Leslie Koo, chairman of the Taiwan Cement Corp., whose family set up the center, said they want to contribute to protecting the world's biodiversity and demonstrate Taiwan's soft power in the area of botanic conservation.

The International Court of Justice in The Hague rightly ordered Japan to stop its current whaling program in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary around Antarctica, a large reserve established by the International Whaling Commission. The United Nations’ highest court came down clearly on the side of conservation and international opinion.

Ecuador’s combative president is threatening to try to force the country’s newspapers to go all-digital as a way to save paper. Rafael Correa has long had a prickly relationship with Ecuador’s opposition-owned newspapers, and his Twitter statement Monday is a jab at papers backing a proposed referendum to block oil exploration in the pristine Yasuni national park.

USAID has been working in Nyungwe since the mid-1980s. Our work there has helped to build an eco-tourism industry through activities like trail maintenance, training park guides, and creating partnerships with the private sector to invest in things like lodging around the park. We’re also working with communities living in and around Nyungwe to help them earn steady incomes in ways that don’t deplete the park’s resources.

SINGAPORE --- “Just turn on the faucet.”

That’s the answer most Americans and others in the developed world would give if asked how to get plenty of clean water. But for about two billion people, such a response is meaningless. These people – almost a third of the world’s population – do not have access to water that can be drunk without adverse health effects. An even greater number lack access to adequate sanitation, which is a principal reason that more than two million children die of diarrheal diseases each year.

Leonardo DiCaprio braved scary skies to get to a summit devoted to saving the worlds' tigers, donating $1 million to the cause and earning high praise from Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.