The second in a regular series of posts to biodiversity-related* items that have caught my attention during the week**.

• Plans for two giant lagoons to harness tidal power are being broadly supported by Friends of the Earth, and may have a positive impact on marine biodiversity in the area

• If you’d like to help raise money for bird conservation projects, please consider sponsoring Northants County Bird Recorder Mike Alibone’s team in the Champions of the Flyway event

• How much is ecotourism worth?  Well, visits to protected areas “generate approximately US $600 billion/y in direct in-country expenditure and US $250 billion/y in consumer surplus” according to a recent study entitled Walk on the Wild Side: Estimating the Global Magnitude of Visits to Protected Areas

• A new initiative in Google Maps means that you can explore an area of tropical rainforest in Brazil

• Staying with Brazil, forest loss is strongly implicated in the drought that is being experienced in the south-west of the country Brazil.  I particularly recommend the videoed seminar by Douglas Sheil, which is very thought provoking

• Still Brazil, clearance of cerrado vegetation for soybean production continues according to latest results from NASA Earth Observatory

• Related to this, vote for your favourite Earth observation image in this year’s NASA Tournament Earth competition

• Finally, if you’re the only person on the planet who has not seen a weasel riding on the back of a woodpecker, would you like to?  Of course you would!