Latest Environmental organizations Stories

By Michael McCarthy The threat is growing to the cradle of evolution. Crucial talks take place today over the increasingly precarious future of the Galapagos Islands, whose unique wildlife inspired Charles Darwin's revolutionary theory. High-ranking United Nations officials will be meet ministers from the government of Ecuador, which owns the volcanic islands 600 miles off its Pacific coast, to discuss how to protect them from the increasing threats posed by immigration, mass tourism,...

By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent OSLO, Norway (Reuters) - The world should double the area of forests under the control of local communities by 2015 as part of an effort to combat poverty, a new international group said on Wednesday. The Rights and Resources Initiative, backed by several governments and conservation groups, called for "an unprecedented effort to strengthen local rights to own and use forests and fight rural poverty, prevent illegal logging, and protect...

By Gordon BellCAPE TOWN (Reuters) - The chained Farley Mowat floats under police guard in Cape Town harbor, out of reach of the whaling ships its captain seeks to destroy.For seven weeks, the crew of the tiny activist ship harassed Japanese whalers in Antarctic waters, chasing the hunters through thousands of kilometers of icy seas.Now, the Canadian-registered ship has been forced to rest.Last month, it was detained on arrival in South Africa by marine officials who say it does not meet...

By Gordon BellCAPE TOWN -- Greenpeace activists will shift their focus to protest against pirate fishing off Africa's west coast following two months battling Japanese whalers, the group said on Wednesday.The activist group's two ships limped into Cape Town on Wednesday, the crew exhausted and starving, after spending 73 days in the icy, gray Southern Ocean to protest against whale hunting when they say the whales suffer a gruesome death.Greenpeace said it now planned to expose illegal...

CANBERRA (Reuters) - A Japanese whaling harpoon narrowly missed an inflatable boat carrying environmental protesters, causing one to fall into the freezing sea, as both sides warn their face-off is becoming increasingly dangerous. The Greenpeace vessel Arctic Sunrise has been shadowing the Japanese whaling fleet for several weeks in an attempt to disrupt Japan's annual whale hunt, prompting a heated exchange on January 8 when the Greenpeace ship and a Japanese ship collided. In the...

CANBERRA -- A standoff between environmental activists Greenpeace and a Japanese whaling fleet in remote icy waters near Antarctica has escalated, with both sides accusing each other of dangerously ramming their vessels.Greenpeace has been chasing and disrupting the Japanese whalers for more than two weeks by deploying inflatable boats to harass Japanese "catcher boats," positioning them between the whales and harpoon guns.Shortly before Christmas, both sides accused each other of...

By Michelle Nichols CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia should send a navy ship to monitor a Japanese whaling fleet in the Southern Ocean, Australia's minority Greens party said on Friday, as the Japanese ships kept trying to fend off Greenpeace protesters. Greens leader Bob Brown and Greenpeace also called for Australia to stop one of the six Japanese ships -- due to arrive in the southern city of Hobart on Saturday to deliver a sick crew member to hospital -- from returning to the fleet....

By Michelle Nichols CANBERRA (Reuters) - A Japanese whaling fleet and Greenpeace environmental activists are involved in a stand-off in the remote Southern Ocean near the coast of Antarctica with the two sides accusing each other of ramming their vessels. Greenpeace said that after a month-long search it had tracked down six Japanese ships -- which set out on November 8 to conduct what Tokyo says is a scientific whaling program -- several thousand kilometers (miles) south of Perth. Two...

By Michelle NicholsCANBERRA (Reuters) - A Japanese whaling fleet and Greenpeace environmental activists are involved in a stand-off in the remote Southern Ocean near the coast of Antarctica with the two sides accusing each other of ramming their vessels.Greenpeace said that after a month-long search it had tracked down six Japanese ships -- which set out on November 8 to conduct what Tokyo says is a scientific whaling program -- several thousand kilometers (miles) south of Perth.Two...