Incentive programs to encourage farmers and other landowners to protect the environment are key to conservation, but new research shows issues such as lack of enforcement undermine their effectiveness on a global scale.

These programs, called Payments for Environmental Services (PES), are a way to improve environmental management and livelihoods by attaching a dollar value to the benefits nature provides, such as clean water and air. They have been in place for two decades, but their design and cost-effectiveness are a concern for experts.

Better fisheries management could reverse spiraling population declines in roughly half of threatened ocean species caught unintentionally, according to a new study co-led by University of Oregon economist Grant McDermott.

It’s likely not the first thing you think of when you see elephant dung, but this material turns out to be an excellent source of cellulose for paper manufacturing in countries where trees are scarce, scientists report.

Most of us are used to turning on a tap and water coming out. We rarely question whether this will happen or whether the water is clean enough to bathe in or drink. Though the process of maintaining water quality is practically invisible to most of us, removing bacteria and contaminants from water requires a lot of effort from both humans and treatment systems alike.

Researchers at the University of British Columbia have shed new light on how mountain pine beetles produce an important pheromone called trans-verbenol, which could aid in efforts to better predict outbreaks.

Some of the fishing methods used in today’s small-scale fisheries are causing more damage to coral reefs than ever, a new UBC study has found.

UNSW scientists have developed a world-first, graphene-based, laboratory-scale filter that can remove more than 99% of the ubiquitous natural organic matter left behind during conventional treatment of drinking water.

In a research collaboration with Sydney Water, the team has demonstrated the success of the approach in laboratory tests on filtered water from the Nepean Water Filtration Plant in western Sydney, and is working to scale up the new technology.

The results of some of the ground-breaking research are published in the journal Carbon. The project is led by Dr Rakesh Joshi of the UNSW School of Materials Science and Engineering, in collaboration with Professor Veena Sahajwalla and Professor Vicki Chen of UNSW, and Dr Heriberto Bustamante of Sydney Water.

More than a decade after beekeepers first raised the alarm about a dangerously low global bee population, much progress has been made in understanding the mystery of colony collapse.

Paying rural villagers to cut down fewer trees boosts conservation not only while the payments are being made but even after they’re discontinued, according to a new CU Boulder study involving 1,200 tropical forest users in five developing countries.

A team of military veterans is putting their hard-earned skills toward a different challenge: Restoring damaged corals in hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico.