Conservation biology

Pollution and poaching have decreased the nests and breeding areas of flamingos and crested pelicans at the mouth of the Gediz River in one of the largest deltas of the eastern Mediterranean, research and monitoring studies have revealed.

The European Commission decided Thursday to refer Greece and five more countries to the EU Court of Justice (ECJ) for failing to implement provisions in the bloc's regulation on the prevention and management of the introduction and spread of invasive alien species.

The five other countries referred to the ECJ are Bulgaria, Ireland, Italy, Latvia and Portugal.

The Goethe Institute in Athens presents the local installment of the "Atlas of Mediterranean Liquidity," an ambitious project by the institution to create interactive maps of urban water points across the region, including drawings, photographs and details of their history and biodiversity.

Currently, facilities referred to as “frozen zoos” are used to store samples of animal sperm, eggs and other tissues at cryogenic temperatures

“Across the globe China is involved in a dizzying variety of resource extraction, energy & infrastructure projects that damage ecosystems & biodiversity”, Prof. W. Laurance

Wild populations of monitored animal species have plummeted nearly 70 percent in the last 50 years, according to a landmark assessment released on Oct. 13 that highlights "devastating" losses to nature due to human activity.

Nature associations and bird watchers have criticized the Central Hunting Commission's decision that some 29 bird species will be on the list of hunters in the new hunting season, which will start on Aug. 20.

Civil unrest and military exercises pose heightened risks to more than 200 threatened species, including elephant populations and the critically endangered Eastern gorilla, conservationists have warned.

Greece was condemned by the European Court of Justice on Thursday for failing to set conservation targets for protected habitats, a process that should have been completed by 2012.

The latest rebuke is indicative of the country's reluctance to take substantial environmental protection measures over the past decade.

Some 13,409 plant and animal species have been identified in Turkey as a result of extensive studies under the national biodiversity inventory and monitoring project initiated by the General Directorate of Nature Protection and National Parks (DKMP).