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World Wetlands Day (WWD) is an annual celebration held on the 2nd February in order to raise worldwide awareness of the importance of wetlands. The date is particularly significant, marking the anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on Wetlands, also known as the Ramsar Convention, which is an international treaty that represents the commitment of its members to the preservation of their wetlands.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association today designated the Atlantic sturgeon an endangered species, providing it greater legal protections, following a petition the Natural Resources Defense Council submitted in September 2009. NOAA's Fisheries Service today announced four subpopulations or distinct population segments of Atlantic sturgeon, which are treated as individual species under the law, will be listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act: the New York Bight, the Chesapeake Bay, the Carolina, and the South Atlantic. The northernmost distinct population segment, the Gulf of Maine, will be listed as threatened.

Non-native Burmese pythons are believed to be the cause of severe mammal declines in the Florida Everglades, according to new research. Also known as the Asiatic rock python, the Burmese python (Python molurus bivittatus) is a large constricting snake native to Asia. The exact origins of the pythons in the Everglades are unknown, but many have been imported into the United States through the pet trade, and some are likely to have escaped or been released into the wild. In the absence of natural predators, the Burmese python population has exploded. Since 2000 the species has been recognised as being established across large parts of southern Florida, where it is known to eat a wide variety of mammals and birds.

Lower Murray Darling Catchment Management Authority is seeking to fill a vacant Regional Landcare Facilitator position at Buronga (near Mildura).

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The Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Senator Joe Ludwig, has announced the first round of the $99 million Action on the Ground program to help farmers cash in on Australia’s clean energy future.

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Applications are now being sought for The Thiess International and Australian Riverprizes, which are awarded for excellence in river management. If your group or a group you know is involved in river, wetland, lake or estuary restoration or protection, you can enter.

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The NSW Environment Trust is calling for Expressions of Interest (EOIs) to the major Environmental Research Program and applications to the Seeding grants.

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A summary of NSW group statistics as of 1 February 2012 is attached

Not too long ago, a big problem with the fishing industry was that dolphins were being captured in the large nets used to harvest tuna. They would get mixed in and their meat would be ground up and served with the tuna in the tuna can. When people caught on, they were outraged. Now tuna fish providers offer their tuna cans with labels which say dolphin free. But not everything is so peachy for the dolphin in other parts of the world. According to a new study from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and Okapi Wildlife Associates (Okapi), dolphins and other marine mammals are still being eaten. In fact, since 1990, 114 countries claim to consume one or more of at least 87 species of marine mammals.

The UK has topped the annual global league table that measures and ranks the world's largest sustainable corporations. The Global 100 is an extensive data-driven corporate sustainability assessment and inclusion is limited to a select group of the top 100 large-cap companies in the world. Companies are selected based on their performance against 11 indicators covering environmental performance and corporate citizenship such as leadership diversity, greenhouse gas emissions and payment of corporate taxes. The list includes companies from 22 countries encompassing all sectors of the economy, with collective annual sales in excess of $3.02 trillion, and 5,285,645 million employees. Among the 22 countries, the United Kingdom led the way with 16 Global 100 companies, an increase of five from the year before. Japan followed with 11 (down from 19 in 2011).France and the United States tied for third place with each claiming the headquarters of eight Global 100 companies. Rounding out the top ten scoring countries with at least three Global 100 companies were: Australia (seven), Canada (six), Germany (five) Switzerland (five), Denmark (four), Netherlands (four), Norway (four), Sweden (four), and Brazil (three). Sixty-eight per cent of the 2011 companies remained on the list in 2012.

Biodiversity loss is probably a challenge that is often ignored as climate change looms. Currently the world is losing species at a rate that is 100 to 1000 times faster than the natural extinction rate, further, it is currently seeing the sixth mass extinction. The previous mass extinction occured 65 million years ago, and was caused by ecosystem changes, changes in atmospheric chemistry, impacts of asteroids and volcanoes. For the first time in history, the current extinction is caused by the competition for resources between a single species Homo sapiens and all others. A recent conference arranged by the Danish Ministry of Environment in the University of Copenhagen, provided an opportunity to influence the process of organizing a UN Biodiversity Panel. More than 100 scientists and decision makers from the EU countries gathered and came to the conclusion that drastic measures should be taken to decelerate current loss of biodiversity.

Australia Day is an annual celebration to mark the first arrival of ships in Sydney Cove from Great Britain in 1788. Held on the 26th January every year, Australia Day began as an anniversary dinner for the original colonists, to celebrate the love of the land they lived in. The name 'Australia Day' was not used until 1935, but today the anniversary still celebrates everything that's great about Australia. Here at ARKive, we thought we'd get into the spirit by celebrating some of Australia's more unusually named critters...

The Sumatran elephant subspecies (Elephas maximus sumatranus) was downgraded to critically endangered on IUCN's Red List of Threatened Species on Tuesday, prompting environmental group WWF to call for an immediate moratorium on destruction of its rainforest habitat, which is being rapidly lost to oil palm estates, timber plantations for pulp and paper production, and agricultural use.

Scientists have devised a new way to produce ethanol directly from seaweed, offering the potential to generate biofuels that don't compete with terrestrial food production and won't suck up scarce freshwater, reports a study published today in Science.

Europe may be facing much larger problem than what to do with its food waste. But being pushed through the European parliament is a bill that will have widespread significance. That is because food waste accounts for one of the largest sources of overall waste going to landfills. Per year, the average person throws away 300 kg (660 lbs) per year, and of this, two thirds is still edible. MEPs are railing against what they see as unsustainable levels of waste. The resolution being passed through parliament is set to be approved today.

Researchers have uncovered corncobs dating back at least 3,000 years ago in two ancient mound sites in Peru according to a paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The ancient corn remnants, which proved residents were eating both popped corn and corn flour, are the earliest ever discovered in South America and may go back as far as 4,700 BCE (6,700 years ago), over fifteen hundred years before the early Egyptians developed hieroglyphics and while woolly mammoths still roamed parts of the Earth.

Applications are being sought from community groups for a new NSW Environmental Trust funding stream, the Community Bush Regeneration Large Project Stream.

NSW Environment Minister Robyn Parker said the $8 million Community Bush Regeneration Large Project Stream is offering grants of between $200,000 and $250,000 for projects which will run for up to six years.

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The Australian Government has announced the call for applications for the 2012-12 Caring for Our Country Business Plan. The Business Plan will provide funds to approved projects between $20,000 and $500,000.

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Fourteen air pollution control measures, if implemented today, could not only slow the pace of global warming, according to an intensive study by NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), but also improve health and boost agricultural productivity. All regions of the world would benefit as a result, NASA found, but the biggest health and agricultural gains would be realized in Asia and the Middle East as a result of greenhouse (GHG) emissions reductions.

Date:  25 Jan 2012 - 6:00pm

DO YOU KNOW WHAT LURKS IN THE WILDS OF WAH WAH?

With the Wah Wah Stock and Domestic Pipeline now set to go ahead, there is concern among locals about the loss of wildlife habitat.

A wildlife family field day will be held on Wednesday January 25th to reveal the secretive wetland critters that use stock tanks and to discuss ways of mitigating the loss of habitat.

Join Hay Landcare Group from 6pm to 8pm at 'Galah' (Mid Western Hwy, 1 km south of Wongalea Rd turnoff) for a family barbeque and chat with scientists about wildlife in the Wah Wah district and what the new pipeline might mean.

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