Environmental history
Environmental history of the World
The Role of Wood in World History
Today it is hard to believe that in antiquity vast forests were growing in the Middle East. However, during the early part of the third millennium BCE, the mountain slopes of this region were covered with massive cedar forests. These forests disappeared in the millennia before Christ’s birth about two thousand years ago. The destruction of the cedar forests of the Middle East is told in the oldest know, surviving written story in the world: The epic of Gilgamesh. The epic was written in Mesopotamia sometime during in the 3rd millennium BCE. The second episode of the epic is known as “The forest Journey” and is the story of deforestation in the Middle East
Environmental history of Britain
History of the British landscape Articles on the environmental history of Britain
A Green and Pleasant Land: a history of Britain’s rural landscape. Excellent article “Nearly every part of Britain’s countryside has been touched by man at some stage in history - from the barren deforested Peak District cleared by slash-and-burn in neolithic times, to the New Forest created as a hunting ground by William the Conqueror in 1079, to the Fens, watermeadows of Hampshire, and the Broads of Norfolk which are the result of peat extraction during the Middle Ages.”
Environmental history of India
All ancient texts have some mention of the forest and the activities that were performed in these areas. Forests were revered by the people and a large number of religious ceremonies centred on trees and plants. The Agni Purana, written about 4000 years ago, stated that man should protect trees to have material gains and religious blessings. Around 2500 years ago, Gautama Buddha preached that man should plant a tree every five years. Sacred groves were marked around the temples where certain rules and regulations applied.
- Country guides
- Wildlife of Belarus
- Wildlife of Bhutan
- Wildlife of Botswana
- Wildlife of Cambodia
- Wildlife of Cameroon
- Wildlife of China
- Wildlife of Congo
- Wildlife of Ethiopia
- Wildlife of Finland
- Wildlife of Greece
- Wildlife of Hungary
- Wildlife of India
- Wildlife of Malaysia
- Wildlife of Mexico
- Wildlife of Nepal
- Wildlife of Niger
- Wildlife of Peru
- Wildlife of Poland
- Wildlife of Slovakia
- Wildlife of South Korea
- Wildlife of the US
- Wildlife of Turkey
- Wildlife of Turkmenistan
- Wildlife of Uganda
- Mixed

With breathtaking views of the Himalayas, you can soar alongside Egyptian Vultures and Black Kites who will approach to take food out of your hand. They are specially trained rescue birds who can’t be returned to the wild. Among them is Kevin the young Egyptian Vulture, famous for his scrapes with Steppe Eagles. The ultimate aim of the venture is to draw attention to the serious decline of Asian vultures, being poisoned to extinction by vet-prescribed drug Diclofenac. Visit
This year breeding conditions have been exceptionally good for budgerigars in Queensland, Australia. Heavy rain and river flooding revived the land, providing plenty of grass seeds for the birds to feast on. When all the available trees with the best nesting sites had been taken, budgerigars were laying their eggs on the ground. And now local people are marvelling at the unprecedented size of the flocks, turning the sky green.
Customs officials first suspected the 22-year old Norwegian, who’d just stepped off a ferry from Denmark, when they spotted a tarantula scuttling inside his bag. They then noticed “his whole body was in constant motion”. The wriggling movement was due to the 14 baby royal pythons tucked away in socks strapped to the man’s torso. That wasn’t all: when the officials made him drop his trousers they found 10 cans taped to his legs, each containing an albino leopard gecko. As Norway bans the import of reptiles, including unendangered species like these, he has been fined 12,500 Norwegian crowns (£1,800). 





