Environment

• Sunday, July 3rd 2011 - 11:42 UTC

  Biosphere reserve in Chilean Patagonia gives hope for preservation of the huemul

  

  The United Nations added 18 new sites to its global list of biosphere reserves, (including one in Chilean Patagonia) bringing the total to 581 in 114 different countries, the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) reported.

• Friday, July 1st 2011 - 13:00 UTC

  Fishermen recover giant dead squid off Florida coast

  

  A trio of fishermen in the US state of Florida said they made an unusual find about 12 miles off the coast of Jensen Beach -- a dead giant squid measuring 23- to 25 feet.

• Friday, July 1st 2011 - 06:46 UTC

  Desforestation in Brazil doubles, in anticipation of an amnesty for illegal logging

  

  Deforestation rates in the Brazilian Amazon, the world’s biggest rain forest, more than doubled last month as farmers become more confident they’ll be granted amnesty for illegal logging.

• Friday, July 1st 2011 - 06:23 UTC

  EU farm budget frozen for next seven years and conditioned to ‘greening’

  

  The European Union has published its long-awaited budget, which will see spending on the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) frozen for the next seven years and make 30% of direct support conditional on ‘greening’.

• Wednesday, June 29th 2011 - 23:03 UTC

  KLM will begin fuelling some of its flights with used cooking oil

  

  Dutch carrier KLM announced Wednesday it would begin using used cooking oil for some of its flights. The announcement comes less than two years after the airline flew the first bio-kerosene-fuelled passenger flight in Europe.

• Tuesday, June 28th 2011 - 06:34 UTC

  South Brazil freezing: temperatures below zero force closure of schools

  

  Several cities in the south of Brazil recorded on Monday temperatures below zero Centigrade which caused the death of a man and forced the closure of schools, according to official reports.

• Monday, June 27th 2011 - 16:17 UTC

  Falklands, South Georgia success in minimizing long-line fishing seabird bycatch

  

  A study has revealed that at least 160,000 and potentially in excess of 320,000 seabirds are killed annually in longline fisheries globally. Some previous studies have assessed the level of seabird by catching longline fisheries for particular regions and groups of seabirds, but this is the first study to provide a global estimate of by-catch of all seabirds in longline fisheries.

• Monday, June 27th 2011 - 15:21 UTC

  Reports of puma attacks on sheep multiplying in Chile

  

  Desperate and decimating. That’s how biologist Agustín Iriarte describes the attitude of livestock farmers and their dwindling number of livestock, as predators take their toll. Chile’s pumas are attacking and killing sheep flocks more than ever.

• Friday, June 24th 2011 - 18:19 UTC

  HMS Protector formally commissioned as the Royal Navy new Ice patrol

  

  HMS Protector the Royal Navy's new Ice patrol ship has been formally commissioned into the fleet on Thursday, 23 June, the 50th anniversary of the Antarctic Treaty at Portsmouth naval base.

• Thursday, June 23rd 2011 - 17:53 UTC

  The volcanic ash cloud fools forecasts: flights to Argentine Patagonia delayed

  

  The Puyehue volcano ash cloud has again fooled forecasts and submitted air travellers to further misery. A number of flights to Argentine Patagonia were cancelled Thursday morning due to the shift in the movement of the lingering ash cloud and was predicted to reach Buenos Aires Province over the course of the next few hours.