🌳The Leafcutter: No. 14

Welcome to The Leafcutter a weekly email of everything interesting in conservation, cut out from the internet and taken back to the nest to grow into a nutritious news fungus.

🌍 News

Global deforestation is increasing - one football pitch of forest was lost every second in 2017. Much of this clearing is illegal and a result of corruption. Extremely informative article with excellent infographics. Link

...meanwhile, Norway has pledged £12m to tackle illegal deforestation worldwide. Link

UK announces strategy to protect world's oceans. The government seems to be taking marine protection seriously with a long-term approach. Link

Banning palm oil would likely displace, not halt biodiversity loss, according to an IUCN report. Link

BP buys UK's biggest electric car charger network for £130m. Big oil is diversifying and it could prove advantageous for increasing amounts of electric motorists. Link

Mumbai bans plastic bags and bottles. India began enacting it's ambitious goal to ban all single use plastics by 2022. Early days, but it could prove to be a fascinating test case of what problems/opportunities will arise if plastic is banned suddenly and completely. Link

Australia are considering banning all single use plastics by 2023. This and other plastic bans (cf India, EU) have been greatly precipitated by China's decision to no longer accept foreign recyclable waste - a blessing in disguise? Link

Australia are also waking up to their own biodiversity crisis and have launched an official inquiry. It has recorded the highest rate of mammalian extinction of any country over the past 200 years. Link

Wildbook and Microsoft are working on a massive ID database for individual animals. AI for conservation. Link

UK supermarket Morrisons said sales of its 'wonky' fruit and veg – which it sells at a lower price as a way to cut down waste – have more than tripled over the last three months. I really like this story as an example of how you can benefit from changing the rules of the game and embracing the weird. Link

🦍Our Blog

Coral Reef Ecologist Nick Evensen tells us how he's been inspired by the likes of Jacques Cousteau and his diving experiences with Ocean Black Tip Sharks! Link

We've started publishing back-issues of the Leafcutter. Link

👀 Media

National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year 2018. Gallery

"I never imagined there would be quite so many of you who would be inspired to want change." - Sir David Attenborough. Video

...Aaaand the award, for cutest butterfly in the world goes to: Image

Another nice moth. Image

A great horned owl skull. Image

A peackock-tail anemone shrimp. Image

The Vietnam moss frog: taking camouflage to the next level. Image

Xenu-Canto: a crowdsourced database of bird sounds from around the world. Website

A 100 year old paper article about ''climate change''. Image

I saw a platypus. Video

🦑 Learn Something

We need a Paris-style agreement to save life on Earth. Article

The vampire squid: neither squid nor octopus. It is the only living member of Vampyromorpha, an ancient cephalopod order which gave rise to both squids and octopuses. Video

It may look like birds have backwards-facing knees, but in reality, their knees are close to the chest and often concealed by feathers. Image

Brexit Britain’s dash for growth will be a disaster for the environment. Article

Biodiversity is the infrastructure that supports all life. Article

📋Get Involved

Save the US Endangered Species Act. Petition

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