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The successful projects from the 20 Million Trees Programme Competitive Grants Round One 2014-2015 have now been announced.

A Request for Tender process for the Service Provider component of the 20 Million Trees Programme is currently open and will close 2pm (AEDT) 6 February 2015.

EU decision to increase allowed catches in most areas good news for British fishermen, but conservationists are dismayed

Britain’s fishermen will be allowed to increase their catch of cod and other key fish species next year after late-night wrangling between EU ministers in Brussels resulted in a new set of fishing quotas that flout scientific advice.

The quota for cod catches for 2015 will increase by 5% on last year, though scientific advice suggested that it should be cut by 20%.

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Next year the Belo Monte dam will flood vast swathes of Amazon rainforest. Indian tribes living on the river have lost their fight to halt the project – now they await the floods that threaten their entire way of life

By the Great Bend of the Xingu river in the depths of Amazonia, the Juruna tribe is being drowned by what seems at first sight to be a flood of TV game-show prizes.

There’s a shiny new motorboat moored by the old canoe, the latest four-wheel drive parked beside a chicken coop, satellite dishes outside every home and wide-screen plasma TVs inside.

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The Department has released a new spatial information metadata catalogue and search tool Find Environmental Data (FED) to replace Discover Information Geographically (DIG). FED will allow integration with other Commonwealth services such as Australian Government’s spatial data catalogue FIND and data.gov.au.

Find out the latest updates on the Commonwealth Marine Reserves Review.

Proposals too weak to keep global warming to the agreed limit of two degrees above pre-industrial levels

Frustrated climate campaigners have claimed that the world was on course for an unsustainable four-degree rise in temperatures, as two weeks of negotiations for a climate change agreement headed for an unsatisfying conclusion.

The proposals, still under discussion on Saturday, a day after the talks were scheduled to end, were too weak to keep global warming to the agreed limit of two degrees above preindustrial levels, setting the world on course to a climate disaster, according to developing countries at the summit.

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Culture ministry says it will press charges against activists for damage to world heritage site as UN climate talks began in Lima

Greenpeace has apologised to the people of Peru after the government accused the environmentalists of damaging ancient earth markings in the country’s coastal desert by leaving footprints in the ground during a publicity stunt meant to send a message to the UN climate talks delegates in Lima.

A spokesman for Greenpeace said: “Without reservation Greenpeace apologises to the people of Peru for the offence caused by our recent activity laying a message of hope at the site of the historic Nazca lines. We are deeply sorry for this.

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Over five trillion pieces of plastic are floating in our oceans says most comprehensive study to date on plastic pollution around the world

• Microplastic deposits found deep in world’s oceans

More than five trillion pieces of plastic, collectively weighing nearly 269,000 tonnes, are floating in the world’s oceans, causing damage throughout the food chain, new research has found.

Data collected by scientists from the US, France, Chile, Australia and New Zealand suggests a minimum of 5.25tn plastic particles in the oceans, most of them “micro plastics” measuring less than 5mm.

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The Government is proposing a new set of rules to support the operation of the Emissions Reduction Fund: the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative) Rule 2015 (the Rules). Comments close 19 December.

The Government is proposing a new set of rules to support the operation of the Emissions Reduction Fund: the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative) Rule 2015 (the Rules). Comments close 19 December.

Vietnamese are protesting plans to build a cable car through remote Phong Nha-Ke Bang national park that could carry 1,000 visitors an hour to Son Doong cave

Plans for a cable car in Vietnam’s Unesco-listed Phong Nha-Ke Bang national park would open up the world’s largest cave to mass tourism. But Vietnamese are protesting the project, and experts warn the environmental impact could be devastating.

Quang Binh province announced in October that resort developer Sun Group would build a $212m (£135m) cable car system through the national park, which occupies a remote, mountainous swathe of central Vietnam. The 10.6km route would connect Son Doong Cave, so large it could house an entire 40-story building, with other caves in the area as part of a planned “tourism, service and resort complex”.

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Global livestock industry produces more greenhouse gas emissions than transport but fear of a consumer backlash is preventing action, says Chatham House report

Curbing the world’s huge and increasing appetite for meat is essential to avoid devastating climate change, according to a new report. But governments and green campaigners are doing nothing to tackle the issue due to fears of a consumer backlash, warns the analysis from the thinktank Chatham House.

The global livestock industry produces more greenhouse gas emissions than all cars, planes, trains and ships combined, but a worldwide survey by Ipsos MORI in the report finds twice as many people think transport is the bigger contributor to global warming.

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Nominations are invited for places for the National Heritage List for the assessment period 1 July 2015 to 30 June 2016, nominations close 6 February 2015.

Eradication effort to protect the island’s wildlife from millions of invasive rats, which will feed on the brains of live seabird chicks, starts in 2015

Conservationists are undertaking a final push to wipe out millions of rats from South Georgia once and for all, in a bid to protect the island’s wildlife.

Described as the world’s largest rodent eradication project, the UK-led effort will see three helicopters dropping 95 tonnes of the poison Brodifacoum on the British overseas territory next year.

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Nordic Council calls on EU to ban damaging compounds found in household products that cost millions due to their harmful impact on male reproductive health

The hormone-mimicking chemicals used routinely in toiletries, cosmetics, medicines, plastics and pesticides cause hundreds of millions of euros of damage to EU citizens every year, according to the first estimate of their economic impact.

The endocrine disruptor compounds (EDCs) are thought to be particularly harmful to male reproductive health and can cause testicular cancer, infertility, deformation of the penis and undescended testicles.

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The Department invites your feedback on community awareness of the Emissions Reduction Fund. Responses close 31 December 2014.

Written submissions to the independent review of Commonwealth Marine Reserves open today. The co-Chairs of the Bioregional Advisory Panels, Professor Colin Buxton and Mr Peter Cochrane invite interested parties to provide them with ideas and suggestions on how marine reserves should be managed into the future.

The Australian Government has commenced a water purchase tender for the southern New South Wales catchments of Lower Darling, Murray and Murrumbidgee, closing at 5pm AEST on Friday, 10 April 2015.

Every time you enter the ocean, anywhere on Earth with a temperate or subtropical climate, you cross into the domain of the great white shark. But almost everything the average human thinks he or she knows about these sharks – other than the fact that they are big and dangerous – is wrong. We unpick 10 of the most tenacious myths

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