Timber companies and environment groups unveiled an agreement aimed at protecting two-thirds of Canada’s vast forests from unsustainable logging, the BBC reported. Over 72 million hectares are included in what will become the world’s largest commercial forest conservation deal.

A large swathe of the Gulf of Mexico remains closed to fishing as fears that a giant oil slick could hit Florida’s beaches and corals reefs overshadowed progress in stemming the spill resulting from a blow-out at a BP well, according to Agence France-Presse.

President Barack Obama criticised the companies involved in the April 20 spill for the “ridiculous spectacle” of publicly blaming each other, Reuters said, and he again demanded that BP pay for the clean-up and other regional economic impacts.

The international media have largely ignored the latest incidents of oil pipeline damage in Nigeria, according to Reuters. An industry source said 100,000 barrels per day of oil had leaked for a week, while ExxonMobil declined to give details. The company declared force majeure on its exports of Nigerian benchmark crude, avoiding contractual obligations.

Shell said it is resuming work to reduce environmentally damaging gas flaring (burning gas extracted alongside oil), Agence France-Presse reported. Previous efforts to cut flaring in the oil-rich Niger Delta have been held back by security concerns and funding problems.

The successful development of Canada’s tar sands has triggered a rush by Shell and other oil companies to set up other “unconventional” operations elsewhere, said a new Friends of the Earth report cited by The Guardian

The World Bank and International Finance Corporation have budgeted US$12 million to begin weaning Africa’s off-grid energy market away from expensive fuel-based lighting, Reuters quoted a Lighting Africa programme official as saying.

Lake Tanganyika, the world’s second-oldest and second-deepest lake, is now at its warmest in 1,500 years, threatening the fishing industry on which millions of lives depend, Agence France-Presse cited research published in Nature Geoscience as saying.

Also in the Nature journal, Reuters reported, scientists said that people in European cities around the Mediterranean – including Rome, Marseilles and Athens -- are likely to suffer most in Europe this century from scorching heat waves caused by climate change.

A number of animal species believed to be new to science -- spotted on an expedition led by Conservation International to the Foja Mountains of Papua – were unveiled to mark International Day for Biological Diversity on May 22. They include a spike-nosed tree frog, a rust-and-gray imperial pigeon, a yellow-eyed gecko and a tiny forest wallaby.