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Nature-based recovery needed for Ukraine’s damaged protected areas (analysis)
- A group of ecologists has published the first interim analysis of the impacts of Russia’s invasion on Ukraine’s protected areas, which has been an environmental disaster.
- Conservationists and international policy makers must reckon with the damages from this invasion and support Ukraine in a nature-positive post-war recovery.
- This article is an analysis. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.
Marine conservation technology hub rises from old L.A. wharf (analysis)
- In 2014, the Port of Los Angeles gave a 50-year lease to an aging wharf called City Dock No. 1 to a project called AltaSea.
- AltaSea is a non-profit project founded in 2014 that in less than 10 years has become a leading ‘blue economy’ research hub focused on renewable ocean energy, sustainable aquaculture and other blue technologies.
- Hub tenants include marine renewable energy startups, sustainable aquaculture projects, a marine seed bank, a research effort aimed at decarbonizing oceanic shipping, and other projects.
- This article is an analysis. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.
Nickel mine threatens Philippines biodiversity hotspot on Sibuyan Island (analysis)
- The pursuit of cleaner sources of energy could lead to the destruction of a biodiversity hotspot of global significance — the ‘Galapagos of Asia’ — a new analysis argues.
- Communities on Sibuyan Island have opposed mining for over 50 years but need decisive action from the government to safeguard their forests and rivers via a permanent mining ban.
- Demand for nickel and other ‘energy transition metals’ is set to increase, requiring long-term planning and rigorous, independent and participatory assessment of environmental & social impacts.
- This post is an analysis. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.
Climate change threatens the North Atlantic’s currents, ecosystems and stability (analysis)
- The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) is a vital component of the Earth’s global ocean circulation, and encompasses a network of currents within the Atlantic Ocean.
- Current research shows a possible slowing or stopping of the AMOC due to climate change, with direct and major impacts on marine ecosystems, weather variability, and food security in North America and Europe, and by extension the rest of the world.
- “A significant and sustained weakening of the AMOC has the potential to lead to its outright collapse, which would have far-reaching and mostly irreversible effects on marine and terrestrial ecosystems,” a new analysis explains.
- This post is an analysis. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.
Amid government inaction, Indonesia’s rhinos head toward extinction (analysis)
- The Sumatran and Javan rhinos, arguably the world’s two most endangered large mammals, are in worse shape than widely reported, according to expert interviews and a recent report.
- The Sumatran rhino is down to fewer than 50 animals in the wild and a much-touted capture program has only caught a single female, which still hasn’t been put into a breeding program.
- Meanwhile, new evidence points to overcounting of the Javan rhino population, putting in doubt the health of its population.
- Experts say the rhinos’ predicament is in part due to a lack of will or a willingness to take risks by the Indonesian government.
How do you study one of the world’s rarest whales?
- Researcher Dana Wright is one of a handful of scientists studying one of the world’s rarest creatures, the North Pacific right whale.
- With about 500 individuals remaining, and its eastern population that swims off the coast of North America totaling perhaps 30 individuals, it’s so rare that in a decade of research, she has yet to see a living individual of the population, though her colleagues have.
- How does one study a creature that’s so hard to document? With tools like bioacoustics, for example, and Wright has listened to tens of thousands of hours of recordings to aid the conservation of these endangered animals.
- The team continues to develop new approaches to solving the mystery of these whales’ migratory patterns and biology with a goal of identifying — and then protecting — the location of their winter calving grounds.
Emmanuel Macron’s “Biodiversity Credits”: What are we talking about? (commentary)
- Carbon credits have long been a part of the climate change discourse and so the universe of different types of carbon credits is fairly well understood. What about biodiversity credits, at the heart of an initiative announced by Emmanuel Macron at COP27?
- Broadly speaking, two cases can be distinguished: on the one hand, regulatory or voluntary biodiversity offset systems with offsets, based on the “no net loss” principle associated with the avoid-reduce-compensate (ARC) sequence. On the other hand, credits not intended for offsetting, modeled on voluntary carbon credits, which are, above all, financing vehicles for actions in favor of biodiversity.
- Alain Karsenty, an economist at CIRAD, explores their interest and limits in relation to systems already in place or proposed elsewhere.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily Mongabay.
Climate change could force 1.2 billion to move by 2050. Is the world even remotely ready?
- In a world beset by rising temperatures, devastating storms, and flash floods, climate migration and disaster displacement are quickly becoming the signal 21st century crisis. The vast majority of those worst affected are in the world’s poorest and fastest warming countries.
- Yet, rather than step up to meet the challenges of climate dislocation, most national governments, international agencies, private sector players and non-profits are burying their heads in the sand.
- Short-termism prevails over long-range forecasting, planning and preparation. This is dangerous, argues Robert Muggah, co-founder of the Igarapé Institute, in a new analysis.
Should more wildlife trade be legal and regulated? It’s complicated, say scientists
- As the global international trade treaty approaches its half century anniversary, some scientists say it needs an overhaul to make its structures fit for 21st century.
- Allowing for legal, regulated trade could be better than banning it for many species, they argue, referring to successful case studies where local communities were involved in sustainable trade.
- But some conservationists are worried that changing the way CITES operates will be bad news for endangered wildlife and point out it has been a significant factor in the survival of species such as elephants and tigers.
Tracking the moves of Asian forestry companies in Central Africa (analysis)
- An array of Asia-based forestry companies operate in Central Africa, including the countries of Cameroon, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.
- Many of these companies subcontract their operations to third parties, making their activities difficult to track.
- An analysis of these operations sheds light on the near to mid-term future of Central African forests as government policies shift along with markets.
- This post is an analysis by a senior scientist at the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD). The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.
Malawi steps up action against illegal charcoal trade (analysis)
- New forestry laws and improved capacity in Malawi’s courts have improved law enforcement’s ability to fight forestry-related crimes, like illegal charcoal production.
- Under a new amendment to the country’s Forestry Act, which treats charcoal as a forest product, the government now has the authority to issue stronger penalties, fines and jail sentences.
- The USAID and UKAID-funded Modern Cooking for Healthy Forests (MCHF) program supports the government in improving its capacity to investigate and prosecute these activities.
- This post is an analysis of the situation by a MCHF contractor. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.
Coalition against online wildlife trafficking shares little evidence of success (analysis)
- Officials from the Coalition to End Wildlife Trafficking Online say progress is being made, but the evidence is minimal, a new analysis shows.
- The Coalition’s three NGO partners – TRAFFIC, IFAW and WWF – divide up primary “point of contact” duties with big online platforms like eBay where wildlife and illegal animal products can be found for sale.
- Critics call the Coalition “a black box” from which little light emerges, allowing member companies like Facebook to say they’re part of the solution by pointing to their Coalition membership.
- This post is an independent analysis by the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Mongabay.
Brazil’s illegal gold rush is fueling corruption, violent crime and deforestation
- Once the epicenter of the global trade in gold, illegal mining is once again surging across the Amazon.
- Its extraction and trade is not only fueling corruption, money laundering and criminal violence – it is accelerating deforestation in the world’s largest tropical forest, says Robert Muggah, co-founder of the Igarapé Institute.
- Muggah details a range of challenges facing efforts to rein in the gold mining sector. He says political leadership is critical to make progress on the issue: “Absent political will from the top, however, Brazil’s gold chain will continue to resemble the wild west.”
For World Gorilla Day 2021, a conservation success story
- The NGO that helped establish World Gorilla Day — the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund — has learned a few important lessons for the conservation of gorillas and other species over the years.
- Firstly, conservation can’t happen without local support: when community members they work with come to understand the importance of the habitat that surrounds them, the project can succeed. Another lesson is that conservation takes time, money and diversification.
- “By engaging rather than excluding communities and ensuring that local people benefit from conservation, we have found that we can protect wildlife with a footprint that is 15 times smaller than that for mountain gorillas.”
- This article is an analysis for World Gorilla Day 2021 by the chief scientific officer of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, and does not necessarily reflect the views of Mongabay.
Should tree plantations count toward reforestation goals? It’s complicated
- Globally, tree-planting projects are becoming all the rage, but many are counting on old habits of planting monoculture plantations and calling them forests.
- Still, some researchers say there are ways to make plantation trees aid in actual restoration projects, including innovative projects in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil.
- Reforestation and restoration projects will require monitoring and scrutiny to make sure they are living up to their commitments in regard to both climate and biodiversity.
Can the Japanese seafood industry reconcile their finances with nature?
- Despite the global depletion of fish populations from overfishing, it seems surprising that Japan’s seafood sector is increasingly generating revenue.
- Investors have rewarded these companies for using management strategies to offset the impact of depleted resources on their businesses, rather than for ensuring those assets stop being degraded.
- A new analysis by Planet Tracker finds that companies have used foreign expansion, acquisitions, vertical integration, cost-cutting and de-leveraging as strategies to increase their profitability.
- Companies should instead ensure that fishing quotas are set in line with scientific advice and not higher than maximum sustainable yields, and ensure that they eventually cover all species.
To save chocolate’s future, ‘start now and go big’ on agroforestry
- Cocoa production in Côte d’Ivoire began in the 1950s in forests bordering Ghana, and progressively shifted west as trees were removed and soil exhausted. Côte d’Ivoire lost 217,866 hectares of protected forest from 2001 to 2014 to monocultures of it.
- Now, the region where cocoa can be grown is shrinking due to climate and rainfall patterns: agroforestry is the sole way ensure that it can continue as the mainstay crop of the economies of Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, so it’s time to ‘go big’ on implementing it widely.
- Agroforestry cools the microclimates on farms and increases climate resiliency and biodiversity, but is a complex, time consuming technique that varies by region.
- Careful selection of tree species and spacing are critical to maximize yields, which is a key problem to solve toward wider adoption of agroforestry-grown chocolate.
Infrastructure plans imperil Latin America’s forests: Analysis
- A recent analysis in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by social scientists, along with representatives of NGOs and funding organizations, warns of the danger to forests, communities and biodiversity as a result of planned infrastructure.
- The team writes that the planning process needs to be focused on projects that bring the most benefits to people and the environment.
- The authors advocate an approach that includes input from often-marginalized groups like Indigenous communities and looks to science to inform planning for large-scale projects.
Though forests burn, trees retake farmland globally as agroforestry advances
- Agroforestry is an ancient agricultural technique being rediscovered all over the world as limitations of the globe’s highly industrialized agriculture become obvious.
- On the old and exhausted soils of Africa, trees’ power to nourish life is potentially integral to a reboot of the continent’s agriculture.
- Agroforestry is the intentional combination of woody perennials like trees and shrubs with crops and also livestock to create a resilient “food ecosystem” that benefits farmers, biodiversity and the climate.
- In an analysis for Mongabay, agroforestry expert Patrick Worms suggests that while news reports show forests burning in many places, one can take heart from the fact that trees are busily taking root upon the world’s vast swaths of farmland.
Response to one pandemic, COVID-19, has helped ease another: Air pollution
- Air pollution has significantly decreased over China amid the economic slowdown caused by the COVID-19 outbreak, signaling unanticipated implications for human health.
- It is estimated that air pollution caused an extra 8.8 million premature deaths globally in 2015 alone, representing an average of a three-year shortening of life expectancy across the human population, and shortening lives on a scale greater than malaria, war and violence, HIV/AIDS, and smoking.
- The two-month drop in pollution may have saved the lives of 4,000 children under the age of 5 and 73,000 adults over the age of 70 in China, according to environmental resource economist Marshall Burke — significantly more than the global death toll from the COVID-19 virus at the time of calculation.
- Burke says we should not think of this as a “silver lining” or a “benefit” of the pandemic, given that COVID-19’s impact on public health and the broader disruption it is causing — lost incomes, inability to receive care for non-COVID-19 illnesses and injuries, etc. — could have far-reaching implications.
Analysis: Floating solar power along the dammed-up Mekong River
- This year, the first floating solar power generating system in Southeast Asia was deployed on a reservoir in Vietnam.
- Floating solar power systems are being written into the energy master plans of Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines as well as Vietnam, and into the calculations of investment banks.
- The technology presents an alternative to additional hydroelectric power projects.
Farmer-managed natural regeneration: the fastest way to restore trees to degraded landscapes?
- Farmer-managed natural regeneration (FMNR) is the encouragement of regeneration and then the management of trees and shrubs that sprout from tree stumps, roots and seeds found in degraded soils, such as those currently in agricultural production.
- Trees and crops grown in combination like this is called agroforestry and provides multiple benefits to farmers, crops, climate, and wildlife.
- FMNR has been successful in Niger, with 5 million hectares of formerly treeless cropland found to have re-greened via the practice.
- Cathy Watson of World Agroforestry Centre interviewed two of her colleagues currently conducting research on FMNR to hear what they’re learning and to ask if it’s the fastest (or the easiest) way to re-green degraded croplands.
Citizen science makes easy work of penguin time-lapse image bounty
- A multinational research team has deployed time-lapse cameras at various penguin breeding colonies to enable a widespread, long-term study of these top predators in the Antarctic ecosystem.
- Volunteers have played a critical role in processing the millions of images resulting from the multi-year study to better understand reproductive behavior and nest success rates across the Antarctic Peninsula, South Shetland Islands, and South Georgia.
- Citizen scientists can help produce large data sets needed to train artificial intelligence algorithms.
Cool birds don’t sing: Study automates acoustic monitoring of songbird migration
- Researchers have developed machine learning techniques to identify bird song from thousands of hours of field recordings, using the information to uncover variations in migratory songbirds’ arrival to their Arctic breeding grounds.
- They deployed automated listening devices during spring over five years, analyzed vocal activity to estimate when birds arrived at their breeding sites, and assessed relationships between vocal activity and environmental conditions.
- They found that the acoustically derived estimates of the birds’ arrival dates were similar to those determined using standard field surveys.
- Temperature and presence of snow affected the birds’ calling patterns, suggesting that collecting corresponding weather data could help avoid bias in using acoustic monitoring to assess population dynamics.
Species recognition shifts into auto with neural networks
- Scientists have shown that a cutting-edge type of artificial intelligence can automatically count, identify, and describe the behaviors of 48 animal species in camera trap images taken in the Serengeti ecosystem.
- The team used a dataset of 3.2 million wildlife images to train and test deep convolutional neural networks to recognize not only individual animals but also what the animals are doing in each image.
- The models performed as well as human volunteers in identifying, counting, and describing the behavior of animals in nearly all the Serengeti camera trap images and also identified those images that required human review.
- The widespread use of motion-sensor camera traps for wildlife research and conservation, coupled with the inefficiency of manual image processing, means successful automation of some or all of the image analysis process is likely to save researchers time and money, as well as catalyze new uses of remote camera photos.
Radar returns to remote sensing through free, near-real-time global imagery
- The European Space Agency’s launch of the Sentinel-1 satellite has made 20-meter resolution radar imagery of the whole planet freely available.
- The “all-weather, day-and-night supply of imagery of Earth’s surface” complements standard optical satellite imagery in detecting forest loss, even under heavy cloud cover.
- The Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project (MAAP) demonstrates the benefits of analyzing free radar imagery to accurately quantify wet season loss of rainforest in the Peruvian Amazon.
Where does your timber come from? Genetic analysis may soon tell you
- Illegal trade in tropical timber costs countries billions of dollars in revenue each year and threatens regional and national biodiversity.
- Researchers tested the potential of two genetic analysis techniques to pinpoint the geographic origin of timber trees and thus verify claims that trees are harvested in legal quantities from permitted locations.
- They successfully assigned samples of tali, a highly exploited African timber tree, to the forest concession of origin using genetic markers.
- Their findings suggest that genetic analysis can differentiate the geographic origin of tropical timber at the scale of forest concessions and can serve as forensic tools to enforce timber trade legislation.
Scientists deploy DNA analysis and radiocarbon dating in latest salvo against ivory trafficking
- Scientists are analyzing ivory samples confiscated from the U.S. retail market to help reduce elephant poaching.
- Two teams of scientists will use radiocarbon dating to determine when each elephant was killed and DNA analyses to locate where it came from in Africa.
- Determining the location and year an elephant that produced a tusk was killed establishes if the ivory being sold is legal, helps assess the current extent of poaching, and assists law enforcement in targeting the poachers responsible.
10 top conservation tech innovations from 2017
- The increased portability and reduced cost of data collection and synthesis tools have transformed how we research and conserve the natural world.
- Devices from visual and acoustic sensors to DNA sequencers help us better understand the world around us, and they combine with online mapping platforms to help us monitor it.
- New online and mobile apps have democratized data collection, inspiring a brave new world of citizen scientists to learn about the species around them, contribute to conservation and scientific discovery, and feel part of a learning community.
- Here, we present 10 tech trends we covered in 2017, in no particular order, that have helped us better understand nature, monitor its status, and take action to protect it.
Know your ESA: an online resource for Endangered Species Act docs and data
- The ever-increasing number of species needing protection, inadequate funding, and poor understanding of how and where the US Endangered Species Act (ESA) has been implemented have made it difficult to assess the law’s success.
- A free, online platform offers access to and analyses of troves of ESA-related documents and data—including otherwise unavailable materials—on species, agency consultations, decisions, and effectiveness.
- By making these data more accessible, the platform aims to help the conservation community better understand how the ESA is implemented and where it can improve.
A new species of orangutan from Indonesia (analysis)
- Scientists have described a third species of orangutan.
- The Tapanuli orangutan (Pongo tapanuliensis) is found in the Tapanuli region of Indonesia’s North Sumatra province.
- The species is already considered at risk of extinction.
- This guest post is an analysis by researchers, including authors of the paper that describes the new primate species.
New resource for planning camera trapping, acoustic monitoring, and LiDAR projects
- WWF-UK has produced a website and series of best-practice guideline documents to help field teams deploy camera trapping, acoustic monitoring, and Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR).
- The guidelines address issues ranging from assessing the relevance of each method to a particular project goal and ecosystem, to practical tips for deployment, to the physics behind the functioning of the technology.
- The resource should help readers planning a specific project using one or more of these approaches and include extensive lists of published studies for each method.
Renewable energy to power 139 countries? Scientists say it’s possible
- The research looked at the impacts of a 100-percent switch to renewable energy in 139 countries by 2050 on the climate, as well as air pollution and the economy.
- They calculated that the transition to wind, solar and hydropower will generate around 24 million net jobs.
- Switching to renewable sources of energy that don’t emit carbon into the atmosphere will also save trillions of dollars in the costs we would otherwise incur due to air pollution and the changing climate.
Measuring fish abundance through acoustics: spawning aggregations are key to improving fishery management plans
- Despite the threat of overfishing in many fish populations, fisheries managers often lack accurate plans and quota systems to allow a sustainable harvest.
- Traditional methods of estimating fish populations can be costly, intrusive and laborious, so a team of researchers tested the use of acoustics to survey the Gulf corvina fish.
- The researchers found that deploying passive acoustic detection devices near spawning aggregations was a cost-effective and easy-to-use method of estimating abundance through data collected on the fishes’ vocalizations.
Road safety for wildlife: researchers analyze the best techniques for road-kill mitigation
- In a given year, an estimated one to two million wildlife-vehicle collisions occurs in the United States alone.
- A meta-analysis comparing data on the effectiveness of road-kill mitigation efforts found that fencing yields the best results.
- Although the most effective road-kill reduction measures can be the most costly, the study emphasizes that they have high returns on investment.
Big mammals flourish as Cerrado park’s savanna comes back
- The study examined a state park in the Brazilian Cerrado, which contains land used in recent decades for eucalyptus plantations, cattle ranching and charcoal production.
- The researchers used camera traps, recording the dry season presence of 18 species of large mammals.
- In a subsequent analysis, they found that the number of large mammals found in the ‘secondary’ savanna was similar to numbers found in untouched regions of the Cerrado.
Catching the buzz: acoustic monitoring of bees could determine pollination services
- The services of pollinating animals are necessary for the reproduction of over 85 percent of flowering plants, and the majority of these pollinators are bees.
- Characteristics of individual bees, including their body size and tongue length, result in unique buzz signatures and allow for the study of the bee’s productivity.
- To help the productivity of bees’ pollination services, researchers have developed an inexpensive method of measuring each bee’s acoustics that will eventually be available for the public’s use.
Rare fishing cat photographed in Cambodia
- One researcher spotted a young fishing cat in the sanctuary in broad daylight, suggesting the population may not be under heavy pressure.
- Globally, the cat’s numbers have plummeted by over 30 percent in the last 15 years, putting the species at high risk of extinction.
- Research on the fishing cat began only in 2009, but it is already believed to be extinct in Vietnam; meanwhile, there are no confirmed records in Laos PDR and scarce information from Myanmar, Thailand, and Cambodia.
- This article is a news analysis by a non-Mongabay writer. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.
Free online analysis of forest change
- Global Forest Watch’s on-the-fly analysis tool calculates forest change within a specific area and time frame without experience using GIS software.
- The user can customize the area and time period of the analysis by drawing or uploading polygon shapes.
- These basic analysis tools can help users address a variety of forest spatial data questions.
Swallowing swimming pools: New sensory tags capture kinetics of lunge-feeding whales
- Researchers have developed and deployed sensory tags with video cameras to study how rorquals, a type of baleen whale, lunge feed and maximize their consumption despite the huge energetic cost.
- Comprehending the dynamics of lunge feeding and its energy tradeoffs could inform whale conservation and fisheries management.
- The scientists hope to develop the tags with a more compact design, more reliable sensors, and longer battery life, and they want to better understand the baleen and compare and analyze lunge feeding and its energetics across whales.
KEDR: Watching over the cedar forests of the Russian Far East
- KEDR uses an algorithm to automatically analyze real-time satellite images for various canopy changes to provide forest managers precise logging intelligence so they can quickly counteract violations.
- The technology could help conserve the critically endangered Amur tiger and leopard that inhabit these forests.
- KEDR is now being implemented in two provinces and has been recommended for use throughout the country. The tool will continue to be developed with technological upgrades, high-precision satellite imagery, new algorithms and artificial intelligence.
Company poised to destroy critical orangutan habitat in breach of Indonesia’s moratorium
- Sungai Putri is a beautiful natural forest area in West Kalimantan that is home to between 750 and 1750 orangutans.
- This makes it the third largest population of this Critically Endangered species in the province. Sungai Putri has extensive deep peat areas, up to 14.5 meters deep in places.
- A company named PT Mohairson Pawan Khatulistiwa apparently plans to clear more than half of their license area for conversion into an industrial tree plantation.
Acoustic monitoring: mapping ecosystems by animal calls
- Studies that confirm the presence of particular species are needed to understand and conserve them appropriately, but such studies are often costly, time-consuming and thus few and far between.
- Researchers from the University of Puerto Rico are deploying monitoring stations in the field, which record and process animal sounds to automate the collection and classification of audio data to determine species presence and compare animal communities.
- While the technology is limited to animals that call and requires some human expertise in identifying these sounds, it can provide detailed, long-term data for monitoring animal communities and informing wildlife management strategies
EGI: Filling in the gaps in law enforcement for the online wildlife trade
- Enforcement Gaps Interface (EGI) uses a computational algorithm to mine hundreds of commercial sites for ads potentially containing illegal wildlife and wildlife products.
- EGI aims to help law enforcement agencies, retailers and nongovernmental organizations reduce and ultimately eliminate rampant online wildlife trafficking.
- EGI’s creators are further developing it to incorporate more languages and image recognition into its searches.
Colombia’s peace could pressure the environment
With the disbanding of Colombia’s largest military guerrilla group, FARC, Colombia’s forests could come under pressure from developmental goals. Home to almost 10 percent of the planet’s biodiversity, Colombia is listed as a “megadiverse” country by the Convention on Biological Diversity. It is home to 314 different types of ecosystems. Colombia now faces a unique […]
Searching for sawfish following the clues of environmental DNA
- Environmental DNA (eDNA) is genetic material extracted directly from environmental samples, such as soil, water and air, rather than from an evident biological source. eDNA analysis is revolutionizing species detection and genetic analyses for conservation, management and research.
- Researchers in northern Australia are using eDNA to locate and help conserve critically endangered largetooth sawfish.
- eDNA technology is rapidly evolving; it could become completely field-based and be used to determine abundance and applied to meta-genomic ecosystem surveys to predict spatial and temporal biodiversity patterns.
How’s my target species recovering? A new tool to help you evaluate
- Professionals in conservation, agriculture, development, and research seek to assess the status of biodiversity targets and their responses to threats.
- A new biodiversity monitoring manual brings together numerous resources to aid students, researchers, and resource managers in assessing resource health over time.
- The manual is freely available online from Germany’s GIZ to facilitate informed natural resource decision-making.
Piloting PALM Risk to detect palm oil-driven deforestation
- The PALM Risk Tool, hosted on World Resources Institute (WRI)’s Global Forest Watch (GFW) Commodities platform, uses satellite imagery to show deforestation risk around 800 palm oil mills.
- Corporations can use the tool to increase transparency, improve plantation practices, honor sustainable palm oil commitments and preserve endangered species’ habitat; government and civil society can use it to hold companies accountable to stopping rampant deforestation for palm oil.
- Piloting the technology, Unilever found 29 high-risk mills in its supply chain, and it will work with unsustainable suppliers to improve their operations and curb forest loss.
Bringing Star Trek tricorder analysis to the 21st century
- Handheld DNA devices such as miniPCR and MinION have a range of possible conservation and research uses, from catching poachers and illegal trade of wildlife to identifying species from field samples.
- Reading an organism’s genetic code through DNA sequencing is the most reliable way to identify it.
- While the technology is becoming easier to use and more reliable, it is still unfamiliar and has a few kinks.
Combining high-tech and low-tech to turn satellite images into action
- Remote sensing is not only a science, it’s also an art. And in order to interpret the imagery, you need a deep understanding of the land you’re studying.
- Satellite images can show us where the forest patches are, but they don’t tell us why. That information comes from communities.
- Information doesn’t automatically transform into a management action, and conservation scientists must learn how to turn scientific information and big data into engaging stories.
Online forest mapping made easy
- The online Global Forest Watch platform provides open access to frequently updated satellite imagery to allow any user to monitor forest change in a given country or other area.
- Within an interactive map, the user can view forest change data and related spatial data sets at scales ranging from a 30m x 30m pixel to the whole globe – basic user guidelines provided in this post.
- Speeding detection of forest loss improves management, conservation, and accountability.
Tech for Tigers: keeping tabs on forest habitat to conserve an iconic cat
- Tigers need large areas to survive but if well protected, populations can rebound quickly. Nepal and India experienced 61% and 31% increases, respectively, in their tiger populations recently thanks to better habitat protection and anti-poaching efforts.
- The global tiger population now stands at fewer than 3,500; the goal is to double by 2022
- Scientists found less than 8 percent (79,600 km2) of global tiger habitat was lost between 2001 and 2014, enough habitat to have supported about 400 tigers.
- First major study to use high and medium-resolution satellite data from Global Forest Watch to examine impact of forest loss on tiger populations.
CyberTracking for Africa’s most endangered ape
- Protected area staff use the handheld tool CyberTracker to collect data and produce spatial and statistical analyses to guard gorillas in Cross River reserves.
- The system aids the conservation of the critically endangered Cross River gorilla, improving law enforcement by facilitating the monitoring of wildlife, human interferences and patrols.
- CyberTracker use is expanding to other reserves in West Africa and around the globe, both on its own and, in places like the Cross River landscape, in combination with SMART analysis software.
Getting SMART about Wildlife Crime
- SMART technology has helped wildlife rangers and managers in various countries improve their efficiency by tracking and analyzing signs of noteworthy or illegal activities observed during patrols.
- Using this data, SMART lets managers assess current threats, locate crime hotspots, focus limited resources and adapt enforcement approaches, making frontline conservation more effective.
- It empowers rangers, managers and law enforcement to improve governance and help conserve threatened species such as saolas, okapis, elephants, dolphins and tigers.
Linking environmental and animal movement data sets: how the Movebank Env-DATA System helps to explain snowy owl foraging behavior
- Movebank is a free online platform that allows users to share and archive animal movement data
- Movebank’s Env-DATA System allows users to compare animal tracking locations with increasingly available environmental data
- Researchers used this system to better understand how environmental conditions affect snowy owl and albatross movement and foraging behavior
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