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Freak weather is threatening the survival of many of the world’s mammals including great apes, warns a paper by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL).
Scientists compared the location of 6,000 species of land mammals against long term forecasts showing where droughts and severe storms were most likely to hit.
Author Eric Ameca y Juárez of ZDSL says: “Approximately a third of the species assessed have at least a quarter of their range exposed to cyclones, droughts or a combination of both. If these species are found to be highly susceptible to these conditions, it will lead to a substantial increase in the number of mammals classified as threatened by the IUCN under the category ‘climate change and severe weather’.”
Primates - already among the most endangered mammals in the world - are highlighted as being especially at risk. Over 90 per cent of black howler monkey (Alouatta pigra) and Yucatan spider monkey (Ateles geoffroyi yucatanensis) known habitats have been damaged by cyclones in the past.
ZSL’s research fellow Dr Nathalie Pettorelli adds: “This is the first study of its kind to look at which species are at risk from extreme climatic events. There are a number of factors which influence how an animal copes with exposure to natural disasters. It is essential we identify species at greatest risk so that we can better inform conservation management in the face of global environmental change.”

Divi Little Bay Beach and Isle de Sol Yacht Club on the Caribbean island of St. Maarten have been awarded eco and cleanliness Blue Flags for the second consecutive year. St. Maarten is the only country in the Dutch Caribbean to have the flags.

Lake Tahoe and Mammoth Mountain have both had massive snowfalls in the last few days. Enjoy it whilst it lasts – with climate change we may be the last generation to be able to whizz down the slopes.

Rabbie’s Small Group Tours has been named as one of Scotland’s most community conscious and environmentally sustainable companies.
The travel company has won the Scottish Business in the Community Award in recognition of its efforts to support rural communities, travel sustainably and make a contribution toward tackling climate change.
It was also awarded the Big Tick Climate Change Award for
environmental initiatives.

Join guided walks across the wild landscape of the Fforest Fawr Geopark in Carmarthenshire during the Geopark
Festival starting next weekend. The walks will be held on May 26 and 27 and the festival runs until June 10. Half day walks cost £2, full days a fiver - book in advance. Go to www.fforestfawrgeopark.org.uk/geopark-festival-2012 for more info.

Ecotourism group Inkaterra Peru has been named overall winner of the global Tourism for Tomorrow conservation award in Japan this week. The hotel protects 38,000 acres of rainforest in the Amazon basin and 25 acres of cloud forest within the Machu Picchu Historical Sanctuary. It also conducts biodiversity research, providing much needed scientific data and species benchmarks for plants, birds and amphibians in some of Peru’s most sensitive habitats. Creating sustainable tourism in a former mining region of Norway has seen Destination Røros win the Tourism for Tomorrow destination stewardship section. The former mining town of Røros has become a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Destination Røros is also a pilot project for Norway’s country-wide Sustainable Tourism Initiative.Asia’s Banyon Tree group has won the big business award in recognition of its work in local communities and for its environment programme that includes coral reef protection and planting thousands of trees every year around each of its resorts. And Saunders Hotel Group in the has scooped Tourism for Tomorrow’s community award for its efforts to support disadvantaged people in Boston. These efforts range from helping to provide affordable housing to supplying shelters with food left over from banquets.

A £6.9 million scheme to get visitors out of their cars and into greener forms of transport has been launched in the
Lake District.
The GoLakes Travel programme aims save up to 11,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions by 2015 - and create 100 jobs.
It concentrates on the villages of Grasmere, Ambleside, Windermere, Kendal, Hawkshead and Coniston.
There’ll be better cycleways, more bus stops, a low emission car hire network and an electric bike service.

Hepburn and Bogie’s wallowing co-star in The African Queen has come out of the dry dock and will live out her retirement in Florida.
She’s the real deal. The African Queen was launched in 1912 from England’s Lytham shipbuilding yard.
She was called - appropriately - The Livingstone and served the British East Africa Rail Company until 1968 shuttling cargo, great white hunters and mercenaries along the Ruki River, deep in the northwestern Democratic Republic of the Congo.
To take a ride on this megastar (OK I’m a huge fan of the movie) go to calypsosailing.com

The Selous Safari Company in Tanzania is taking part in the global Pack For A Purpose scheme encouraging visitors to bring essential supplies to rural areas. In this case, safari guests at its Jongomero Camp and Ras Kutani are bringing in medical and educational supplies. The safari company is also providing desks, books and uniforms to village schools near its camps.  
 
 

A scheme to encourage home owners to think sustainably has been launched by West Country agency Helpful Holidays. Cottages entering the scheme have nearly 70 boxes to tick before they get to carry a green tree symbol. These measures range from being energy and water efficient energy to managing the local environment.
Helpful Holidays’ boss Moray Bowater said; “Our offices are in beautiful Dartmoor National Park. We love our region and being environmentally aware is second nature to us. We recognise the unpredictable consequences of climate change and want to reduce the contribution running our business may make, as well as encourage our home owners and holiday makers to think more sustainably.”
Some of the holiday homes qualifying for the Green Cottage scheme are two cottages sleeping four near Honiton in East Devon. Converted from barns, Whitcombe Cottage (ref G77) and Swallows Cottage (G78) are on a 135 acre farm. Heating and hot water are piped to the cottages and farmhouse from solar panels and a log boiler, which is fed with coppiced wood from the sustainably managed farm woodland; there is also spring water. Or look at Mazeys Cottage in west Cornwall near Germoe. The cottage is on on a 15 acre smallholding and has a small wind turbine and solar panels. (ref T11)
For larger families or groups of friends The Hay Loft (ref G40), which sleeps 12, is on a five acre organic small holding near Kentisbeare, East Devon. Lots of fresh vegetables for guests to enjoy plus spring water and solar panels to help with energy provision. Prices start from £1,026 per week, pets welcome.
For more info about the Green Cottages scheme look at