• Bushmeat hunting in central Africa still classified as unsustainable by TRAFFIC based on data from FAOSTAT (the UN Food and Agriculture Organization database).
• Winner of the Most Depressing Lead of the Year: “Species of plants, animals and other categories of living things are disappearing. And millions of people still live in extreme poverty.”
• Runner-up, division of Applied Ecology: “U.S. researchers say they’ve determined it will not be easy to scientifically predict the spread of invasive plants and animals.”
• On ecology and economics.

• This paper’s got legs! Over the past 50 years, more than 80% of the world’s conflicts have taken place in and around the most diverse places, according to a new paper by Thor Hanson et al. in Conservation Biology. Picked up by, among others, Revkin, GEF Blog, SCB Journal Watch, PlanetSave, Scientific blogging, inkbluesky, Reuters, and AFP. It’s a cool study, but the question is if there’s any causation, and in which direction (Warfare in Biodiversity Hotspots doi: 10.1111/j.1523-1739.2009.01166.x).
• One day after its minister of environment approved a plan to convert peatlands into oil palm plantations, Hillary Clinton and the UN praise Indonesia for its work on climate change.
• Another new mammal species has been described. It’s the Hamiguitan hairy-tailed rat.
• Thanks in large part to efforts by WCS, Cameroon has a new national park for gorillas.
• The Bushmeat Crisis Task Force is celebrating its 10th year.
  
• More on the line between science and policy from Kent at Uncommon Ground. Meanwhile, James Hansen will be demonstrating against a coal power plant in D.C. Fortunately, if EPA has anything to say about it, the whole thing may be unnecessary.
  

With the economy down, poaching appears to be on the rise.