The brown pelican, once on the brink of extinction, has become so abundant that it should be removed from the list of endangered species, U.S. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said on Friday.

Starting March 15, all IKEA stores in the US will charge a nickel per plastic bag in an effort to get people to haul their Swedish Fish and affordable housewares out of the store in reusable bags and cut down on plastic bag waste. IKEA projects that they'll cut plastic bag use by at least 50%, from 70 million bags a year down to 35 million bags.

Last week wildlife officials in Wisconsin celebrated the birth of two whooping crane chicks marking the first time in over 100 years that a whooping crane has hatched in the wild in the Midwest.

France and Cameroon have signed a debt-for-nature swap that aims to conserve some of the most pristine and threatened rainforest in Africa. Under the agreement, at least US$25 million will be invested over the next five years to protect parts of the Congo River Basin, the world's second largest tropical forest after the Amazon.