Saving Endangered Species
Wildlife workers in Africa have revised the number of elephants they believe have been poisoned by impoverished Zimbabwe locals since July. Over 300 African elephants have died as a result of cyanide ingestion, allowing poachers to harvest and sell their tusks in illegal ivory trades, which have more than doubled since 2007. Current conservation efforts in the region have failed to protect the species, whose dwindling population has been classified as “vulnerable” by the World Wildlife Fund.
Though operating within a more developed and accountable framework, US conservation efforts still face challenges of their own, according to RFF’s Rebecca Epanchin-Niell and coauthors Lynn Scarlett and Matthew McKinney. In a recent issue of Resources magazine, they examine the opportunities for improving the 40-year-old Endangered Species Act’s sustainability and efficacy, stressing the importance of comprehensive and collaborative approaches to funding, management, conservation, and private sector involvement. The authors say that future generations will benefit from “larger, landscape-scale efforts that use incentives to engage private landowners and nonprofit partners” in future species protection measures.
Hazardous Materials Transportation
The Canadian National Railway is defending its safety record after its third major derailment this month involving hazardous materials. The train’s contents, which included crude oil and petroleum gas, were similar to those involved in the fatal Lac-Mégantic accident in July, which left 47 dead. The high numbers of accidents involving the transportation of hazardous materials have many concerned about the capacity of current Canadian infrastructure to handle future increases in fossil fuel and chemical transportation.
Similar questions are being asked in the United States, where shale gas extraction has increased dramatically in the last few years. In a recent blog post and upcoming report, RFF’s Lucija Muehlenbachs and Alan Krupnick examine the relationship between shale gas development and traffic accidents in Pennsylvania involving shale-related transportation. They find a positive correlation between well numbers and traffic accidents, and are able to link the accidents to shale development due to the “large degree of spatial and temporal variation of shale gas well development and knowing whether a heavy truck was involved in the accidents
