location: Australia

location: Australia

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Citizen scientists can boost IUCN species assessments, but need better guidance from ecologists
- More than 100,000 Australian citizen scientists are contributing crucial biodiversity data about species at risk, helping improve conservation efforts in ways that can enhance IUCN Red List decisions.
- Citizen science projects like Fungimap and FrogID showcase how such observations have influenced threat assessments and conservation outcomes.
- Researchers stress the need for clear goals, standardized protocols, and expert oversight to maximize the impact of citizen science.

Cloud brightening over oceans may stave off climate change, but with risk
- Marine cloud brightening (MCB), the spraying of sea salt aerosols or other fine particles into clouds to artificially brighten them and increase the sun’s reflectivity, is a proposed strategy to ward off the full effects of climate change.
- However, this solar radiation management (SRM) geoengineering technique is highly controversial, and experts say governance of MCB field experiments and deployment is needed now at the national and international levels.
- Ongoing efforts to include marine cloud brightening under an international anti-marine pollution treaty, the London Protocol, could be one effective route to setting standards for research and field experiments.
- But if MCB is deployed on a large scale, some experts say there is the potential for serious negative effects on the global climate system. These impacts could be especially severe if deployment is uncontrolled and lacks science-based governance.

Shaping the next generation of Indigenous rangers: Interview with Manni Edwards
- Aboriginal elders in the far north of Australia’s Queensland state are preparing the next generation of junior rangers to conserve endangered southern cassowaries, take care of their traditional land, safeguard their culture, and hold on to millennia of acquired knowledge.
- Along with declining southern cassowary numbers, traditional knowledge and values are diminishing in youth who put more attention on Western knowledge and technology.
- The young rangers not only spend time learning in classrooms; they also go out into the traditional country with elders who help shape their character and identity as caretakers of their people, land, Mother Earth and themselves.
- Ranger Manni Edwards says the way to effective conservation in his community, and in Australia, is by bringing together scientific and traditional ecological knowledge, which includes wisdom and values that forge a connection between people and nature.

Frog ‘saunas’ may help threatened frogs fight off deadly fungus
- Researchers have developed simple, sun-heated shelters that allow frogs to raise their body temperatures and fight off a deadly fungal disease called chytridiomycosis.
- The study focused on the green and golden bell frog in Australia, a threatened species, showing that frogs given access to these warm shelters cleared infections faster and developed resistance to future infections.
- This innovative approach could provide a valuable, low-cost tool for protecting various amphibian species threatened by the fungal disease, which has devastated amphibian populations worldwide.
- The research comes at a critical time, as a recent study found that two in five amphibian species are now threatened with extinction, with climate change becoming a primary threat.

Study: More than half of Australia’s clean energy mines lie on Indigenous land
- The global energy transition has increased demand for the minerals needed in the production of batteries, solar panels and other renewable energy technology.
- In a new study, researchers found that 57.8% of critical mineral projects in Australia lie within formally recognized Indigenous lands, or 79.2% if land subject to claims of native title that haven’t yet been determined are included.
- Historically, Australia’s First Nations haven’t received fair compensation or benefit sharing when investors have found resources in their territories, sources told Mongabay.
- The paper’s authors, Indigenous organizations and environmental campaigners say that critical mineral policies must consider the rights and interests of First Nations peoples throughout a project’s life cycle.

Indigenous people and NGO grow a wildlife corridor in the world’s oldest rainforest
- Environmental charity Climate Force is collaborating with the Eastern Kuku Yalanji people and rangers to create a wildlife corridor that runs between two UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Australia: the Daintree Rainforest and the Great Barrier Reef.
- Wildlife habitats in this region have become fragmented due to industrial agriculture, and a forested corridor is expected to help protect biodiversity by allowing animals to forage for food and connect different populations for mating and migration.
- The project aims to plant 360,000 trees over an area of 213 hectares (526 acres); so far, it has planted 25,000 trees of 180 species on the land and in the nursery, which can also feed a range of native wildlife.
- The project is ambitious and organizers say they’re hopeful about it, but challenges remain, including soil regeneration and ensuring the planted trees aren’t killed off by feral pigs or flooding.

Indonesian palm oil, Brazilian beef top contributors to U.S. deforestation exposure
- A new report reveals that the United States imported palm oil, cattle products, soybeans, cocoa, rubber, coffee and corn linked to an area of tropical deforestation the size of Los Angeles between October 2021 and November 2023.
- Palm oil from Indonesia was the largest contributor to deforestation, followed by Brazil due to cattle grazing.
- The report by Trase, commissioned by Global Witness, found that the U.S. continues to import deforestation-linked commodities while awaiting the passage of the FOREST Act, which aims to prohibit imports of products linked to illegal deforestation.
- Experts emphasize the need for action from companies, governments, financial institutions and citizens to stop commodity-driven forest loss, urging support for smallholders, increased transparency in supply chains, and the passage of the FOREST Act in the U.S.

Bioacoustics and AI help scientists listen in on elusive Australian cockatoos
- Researchers in Australia have deployed acoustic recorders and artificial intelligence to study, monitor and protect eastern pink cockatoos (Lophochroa leadbeateri leadbeateri).
- The technology led scientists at the Queensland University of Technology to a previously unknown breeding hollow of the birds.
- Pink cockatoos, with eastern and western subspecies, are endemic to Australia and hard to monitor because they live in remote arid and semiarid ecosystems.
- With the research, scientists say they hope to understand more about where the birds live and how they react to changes in rainfall and temperature.

Meet the 2024 Goldman Environmental Prize Winners
- This year marks the 35th anniversary of the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize, which honors one grassroots activist from each of the six inhabited continents.
- The 2024 prize winners are Alok Shukla from India, Andrea Vidaurre from the U.S., Marcel Gomes from Brazil, Murrawah Maroochy Johnson from Australia, Teresa Vicente from Spain, and Nonhle Mbuthuma and Sinegugu Zukulu from South Africa.

Rewilding program ships eggs around the world to restore Raja Ampat zebra sharks
- A rewilding project aimed at saving endangered zebra sharks (Stegostoma tigrinum is sending eggs from aquarium sharks more than 12,000 kilometers (7,500 miles) away to nurseries in Raja Ampat.
- After hatching, the young sharks are kept in tanks until they are strong enough to release into the wild.
- Researchers hope to release 500 zebra sharks into the wild within 10 years in an effort to support a large, genetically diverse breeding population.
- A survey estimated the zebra shark had a population of 20 spread throughout the Raja Ampat archipelago, making the animal functionally extinct in the region.

Traditional Aboriginal fire practices can help promote plant diversity: Study
- While research is still mixed on whether diverse fire patterns promote biodiversity, a new study suggests that practices under active Indigenous stewardship can do so.
- The study draws a reference to Aboriginal Martu peoples in the northwest deserts of Australia, who have an ancient history of fire practices and experience used to manage the land and hunt.
- Martu fire patterns and post-fire stages help influence plant richness and diversity in arid landscapes dominated by spinifex, say the authors say.
- Indigenous burning practices are often carried out during cooler times of the year, such as in the winter for the Martu, which resulted results in slow, cool, and low-intensity fires that reduced the potential for fire burning out of control and into becoming wildfires.

Studies still uncovering true extent of 2019-20 Australia wildfire catastrophe
- Australia’s 2019-20 bushfires burned with unprecedented intensity through a total of 24 million hectares (59 million acres), an area the size of the U.K.
- New research shows total costs incurred to the tourism industry from that single bushfire season may be 61% higher than previously calculated.
- Up to 1.5 billion wild animals may have perished in the fires, and new research is uncovering the cost to individual species as a result of the fires.
- One study published shows 15% of all known roost locations of the gray-headed flying fox, Australia’s largest bat species, may have been directly impacted by the fires.

‘Corals dying’ as yet more bleaching hits heat-stressed Great Barrier Reef
- Both aerial and in-water surveys have shown that the southern section of the Great Barrier Reef is undergoing extensive coral bleaching.
- Surveys have also shown “limited bleaching” in the northern part of the Great Barrier Reef.
- However, scientists and reef managers plan to conduct more air and in-water surveys to further assess the coral bleaching across all parts of the Great Barrier Reef.
- Scientists suspect but have not yet confirmed that a seventh mass bleaching event since 1998 is currently underway; the last mass bleaching event on the Great Barrier Reef happened in 2022.

New funding boosts AI-enabled wildlife identification project in Australia
- An artificial intelligence project to identify native species from camera-trap images in Australia has received a A$750,000 ($492,000) grant from the government.
- The project by the conservation nonprofit Australian Wildlife Conservancy has already trained the AI model to identify 44 species from camera-trap images, from native animals such as kangaroos and dingoes, and invasive ones like cats and foxes.
- With the new funding, the team at AWC aims to scale up the model to be able to identify 120 species; the model can also be applied to alert land managers about invasive predators that are harmful to native species.
- Camera traps continue to be one of the most widely used technologies for biodiversity surveys, but the analysis of the thousands of images generated by camera traps remains a major bottleneck.

Activists urge Australia to end lucrative links to Myanmar junta’s mines
- Pro-democracy activists urge Australian government action against domestic companies they say are funding Myanmar’s military junta, citing environmental and human rights abuses in the country’s mining sector.
- Two advocacy groups criticized the slow pace of Australian sanctions, calling on Canberra to follow Western counterparts in targeting state-owned natural resource enterprises there.
- A recent Justice For Myanmar report identifies Australian-linked companies allegedly supporting the junta through mining activities and related services, prompting demands for coordinated international action.

Photos: Top species discoveries from 2023
- Scientists described a slew of new species this past year, including an electric blue tarantula, two pygmy squid, a silent frog, and some thumb-sized chameleons.
- Experts estimate less than 20% of Earth’s species have been documented by Western science.
- Although a species may be new to science, it may already be well known to local and Indigenous people and have a common name.
- Many new species of plants, fungi, and animals are assessed as Vulnerable or Critically Endangered with extinction as soon as they are found, and many species may go extinct before they are named, experts say.

Mongabay’s top 10 podcast episodes of 2023
- It was a packed year on Mongabay’s podcast calendar, with a new season of “Mongabay Explores” taking a deep dive into the Congo Basin.
- At the same time, the Mongabay Newscast continued publishing conversations with leading researchers, authors and activists, and it introduced a new co-host, Rachel Donald.
- Our top 10 list includes examinations of the Congo Basin’s cobalt mining industry, a conversation with a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, a botanist discussing the worrying decline of botany education, and a National Geographic photographer’s project highlighting the key role of traditional ecological knowledge for Indigenous communities and conservation.

Glencore’s coal expansion plans face shareholder and Indigenous opposition
- Swiss-based mining giant Glencore says it plans to challenge the proposed listing of a heritage site, the Ravensworth Homestead, that could deter the planned expansion of its Glendell coal mine.
- Glencore, the largest coal producer in Australia, faces criticism from shareholders for its lack of transparency on how it plans to meet its climate targets, especially in light of proposed thermal coal mine expansions in the country.
- Listing the homestead, which is a culturally significant site for the Indigenous Wonnarua people, is now being reconsidered by heritage officials after a process that sources say has dragged on.
- The Glendell mine is one of several that could increase their emissions under a loophole in the government’s revised “safeguard mechanism” that’s intended to bind the mining sector to a reduction in emissions.

Lethal or not? Australia’s beaches are a crucible for shark control methods
- For decades, Australia’s east-coast states have attempted to keep beachgoers safe from sharks by deploying entangling shark nets and culling species deemed dangerous.
- Recent figures published by the state of New South Wales reveal that almost all the animals caught in the nets during the 2022/23 summer season were “nontarget” species, including turtles, dolphins and endangered shark species, the majority of which died due to entanglement in the nets.
- In contrast, the west-coast state of Western Australia has abandoned a shark culling regime in favor of nonlethal alternatives, such as drone monitoring and “eco barriers,” swimming enclosures that keep marine life out but do not risk entanglement.
- Despite calls from environmental groups to exclusively adopt nonlethal technologies, shark control programs are continuing in both New South Wales and its northern neighbor, Queensland, during the 2023/24 Australian summer.

Australia crackdown on climate protesters grows amid fight against gas project
- The Indigenous ancestral land of Murujuga in Western Australia is home to the world’s oldest and largest collection of petroglyphs, which would be partially destroyed by the country’s biggest fossil fuel project, the Burrup Hub, owned by Woodside Energy.
- As the company argues more gas is needed, direct action tactics by protesters, like releasing non-toxic stench gas or painting on art, have erupted across the state, as well as crackdowns by the police who have begun imposing the strongest form of charges on activists — some facing up to 20 years in prison.
- This is on trend with a general increasing intolerance toward environmental protesters in Australia and an uptick in the use of direct action by protesters who feel the time is running out to meet climate targets and protect endangered species.
- Environmentalists and researchers worry the project will endanger marine life through seismic blasting and say studies show it is not necessary to meet the country’s energy needs.

What does land mean to Australia’s Indigenous groups fighting logging?
- Many Indigenous Gumbaynggirr people in Australia feel an intimate connection to their ancestral lands, which holds the trees, animals, ancestral spirits and creation stories that form a core part of their identity and sense of belonging.
- This landscape, part of the Newry State Forest in New South Wales, Australia, is facing a logging project by the state-owned Forestry Corporation that threatens the habitat of the vulnerable koala species — also a cultural totem.
- Gumbaynggirr protesters resisting logging plans say they believe every part of the world is in deep relationship with each other, including humans to nature and the land. Their cultural duty to protect totems, they say, pushes them to try to stop extractive industries.
- In this piece, Indigenous Gumbaynggirr protesters explain what land — this piece of the Earth — means to them.

In the chain of species extinctions, AI can predict the next link to break
- Scientists at Flinders University in Australia have developed a machine-learning model that predicts which species are at risk of extinction if another species is removed from an ecosystem or an invasive one is introduced.
- Trained on data on how species interact with each other, the model could serve to alert conservation managers on which vulnerable species to focus on, the developers say.
- They tested the model successfully in Australia’s Simpson Desert, where it accurately predicted which species invasive foxes and cats preyed on.
- However, the shortage of data on species interactions, along with the possible biases that arise, are gaps that still need to be filled in the model.

New Tree Tech: Cutting-edge drones give reforestation a helping hand
- This four-part Mongabay mini-series examines the latest technological solutions to help tree-planting projects achieve scale and long-term efficiency. Using these innovative approaches could be vital for meeting international targets to repair degraded ecosystems, sequester carbon, and restore biodiversity.
- Restoring hundreds of millions of hectares of lost and degraded forest worldwide will require a gigantic effort, a challenge made doubly hard by the fact that many sites are inaccessible by road, stopping manual replanting projects in their tracks.
- Manual planting is labor-intensive and slow. Drone seeding uses the latest in robotic technology to deliver seeds directly to where they’re needed. Drones can drop seeds along a predefined route, working together in a “swarm” to complete the task with a single human supervisor overseeing the process.
- Drone-dropped seed success rates are lower than for manually planted seedlings, but biotech solutions are helping. Specially designed pods encase the seeds in a tailored mix of nutrients to help them thrive. Drones are tech-intensive, and still available mostly in industrialized countries, but could one day help reseed forests worldwide.

Degraded, but not defunct: Modified land still has wildlife value, study says
- Researchers studying how species respond to repeated and rapid land cover changes say more focus needs to be placed on preserving the biodiversity value of human-dominated landscapes.
- With much of the world’s intact ecosystems now modified by humans, the study warns that without careful management, species will be lost each time land is converted from one land-use type to another, such as when forestry is transitioned to plantation or agriculture.
- The researchers call for biodiversity impact assessments when land is proposed for conversion, regardless of whether it is intact primary habitat or considered “degraded” land.
- They also recommend the identification, preservation and restoration of natural features of landscapes, such as forest fragments, large and old trees, and wetlands, which can serve as vital refuges for species between successive land conversions.

Australia bushfires may have caused global climate phenomenon La Niña: Study
- The 2019-2020 Australian bushfires threw up so much ash into the atmosphere that it resulted in a cooling of the southern Pacific and hence a La Niña climate phenomenon, a new study says.
- Volcanic eruptions that send vast ash plumes into the atmosphere are thought to trigger La Niña events, but this is the first time a fire has been recorded as doing so.
- La Niña can produce ruinous weather conditions in contrasting ways, from additional hurricanes in North America and droughts in the Horn of Africa, to crop failures in South America.
- The study’s findings call into question the assumption in current climate models that biomass emissions — including from bushfires — will decrease over time.

Kelp forests contribute $500 billion to global economy, study shows
- New research suggests that kelp forests generate up to $562 billion each year by boosting fisheries productivity, removing harmful nutrients from seawater, and sequestering carbon dioxide.
- The findings suggest that kelp forests are about three times more valuable than previously believed, contributing the equivalent of Sweden’s entire GDP to the global economy.
- However, experts say that kelp forests are generally overlooked and undervalued, and that many of these ecosystems are under threat worldwide.

After 150 years of damage to people and planet, Rio Tinto ‘must be held to account’ (commentary)
- The giant mining company Rio Tinto marks its 150th anniversary this year, yet activists say it has a dirty history.
- As the company gathers on April 6 for its Annual General Meeting, advocates are pointing out that after all this time, its shareholders should grapple with the company’s legacy of damaging people and planet.
- “Companies like Rio Tinto must be held accountable for the harm they cause,” a new op-ed argues, and a new law proposed in the UK – the Business, Human Rights and Environment Act – would allow people to take companies like it to court more easily for environmental and human rights abuses committed abroad.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

As oceans warm, temperate reef species edge closer to extinction, study shows
- New research found that most Australian shallow reef species, including fish, corals, seaweeds and invertebrates, experienced population declines over a decade, mainly in response to warming events driven by human-induced climate change.
- While scientists recorded species decline across Australian waters, some of the most pronounced changes occurred on the temperate reefs of southern Australia, a region that has received less conservation attention than tropical reefs.
- The authors say temperate reefs could be in greater danger of extinction than tropical species, leading to calls for increased conservation efforts for these threatened ecosystems.

‘Plasticosis’: the new disease killing seabirds and likely many other species
- Scientists have identified a new fibrotic disease called “plasticosis” in flesh-footed shearwaters, a species that inadvertently consumes plastic.
- They found that plasticosis was even present in shearwaters with only a small quantity of plastic in their stomachs.
- While this plastic-related disease has thus far only been identified in flesh-footed shearwaters, experts say that nearly every organism — including humans — is being impacted by plastic in some way.

The Netherlands to stop paying subsidies to ‘untruthful’ biomass firms
- On December 5, 2022, Mongabay featured a story by journalist Justin Catanoso in which the first ever biomass industry insider came forward as a whistleblower and discredited the green sustainability claims made by Enviva — the world’s largest maker of wood pellets for energy.
- On December 15, citing that article and recent scientific evidence that Enviva contributes to deforestation in the U.S. Southeast, The Netherlands decided it will stop paying subsidies to any biomass company found to be untruthful in its wood pellet production methods. The Netherlands currently offers sizable subsidies to Enviva.
- Precisely how The Netherlands decision will impact biomass subsidies in the long run is unclear. Nor is it known how this decision may impact the EU’s Sustainable Biomass Program (SBP) certification process, which critics say is inherently weak and unreliable.
- Also in December, Australia became the first major nation to reverse its designation of forest biomass as a renewable energy source, raising questions about how parties to the UN Paris agreement can support opposing renewable energy policies, especially regarding biomass — a problem for COP28 negotiators to resolve in 2023.

Australia rejects forest biomass in first blow to wood pellet industry
- On December 15, Australia became the first major economy worldwide to reverse itself on its renewable classification for woody biomass burned to make energy. Under the nation’s new policy, wood harvested from native forests and burned to produce energy cannot be classified as a renewable energy source.
- That decision comes as the U.S., Canada, Eastern Europe, Vietnam and other forest nations continue gearing up to harvest their woodlands to make massive amounts of wood pellets, in order to supply biomass-fired power plants in the UK, EU, Japan, South Korea and elsewhere.
- In the EU, forest advocates continue with last-ditch lobbying efforts to have woody biomass stripped of its renewable energy designation, and end the ongoing practice of providing large subsidies to the biomass industry for wood pellets.
- Science has found that biomass burning releases more carbon dioxide emissions per unit of energy produced than coal. Australia’s decision, and the EU’s continued commitment to biomass, creates a conundrum for policymakers: How can major economies have different definitions of renewable energy when it comes to biomass?

Negotiations to conserve Antarctic Ocean end in stalemate on many issues
- The 41st annual meeting of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), the intergovernmental body charged with conserving marine life in the Southern Ocean and managing fisheries there, ended Nov. 4 with little progress made on several key issues.
- In 2009 CCAMLR committed to creating a network of marine protected areas to preserve Antarctic ecosystems. It established one that year and another in 2016, but since then China and Russia have repeatedly blocked the creation of additional protected areas, as well as other conservation-related measures.
- The commission also failed to reach the consensus required to enact new regulations for the krill and toothfish fisheries, or to protect a vast nesting area for icefish discovered earlier this year.
- CCAMLR members did agree to designate eight new vulnerable marine ecosystems, areas home to slow-growing organisms such as corals, sponges, brittle stars and feather stars that are now permanently protected from bottom fishing.

Plastic impacts a grossly underestimated ‘one-two punch’ for seabirds: Study
- That plastic pollution is harmful to marine life, including seabirds, is well known, but recent research finds that the impacts may be “grossly underestimated” and that plastics can affect multiple organs.
- A new study investigated plastic ingestion by flesh-footed shearwaters and found that — as was determined in past research — initial consumption can harm the stomach. New evidence also showed that impacts are far more expansive, and may cause ongoing health problems distributed throughout body organs.
- Some forms of tissue damage detected by the new research suggest that plastic particles may also act as chemical pollutants, though this requires further study.
- Plastic pollution is a massive growing problem for the world’s oceans and marine life. Earlier this year, researchers announced that the global planetary boundary for novel entities — including plastics — has been surpassed, threatening Earth’s operating systems and life as we know it.

Indigenous leader’s court win halts one of Australia’s ‘dirtiest gas projects’
- Indigenous community members from the Tiwi Islands off the northern coast of Australia took Santos Limited to court, arguing that the company did not adequately consult traditional owners in its plans to drill in the Barossa offshore gas field.
- A federal court threw out the approval granted by Australia’s offshore energy regulator, noting that all relevant stakeholders were not consulted.
- The drilling to develop the $3.6 billion Barossa gas project could threaten the Tiwi peoples’ food sources, culture and way of life, opponents say.
- If the Barossa project goes ahead, it could become one of Australia’s dirtiest gas projects emitting around 5.4 million metric tons of carbon dioxide yearly, estimates from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis show.

‘Amped-up citizen science’ to save the world: Q&A with Conservation AI Hub’s Grant Hamilton
- Conservation AI Hub uses drones and artificial intelligence to detect koalas that survived the Australian bushfires of 2019 and 2020.
- The initiative is now working with communities in Australia to train them on using the technology by themselves.
- Director Grant Hamilton says it’s imperative to make technology more accessible so that more citizens can engage and participate in global conservation efforts.

In a hotter, drier climate, how serious is fire risk to island seabirds?
- A new study suggests that fires on remote islands in southwest Australia pose a rising threat to short-tailed shearwaters and other seabirds as climate change creates hotter and drier conditions.
- In 2021, a research team led by Jennifer Lavers surveyed an island in Western Australia’s Recherche Archipelago a year after a fire event, and found little evidence that short-tailed shearwaters had successfully bred after the fire, ignited by a lightning strike, had swept over most of the island.
- Lavers and her research team suggest that Indigenous-led methods of controlled burning could help reduce the risk of catastrophic fires that would endanger seabirds.
- However, a seabird and island expert not connected with the study disagrees that fire currently poses a major threat, since seabirds have been known to rebound from fires, even after the loss of their fledglings and burrows.

Turtle DNA database traces illegal shell trade to poaching hotspots
- Critically endangered hawksbill turtles have been hunted for their patterned shells for centuries to make tortoiseshell jewelry and decorative curios.
- The exploitation and trade pushed the species to the brink of extinction; despite international bans on killing and trading the turtles and their parts, persistent demand continues to stoke illegal trade.
- Experts say they hope the launch of a new global turtle DNA database coupled with DNA-based wildlife forensics techniques can turn the tables on poachers and illegal traders.
- The new resource, called ShellBank, will enable law enforcement authorities to trace confiscated tortoiseshell products to known turtle breeding locations to help them crack down on poaching and the illegal trade.

Scientists strive to restore world’s embattled kelp forests
- Kelp forests grow along more than one-quarter of the world’s coastlines, and are among the planet’s most biodiverse ecosystems. But these critical habitats are disappearing due to warming oceans and other human impacts.
- Sudden recent wipeouts of vast kelp forests along the coastlines of Tasmania and California highlighted how little was known about protecting or restoring these vital marine ecosystems.
- Scientists are finding new ways to help restore kelp, but promising small-scale successes need to be ramped up significantly to replace massive kelp losses in some regions.
- Global interest in studying seaweed for food, carbon storage and other uses, may help improve wild kelp restoration methods.

We’re winning with climate activism, ‘just not fast enough,’ says Goldman Prize winner Julien Vincent (commentary)
- 2022 Goldman Environmental Prize winner Julien Vincent shares his thoughts on the power of people to make change, even against the most entrenched of forces like climate change denialism.
- “From my vantage point in such a wealthy and privileged part of the world, I get frustrated by in-activism…But I remind myself that it’s in the interests of our opponents to keep the public in a state of apathy, confusion and disempowerment.”
- “There is one thing I want to impart more than anything: the power people have to create change is mind-blowing, and that power is our greatest asset,” he writes in a new op-ed.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

New near-real-time tool reveals Earth’s land cover in more detail than ever before
- A new tool co-developed by Google Earth Engine and the World Resources Institute is being billed as the planet’s most up-to-date and high-resolution global land cover mapping data set, giving unprecedented levels of detail about how land is being used around the world.
- The launch of the tool this week marks a big step forward in enabling organizations and governments to make better science-based, data-informed decisions about urgent planetary challenges, the developers say.
- Named Dynamic World, it merges cloud-based artificial intelligence with satellite imagery to give near-real-time global visualizations of nine types of land use and land cover.
- The tool is likely to be important for a variety of purposes, the developers say, such as monitoring the progress of ecosystem restoration goals, assessing the effectiveness of protected areas, creating sustainable food systems, and alerting land managers to unforeseen land changes like deforestation and fires.

Indigenous oyster fisheries were ‘fundamentally different’: Q&A with researcher Marco Hatch
- About 85% of oyster reefs across the world have been lost since the 19th century due to overharvesting, pollution, introduction of invasive species and habitat loss.
- According to a new study, Indigenous communities in North America and Australia sustainably managed oyster fisheries for more than 5,000 years before Europeans and commercial fisheries arrived.
- The knowledge of these traditional practices can guide sustainable fisheries management today, say the authors of the study.
- Mongabay interviewed Dr. Marco Hatch, one of the authors of the study, about traditional oyster and clam farming practices, existing threats to oysters, and Indigenous-led restoration efforts.

Meet the 2022 Goldman Environmental Prize Winners
- This year marks the 33rd anniversary of the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize, which honors one grassroots activist from each of the six inhabited continents.
- The 2021 prize winners are Alex Lucitante and Alexandra Narvaez from Ecuador; Chima Williams from Nigeria; Julien Vincent from Australia; Marjan Minnesma from the Netherlands; Nalleli Cobo from the United States; and Niwat Roykaew from Thailand

Release the cats: Training native species to fear invasive predators
- Invasive predators, like cats and foxes, have wreaked havoc on native species across Australia, leading conservationists to build fenced-in havens.
- But now researchers are finding that some animals in these havens have lost all fear not only of invasive predators but native ones as well.
- To combat this, researchers are trying a new strategy: release a few predators back into these havens to select for predator-savvy animals to aid long-term species conservation.
- Early efforts to date have shown some success, but scientists say much longer studies are needed.

‘Bring back burning culture’ to save seabirds: Q&A with Wudjari ranger Jennell Reynolds
- Jennell Reynolds, a Wudjari woman of the Nyungar nation and senior member of the Tjaltjraak Ranger program based in Esperance, Western Australia, says cultural burning can help protect seabird breeding sites on the islands of the Recherche Archipelago.
- The region has been experiencing particularly hot and arid weather, heightening the fire risk on the 105 islands that make up the Archipelago.
- Shearwaters return to the same place each year to breed, but it’s difficult for the species to create burrows when fire has burnt away the vegetation that holds the ground together.
- While cultural burning has yet to be reinstated on the islands, Reynolds says it can stabilize key areas of vegetation and seabird breeding and nesting grounds.

NGOs block gillnet fishing across 100,000 sq km of Great Barrier Reef
- In an effort to protect dugongs and other threatened species, WWF-Australia bought a commercial gillnet fishing license for a swath of ocean in the northern Great Barrier Reef, to establish a de-facto marine sanctuary spanning more than 100,000 km2 (38,600 mi2).
- Dugongs, turtles, dolphins and other marine animals are easily caught in gillnets, and experts say many fatalities go unreported.
- The newly protected region is an important feeding ground for dugongs, supporting a local population of about 7,000, experts say.
- WWF-Australia says it hopes the Australian and Queensland state governments will establish more permanent protections for dugongs on the Great Barrier Reef, and that Traditional Owners can use the area for sustainable fishing and tourism.

The Great Barrier Reef is bleaching — once again — and over a larger area
- The Great Barrier Reef is currently experiencing its sixth mass bleaching event, and the fourth event of this kind to happen in the past six years.
- Based on aerial surveys that were concluded this week, bleaching has affected all parts of the Great Barrier Reef, with the most severe bleaching occurring between Cooktown, Queensland, and the Whitsunday Islands.
- Sea surface temperatures around the Great Barrier Reef have been higher than normal, despite the region going through a La Niña climate pattern, which usually brings cooler, stormier weather.
- Climate change remains the biggest threat to the Great Barrier Reef and other reefs around the world, experts say.

‘They’re going to get worse and worse’: Marine heat wave persists off Sydney
- In November 2021, an unusual marine heat wave materialized off the coast of Sydney; sea surface temperatures in the area have yet to go down.
- This marine heat wave is just one of numerous events occurring across the global oceans as human-induced climate change heats up the oceans.
- While marine heat waves can be triggered by a range of atmospheric, oceanic and climatic drivers, climate change plays a key role in driving these events.

As Australia faces new fire reality, forest restoration tactics reevaluated
- More than 24 million hectares (59 million acres) burned during Australia’s devastating “Black Summer” bushfire season of 2019-2020, which formed part of a confirmed climate change-driven trend of worsening fire weather and larger, more intense forest fires.
- Scientists are still assessing the extent of the damage and are calling for a greater focus on understanding the effects of fires. Bushfires in Australia have been worsening for more than two decades as escalating drought places pressure on forest resilience and recovery.
- Since 2003, alpine ash (Eucalyptus delegatensis) and mountain ash (Eucalyptus regnens), the world’s tallest flowering plant, have been the focus of Victoria state’s largest post-fire reseeding effort ever. But the Black Summer fires caused foresters to reevaluate the effectiveness and future of this initiative.
- With future wildfires expected to see ferocity equal to the 2019-20 fire season, forest managers are questioning traditional tree restoration approaches, with some even wondering if regrowing forests is viable. Researchers are actively testing more interventionist approaches, such as replanting seeds and seedlings with genetically fire-resilient traits.

Australia’s rainforest species gain ground through landscape linkages
- Corridors of planted rainforest trees — landscape linkages — are a straightforward, but costly, on-ground action that can repair past damage and bolster ecosystem resilience in Australia’s Wet Tropics region.
- In the Atherton Tablelands wildlife corridors, now in their third decade, the diversity of naturally regenerating plant species has increased, with trees, vines, rattans, shrubs, palms, ferns and orchids colonizing the planted sites.
- The corridors are providing connectivity and additional habitat for a range of rainforest wildlife, including some threatened by climate change.
- To thoroughly measure the biodiversity outcomes of the linkages, monitoring would need to be more regular, and target a broader range of taxa.

First Nations unite to fight industrial exploitation of Australia’s Martuwarra
- The Fitzroy River in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, one of the country’s most ecologically and culturally significant waterways, is facing proposals of further agriculture and mining development, including irrigation and fracking.
- In response, First Nations communities in the region have developed different methods to promote the conservation of the river, including curating cultural festivals, funding awareness campaigns, and working with digital technologies.
- First Nations land rights are held along the length of the Fitzroy River, the first time this has occurred across an entire catchment area in Australia.
- The catchment is the last stronghold of the world’s most “evolutionarily distinct and globally endangered” species, the freshwater sawfish (Pristis pristis) and is home to the threatened northern river shark (Glyphis garricki).

For sustainable global fisheries, watchdogs focus on onshore beneficial owners
- Onshore owners of global fishing vessels have benefited from the illegal activities their crews practice, yet remain largely untouched by law enforcement.
- In the last decade, a growing number of international NGOs have worked in parallel to map out and highlight the onshore networks that fund and benefit from illegal fishing vessels around the world.
- They compile data from a wide range of sources to connect the dots between the people sailing the vessels to the people ultimately benefiting from the business.
- Eradicating fisheries crimes requires a broad portfolio of measures, from increased monitoring to strengthened corporate due diligence, with full transparency throughout the seafood supply chains at the center of it, experts say.

The first complete map of the world’s shallow tropical coral reefs is here
- Scientists have completed the first-ever global, high-resolution map of the world’s shallow tropical coral reefs.
- When combined with an integrated tool that tracks global coral bleaching events in near-real-time, the new resource provides a comprehensive overview of the trends and changes in global coral reef health.
- While the completion of the map is an achievement in itself, the scientists behind the Allen Coral Atlas say they hope the new resource will spur action to improve coral reef protection.
- The new mapping platform is already being used to support conservation projects in more than 30 countries, including designation of marine protected areas and to inform marine spatial plans.

‘Carving up my country’: Land clearing reignites fracking debate in Western Australia
- A recent data analysis shows that a single energy company has cleared 14,000 kilometers (8,700 miles) of vegetation for roads in the Kimberley, the northernmost part of Western Australia, Australia’s largest state, for fracking and mining exploration.
- The exploration occurred on First Nations’ territory, including those of the Yawuru people, recognized as “Traditional Owners” for their cultural associations with the land.
- Despite years of talk from government departments and industry, there is still no certainty about the rights of Traditional Owners to approve or veto such developments.
- Conservationists also warn this fracking exploration will enable the spread of feral cats who prey on native and endangered animals, one of Australia’s most pressing biodiversity issues.

New species of “killer tobacco” found at Australian truck stop
- Found at truck stop in Australia, Nicotiana insecticida is the first wild tobacco species reported to kill insects.
- The new tobacco does not appear to be carnivorous, but rather uses its sticky hairs to trap insects and protect itself from being eaten.
- This sticky killer is one of seven newly named species of Nicotiana (wild tobacco) from Australia’s harsh, arid regions.
- “The fact that we have only now found it,” said one of the researchers,“means that there are probably a lot more similarly interesting species out there to be found.”

Seagrass-grazing dugongs and green sea turtles supercharge the seeds they eat
- By consuming and pooping seagrass seeds, dugongs and green turtles play a vital role in maintaining vital, carbon-sequestering seagrass meadows, a new study reveals.
- Scientists working in the Great Barrier Reef found that seagrass seeds germinated up to 60% faster after they had passed through the gut of dugongs or green turtles, and also had two to four times greater germination probability.
- The research highlights the mutual relationship between seagrass and marine mega herbivores, and underscores the shared vulnerability if either party is undermined.
- Experts say we must do what we can to protect dugongs, turtles and other grazing marine animals if we wish to protect seagrass ecosystems and their many benefits.

Great Barrier Reef in danger: Don’t fight the diagnosis, fight the threats (commentary)
- At the end of June, UNESCO issued a draft decision to list the Great Barrier Reef as “in danger” due to multiplying threats. The Australian government reacted by saying the decision was politically motivated, without addressing the problems.
- The “in danger” proposal is currently being debated by the World Heritage Committee during its Extended 44th Session hosted virtually in Fuzhou, China.
- “My plea to the government and to my fellow Australians: don’t let politics thwart science. Don’t fight the diagnosis. Fight the threats. The world is watching and the clock is ticking,” writes the former executive director of the Great Barrier Marine Park Authority in this new opinion piece for Mongabay.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

New Australian marine parks protect area twice Great Barrier Reef’s size
- The Australian government has moved to create two new marine protected areas that cover an expanse of ocean twice the size of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.
- The two parks will be established around Christmas Island and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands in the Indian Ocean to the northwest of continental Australia.
- The new parks, which cover to 740,000 square kilometers (286,000 square miles) of ocean, raise the protected share of Australia’s oceans from 37% to 45%.
- The decision was immediately welcomed by conservation groups.

Australia’s pivot to plantations may be too late for nearly extinct parrots
- Critically endangered swift parrots are threatened by ongoing deforestation in the Australian state of Tasmania, with recent estimates suggesting there may be fewer than 300 left in the wild.
- Under legal agreements between state and federal governments, forestry operations are exempt from seeking federal environmental approvals in Australia, unlike other industries.
- Environmentalist and former leader of the Australian Greens, Bob Brown, recently issued a legal challenge to forestry legislation, in a case centred around threats to swift parrot habitat. Brown’s conservation foundation argued that the forestry agreement between the Tasmanian and federal governments was invalid, which was dismissed by the Federal Court.
- While Brown and his foundation seek leave for an appeal in the High Court, the future of native forest harvesting in Australia is in question as states transition towards plantation products over native timber.

Male superb lyrebirds found to trick females into mating via masterful mimicry
- Male superb lyrebirds can mimic the sounds of an entire multispecies flock during courtship and mating.
- The study suggests that males use the flock mimicry to deceive females into believing there is a predator nearby and thus preventing them from breaking off courtship or leaving before copulation, thereby increasing their chances of successfully mating.
- Researchers say the elaboration of this mimetic song could be driven by male deception and sexual conflict, rather than females’ preferences for male extravagance and male-male competition, which are the most common explanations for sexual selection.

Study suggests the Tasmanian tiger survived into the 21st century
- The Tasmanian tiger, or thylacine, most likely went extinct in the late 1990s or early 2000s, and could still persist in the most remote parts of the island, according to new research that is still undergoing peer review.
- More than 1,200 records of sightings and physical evidence from 1910 up to 2019 were collected and collated by scientists at the University of Tasmania and used to model where and when the thylacine is likely to have persisted.
- This study challenges the accepted consensus that the thylacine went extinct in the decade or two after the last known individual died in Hobart Zoo in 1936.
- The authors say they believe their novel method for using citizen science could be applied to help find other species either believed to be extinct or known to be extremely rare.

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