-Chile) posted a statement in which it claimed responsibility for Friday's...

Former ExxonMobil Corp. Chairman and CEO Rex Tillerson, nominated by President-elect Donald Trump to be secretary of state, said Wednesday that he believed that the risk of climate change exists but that the effect of greenhouse gas emissions on global warming was hard to predict. Tillerson was asked several questions about climate change during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreig...

By Wendy Anders Costa Rica’s protected areas and national parks received over 77,000 local and international visitors between December 23, 2016 and January 1, 2017, according to the National System of Conservation Areas (SINAC). Some visitors had plans apart from enjoying nature. Sinac officials detained and filed police reports on 34 people for causing environmental damage by pillaging fore...

La Habana, Jan. 5 — The Cuban Coabana Trading Company LLC, a subsidiary of Reneo Consulting, will export charcoal produced in Cuba from an invasive plant to the United States in a historic step as part of the countries’ improving relations. An agreement was signed Thursday with the state-owned Cuba Export company. The charcoal is produced by private cooperatives from marabou, an invasive pla...

Today, we celebrate another big win for elephant conservation with China’s game-changing decision to end domestic ivory trade by 2017. The new regulations come as part of the government’s efforts to reduce demand for elephant ivory and help end the global elephant poaching crisis. "China’s announcement is a game changer for elephant conservation," said Carter Roberts, president and CEO of WWF. ...

By Wendy Anders Starting in 2011, San José’s largest urban park, La Sabana, began to get a dramatic makeover. It has consisted in removing entire swaths of non-native trees and reforesting with native trees. Some 3,791 Costa Rican trees are now flourishing in many parts of the park, said Icoder after a recent project update. One of the hoped for results, was to attract new native animal s...

Donald Salmon Melendez, Ernesto Centeno, Jose Bryan Quesada Cubillo and Hector Martin Cash Lopez were found guilty of murdering sea turtle conservationist Jairo Mora back in May 2013; they were sentenced to prison back in March 2016 and this sentence was finally confirmed this Friday, December 23. The decision was taken by the Sentence Appeals Court of San Jose. The four men received 35 year...

  By Wendy Anders A river in southern Costa Rica. Last week, the Public Services Regulatory Agency (Aresep) held a public hearing on the proposed 7.25 MW San Rafael Hydroelectric Project. An estimated 400 local residents filled the communal hall of San Pedro, Perez Zeledon in southern Costa Rica to protest the project, reported Costa Rica’s TV Sur. A local group called the San Ra...

By Wendy Anders Fishermen meet with officials in northern Costa Rica to discuss the effects of shrimping boats on the ecosystem and fisheries. A group of 50 fishermen last week protested outside the Costa Rican Fishery Agency (Incopesca) in Cuajiniquil, La Cruz in the northern Pacific Guanacaste province, said CREMA, a marine conservation non-profit, in a press release. Their insistence ...

Tackling climate change is the "biggest economic opportunity" in the history of the United States, no matter who holds political office, said Hollywood star and environmental activist Leonardo DiCaprio. "There are a few, very prominent people that still deny the overwhelming conclusions of the world's scientists that climate change is largely human-caused and needs immediate urgent attention,"...

Sydney, Australia, Dec. 16 — The saturation of the dolphin-watching market in several Asian countries is endangering the population of the marine mammals, according to an international study released on Friday. The research focused on seven popular areas of dolphin watching in Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines between 2008 and 2014, and in almost all cases the market w...

By Wendy Anders Wastewater treatment system in Costa Rica, source Aya. The Costa Rican Ministry of Health, in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock and the Ministry of Finance seek to mitigate water pollution and improve the quality of wastewater. As an incentive for the creation of more domestic and/or industrial treatment plants, the institutions announced yesterda...

By Wendy Anders Nearly all species of sea turtles are endangered, reported Great Big Story, but Tortuguero, a small island on the eastern coast of Costa Rica, offers a safe place for nesting green and leatherback sea turtles. It was here in 1959 that Dr. Archie Carr opened the world's first turtle conservancy. To this day, the island is one of the world's most important breeding grounds for ...

By Wendy Anders Costa Rican 'corrida de toro', Flickr Commons Along with tamales, ronpope (spiced rum), and school vacations, December and January also bring typical bullfights or “corridas de toros” to many small towns across Costa Rica, and with them, divided opinions and strong feelings. A recent survey by the National University in Heredia, Costa Rica found that 46.4 percent of Costa...

The creation of protected areas and parks in Central America aimed at conserving tropical forests has pushed indigenous people off the land they have nurtured for generations, researchers said on Friday. Protected areas are more effective when the rights of indigenous people living on the land are formally recognized, said the report released on the sidelines of a U.N. conservation conference i...

The various sources of renewable energy represent an opportunity for Latin America to have its development shared by the entire population, and would particularly favor the more than 20 million people living in regions without electricity, according to World Wildlife Fund expert Tabare Arroyo. Arroyo, the NGO's adviser on the economy and energy, visited Asuncion this week for a series of meetin...

CANNON BALL, N.D., Dec. 4 — After weeks of growing protests, the federal government announced Sunday it will not issue a permit for the construction of a stretch of the Dakota Access pipeline in North Dakota. Protests of the Dakota Access Pipeline have amassed up to 5,000 people from all over the US and the world, source Facebook. The Army Corps of Engineers said it will not give an easemen...

Endangered leatherback sea turtles are known for their open-ocean migratory nature and nomadic foraging habits – traveling thousands of miles. They nest on the coasts of Costa Rica, as well as beaches in other countries. A leatherback sea turtle on shore in Costa Rica to nest. A Cornell naturalist and his colleagues discovered an area along the Mozambique coast that the turtles have made th...

Lima, Nov. 30 — A spectacled bear was photographed for the first time in the Rio Abiseo National Park, a reserve in the Peruvian Amazon region of San Martin, officials said. A spectacled bear cub, source Facebook. Camera traps were used to capture an image of that vulnerable species, also known as the Andean bear, and which is of great cultural and ecological significance in Peru's Andean a...

Addis Ababa, Dec. 1 — The United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) declared on Thursday the Mexican charrería, a traditional horseback practice in communities dedicated to the breeding and grazing cattle, as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Mexico's charreria, source Facebook. The decision was made by the Intergovernmental Committee during its annual...

A container ship, photo for illustrative purposes. Scientists have long used satellite tags to track endangered blue whales along the West Coast, learning how the largest animals on the planet find enough small krill to feed on to support their enormous size. Now researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries, Oregon State University and the University...

(EFE).- Representatives of the 27 countries that make up the Latin American Energy Organization, or Olade, underscored the need to promote sustainable development in the region at a meeting here Friday. Olade Executive Secretary Fernando Cesar Ferreira said at the organization's Meeting of Energy Ministers that "absolutely all the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean are doing something...

By Wendy Anders Ponderosa Animal Park, source Facebook. While all eyes were on the Atlantic coast of southern Central America as Hurricane Otto took shape and starting moving west, a giraffe was born in Liberia, Costa Rica in the northern province of Guanacaste, reported CRHoy.com, a Spanish digital news source. The Ponderosa Animal Park (formerly Africa Mia) welcomed baby Isabel Wednesd...

(EFE).- Thousands of sea turtles are arriving in the Ostional National Wildlife Refuge on Costa Rica's Pacific coast to nest, guide Yamilet Baltodano told EFE Tuesday. "We estimate that between 98,000 and 100,000 turtles have arrived, with the ones coming to nest reaching here as hatchlings emerge from eggs," Baltodano said. This is the second large wave of nesting turtles this year, followi...

By Wendy Anders Jaguar, image by Wikipedia. Tomorrow the British Broadcasting Corporation will show the first episode of a new documentary, “The Dark: Nature’s Nighttime World,” highlighting Costa Rica’s diverse nocturnal wildlife. Scheduled for 4:15 p.m. (which would be 10:15 a.m. in Costa Rica) on BBC Two, the "Central America Jungle" episode brings viewers up close to Costa Rica's rar...

A small natural reserve in Montezuma of only 63 hectares honors the memory of Nicolas Wessberg, but only few know who he was or why this place is named after him. Olof Wessberg also known as Nicolas Wessberg was born in Germany but lived most of his life in Sweden; his wife, Karen Mogensen was from Denmark, they were married in 1952, the couple wanted to leave Sweden and Europe in general, due ...