Here are some good news/bad news conservation stories…

1. The Wildlife Conservation Society has declared that the key to saving mountain gorillas in the Virunga National Park is saving the guards. Putting their money where their mouth is, they made a donation of $15,000 – enough to save half of the 600 guards for one month at 40$  per person and there are 600 rangers). (The salary of the CEO of WCS is over 450,000 per year)
2. A 9 Kg 140 year old lobster named George has been returned to the sea by a New York restaurant.
3. President George Bush (not related to the above lobster) has designated huge swathes of land as marine reserves in an outgoing gift to America and the world.  It does not affect my opinion of him.
4. UN endorse Organic green revolution not industrial green revolution. “UNEP reported that organic practices in Africa outperformed industrial, chemical-intensive conventional farming, and also provided environmental benefits such as improvedsoil fertility, better retention of water and resistance to drought”. How come we have not heard about it in Africa where Monsanto is elbowing in aggressively?
5. Over 1000 new species found in the Mekong Delta. They include 519 plants, 279 fish, 88 frogs, 88 spiders, 46 lizards, 22 snakes, 15 mammals, four birds, four turtles, two salamanders and a toad. But, many of the species could be at risk from rapid development in the  the countries of the Greater Mekong area.

Do you have any other good news/bad news conservation stories? Share them with us – leave a comment below