Palo Alto, California: It gets flagged by my spellchecker and is yet to make it into the Oxford dictionary, but "defaunation", a phrase coined by Professor Rodolfo Dirzo of the Center for Latin American Studies at Stanford University, describes a phenomena that's posing a serious threat to rainforests and public health.
In the following interview, Professor Dirzo explains how he came up with the name and how, while a forest may look healthy on the outside, the poaching of animals for bush meat and illegal trade, is leading to a disruption of carnivore and herbivore populations.
The original interview was on Huffington Post here
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