location: Canada

location: Canada

Social media activity version | Lean version

Why are Canadian moose declining? Interviews with Indigenous communities offer new clues
- Ecologists are unclear why moose populations in Ontario, Canada, have declined by 20 percent in the last two decades.
- University researchers and Indigenous community biologists combined peer-reviewed field studies and extensive interviews with First Nations tribal members to explore the possible reasons.
- Both sets of data pointed to climate change as the key factor, but stories and observations from tribal members offered many other potential causes overlooked by Western science.

Bobcats are back, and they’re helping protect people from zoonotic disease
- In the last 125 years, bobcats have recovered significantly from extremely low numbers, with several million individuals found throughout North America today.
- Living at the interface of urban and rural environments, bobcats face many human-caused dangers, including loss of habitat to roam, automobiles, and rodent poisons.
- Bobcats help reduce the spread of diseases from animals to humans partly because they and other large mammals are poor disease vectors. Bobcats also prey on the small rodents that easily transmit pathogens.
- It’s legal to hunt bobcats in most of the United States. California, which has for five years closed the bobcat season, may reinstate hunting in 2025. Some researchers suggest that regulators should more carefully consider the role thriving wildcat populations play in protecting human communities from zoonotic diseases before expanding hunting.

Salmon is ‘everything’ for Lummi Nation highlighted in new PBS documentary
- A new documentary, Scha’nexw Elhtal’nexw Salmon People: Preserving a Way of Life, premieres on PBS Nov. 4, following two Lummi families as they maintain fishing traditions amid declining salmon populations.
- In an interview, co-director Beth Pielert and Lummi fisher Tah Mahs Ellie Kinley discuss the film’s origins, salmon’s importance to Lummi culture, and current threats to wild salmon populations.
- For the Lummi people, salmon fishing is described as “everything” — it’s not just an activity but the foundation of their identity, with families tracing their lineage through traditional reef net sites and finding spiritual fulfillment in continuing ancestral practices.
- The filmmakers hope viewers will walk away with both understanding and hope, recognizing that while salmon face serious threats from fish farms and industrial development, there’s still time to protect these resilient fish that are essential to Lummi cultural survival.

As logging intensifies forest fires, Wet’suwet’en fight to protect old growth
- Members of Wet’suwet’en Nation in British Columbia want to conserve a pristine old-growth watershed, Caas Tl’aat Twah, in its traditional territory. The nation has obtained a logging deferral for Caas Tl’aat Twah and is planning how to protect it permanently.
- Scientists have shown that industrial logging can increase fire intensity in forests by drying out the land. Conserving remaining intact forests such as Caas Tl’aat Twah can prevent fires from getting even worse, they say.
- After decades of large-scale industrial logging only 20% of old growth forests remain in British Columbia. In 2020, the province reported that one-quarter of remaining forests were at high risk for logging and pledged to pause cutting while making land use decisions.
- But four years on, less than half has been deferred — and the province could ultimately authorize logging it.

Climate change could return a stolen lake to Indigenous people, a century later
- Semá:th Xhotsa, or Sumas Lake, in Canada was the center of First Nations’ food system and culture, before European colonists drained it in 1924 to create farmland.
- Almost 100 years later, catastrophic flooding threatens to refill the lake and displace the farmers.
- First Nations people and university researchers have proposed restoring the lake ecosystem to adapt to climate change-driven flooding, and as a method of reparation, but the local government is pushing back.

On Canada’s West Coast, clam gardening builds resilience among Indigenous youth
- The Nuu-chah-nulth Youth Warrior Family, also known as the Warrior Program, fosters leadership skills in boys and young men across several Indigenous Nuu-chah-nulth nations on the west coast of Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada.
- This youth-led program involves taking younger community members into ancestral lands for a variety of traditional activities, among them building and reviving clam gardens, an ancient maricultural method.
- Clam gardens consist of terraced rock walls built across small coastal bays that allow tidal sediment to accumulate and transform rocky or steep shores into flat, productive areas for clams.
- Clam garden construction and care, along with other cultural practices, such as hunting, spearfishing and medicinal-plant foraging, serve as rites of passage, helping Warrior Program youth reconnect with their heritage.

A tribe once declared ‘extinct’ helps reintroduce salmon to the Columbia River
- For thousands of years, Kettle Falls was a vital salmon fishing ground for the Sinixt, but early 20th-century dam construction blocked salmon migration.
- Wrongfully declared extinct in Canada in 1956, the Sinixt fought for recognition and were officially acknowledged as Aboriginal Peoples of Canada in 2021.
- In 2023, the U.S. government signed a $200 million agreement with a coalition of tribes, including the Sinixt, to fund an Indigenous-led salmon reintroduction program into the Columbia River system above dams in Washington.
- Sinixt leaders say this project is an important effort to help right a historical wrong in the legacy that led to their “extinction” status, while many hope to one day join salmon efforts on their traditional territory in Canada.

Biomass power grows in Japan despite new understanding of climate risks
- New biomass power plants continue to come online in Japan, requiring an ever-greater quantity of imported fuel. The government’s feed-in tariff scheme, which has been tweaked but not canceled, incentivized these projects.
- Although understanding of forest biomass’s negative environmental and climate impacts is growing in Japan, policy advocates say operators of existing biomass power plants need to pay back construction bank loans, and the government’s refusal to admit its mistake is keeping biomass plants running.
- A major biomass fuel type is wood pellets, which in Japan is presently primarily sourced from plantation forests in Vietnam and primary forests in British Columbia, Canada. While BC ecologists have spoken out against wood pellets, and found allies in Vietnam, the biomass issue has proved challenging for Japan’s forest advocates.
- Though historically a small source of wood pellets for Japan, the growing popularity in Indonesia of pellets for both export and domestic use risks tropical forests there being cleared to make way for biomass energy plantations, NGOs warn.

A year after toxic tar sands spill, questions remain for affected First Nation
- Canada’s tar sands are the fourth-largest oil deposit in the world, but separating the bitumen creates large volumes of toxic wastewater, which is stored in tailings ponds that now cover 270 km² (104 mi²). Many experts warn that contaminants from mining and the tailings ponds are entering the environment
- In 2023, 5.3 million liters (1.4 million gallons) of industrial wastewater breached a tailings pond at a tar sands site in Alberta province, raising fears in an Indigenous downstream community. Then the town learned a second tailings pond had been leaking toxic wastewater for at least nine months.
- In March 2024, the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation sued the Alberta Energy Regulator over its poor handling of the spills along with alleged regulatory failures. The case is ongoing.
- The incident highlights continuing concerns about the impacts of the tar sands industry on human health and the environment. Experts say government and industry plans for tailing pond cleanup and landscape restoration are far behind schedule, with no viable options now on the table to deal with the fast-growing volume of stored toxic wastewater.

As the world burns, can we learn to live with wildfire health risks?
- Climate change is driving or contributing to increased risk of extreme wildfires in many parts of the world, and experts say urgent action on climate change is needed.
- Finding ways to better manage land use can help reduce the likelihood and severity of wildfires: In landscapes where fire is natural, experts say we should bring back historic fire regimes through cultural burning and prescribed burns.
- Experts say more needs to be done to protect vulnerable populations from wildfire smoke, such as those with preexisting medical conditions, pregnant women, children and seniors, who may be impacted even thousands of miles from a fire’s source.
- Smoke prediction apps, early-warning systems and air filtration systems can help people reduce smoke exposure.

The health impacts of escalating megafires are everyone’s problem
- Increases in extreme wildfires in many parts of the world are fueling concerns over the impacts of smoke on human health, with global warming, forest management and land-use change the primary drivers of increasing wildfires.
- Similar to other types of air pollution, wildfire smoke is associated with a wide range of short-term health impacts, especially for vulnerable groups such as the elderly and people with preexisting medical conditions.
- Wildfire smoke is increasingly adding to the cumulative air pollution burden experienced by modern industrial societies — even in remote or rural areas.
- Emerging evidence also suggests wildfire smoke may have long-term health impacts and contribute to increased risk of chronic conditions.

Canada’s 2023 wildfires outsmoked global aviation, yet emissions go uncounted
- Canada’s 2023 wildfires burned an area nearly the size of Ireland, releasing emissions equivalent to four times the global aviation sector.
- Climate change creates longer, more severe fire seasons, leading to a dangerous feedback loop of increasing emissions.
- Canada’s emissions accounting method excludes wildfire emissions from U.N. reports, a practice questioned by some experts.
- Wildfires disproportionately impacted First Nations and Indigenous communities, whose traditional fire management practices could help mitigate risks.

Indigenous communities make clean energy drive work for, not against, them
- Indigenous peoples have been steadily warning about the impacts of renewable energy development on their lands and communities, but some see a way to harness this trend for the positive.
- Experts say Indigenous communities can play a leading role in the clean energy transition through partnerships that allow them to produce and benefit from renewable energy projects.
- In Canada, policy initiatives like the feed-in tariff program in Ontario province have encouraged Indigenous participation in renewable energy by providing incentives for Indigenous ownership in projects, making them a growing shareholder in Canada’s clean energy transition.
- While there are examples to be taken from Canada’s approach, barriers remain, including limited capacity within communities, access to capital, and governance structures supporting such partnerships.

Canada oil sands air pollution 20-64 times worse than industry says: Study
- The amount of air pollution coming from Canada’s oil sands extraction is between 20 to 64 times higher than industry-reported figures, according to a groundbreaking study. Researchers found that the total amount of air pollution released from the oil sands is equal to all other human-caused air pollution sources in Canada combined.
- The Canadian government and Yale University study used aircraft-based sensors that captured real time readings for a much wider range of pollutants than are usually measured by the oil sands industry, which is meeting its legal requirements under Canadian law.
- While the study didn’t look at human health, it found hydrocarbon releases included toxic volatile organic compounds (VOCs), intermediate volatility and semi-volatile organic compounds that can affect health. These toxic compounds can also react in the atmosphere, contributing to the formation of fine particulates harmful to health.
- The research adds to long-standing concerns by the region’s Indigenous communities over oil sands operations impacts on health and the environment. The study also suggests potential blind spots in calculating emissions from other industrial activities, including various types of unconventional oil and gas production.

Tropical forest loss puts 2030 zero-deforestation target further out of reach
- The overall rate of primary forest loss across the tropics remained stubbornly high in 2023, putting the world well off track from its net-zero deforestation target by 2030, according to a new report from the World Resources Institute.
- The few bright spots were Brazil and Colombia, where changes in political leadership helped drive down deforestation rates in the Amazon.
- Elsewhere, however, several countries hit record-high rates of forest loss, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Bolivia and Laos, driven largely by agriculture, mining and fires.
- The report authors call for “bold global mechanisms and unique local initiatives … to achieve enduring reductions in deforestation across all tropical front countries.”

Culture and conservation thrive as Great Lakes tribes bring back native wild rice
- Wild rice or manoomin is an ecologically important and culturally revered wetland species native to the Great Lakes region of the United States and Canada, which once covered thousands of acres and was a staple for Indigenous peoples.
- Over the past two centuries, indiscriminate logging, dam building, mining, and industrial pollution have decimated the wild rice beds, and today climate change and irregular weather patterns threaten the species’ future.
- In recent years, native tribes and First Nations, working with federal and state agencies, scientists and funding initiatives, have led wild rice restoration programs that have successfully revived the species in parts of the region and paved the way for education and outreach.
- Experts say more research and investments must be directed towards wild rice, and such initiatives need the support of all stakeholders to bring back the plant.

Let’s give the wary wolverine some space (commentary)
- Wolverines are extremely solitary animals that purposefully avoid humans, so seeing one in the wild is typically a once-in-a-lifetime encounter.
- This makes planning for their conservation very tricky.
- “Three ways we can best support wolverines into the future are to connect large areas of habitat, close seasonal use areas to create disturbance-free zones, and actively manage their populations,” a new op-ed states.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

Salmon and other migratory fish play crucial role in delivering nutrients
- Pacific salmon can play a key role in transporting nutrients from marine to freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems.
- In the past, Pacific salmon and other anadromous fish that spawn in freshwater and spend part of their life in the ocean likely played a much larger role in global nutrient cycles, scientists find.
- But today, many populations of Pacific salmon and other anadromous fish are under pressure from habitat loss, overfishing, climate change, dams and other pressures that have greatly reduced their numbers, weight and ability to migrate freely.
- Population declines could further curtail their role in global nutrient transport in future, with increasing consequences, especially for nutrient-poor ecosystems that have relied in the past on migratory fish for significant nutrient additions.

How a 160-year-old pelt piqued new findings on Indigenous ‘woolly dog’ breed
- Researchers from the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History recently studied and analyzed a 160-year-old pelt of an extinct woolly dog, part of a breed that Indigenous Coast Salish communities cared for for thousands of years.
- For the first time, the study sequenced the woolly dog’s genomes to analyze the species’ ancestry and genetics and the factors contributing to its sudden disappearance at the end of the 19th century.
- Based on the genetic data, they estimated that woolly dogs biologically evolved from other breeds about 5,000 years ago.
- Researchers say numerous socio-cultural factors are likely responsible for the species’ disappearance. Chief among them were the impacts of European colonization.

Last of the reef netters: An Indigenous, sustainable salmon fishery
- Reef net fishing is an ancient, sustainable salmon-harvesting technique created and perfected by the Lummi and other Coast Salish Indigenous people over a millennium.
- Rather than chasing the fish, this technique uses ropes to create an artificial reef that channels fish toward a net stretched between two anchored boats. Fishers observe the water and pull in the net at the right moment, intercepting salmon as they migrate from the Pacific Ocean to the Fraser River near present-day Washington state and British Columbia.
- Colonialism, government policies, habitat destruction, and declining salmon populations have separated tribes from this tradition. Today, only 12 reef net permits exist, with just one belonging to the Lummi Nation.
- Many tribal members hope to revive reef net fishing to restore their cultural identity and a sustainable salmon harvest but face difficulties balancing economic realities with preserving what the Lummi consider a sacred heritage.

Fish out of water: North American drought bakes salmon
- An unprecedented drought across much of British Columbia, Canada, and Washington and Oregon, U.S., during the summer and fall months of June through October could have dire impacts on Pacific salmon populations, biologists warn.
- Low water levels in streams and rivers combined with higher water temperatures can kill juvenile salmon and make it difficult for adults to swim upriver to their spawning grounds.
- Experts say relieving other pressures on Pacific salmon and restoring habitat are the best ways to build their resiliency to drought and other impacts of climate change.

Calls for FSC to drop Canada’s Paper Excellence over ties to deforester
- Green groups have gathered mounting evidence that Canada’s biggest pulp and paper company, Paper Excellence, is effectively controlled by notorious Indonesian deforester the Sinar Mas Group, via its subsidiary, Asia Pulp & Paper.
- They are now calling on the Forest Stewardship Council, which certifies millions of hectares of Paper Excellence-managed forests as well as 42 of the company’s mills, to cut ties with it.
- APP was in 2007 “disassociated” from the FSC and remains barred from membership due to “destructive forestry practices”; its control of Paper Excellence should lead to the same outcome for the Canadian company, activists say.
- Both companies have denied allegations of controlling ties — despite the fact that Paper Excellence’s sole shareholder is the son of the APP chair and previously directed APP’s China business, among other revelations.

Fisheries managers should act to protect swordfish this month (commentary)
- Between 1960 and 1996 swordfish declined more than 65%, the average size of fish caught shrank, and the species became severely overfished in the North Atlantic.
- A campaign led by consumer groups and chefs helped convince regulators like ICCAT to take action, to the point that the fishery is now considered ‘recovered.’
- Top chef and restaurateur Rick Moonen’s new op-ed argues that it’s time for a next step: “Now ICCAT has another opportunity to improve the long-term health of the swordfish population. This November, ICCAT members can adopt a new management approach for the stock and lock in sustainable fishing,” he says.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

To keep track of salmon migrations in real time, First Nations turn to AI
- Partnering with First Nations, a new interdisciplinary study proposes harnessing artificial intelligence and computer-based detection to count and produce real-time data about salmon numbers.
- Monitoring their population when they return to the rivers and creeks is crucial to keep tabs on the health of the population and sustainably manage the stock, but the current manual process is laborious, time-consuming and often error-prone.
- Fisheries experts say the use of real-time population data can help them make timely informed decisions about salmon management, prevent overfishing of stocks, and give a chance for the dwindling salmon to bounce back to healthy levels.
- First Nations say the automated monitoring tool also helps them assert their land rights and steward fisheries resources in their territories.

How Canada’s growing presence in Latin America is hurting the environment
- Canada is up for a periodic U.N. review of its environmental and human rights record in Latin America, and activist groups want to make sure the country is held accountable for lacking regulations and oversight.
- The country is a leader in mining and oil investment in the region but doesn’t do enough to protect against deforestation, pollution and human rights violations against local communities, according to a series of reports published by activist organizations.
- The organizations said Canada should implement new regulations to protect environmental defenders and sign onto ILO Convention 169.

First Nation and scientists partner to revive climate-saving eelgrass
- Seagrass meadows, of which eelgrass is a key species, are some of the most biodiverse and productive ecosystems in the ocean, and play a crucial role in sequestering carbon.
- But eelgrass is disappearing rapidly around the globe, and in Canada, questions remain about where exactly these meadows are distributed, and how effective they are at storing carbon.
- A collaborative project between marine biologists and Indigenous Mi’kmaq communities is attempting to answer these questions in eastern Canada while also restoring lost eelgrass meadows.
- The project could help with eelgrass’s long-term survival in the area, as researchers identify eelgrass populations that are more resilient to climate change, and communities work toward eelgrass conservation.

Big promises to Indigenous groups from new global nature fund — but will it deliver?
- On August 24, 2023, the Global Environment Facility (GEF) ratified and established the new Global Biodiversity Framework Fund to help developing countries meet their targets set up as part of the Global Biodiversity Framework.
- The new fund promises to invest 20% of its resources to directly support initiatives led by Indigenous peoples and local communities to protect and conserve biodiversity.
- While Indigenous communities welcome the move and are hopeful the new allocation will help them achieve their targets, they are skeptical about the barriers to accessing the funds, including delays and lack of knowledge.
- Some Indigenous representatives urge the GEF to rethink documentation requirements, the need for capacity building in the communities, and respect the individual community’s differences while designing the modalities for the GBFF.

New global biodiversity fund to restore nature worldwide by 2030 officially launches
- Representatives of 185 countries officially agreed to launch a new fund to ramp up investment to nations in meeting goals outlined in the Global Biodiversity Framework.
- So far, Canada and the U.K. announced initial contributions to start the fund’s capitalization, contributing $146.8 million (CA$200 million) and $12.58 million (£10 million), respectively.
- Targets include about 20% of funds to support Indigenous and local action to protect and conserve biodiversity and at least 36% of the fund’s resources to support the most vulnerable people, small island developing states, and least developed countries.
- Some human rights and environmental activists are calling for more contributions needed to operationalize the fund and firm commitment to allocate funds to Indigenous groups.

Making space for Indigenous leadership is crucial for conservation (commentary)
- About 80% of the world’s remaining biodiversity is found on lands cared for by Indigenous communities.
- First Nations in Canada, for instance, are leading the most ambitious plans for protecting lands in the country currently, in the establishment of Indigenous Protected Areas.
- “Conservation groups and funders can make collaborations with Indigenous peoples more fruitful by taking direction from Indigenous leadership when working on their territories,” the authors of a new op-ed say.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily Mongabay.

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.

Volunteers, First Nations work to bring back a disappearing oak prairie
- The rain-shadow regions of North America’s Pacific Northwest, stretching from British Columbia to Oregon, are home to a unique carbon-rich oak-prairie ecosystem dominated by Garry oaks and several species of grasses and shrubs, including endemic plants.
- The ecosystem also holds a special significance in the way of life for the Indigenous peoples in the region, who have stewarded it for millennia and depended on it for food.
- In the past few centuries, however, rapid urbanization, agricultural expansion, development along the coast and proliferation of invasive plants have destroyed more than 95% of the ecosystem, pushing it toward near-extinction.
- Communities, partnering with different national and regional agencies, First Nations and nonprofits, are working to restore and preserve the remnants using various strategies, many of which have borne fruit.

Spamming streams with hatchery salmon can disrupt ecosystems, study finds
- In a new study, researchers found that releasing hatchery-bred native masu salmon into freshwater streams in Hokkaido, Japan, destabilized the local ecosystems.
- Overall, the study found that the total number of fish, and number of different species, both declined in the long term due to greater competition for resources like food and preferred feeding spots.
- Masu salmon populations also did not increase in the long term, the research found.
- With hatchery releases increasing in many areas — and for many species — the findings add to the ongoing debate over their wider effects on wild fish populations.

A caribou hunter and researchers uncover the impact of climate change on Arctic hunting
- Indigenous communities in the Alaskan and Canadian Arctic have relied on the migratory Porcupine caribou herd for thousands of years, leading to a deep relationship and respect for the caribou.
- A study found that decreased snowfall, driven by climate change, could make it more difficult for Indigenous communities to travel on snow mobiles to hunt for caribou.
- The study was a collaboration between Indigenous and non-Indigenous researchers who analyzed a rare log of Indigenous knowledge, surveys that hunters completed annually.

‘Hope is action.’ David Suzuki retires into a life of determined activism
- One of Canada’s best known scientists and ecologists, David Suzuki recently announced his retirement from hosting “The Nature of Things,” the acclaimed Canadian Broadcasting Corporation television series seen in over 40 countries.
- Also a prolific author with 52 books to his name, he has now turned his attention to becoming an ‘active elder’ in the fight to save the planet.
- “The thing about elders [is] they’re beyond worrying about money or power or celebrity, so that they can speak a kind of truth,” he told Mongabay in a new interview.

Island-hopping cougars redraw boundaries of big cats’ potential range
- Scientists have documented cougars swimming long distances across the Salish Sea, which challenges former conceptions of cougar ranges and habitat connectivity.
- The research suggests that cougars could access thousands of islands in the Pacific Northwest by swimming up to about 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) across the sea.
- Other experts have documented cougars swimming across rivers, strengthening the idea that cougars spend more time in the water than previously thought.

Indigenous funding model is a win-win for ecosystems and local economies in Canada
- First Nations in the Great Bear Rainforest and Haida Gwaii of Canada, have successfully invested in conservation initiatives that have benefited ecosystems while also increasing communities’ well-being over the past 15 years, a recent report shows.
- Twenty-seven First Nations spent nearly C$109 million ($79 million) toward 439 environmental and economic development projects in their territories, including initiating research, habitat restoration, and guardian programs, that attracted returns worth C$296 million ($214 million).
- Funding has also set up 123 Indigenous-led business and was spent towards sustainable infrastructure and renewable energy projects.
- One of the world’s first project finance for permanence (PFP) models, this funding scheme is exemplary of how stable finance mechanisms can directly benefit Indigenous communities and the environment, say Indigenous leaders.

Peatland restoration in temperate nations could be carbon storage bonanza
- Much maligned and undervalued over the centuries, temperate peatlands have seen a lot damage in that time — drained for agriculture, planted with trees, mined for horticulture and fuel. But in an age of escalating climate change, people are now turning to restoration.
- As potent carbon sequesters, peatlands have only recently been given new attention, with active restoration taking place in many nations around the world. This story focuses on groundbreaking temperate peatland restoration efforts in the U.S. Southeast, Scotland and Canada.
- Every temperate peatland is different, making each restoration project unique, but the goal is almost always the same: restore the natural hydrology of the peatland so it can maximize carbon storage and native biodiversity, and improve its resilience in the face of climate change and increasingly common fires in a warming world.

As sea lice feast away on dwindling salmon, First Nations decide the fate of salmon farms
- Increased sea lice infestations, scientists say are caused by salmon farms, threaten the already-vulnerable wild Pacific salmon populations in western Canada, worrying conservationists and First Nations.
- Three First Nations in the region are now deciding on the future of open net pen Atlantic salmon farms dotting the channels and waterways in and around their territories. They hope their decisions will pave the way to protect wild salmon, a culturally important species.
- So far, ten farms have been closed and the future of seven farms are to be decided this year, in 2023.
- The impact of the closure of the farms on local sea lice and wild salmon populations is still unclear, say scientists, and more time to monitor the data is needed.

Nations adopt Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework
- After multiple delays due to COVID-19, nearly 200 countries at the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP15) in Montreal sealed a landmark deal to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030.
- The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), with four goals and 23 action-oriented targets, comes after two weeks of intense negotiations at COP15, in Montreal, Canada. This agreement replaces the Aichi Biodiversity Targets set in 2010.
- Among the 2030 goals, countries pledged to protect at least 30% of terrestrial and marine areas, while also recognizing Indigenous and traditional territories.
- Concerns have been raised about the ambitions of the framework, with many criticizing the agreement for its corporate influence, vague language and watered-down targets, many of which are not quantitative.

Amid struggling COP15 talks, Indigenous leaders from Canada offer some solutions
- Talks on a plan to protect land and water globally are underway at the COP15 meeting in Montreal, with the host nation Canada among a legion of countries pushing for a “30×30” deal to protect 30% of the world’s land and ocean by 2030.
- Agreements on the targets, approaches and language in the post-2020 global biodiversity framework have been especially slow, with ministers from around the world set to arrive tomorrow to approve on the text.
- Indigenous delegates and analysts are calling for the integration of Indigenous land rights, knowledge and financing to resolve the 30×30 conservation target, citing Canada’s guardians program as a successful way to meet area-based conservation goals.
- The Canadian government has committed $800 million for Indigenous-run protected areas, with plans to expand them by nearly 1 million square kilometers (247 million acres) over the next seven years.

Report unveils ties between Indonesian conglomerate Sinar Mas and Canada’s Paper Excellence
- An investigative report has revealed that Indonesian conglomerate Sinar Mas has hidden ties with Canadian paper company Paper Excellence, which indicates that the former is secretly controlling the latter.
- The ties are hidden through a multilayered corporate structure with holding companies in numerous offshore jurisdictions that are characterized by high levels of corporate secrecy, such as the Netherlands, Labuan (Malaysia), the British Virgin Islands and Hong Kong, according to the report.
- Paper Excellence could soon become one of the biggest pulp and paper suppliers in North America, as it’s in the process of acquiring Resolute Forest Products, Canada’s third-largest producer of sawn wood.

Greenland shark, world’s longest-living vertebrate, gets long-awaited protection
- In September, the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO), an intergovernmental organization that manages fisheries, prohibited the retention of Greenland sharks in international waters.
- This ban would apply to the intentional catching of Greenland sharks as well as the retention of the species as bycatch.
- However, bycatch exceptions could be made if countries prohibit the discarding of fish.
- Greenland sharks are known to be the longest-living vertebrate in the world, reaching ages of between 270 and 500 years.

British Columbia delays promised protections as old growth keeps falling
- Two years after British Columbia’s majority party promised a logging “paradigm shift” to conserve what’s left of the province’s tall old growth forests, Mongabay observed dramatic clear cutting on Vancouver Island in forests slated for protection. Old growth harvesting continues across British Columbia (BC) today.
- The BC minister of land management told Mongabay that the government, in partnership with First Nations, has deferred logging on 1.7 million hectares of old growth forests. But critics contest those numbers and note that much of these deferrals are for scubby alpine forests that aren’t in danger of being logged.
- First Nation leaders have been tasked by the government to determine which old growth forests to protect. This presents Indigenous communities with an economic conundrum, as many tribes will lose much-needed logging revenue if they choose conservation.
- Today, BC has many second-growth tree plantations that give the appearance of vast wooded expanses. But as Mongabay observed in July, these tree farms are “ecological deserts” that store less carbon than tall tree old growth and harbor little biodiversity as BC experiences intensifying climate impacts partly due to decades of overlogging.

Monarch butterflies are officially endangered
- The iconic monarch butterfly has been listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, meaning the species is likely to go extinct without significant intervention.
- The number of migratory monarch butterflies has dropped more than 95% since the 1980s, according to counts at overwintering sites in California and Mexico.
- Renowned for their impressive migrations of more than 6,400 kilometers (4,000 miles) over several generations, the monarch decline is driven by habitat loss, herbicide and pesticide use, logging at overwintering sites in Mexico, urban development and drought.
- Experts say that planting milkweed, reducing pesticides and protecting overwintering sites for butterflies are measures needed to protect this beloved species.

First Nation reclaims territory by declaring Indigenous protected area in Canada
- The Mamalilikulla First Nation has declared part of its traditional territory on British Columbia’s Central Coast that it lost to colonialism to be an Indigenous protected and conserved area (IPCA).
- The Nation views the declaration to be a step toward sovereignty and is seeking “co-governance” with Canadian federal and provincial governments; the latter typically talk of “co-management,” which would retain settler authority.
- Canada and British Columbia have their own policies for protecting nature, but some conservationists and Indigenous groups argue that Indigenous peoples are better at sustainable management. The area of the IPCA has been degraded by logging and fishing.
- The Mamalilikulla have a plan to restore the land and sea and are calling for a five-year moratorium on logging and immediate protection of a marine area called Hoeya Sill, home to rare corals and sponges.

Canada mining push puts major carbon sink and Indigenous lands in the crosshairs
- A massive mining project called the Ring of Fire is being proposed in Canada’s Hudson Bay lowlands, a region that houses one of the biggest peatland complexes in the world and is home to several Indigenous communities.
- According to the federal and provincial governments, this region hosts one of the “most promising mineral development opportunities,” which is expected to generate jobs and revenues in the remote region.
- Environmentalists say the proposed development threatens to degrade peatlands, which act as a massive carbon store, and could lead to an increase in emissions; First Nations communities have also voiced concerns about mining impacts on traditional lands and livelihoods.
- Many of the affected First Nations have issued moratoriums against the project or have taken the provincial government to court, citing treaty violations and lack of consultations by the governments prior to greenlighting the project and issuing mining claims.

Saving old-growth forests: Q&A with Amazon Watch’s Leila Salazar-López
- A new documentary called “The Last Stand,” released on Earth Day 2022, goes inside the protests against the logging of the Fairy Creek old-growth forests in British Columbia, Canada.
- Leila Salazar-López, executive director of Amazon Watch, an NGO dedicated to fighting deforestation and protecting the rights of Indigenous communities in the world’s biggest rainforest, spoke in the film about the larger implications of cutting down old-growth forests.
- In an interview with Mongabay, Salazar-López talks deforestation in the Amazon, the flaws of carbon offset policies, and the important role that Indigenous and local people play in conserving the last of Earth’s old-growth forests.

Indigenous knowledge and science team up to triple a caribou herd
- A wildlife recovery effort in British Columbia, Canada, has successfully increased a caribou herd from 38 individuals to 113 in less than a decade, according to a new study.
- Two First Nations communities partnered with Canadian scientists, the government and private companies to reduce predators and care for new calves in the short term, while restoring habitat in the long term by securing more than 7,000 hectares (17,300 acres) of land for caribou.
- Human interventions, including logging and energy infrastructure, are blamed for fragmenting caribou habitat and increasing predator numbers.
- The project involves killing wolves, a main predator of the caribou, drawing ire from some conservationists.

Activists vow to take EU to court to fight its forest biomass policies
- The European Union continues burning forest biomass to produce energy, a policy science has shown to be climate destabilizing, destructive to forests and biodiversity. International NGOs and their lawyers — to stop the EU going further down what they see as a path of planetary endangerment — is ready to take the EU to court.
- The plaintiffs contend that the European Union is violating its own rules dictating that European Commission policies be based in “environmentally sustainable economic practices” for companies, investors and policymakers.
- Activists argue that the EU, in creating its current bioenergy and forestry policies, has disregarded numerous scientific studies demonstrating the environmental harm done by forest biomass — the harvesting and burning of wood pellets to make electricity. Some legal experts say the activists’ bid to be heard in court is a long shot.
- A November study adds data and urgency to the ongoing battle. Researchers found that unless current policies change, global demand for biomass-for-energy will triple by 2050, further impacting intact forests ability to act as carbon sinks and undermining emissions-reduction requirements under the Paris Agreement.

In Canada, Indigenous communities and scientists collaborate on marine research
- The Apoqnmatulti’k project combines Indigenous knowledge, Western science and local knowledge holders to gather information about three important marine species in two ecosystems in Nova Scotia, Canada.
- The project comes at a time of increased urgency over management of marine species, as many fish stocks are on the decline, while access to lucrative fisheries has sparked conflict.
- Project partners say the project’s collaborative approach will provide information that could help direct stewardship and conservation of species that are important to many communities.
- As important as that new data is, project participants say the greatest insight of the project may be that forging the trusting relationships required for collaborative research takes time, which doesn’t always correspond to standard academic deadlines.

Innovative sewage solutions: Tackling the global human waste problem
- The scale of the world’s human waste problem is vast, impacting human health, coastal and terrestrial ecosystems, and even climate change. Solving the problem requires working with communities to develop solutions that suit them, providing access to adequate sanitation and adapting aging sewage systems to a rapidly changing world.
- Decentralized and nature-based solutions are considered key to cleaning up urban wastewater issues and reducing pressure on, or providing affordable and effective alternatives to, centralized sewage systems.
- Seeing sewage and wastewater — which both contain valuable nutrients and freshwater — as a resource rather than as pollutants, is vital to achieving a sustainable “circular economy.” Technology alone can only get us so far, say experts. If society is to fully embrace the suite of solutions required, a sweeping mindset change will be needed.

Scientists on a quest to map worldwide web of fungi beneath our feet
- Interconnected bodies of fungi form vast underground networks through the Earth’s soils, transporting nutrients and water across ecosystems and sequestering vast amounts of carbon out of the atmosphere.
- Experts agree that protecting fungi and focusing conservation efforts belowground could help to mitigate global challenges like climate change, biodiversity loss, land use change and pollution.
- A new initiative is embarking on the first global effort to document and map the world’s network-forming fungi, using eDNA and machine learning to identify and protect global hotspots of fungal biodiversity.
- Fungi are increasingly viewed as a nature-based solution to manage global carbon budgets, restore degraded ecosystems, remediate contaminated soils and speed the transition toward sustainable agriculture.

How wildlife crossings in Canada are inspiring safer roads for global species
- The stretch of Trans-Canada highway that runs through Banff National Park was once incredibly dangerous for animals and motorists alike, but today the park has more wildlife crossing structures than anywhere else in the world and the data to support their effectiveness.
- The crossing structures at Banff inspired a project on I-90 in the U.S. state of Washington with its own location-specific twists.
- Tribal efforts also led to a Banff-informed development project on US-93 in the Flathead Indian Reservation in Montana that respects local people and wildlife.
- Lessons from Banff are informing projects beyond North America: In Costa Rica, emerging crossing structure projects protect jaguars and canopy-dwelling creatures.

COP26: Surging wood pellet industry threatens climate, say experts
- With the U.N. climate summit (COP26) in its second week, Earth is on track to warm by 2.7° Celsius (4.86° Fahrenheit) by 2100, a catastrophic forecast based on projected carbon emissions. However, analysts say that those projections exclude major emissions currently escaping from biomass-burning power plants.
- A carbon accounting loophole in global climate change policy classifies burning woody biomass for energy as “carbon neutral,” and is accepted by the U.N. and many of the world’s nations. But scientists have proven otherwise, even as the forestry industry gets massive subsidies to produce millions of tons of wood pellets annually.
- Those subsidies are fueling rapid growth of the biomass industry, as forests are cut in the U.S., Canada, Eastern Europe, Russia, Vietnam, and Malaysia. The E.U. and U.K. are the largest biomass energy market, but with rapid expansion now occurring in Japan and South Korea, the biomass boom is just beginning.
- Scientists and activists say that to avoid disastrous global warming impacts, forest large biomass subsidies must end, which will make the industry unprofitable and free up funding for real climate solutions. But the topic is not even on the COP26 agenda, and action on the biomass burning issue anytime soon seems unlikely.

Keep polar bears and their extensive range safe from oil drilling (Commentary)
- In September 2021, a group of conservation groups sued the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to challenge a regulation they allege would allow oil and gas operators to harass, harm and potentially kill polar bears on land and sea in Arctic Alaska.
- In this commentary Steve Blackledge and Dyani Chapman of Environment America argue the battle to save the polar bear can’t be limited to the boundaries of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
- “We hope the courts will examine the facts on the ground and force the government back to the drawing board, leading to a regulation that’s far less threatening and much more protective of the polar bear.”
- The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily Mongabay.

Two threatened whale groups had a mini baby boom, but not because of lockdown
- Two rare whale groups — southern resident killer whales in the Pacific Northwest, and North Atlantic right whales — have had mini baby booms since the start of the pandemic, raising hopes about their survival prospects.
- But experts say a reduction in human activity during this period isn’t the cause, and that the underlying threats pushing these whales toward extinction still persist.
- North Atlantic right whales are threatened by fishing gear entanglement and ship strikes, while the southern resident killer whales have seen stocks of their favorite prey, the Chinook salmon, decline.
- Experts say that policies to protect the whales, including regulating shipping, closing fisheries and restricting certain types of gear, are not keeping pace with whales’ changing dynamics, and that changes might need to be applied throughout their range.

Oil pipeline on Native lands ramps up as Canada honors its Indigenous people
- Construction of the Line 3 pipeline by Canadian oil giant Enbridge is in its final stages of completion, and is set to carry tar sands crude from Alberta to Wisconsin via lands that Indigenous Anishinaabe people use for hunting and harvesting.
- There are concerns the pipeline will contribute to further spills in the distinctive wetlands and wild rice fields of the region, as the company has a long track record of “hazardous liquid incidents,” including the largest inland oil spill in U.S. history, and failing to follow environmental laws during construction.
- Some Indigenous rights and tribal leaders view Canada’s approval and the subsequent construction of Line 3 as part of the continuing legacy of colonialism and cultural erasure, which the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, on September 30, seeks to address.

When North America locked down, birds filled the gap left by people
- Of the 82 bird species considered in an analysis, the distribution of 66 changed during pandemic-related shutdowns, and most of them grew in abundance in and around human settlements.
- The researchers gathered more than 4 million records from eBird, a community science program that relies on contributions from volunteers, both amateur and specialist birders.
- The study in Science Advances captured how sensitive birds are to human activities and highlighted how small adjustments could make areas used by humans welcoming to other species.

When COVID shut Broadway, award-winning actress Jane Alexander went birding
- When the COVID-19 pandemic shut theatres across North America and beyond in March 2020, acclaimed film and stage actress Jane Alexander embraced her love of nature by spending the unexpected time off to enjoy the wild landscapes of Nova Scotia.
- Though Alexander is best known for her long acting career, writing, and service as the chairwoman of the National Endowment for the Arts in the 1990s, she has been an active advocate for nature and wildlife for decades, including serving on the boards of the Wildlife Conservation Society, the National Audubon Society, and the Centre Valbio in Madagascar.
- Alexander spoke of her love of the natural world, her conservation efforts, and more during a recent conversation with Mongabay founder Rhett A. Butler.

Will ‘ropeless’ fishing gear be seaworthy in time to save endangered whales?
- Perhaps fewer than 360 North Atlantic right whales are alive today, according to researchers’ estimates.
- Scientists blame the declining population on the twin tolls exacted by ship strikes and entanglement in fishing gear.
- “Ropeless” fishing gear that minimizes the number of vertical lines in the water that ensnare right whales has emerged as a potential “home run” solution to the entanglement crisis.
- But fishers, industry groups and even ardent proponents of ropeless systems say that it’s not yet a viable replacement for traditional fishing gear in every situation.

Feeds: news | india | latam | brasil | indonesia