How world's biggest green group plans to reverse conservation's retreat

Fred Bunch, a ranger with the US National Park Service, is guiding visitors through a grove of stately ponderosa pines in the lee of the towering Great Sand Dunes in western Colorado.

Fred Bunch, a ranger at the Great Sand Dunes National
Park Service in Colorado state, takes in the vanilla
fragrance of a ponderosa pine tree, that was peeled
for food and medicine by Native American tribes.

The avuncular veteran, who has worked in eight national parks over four decades stops by one pine, not for a hug, but rather to inhale the fragrance of its exposed trunk.

The bark, once peeled back by Native American tribes such as the Navajos and the Southern Utes for its medicinal and food values, gives off a sweet scent.

"Smell that vanilla?" Mr Bunch said, leaning close. "This tree has to be hundreds of years old."

Read the story from The Age by Peter Hannam - “How world's biggest green group plans to reverse conservation's retreat.”

Southeast Asia closes island beaches to recover from climate change, tourism

BANGKOK - More popular Southeast Asian islands will be off limits to visitors this year as officials seek to protect eco-systems crumbling from warming seas and unchecked sprawl, despite the risk to tourism revenues and tens of thousands of jobs.

Southeast Asian beaches are being closed to allow
them to recover from the effects of climate change.

Thailand will shut Maya Bay, which famously featured in "The Beach", starring Leonardo DiCaprio, for four months a year, from June. In the Philippines, officials plan to close Boracay island for six months at the end of April.

"Islands have very fragile eco-systems that simply cannot handle so many people, pollution from boats and beachfront hotels," said Thon Thamrongnawasawat, a marine expert in Bangkok.

Read Rina Chandran’s story from ABS/CBN News - “Southeast Asia closes island beaches to recover from climate change, tourism.”