Asia
Muse Magazine: Advocates for Elephants – Kids on Different Continents are Working to Protect Pachyderms
by Laurel Neme, published in MUSE magazine Read this story as a pdf – Advocates for Elephants – Kids on Different Continents are Working to Protect Pachyderms
Read MoreHuffington Post: Schoolkids Write Book About Orphaned Orangutan
Henry Kurzawa and Maeve Igoe, PS 107 5th graders, celebrate the successful rescue of orphaned orangutan Budi while reading their newly published book. Photo courtesy of Ericka Novotny. THE BLOG 07/28/2016 Laurel Neme Author and freelance journalist Writing in “first person orangutan” isn’t easy. Just ask 10-year-old Caroline Mulcahy, a fifth grader at P.S. 107…
Read MoreNational Geographic: Schoolkids Write Adorable Book About Orphaned Orangutan
Henry Kurzawa and Maeve Igoe, PS 107 5th graders, celebrate the successful rescue of orphaned orangutan Budi while reading their newly published book. Photo courtesy of Ericka Novotny. Wildlife Watch A book about the plight of Budi the orangutan, who was taken from the wild and sold as a pet, is written and…
Read MoreNational Geographic: How GPS Can Help Save the World’s Most Endangered Sea Turtles
Wildlife Watch Tracking hawksbill turtles by satellite is yielding information crucial to the fight to save them from poachers, traffickers, and hunters. By Laurel Neme PUBLISHED July 14, 2016 Hawksbill sea turtles, named for their pointed beaks, are teetering on the edge of extinction. With populations down to perhaps 10 percent of what they were…
Read MoreMongabay.com: Unknown, ignored and disappearing: Asia’s Almost Famous Animals
Often called the most beautiful of the monkeys, the Red-shanked Douc langur of Southeast Asia hasn’t benefited much from its good looks. It is barely known to the public or most conservationists and is Endangered. Photo by Art G. on flickr CC BY 2.0 The Sumatran rhino, like the orangutan and tiger, is an example…
Read MoreNational Geographic: Palm Oil’s Human Cost Alleged in New Report
Indonesian plantations are accused of exploitative labor conditions and other harmful practices by a coalition of nonprofit groups. By Laurel Neme PUBLISHED June 8, 2016 Palm oil has oft been criticized for its alleged destructive impact on the environment—including clearing of tropical forests and peat swamps, destroying critical habitat for endangered species like orangutans, and contributing…
Read MoreHuffington Post: Orangutan Rescue in Indonesia’s Leuser Ecosystem
By Laurel Neme Author and freelance journalist Medical check of orangutan. Photo courtesty of Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Program (SOCP) The adolescent orangutan was on his way to becoming the illegal pet of a police lieutenant in Jakarta in 2004 when a team from the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Program (SOCP) and the Ministry of Forestry’s Conservation…
Read MoreMongabay.com: Tripa’s Trials: protecting key orangutan habitat through the courts
First posted on 2016-04-13 Mongabay Series: Great Apes 13th April 2016 / Laurel A. Neme Prime Sumatran orangutan habitat is under attack by oil palm companies, but conservation NGOs are learning to use the law to halt that destruction. Many developing countries, such as Indonesia, have fairly good environmental laws against deforestation and protecting threatened species, such as orangutans.…
Read MoreMongabay.com: Leuser’s Legacy: how rescued orangutans help assure species survival
30th March 2016 / Laurel A. Neme Mongabay.com Meet two blind orangutans: Leuser and Gober, their offspring, and the people of the SOCP rescue group. Together they’re creating a future for Indonesian orangutans. Agribusiness is rapidly razing the prime forest habitat of Sumatra’s 14,600 remaining orangutans; replacing it with vast stretches of oil palm plantation. The species’…
Read MoreHuffington Post: For Pangolins, A Long Hard Road to Freedom
03/18/2016 by Laurel Neme Freelance Journalist and Author This pangolin was recently rehabilitated and released in Vietnam. Photo courtesy of Save Vietnam’s Wildlife. Pangolins are scaly anteaters about the size of a house cat. They’re presumed to be the world’s most trafficked mammal, with an estimated 100,000 plucked from the wild every year in Africa and…
Read MoreNational Geographic: Happy Ending for Smuggled Pangolins
Wildlife Watch 16 rare scaly anteaters are back in the wild after being rescued from Vietnam’s illegal wildlife trade. By Laurel Neme PUBLISHED March 15, 2016 This story was updated to reflect that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today issued a preliminary finding to a scientific petition submitted by conservation groups, saying that Endangered Species Act…
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