|
For drought relief, Cordilleran women in the Philippines rely on seed saving 17 May 2024 22:51:39 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/for-drought-relief-cordilleran-women-in-the-philippines-rely-on-seed-saving/ author: Isabel Esterman dc:creator: Mavic Conde content:encoded: BENGUET, Philippines — Anita Sinakay grew up with her farmer parents saving seeds, a practice she continues now that she has her own farm. Today, Sinakay heads the Benguet Association of Seed Savers (BASS), a group of organic farmers that was formed pre-pandemic to revive the dying practice of saving seeds among agricultural Indigenous groups in this province, including the Ibaloys and Kankanaeys. Sinakay, who farms in the highland town of Tublay in Benguet province in the Cordillera region, says she takes particular pride in her heirloom bean seeds, which have been grown and saved for more than 50 years. She says these beans, passed down to her by her parents, are particularly resilient to drought and other adverse weather conditions. Heirloom winged beans, grown from seeds cultivated and saved by Cordilleran farmers for more than 50 years. Image courtesy of Anita Sinakay. Many farmers have abandoned the time-consuming process of saving seeds, turning instead to high-input patented seeds promoted by the government and available from stores, agricultural offices and fellow farmers. But when conditions get tough, seed savers say, the value of heirloom seeds shines through. The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration reports that the Cordillera region is experiencing drought due to El Niño, which is intensified by human-caused climate change, resulting in significantly below-average rainfall from December 2023 to May 2024. The region is well known for the ingenuity of its rice terraces, a sustainable system to harvest water from the mountaintops. However, many of its…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - As El Niño and climate change bring drought to the northern Philippines, farmers say the value of local heirloom seeds shines through. - Farmers say these seeds, cultivated through generations, show greater resilience to drought and heat than commercial hybrid seeds promoted by the government. - A network of seed savers, spearheaded by rural women, is working to revitalize the traditional practices of saving seeds, combining traditional agricultural knowledge with modern documentation processes. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
To renew or not to renew? African nations reconsider EU fishing deals 17 May 2024 17:21:55 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/to-renew-or-not-to-renew-african-nations-reconsider-eu-fishing-deals/ author: Rebecca Kessler dc:creator: Edward Carver content:encoded: Senegal now faces a decision it’s faced before. In the mid-2000s, small-scale fishers there mobilized in opposition to a fishing agreement with the European Union that allowed in many dozens of EU industrial vessels to target various fish species. Under this pressure, Senegal’s then-president opted not to renew the deal when it expired in 2006. A new administration eventually signed a smaller, narrower EU deal in 2014 that allowed 36 tuna vessels and two trawlers into the country’s waters. That deal, renewed in 2019, is set to expire in November. And expire it may well do. Bassirou Diomaye Faye, Senegal’s new president, was elected in March on a platform that included proposing to suspend the deal. It’s not yet clear whether he will follow through, but his rhetoric reflects shifting arrangements in African fisheries, where the EU no longer dominates as it once did. Since 1979, when it signed a bilateral fisheries deal with Senegal, the European bloc has made deals with developing countries, mainly in Africa. Under these deals, now called Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreements (SFPAs), European fishing companies gain access to resource-filled foreign waters, while the host countries get cash. Over the last two to three decades, European catches in Africa have declined and SFPAs have contracted somewhat in scale, with fewer big “mixed” deals for multiple species, thanks to depleting stocks and local resistance, and a narrowing of focus onto tuna. Experts see this as a possible win for local control of precious marine resources, as the…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - The European Union currently has fisheries access deals with 11 African countries, several of which are up for renegotiation this year. - Under the deals, called Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreements (SFPAs), European fishing companies gain access to resource-filled foreign waters, while the African countries get cash. - Senegal was the first country to sign such a deal, in 1979, but President Bassirou Diomaye Faye was elected in March after proposing to suspend it altogether in response to concerns that it’s unfair to local fishers. It’s not yet clear whether he will follow through, but his rhetoric reflects shifting arrangements in African fisheries, where the EU no longer dominates as it once did. - Experts see this as a possible win for local control of precious marine resources, but they also caution that many of the alternative arrangements African governments are turning to instead of SFPAs are more socially and environmentally problematic, and less transparent. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Photos confirm narcotraffickers operating in Peru’s Kakataibo Indigenous Reserve 17 May 2024 11:27:11 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/photos-confirm-narcotraffickers-operating-in-perus-kakataibo-indigenous-reserve/ author: Jeremy Hance dc:creator: Yvette Sierra Praeli content:encoded: A wide strip of land cuts through the dense Amazon canopy in Peru’s Kakataibo Indigenous Reserve as shown by a photograph taken during a flyover on March 15, 2024. The images provide evidence of a clandestine landing strip in the middle of a protected area for tribes living in voluntary isolation. Established in 2021, the reserve is now “by far the most invaded Indigenous territory in the entire country,” according to Julio Cusurichi, a member of the Interethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Rainforest (AIDESEP). The March flyover across the northern and southern sectors of the reserve also observed additional slashes through the thick rainforest, as well as large quantities of illicit coca crops, confirming that large-scale drug trafficking is occurring inside the reserve. A deforested area in the southern sector of the Kakataibo Indigenous Reserve. Image courtesy of AIDESEP. “It’s very concerning because this territory is for protecting our communities in isolation; at the same time, it’s terrifying to see that drug trafficking is unstoppable,” said an Indigenous leader with the Native Federation of Kakataibo Communities (FENACOKA), who participated in the flyover and is not being named for their safety. “The more we report, the more they accelerate and advance.” The flyover was organized by AIDESEP, together with Indigenous leaders from FENACOKA and representatives from Peru’s Ministry of Culture. The Kakataibo Indigenous Reserve was established in July 2021. Images of devastation The flyover took a closer look at 12 locations identified by satellite mapping in May 2023,…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - During a flyover on March 15 this year, Indigenous organizations and Ministry of Culture officials observed evidence of drug production and trafficking activity inside the Kakataibo Indigenous Reserve. - They found three clandestine landing strips, one of them located in the center of the reserve, as well as large patches of deforested areas in the middle of the rainforest, some of them planted with illegal coca crops. - The reserve was established in 2021 to protect Indigenous groups living in isolation, but has already lost more than 1,500 hectares (3,700 acres) through illegal deforestation since then. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Bird populations are mysteriously declining at an Amazon park in Ecuador & beyond 16 May 2024 15:33:46 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/bird-populations-are-mysteriously-declining-at-an-amazon-park-in-ecuador-beyond/ author: Alexandredesanti dc:creator: Bernardo Araujo content:encoded: When John Blake and Bette Loiselle arrived at Tiputini for the first time, they found exactly what they’d been looking for. For years, the two University of Florida professors had been working in Costa Rica, studying how resources — fruits in particular — influence the way birds use their habitat. But as the forests around La Selva Biological Station, their old study site, started to get cut down, they were forced to change course. “We could no longer really separate the anthropogenic effects of land use change from the effects of changing fruit resources,” Loiselle told Mongabay. “That really motivated us to begin to look at other places to do our work.” Tiputini Biodiversity Station is part of the Yasuní Biosphere Reserve, a 2.7-million-hectare (6.6-million-acre) area of Amazon Rainforest in eastern Ecuador and one of the most biodiverse hotspots on the planet. A tropical forest as pristine as a researcher can hope to access on Earth today. “We just decided that this would be a perfect place to start a long-term study on birds,” Blake told Mongabay. “There was no thought at the time that we’re going to document declines in the bird population.” Rainforest near Yasuní Biosphere Reserve. Photo credit: Rhett A. Butler / Mongabay This March, 23 years after their arrival in Tiputini, the two scientists published a study in Global Ecology and Conservation showing an alarming trend. Relying on observations and mist net captures on two terra firme forest plots about 1.5 kilometers (0.9 miles) apart, the…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - The number of individual birds found at the Yasuní Biosphere Reserve has dropped by half, according to a study published earlier this year. - Other studies have shown a similar trend in preserved rainforests, pointing to habitat deterioration and pesticides as the usual causes of widespread bird decline in the Northern Hemisphere, but this does not explain the phenomenon in tropical sites. - Researchers point to a few possible causes for the declines, such as signs of reduction in insect abundance, but climate change is the common suspect in all cases. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Canada oil sands air pollution 20-64 times worse than industry says: Study 16 May 2024 14:26:33 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/canada-oil-sands-air-pollution-20-64-times-worse-than-industry-says-study/ author: Glenn Scherer dc:creator: Ruth Kamnitzer content:encoded: For years, Indigenous communities living near Canada’s oil sands have worried about the health impacts of the cloud of air pollution rising from the vast industrial mining complex. A recent study shows the problem is far worse than previously thought, with air pollution levels from oil sands operations up to 64 times higher than that reported by industry. Canada’s oil sands are the fourth-largest oil deposit on Earth and among the most energy-intensive to access and process. Buried beneath the boreal forest of northern Alberta, bitumen is a thick, heavy tar-like form of petroleum that coats subsurface sand. It is extracted using both open-pit and in-situ mining, which involves pumping steam underground. Current production is 3.3 million barrels per day. Typically, companies operating in the oil sands calculate air pollution levels using a “bottom-up” approach as required by law — estimating emissions generated at each step of the petrochemical extraction process, including, for example, contaminants rising from smokestacks, heavy machinery and other sources, then adding those figures together to come up with the total emissions. But the 2024 study finds that those methods, while they may be legal, are woefully inaccurate. Using specialized aircraft-based sensors, researchers from Environment and Climate Change Canada (the federal department responsible for coordinating environmental policies and programs), and Yale University took real time measurements and determined that oil sand operations are emitting between 20 and 64 times more air pollution than previously reported. Oil refineries along the Athabasca River in Alberta’s oil sands. Air pollution…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - 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. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Undercover in a shark fin trafficking ring: Interview with wildlife crime fighter Andrea Crosta 16 May 2024 13:25:42 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/undercover-in-a-shark-fin-trafficking-ring-interview-with-wildlife-crime-fighter-andrea-crosta/ author: Rebecca Kessler dc:creator: Philip Jacobson content:encoded: This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center’s Ocean Reporting Network, where Philip Jacobson is a fellow. Four years of investigating jaguar parts trafficking rings in Latin America led Andrea Crosta to a grim realization: The same smugglers were often involved in a variety of illegal enterprises, including moving different kinds of wildlife products across national borders. Especially shark fins. “We kept stumbling upon shark fin trafficking — it was the same people,” Crosta told Mongabay. “And it happened everywhere: It happened in Bolivia, in Peru, in Ecuador, in Suriname.” The Italian-born, Los Angeles-based Crosta is the founder of Earth League International, a small conservation NGO that operates like a mini-FBI, using undercover operatives to infiltrate wildlife trafficking networks while feeding information to law enforcement about the key players and their modi operandi. The job is easier said than done: the smugglers tend to be better organized than their adversaries in government, who fail to collaborate with their counterparts overseas as effectively as the traffickers do, according to Crosta. “On the one hand we have very organized crime, and on the other hand very disorganized law enforcement agencies,” Crosta said. In April, ELI published a report about shark fin trafficking in Latin America, detailing five case studies involving 10 trafficking networks operating transnationally. Individuals’ names are redacted, but the report describes dozens of them in colorful terms: “a Chinese timber trafficker in San Jose who uses a solar panel company as a cover,” for example; “a Cantonese leader of SA1…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Worldwide, many of the key players in wildlife trafficking are also involved in other criminal enterprises, from drug smuggling to human trafficking and money laundering. - In an interview with Mongabay, Andrea Crosta, founder of Earth League International, talks about the group’s new report on shark fin trafficking from Latin America to East Asia and the concept of “crime convergence.” - International wildlife trafficking, including the illegal trade in shark fins, is dominated by Chinese nationals, Crosta says. - Since smuggling routes often overlap and criminal groups frequently work together across borders, Crosta calls for field collaboration among countries and law enforcement agencies to fight wildlife crime, the world’s fourth-largest criminal enterprise. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Tackling climate change in one of Colombia’s largest wetlands 15 May 2024 19:12:51 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/tackling-climate-change-in-one-of-colombias-largest-wetlands/ author: Latoya Abulu dc:creator: César Giraldo content:encoded: The time it takes to cross the Ayapel swamp, the largest swamp in the department of Córdoba, northern Colombia, is a good measurement of how much this landscape has changed in recent decades. The journey, which used to take several hours, can now be done in less than one. Gone are the streams that forced the boatmen to slow down and the large clumps of floating plants that made it difficult to move through the wetlands. Before, it was full of mangroves, recalls Ana María Rivera. “Today, what do you see? Sky and water, because there’s no beautiful mangrove creek left,” says the young woman, who lives in the village of Perú, a rural area at the southern end of the swamp. The problems plaguing the swamp are as complex as the landscape in which it is located. Ayapel and ten other municipalities in the departments of Sucre, Bolívar, Córdoba, and Antioquia make up La Mojana, where three of the country’s most important rivers converge: the San Jorge, the Cauca, and the Magdalena. The Magdalena reaches the region through the Loba branch, one of the two branches parting the river’s course as it passes through the El Banco municipality in the department of Magdalena. This wetland system, one of the largest in the world, is essential for regulating and buffering the major flows of these three river arteries. According to research carried out by the Humboldt Institute, 37% of its total area consists of temporary wetland zones, and another 21%…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - La Mojana, a complex network of more than 500,000 hectares (1.2 million acres) of different types of wetlands, has drastically deteriorated in recent decades. - Thousands of farmers are working to restore their livelihoods, and the swamps, marshes and streams they inhabit. - By doing so, they hope that floods and droughts, which are becoming more unpredictable and more severe than ever due to climate change, will affect them less. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Twilight zone fishing: Can we fish the ocean’s mesopelagic layer? 15 May 2024 18:52:27 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/twilight-zone-fishing-can-we-fish-the-oceans-mesopelagic-layer/ author: Rebecca Kessler dc:creator: Elizabeth Claire Alberts content:encoded: Two hundred meters below the surface of the sea is a cold, faintly lit layer of water known as the mesopelagic, or twilight, zone. Here lives a menagerie of peculiar-looking creatures: blue-glowing plankton and squid; spindly fish flashing kaleidoscopes of colors, some baring rows of barbed teeth. Many of these creatures lurk in this region’s dark depths, while others pass through it as they flit between the surface and the deep ocean, partaking in a daily migration. Due to the constant movement of these fish, they’re notoriously hard to catch, and thus far, the mesopelagic zone has remained relatively unexploited. If these animals are caught and brought to the surface, many turn into a kind of gelatinous goop. Yet Norwegian fisher Karsten Østervold said he believes he’s found a way to handle these strange, gloppy fish. In his opinion, the key is to quickly process and preserve them, and his family business, MESO, a fishing company based in Bekkjarvik, Norway, has built a prototype system for doing so right on board the trawler. “Mesopelagic fish contains a lot of enzymes in the belly, and when it’s harvested and comes onboard the fishing vessel, it very quickly deteriorates — the quality is very fast getting bad,” Østervold told Mongabay. “So it’s very difficult to harvest with conventional fishing vessels and to process it with conventional fishmeal factories.” Many types of mesopelagic fish aren’t considered edible by people, so a target product for twilight-zone fish is silage, a liquid typically made from…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Fishing experts are looking for ways to fish in the mesopelagic zone, a layer of water that stretches from 200-1,000 meters (660-3,300 feet) beneath the surface, which has, thus far, remained relatively unexploited. - Many challenges stand in the way of making mesopelagic fishing a reality, such as the difficulties of finding and capturing mesopelagic fish, and processing them into usable products. - Yet experts are working to overcome these obstacles, with one suggesting that mesopelagic fishing could begin in the next few years. - Conservation experts have expressed concern about the possible start of mesopelagic fishing, arguing that it could cause environmental problems. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
‘Weather whiplash’ cycles of floods & droughts imperil Nigerian farming 15 May 2024 16:15:58 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/weather-whiplash-cycles-of-floods-droughts-imperil-nigerian-farming/ author: Karencoates dc:creator: Tarinipre Francis content:encoded: Growers in Nigeria are suffering huge losses due to a disruption of farming seasons caused by unusual and extreme weather conditions. Mallika Nocco, an assistant professor and extension specialist in agricultural water management at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, called this “weather whiplash,” a pattern in which extreme weather conditions are recorded in quick succession of one another — increased maximum temperatures followed by lower temperatures, heavy rainfalls and floods transitioned into dry spells and vice versa. A map showing the European Commission Humanitarian Response (ECHO) to flooding in Nigeria, Cameroon and Chad in 2022. Image by ERCC – Emergency Response Coordination Centre via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-4.0). “This is what we mean by weather whiplash,” said Nocco, who was a panelist at an April 9 climate change and agriculture webinar organized by SciLine, a journalist research service through the American Association for the Advancement of Science. “It’s a collision of these unexpected conditions and this rapid back-and-forth swing in weather. What that means, in terms of productivity … flooding, following drought, it can disrupt planting. It can disrupt water transfering cycles, any sort of preseason activities. Drought, obviously, can further stress areas that don’t have irrigation, or areas that have irrigation and limited water resources. In an interview with Mongabay, Rosemary Obi, a farmer from Bayelsa in southern Nigeria, described the conditions Nocco explained as the current reality there. It is almost impossible to farm in Bayelsa now, she said. “The rains come very late. We are experiencing very dry…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Farmers in Nigeria — and other regions, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa — are suffering huge losses due to extreme weather shifts in quick succession, a phenomenon that researchers refer to as “weather whiplash.” - Research shows a connection between poverty and weather whiplash, and farmers in poorer regions are five times more exposed to drought-downpour cycles than people in wealthier regions. - In April, the independent SciLine service for journalists hosted a webinar with agricultural scientists who discussed these extreme weather cycles, the impacts of climate change on agriculture in different regions and the need for homegrown approaches to support agriculture resilience. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
As miner quells protests in Ecuador, Canadian firms’ rights record faces scrutiny 15 May 2024 16:02:30 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/as-miner-quells-protests-in-ecuador-canadian-firms-rights-record-faces-scrutiny/ author: Latoya Abulu dc:creator: Aimee Gabay content:encoded: Violent crackdowns by Ecuadorian security forces on antimining protesters there have highlighted the outsize role that Canadian mining companies play in human rights abuses in other countries, and the failure by the government in Ottawa to police their conduct. The latest controversy centers on Atico Mining, headquartered in Vancouver, whose La Plata gold and copper project in Ecuador’s Cotopaxi province, near Quito, has been opposed by residents for at least 15 years. At least 36 protesters were injured, one seriously, along with about 40 security personnel, in a series of protests that began on March 11 and turned violent after the company called in hundreds of police and paramilitary personnel to quell the protests. The protesters, largely campesino farmers, were opposed to a reported attempt to revive a consultation process by Atico that would put the stalled mining project back on the table. Clashes broke out again on March 18, after which 72 protesters were charged and accused of being “terrorists,” and again on March 19, when they set two security vehicles on fire, according to police. On March 25, an Ecuadorian court temporarily suspended the consultation process in response to a legal protection action filed by the mayor of Sigchos, home to the parish of Pablo Quemado where the consultation would have taken place. The mayor called for the “effective and immediate protection of the rights recognized in the Constitution and international human rights instruments, the declaration of the violation of one or more rights, as well as comprehensive…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - In March, violent clashes erupted between Ecuadorian security forces and campesino farmers over prospects for the revival of a mining project that has been rejected by protestors for at least 15 years. - The company behind the project, Atico Mining, called in hundreds of police and paramilitary personnel to quell the protests, in what critics say is a disturbing pattern of Canadian resource companies running roughshod over human and environmental rights in other countries. - Human rights advocacy groups and Indigenous organizations say the Canadian government, especially the embassy in Quito, has failed to safeguard human rights and environmental obligations despite its legal duties to do so. - A spokesperson for the Canadian foreign ministry said the government expects Canadian companies operating abroad to abide by internationally respected guidelines on responsible business conduct — then cited guidelines that aren’t legally binding. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
NZ funding helps Indigenous farmers in Indonesia protect forests, boost incomes 15 May 2024 15:48:59 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/nz-funding-helps-indigenous-farmers-in-indonesia-protect-forests-boost-incomes/ author: Hayat dc:creator: Hans Nicholas Jong content:encoded: JAKARTA — Funding from the New Zealand government is helping Indigenous farmers in Indonesian Borneo improve their livelihoods while protecting their ancestral forests. The funding, channeled through the Farmers For Forest Protection Foundation (4F), will go toward programs such as training and deployment of forest guards, village-based customary forest management support, local forest regulation support, forest monitoring, and training in and implementation of good agricultural practices. The initial disbursement of NZ$24,800 ($14,900) has been allocated to the villages of Setawar and Gunam, in Sekadau and Sanggau districts, respectively, in West Kalimantan province. Setawar is home to around 400 hectares (nearly 1,000 acres) of customary forest, and Gunam 22 hectares (54 acres). While most of the villagers there as independent palm oil farmers, they still rely on their ancestral forests for various purposes, such as making medicinal herbs, producing handicrafts from rattan, building houses using timber from the forests, and carrying out traditional rituals. “The funding will have a big impact on protecting the remaining customary forest in Sanggau and Sekadau, and on the lives of the village communities,” Tirza Pandelaki, executive director of 4F, said in a statement. “They have been struggling for many years to protect the forests that are essential for their culture, livelihoods and spiritual wellbeing. We thank and appreciate the generous support from the New Zealand Head of Embassy Fund.” The villagers have been assisted by the association of Indonesian palm oil farmers, or SPKS, to produce palm oil without sacrificing their forests. They do this by…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Two Indigenous villages in Indonesian Borneo have received initial funding of nearly $15,000 from the New Zealand government to improve their livelihoods while protecting their ancestral forests. - Residents of the Dayak villages of Setawar and Gunam mostly grow oil palms, but also still rely on their ancestral forests for making medicinal herbs, producing handicrafts and carrying out traditional rituals. - The funding, channeled through the Farmers For Forest Protection Foundation (4F), will go toward programs such as training and deployment of forest guards, forest management support, and implementation of good agricultural practices. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
New database unveils the role of Asian hornbills as forest seed dispersers 15 May 2024 15:36:43 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/new-database-unveils-the-role-of-asian-hornbills-as-forest-seed-dispersers/ author: Carolyncowan dc:creator: Carolyn Cowan content:encoded: Biologists have long known hornbills are supreme long-distance seed dispersers. The iconic forest birds are capable of transporting tree seeds over vast distances — up to 10 kilometers, or 6 miles, for some species. In so doing, they distribute tree populations across increasingly fragmented tropical forest landscapes. But actually observing hornbill seed dispersal behavior in the wild is notoriously difficult. “If you’re collecting data in the field, it’s very hard to observe hornbills interacting with plants, not to mention finding out where the bird flies to when it leaves the fruiting tree,” Hanci Liang, a doctoral candidate at the National University of Singapore (NUS), told Mongabay. While a lot is known about the eating habits of hornbills, many mysteries still remain. To pinpoint where such observational data is needed most, Liang and her colleagues from Singapore and Malaysia have brought together all existing research data on the fruit-eating habits of Asian and New Guinean hornbill species into an open-source digital database. Published in a new study in Global Ecology and Conservation, the database represents the largest continually updatable repository of hornbill frugivory and seed dispersal research in the region. The team says it hopes the resource will enable hornbill specialists and prospective students to quickly identify where information is lacking so that they can target their efforts and limited resources to fill knowledge gaps. Understanding the dynamics of seed dispersal enables biologists to investigate the role of different types of fruit-eating animals within ecosystems. And for tropical trees, long-distance seed…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Equipped with bulky beaks and impressive wingspans, hornbills are vital long-distance seed dispersers in tropical forests. But while a lot is known about the eating habits of hornbills, many mysteries still remain. - A new study has compiled an open-source, publicly available database of Asian and New Guinean hornbill frugivory and seed dispersal research. - The new resource aims to help researchers, students and conservation organizations pinpoint knowledge gaps so that they can target their efforts and limited resources. - The new frugivory database could also prove useful for reforestation projects, many of which increasingly recognize the importance of planting food plants to attract natural seed dispersers, which in turn helps to further regenerate the forest. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Extractive industries look at degraded land to avoid further deforestation in the Pan Amazon 15 May 2024 14:41:16 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/extractive-industries-look-at-degraded-land-to-avoid-further-deforestation-in-the-pan-amazon/ author: Mayra dc:creator: Timothy J. Killeen content:encoded: Mining and energy companies invest in the Amazon because it is profitable. Opportunities are large because of geology, but development is costly due to the region’s isolation and lack of infrastructure. The decision to pursue a mineral exploitation project depends on several factors, but there are two primary technical criteria: (a) the richness of the mineral deposit, which determines the cost of extraction; and (b) the volume of the geological formation, which determines the productive lifetime of a mine or oil and gas field. Taken together, these two factors allow investors to estimate the return on investment and decide whether or not to deploy financial capital. Scale is essential to ensure that the cost of production is lower than revenues; consequently, only the richest and largest deposits are developed. Any investment opportunity is balanced by risk, which includes market risk driven by macroeconomics and geopolitics, as well as social and environmental risk unique to each project and nation. Corporations tend to be skilled at managing the former, but they often mismanage the later. Social conflict can delay a project and wreak havoc on the financial models used to guide investments, while a botched environmental review can lead to its rejection by a regulatory agency. Large-scale mining, as in the case of Cóndor Mirador in Ecuador, is of concern due to the inability of government institutions to monitor and control its activities. Image by Ana Cristina Alvarado. Greenfield versus brownfield investments An investment that occurs in a geological formation that has…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Mining and power generation companies invest in the Amazon because it is profitable. But their development is costly, so before setting up, the companies evaluate not only the richness of the mineral deposit but also the volume of the geological formation. In this way they estimate the return on such investment before disbursing the financial capital. - At the same time, investors tend to mismanage social and environmental risks associated with projects, with opposition from civil society frequently delaying extractive initiatives. - Large expanses of the Amazon are still considered wilderness and any sort of development will trigger robust opposition from local, national and international organizations. Various factors influence whether an extractive company will pursue a greenfield development (exploring virgin land) or brownfield development (an area already used by the industry). authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
An ancient Indigenous lagoon system brings water back to a dry town in Ecuador 15 May 2024 14:07:26 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/an-ancient-indigenous-lagoon-system-brings-water-back-to-a-dry-town-in-ecuador/ author: Karencoates dc:creator: Alexis Serrano Carmona content:encoded: There’s a legend that says the hill of Cerro Pisaca — female — and the hill of Cerro Cango — male — had a bull as a son that, in honor of its father, was named Torito Cango, based on the Spanish word for bull, toro. The bull had a gift: With its roar, it could make clouds come together and it would rain. Out of jealousy, the locals in Ayabaca, a province in the neighboring country of Peru, sent four healers to steal it. But Torito Cango didn’t find the grass he liked to eat in that land. He escaped, and his captors, desperate, sent condors and snakes to hunt him, but he defeated them and went back to his mother’s foothills in the southern Ecuador province of Loja. The people from Ayabaca didn’t give up, and they stole the prized animal again. But this time they also took all the grass it ate. Torito Cango never went back to that region of Ecuador and, according to the legend, it stopped raining there. That’s why Catacocha, a small town in the district of Paltas, is so dry, barren and hot as a desert. That’s why it’s been so hard to get water — at least, that’s the explanation that locals held onto for years. That changed a few years ago, when the work of a historian was key to bringing back a millennia-old Indigenous system that allows residents to have water today even in seasons of intense drought. The…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - The town of Catacocha, located in the south of Ecuador, is in a province known for being almost a desert: dry forest, barren soil and rains that only appear two months in the year. - A historian discovered the water collection system long ago used by Palta Indigenous people and persuaded locals in Catacocha to apply it. - By building 250 artificial lagoons, the inhabitants of this region have succeeded in managing rainwater. - The change that has happened in nine years is visible: They sowed 12,000 plant,s and UNESCO has included the area in its list of ecohydrology demonstration sites. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Venezuela’s shrimp farms push for sustainability against hardship and oil spills 15 May 2024 13:12:51 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/venezuelas-shrimp-farms-push-for-sustainability-against-hardship-and-oil-spills/ author: Alexandrapopescu dc:creator: Jeanfreddy Gutiérrez TorresMaría Fernanda Rodríguez content:encoded: Most of Venezuela’s shrimp farms sit on the eastern shore of Lake Maracaibo, a brackish lagoon covering an area larger than the island of Sicily in the country’s northwest. This region is also Venezuela’s oil-production hub, and throughout the years, hundreds of oil spills have polluted the waters near the farms and damaged marine ecosystems that host native species of crustaceans. Yet despite this, Venezuela’s shrimp industry has grown exponentially in the last 25 years. The sector, which exports about 95% of its production, has managed to tackle environmental threats from a deteriorating oil infrastructure and economic difficulties by switching its practices. But while recognized abroad for their progress, shrimp farmers still face hurdles at home. Shrimp farming in Venezuela reportedly began in 1972, with the first experiments in the cultivation of native species of white shrimp (Litopenaeus schmitti) and pink shrimp (Litopenaeus brasiliensis), followed by the first imports in 1986 of immature Pacific white shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) from Texas, and the first spawning the following year. This was the first step by the Venezuelan government to initiate commercial shrimp farming in the country. During the 1990s, production grew rapidly due to several political, economic and environmental factors: government facilities to obtain production permits, domestication of imported shrimp species, absence of viral diseases, increased investment, and attractive conditions for imports. By 1995, seven farms and one independent larviculture laboratory were operating; four of the farms and the lab were in eastern Venezuela. With the turn of the century, the…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Venezuela’s aquaculture industry used to go unnoticed in a national economy revolving around the oil industry, but has gained prominence since 2019 despite revenue cuts and the economic crisis. - Oil spills from disintegrating crude infrastructure compelled shrimp farms to move from an open system that took water from Lake Maracaibo and the Caribbean Sea, to a closed system that’s not only more profitable but also provides environmental benefits for communities and yields healthier shrimp. - In 2023, farmed shrimp was Venezuela’s sixth-largest export by value; while the top export markets are in Europe, China has become the industry’s fastest-growing destination. - While the industry has found ways to thrive amid adversity, it says it needs more help from the government, including on supplies of fuel and electricity, on research, and on nurturing a more secure and stable regulatory climate. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Setback for Guinea mine that threatens World Heritage chimp reserve 15 May 2024 10:20:34 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/setback-for-guinea-mine-that-threatens-world-heritage-chimp-reserve/ author: Terna Gyuse dc:creator: Ashoka Mukpo content:encoded: A major iron mining project in eastern Guinea may be at risk as its owner, the U.S. firm HPX, is reportedly running into trouble with its plans to ship ore through neighboring Liberia. HPX’s mining concession in Guinea has raised alarm among environmentalists, who say that if it reaches the production stage, its close proximity to Mount Nimba Strict Nature Reserve would endanger the resident chimpanzees. HPX’s mining concession is located near Liberia’s border with Guinea. The shortest route for shipping ore extracted from it would be via a railway rehabilitated by the U.K.-Indian steelmaking giant ArcelorMittal as part of the 25-year agreement it signed with the Liberian government in 2005. Since 2011, ArcelorMittal has been the line’s primary user, shipping around 5 million metric tons of ore per year from its own iron mine in northern Liberia to the port city of Buchanan. HPX and its founder, Canadian billionaire Robert Friedland, have been reportedly lobbying to block an amended contract that ArcelorMittal is fighting to push through Liberia’s legislature, which would tighten the firm’s grip on the railway. Under the revised agreement, ArcelorMittal would control day-to-day operations on the line and have the right to prevent other companies from interfering with its shipment schedule. Fearing that ArcelorMittal could disrupt its own plans, Friedland and HPX have been engaged in a multiyear campaign to convince the Liberian government to allow it to have unfettered access to the railway. A train carrying iron ore from Yekepa to the port of Buchanan in…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Liberian President Joseph Boakai is backing U.K.-Indian firm ArcelorMittal over access to a key railway in northern Liberia. - U.S. firm HPX wants to use the rail line to ship ore from its own project in neighboring Guinea to the Liberian port at Buchanan. - HPX’s plan to mine ore from Guinea’s Nimba Mountains has encountered fierce opposition from some environmentalists, who say it would imperil the area’s tool-using chimpanzees. - HPX has said it will partner with South Africa’s Guma Group to build a new railway in Liberia that runs parallel to the existing one, but the plans are reportedly in jeopardy over financing. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
On a Borneo mountainside, Indigenous Dayak women hold fire and defend forest 15 May 2024 03:13:05 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/on-a-borneo-mountainside-indigenous-dayak-women-hold-fire-and-defend-forest/ author: Philip Jacobson dc:creator: Riyad Dafhi Rizki content:encoded: KAMBIAYIN, Indonesia — Eka Karlina repeats a mantra to her Dayak Pitap ancestors as she runs her fingers through the soil, combing the field in Kambiayin village for weeds. “Hopefully this year’s harvest will be good,” Eka told Mongabay Indonesia in the foothills of the Meratus mountain range here in Indonesian South Kalimantan province on the island of Borneo. Like many Dayak women, Eka blends extensive domestic responsibilities with farm work and a demanding day job (the 27-year-old mother of one teaches at the local junior high school). “It’s school holidays today because of Ramadan,” Eka said, referring to the Islamic fasting month. “Usually when I am teaching, either before or after school I’ll make the time to come to the huma [field], even if it’s just to have a look or pull weeds.” Growing food is so pivotal to the local adat, a broad term in Indonesia used to describe Indigenous rules and norms, that anyone who doesn’t farm is considered to risk pamali, a curse of misfortune. Reni Antika, a midwife from a neighboring Dayak village, married a man from Java who didn’t understand the Indigenous society’s farming tradition. Reni decided to give up cultivating food. “I told my parents that if you need rice, you should just buy it,” she said. Reni’s second child was born in poor health and had endured fevers for around a year when the family visited a local balian, a medicine man, to plead for help. “I was called pamali, because I was…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Indigenous women in Indonesian Borneo often have to combine domestic responsibilities with food cultivation, known as behuma in the dialect of the Dayak Pitap community in South Kalimantan province. - Swidden agriculture relies on burning off discarded biomass before planting land in order to fertilize soil and limit pest infestations. But a law enforcement campaign to tackle wildfires has seen criminal prosecutions of at least 11 Borneo women for using fire to grow small-scale food crops from 2018-2022. - Dayak women and several fieldworkers say the practice of burning is safe owing to cultural safeguards against fires spreading that have been passed down families for centuries. - Indonesia’s 2009 Environment Law included a stipulation that farmers cultivating food on less than 2 hectares (5 acres) were exempt from prosecution, but Mongabay analysis shows prosecutors and police have pressed charges against small farmers using other laws. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Will a billionaire bankroll biodiversity? CBD Decision 15/9 as potential ‘goldmine’ (commentary) 14 May 2024 23:27:15 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/will-a-billionaire-bankroll-biodiversity-cbd-decision-15-9-as-potential-goldmine-commentary/ author: Erik Hoffner dc:creator: Joseph Henry Vogel content:encoded: Economic metaphors can be ironic, unexpectedly so. The 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15) to the 1992 UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) established a “multilateral mechanism for benefit-sharing from the use of digital sequence information on genetic resources, including a global fund” (Decision 15/9). The Acting Executive Secretary of the Secretariat heralds the mechanism as a “landmark.” Hope runs high. Global biotechnology sales will soon reach $1 trillion per year. Hundreds of billions are needed to finance the conservation of biodiversity. Decision 15/9 could be a goldmine. But for whom? Industries that use genetic resources are dismissive. They may point to Brazil, the most biodiverse country in the world, where legislation allows royalties as low as 0.1%. The WiLDSI Project, funded by the German Government, contemplates a benefit one order of magnitude lower than that: on a billion-dollar blockbuster biotechnology, 0.01% translates to $100,000. Why bother? A goldmine exists only if industry pays an ‘economic rent’ for commercially successful biotechnologies. The rent in any good is the difference between what one pays and what one would have paid in a competitive market. Industry enjoys rents through intellectual property rights (IPR), such as patents and copyrights. These limited-in-time monopolies allow IPR-holders to offset the costs of bringing artificial information into existence. Tokay gecko. Image by Tontan Travel via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0). By contrast, mega-diverse nations which are Parties to the CBD compete in ‘natural information,’ which is embodied in genetic resources and diffused across species and jurisdictions. Brazil is…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Decision 15/9 established a “multilateral mechanism for benefit-sharing from the use of digital sequence information on genetic resources” during COP15 of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) last year. - Hundreds of billions of dollars are needed to finance biodiversity conservation, especially in mega-diverse nations, and Decision 15/9 could be a goldmine, but for whom? - “Decision 15/9 can be either a goldmine for the mega-diverse Parties to the CBD or for select stakeholders, but not for both. Fairness and efficiency require that economic rents be vetted,” a new op-ed argues. - This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Environmental defenders paid the price during Panama’s historic mining protests – report 14 May 2024 21:40:51 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/environmental-defenders-paid-the-price-during-panamas-historic-mining-protests-report/ author: Alexandrapopescu dc:creator: Maxwell Radwin content:encoded: Panama is still trying to understand the extent of the violence that took place during the massive, nationwide protests last year. Groups from all corners of the country, from teacher unions to hospital workers to Indigenous communities, were targeted by law enforcement while speaking out against pollution, deforestation and water shortages allegedly caused by the Cobre Panamá copper mine. The Supreme Court eventually ruled Minera Panamá’s contract as unconstitutional, forcing the operation to close. But not before countless protesters were injured, lost their eyesight or were arrested on questionable grounds, according to a new report on the violence. “The Panamanian people have repeatedly and firmly said that they do not approve of metallic mining because of the negative impacts on biodiversity and for the quality of water for hundreds of communities,” said Damaris Sanchez Samudio of FUNDICCEP, one of the organizations that commissioned the report. “We denounce and reject all forms of aggression against environmental defenders who are protecting life, forests, rivers, coasts and mangroves.” Panama’s Ombudsman office estimated that more than 100 people were injured during the protests. But the report — which was also supported by Earthworks, MiningWatch Canada and Panama is Worth More Without Mining — said that that number is likely much higher. Injuries included burns and respiratory distress from tear gas as well as partial or total vision loss from pellets and “pepper balls” fired by law enforcement. Two of the victims with vision loss were minors, according to the Ombudsman office. Two protesters were…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Last year’s protests against a copper mine in Panama resulted in injuries, lost eyesight and several deaths, according to a new report from the Foundation for Integral Community Development and the Conservation of Ecosystems in Panama (FUNDICCEP) and Panamanian National Network in Defense of Water. - The protests were in response to a new contract for the Cobre Panamá copper mine operated by Minera Panamá, a subsidiary of the Canadian mining company First Quantum Minerals (FQM). - Environmental defenders are concerned that another crackdown could take place should there be protests against renewed mining negotiations with the government of President-elect José Raúl Mulino, who takes office July 1. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Shade-grown coffee benefits birds, forests & people in Venezuela 14 May 2024 16:54:20 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/shade-grown-coffee-benefits-birds-forests-people-in-venezuela/ author: Jeremy Hance dc:creator: James Hall content:encoded: Each morning, as Luis Arrieta heads out to begin work on his shade-grown coffee farm, vindication comes in the form of birdsong gushing from the trees, a cacophony of trills and warbles of passerines punctuated by the croaks of the groove-billed toucanet (Aulacorhynchus sulcatus). “It’s one of the rewards of my job,” he says. An agronomist hailing from a family that has grown coffee in Venezuela’s Cordillera de la Costa for generations, Arrieta always had a keen interest in animals, particularly birds. During a stint as the director of the Pinar Zoo, he became involved in a captive breeding program for the endangered red siskin (Spinus cucullatus). After his return to agronomy, the little vermillion red finch would be the muse that inspired the Cafe y Aves (Coffee and Birds) program. “I realized there could be a way to combine my two passions to conserve our threatened biodiversity and coffee culture, which were both disappearing,” he says. “And that was through shade coffee.” In the 2010s, Arrieta co-founded the Cafe y Aves program in northern Venezuela, promoting community-based conservation through agroforestry. Since then, the program has pioneered the reforestation of 415 hectares (1,025 acres) and secured the protection of one of the region’s last remaining corridors of threatened tropical dry forest. It also revived a dying tradition of shade-grown coffee cultivation, all while improving livelihoods. Shade coffee is a kind of agroforestry, an agroecology technique that grows coffee shrubs under native trees, allowing for the persistence of forest trees and…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - The Aves y Cafe program in Venezuela aids rural communities by encouraging community-centered shade coffee agroforestry, while protecting rare and migrating birds. - The project has so far succeeded in protecting 415 hectares (1,025 acres) of montane forest, ensuring the survival of threatened endemic and migratory bird species. - Through empowering local smallholders, the program is enhancing livelihoods, promoting biodiversity conservation and safeguarding crucial ecological corridors, including carbon sequestration. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Impunity and pollution abound in DRC mining along the road to the energy transition 14 May 2024 14:04:59 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/impunity-and-pollution-abound-in-drc-mining-along-the-road-to-energy-transition/ author: Latoya Abulu dc:creator: Didier Makal content:encoded: This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center’s Rainforest Investigations Network. LUBUMBASHI, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) — On Oct. 13, 2023, on National Road 39, a police officer gestures for us to slow down. The narrow road has been reduced to a single lane from the usual two. A damaged truck lies in the Dikulwe River, to the left of the bridge to Fungurume, in Lualaba province in southeast DRC. To the right, downstream of the river, the bridge’s guardrails are gone, and another wrecked truck lies overturned. A yellowish substance remains on the riverbank. The reeds in the riverbed under the bridge are burned. It’s sulfuric acid, used for cobalt and copper mining, critical minerals in the energy transition and the lifeblood of the regional economy. Agents clean the river with masks that have seen better days. Click the play button here to listen to an audio version of this article: Sulfur on the ground in Dikuluwe. Image by Didier Makal. The cleanup will take more than a week, some say. Five kilometers (3 miles) downstream in Kibangabwa, residents continue to collect dead fish following the acid spill in the river, their source of drinking water. However, on the day of the accident, Jacques Mumba, the head of the Fungurume environmental department, wanted to assure everyone that there would be no danger to the population. According to Mumba, the river would decontaminate itself 30 minutes later. The company that caused the spill faced no known consequences.…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - In the DRC’s copper belt, pollution from the mining of cobalt and copper, critical minerals for the energy transition, is on the rise and polluters are ignoring their legal obligations to clean it up. - Cases of pollution have caused deaths, health problems in babies, the destruction of crops, contaminated water and the relocation of homes or an entire village, residents and community organizations say. - Mining is the economic lifeblood of the region and the state-owned mining company, Gécamines, is a shareholder in several other companies — some accused of these same rights abuses. - Mongabay visited several villages in Lualaba province affected by pollution and human rights violations to assess the state of the unresolved damage — and whether companies are meeting their legal obligations. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Hold my ointment: Wild orangutan observed healing wound with medicinal plant 14 May 2024 13:13:18 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/wild-orangutan-medicinal-plant-sumatra-endangered-species-indonesia-conservation/ author: Basten Gokkon dc:creator: Basten Gokkon content:encoded: JAKARTA — Self-medicating in animals has been reported before, but scientists noted something particularly special when they observed a wild orangutan in Sumatra treating a wound on its face with a plant known to have healing properties. It was June 22, 2022, when the research team in the Suaq Balimbing area of Indonesia’s Gunung Leuser National Park first noticed that the male Sumatran orangutan (Pongo abelii), which they named Rakus, had a fresh wound under his right eye and inside his mouth while vocalizing a long call. Three days later, the team observed Rakus start to selectively chew on the stem and leaves of the Fibraurea tinctoria liana, and then repeatedly apply the subsequent sap precisely onto the facial wound for several minutes. The orangutan eventually covered the wound with the chewed leaves, and by June 30, the wound was already closed and showed no sign of infection, the researchers reported in their recently published study in the journal Scientific Reports. “This observation is the first time that a wild animal was observed actively treating his wound with a healing plant. So, that’s a very important finding,” study lead author Isabelle B. Laumer, a cognitive and evolutionary biologist at Germany’s Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, told Mongabay in an email interview. The male Sumatran orangutan, named Rakus by researchers, with a fresh facial wound in June 2022. Image courtesy of Armas Fitra/Suaq Balimbing Research. Research has shown that some animals, especially primates and apes, engage in self-medicating behavior. However,…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Researchers observed a wild orangutan in Sumatra treating a facial wound with a plant known for its healing properties, marking the first documented case of such behavior in a wild animal. - The adult male Sumatran orangutan was observed chewing on the plant Fibraurea tinctoria, which has pain-relieving and anti-inflammatory effects, and rubbing the resultant ointment on the wound, which later healed without infection. - This finding supports the idea that orangutans might self-medicate, demonstrating their cognitive abilities and drawing parallels to human practices. - Conservationists have welcomed the finding, highlighting its significance for understanding forest biodiversity and the urgency of protecting orangutan habitat amid declining populations and persistent threats. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Pemex waste contaminates Mexican communities while talking ‘sustainability’ 14 May 2024 13:07:46 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/pemex-waste-contaminates-mexican-communities-while-talking-sustainability/ author: Alexandrapopescu dc:creator: Sarah Sax content:encoded: When the machines and men came to bury toxic sludge on a property near her house in the Mexican state of Tabasco, Lorenza Castro Castro at first thought it was a kind of fertile soil. Companies contracted by Mexico’s state-owned oil giant, Petróleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, had come with truckloads of black earth and set about ripping up the trees, pouring the sludge onto the ground and then covering it up. It was only once they had finished making mounds of earth and watering them that Castro Castro realized something was off. “We realized the soil was toxic because we could smell it,” she told a Mexican investigative team. “It was a fetid smell, a smell like iron. It was like with this smell, our throats started to hurt so much we couldn’t even sense the taste of food anymore.” That year, in 2019, the rainy season floods washed the contaminated soil from what they termed the “toxic cemetery” into her home and those of her neighbors. They claim that the sludge — a toxic waste product of oil refining — makes them and their children sick. Many have moved away. Castro Castro’s community is just one of many affected by this practice. Jose Manuel Arias Rodriguez, a member of the Saint Thomas Ecological Association, an organization that has been working on environmental protection activities in Tabasco for almost three decades, says it is common for Pemex to contract out their waste disposal to other companies that look for properties…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - A recent investigation found that communities in the Mexican state of Tabasco have been living near toxic waste sites caused by chemical sludge dumped from Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex), Mexico’s state-owned oil giant. - This adds to a growing list of allegations of environmental harm against the oil company. Experts say this shows a pattern of systematically ignoring safety and environmental rules and regulations. - The massively indebted company recently announced its first-ever sustainability plan in the hopes of cleaning up its reputation and attracting more financing. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Bangladesh island’s switch from solar power to fossil fuels threatens birds 14 May 2024 11:04:59 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/bangladesh-islands-switch-from-solar-power-to-fossil-fuels-threatens-birds/ author: Abusiddique dc:creator: Sadiqur Rahman content:encoded: Almost all 2,500 households — mostly fisher folks — on Nijhum Dwip, a national park that has the second-largest mangrove forest in Bangladesh, used solar PVs LED bulbs at night and recharge table fans and button phones. However, since October 2023, the island has been connected to the national grid, primarily powered by a 15 megawatt heavy fuel oil (HFO)-fired power plant located 20 kilometers (12 miles) north of the island. In six months, 800 families came under grid coverage. Among them, fisher Kaiyum cherished using ceiling fans and a water pump with electricity. But at present, he is facing continual disruptions in the electricity supply. “A few days ago, a bird got electrocuted at the nearest electric pole. The incident snapped the electricity connection for around five hours,” Kaiyum said, adding that disruption in power supply is inevitable “even if there is a gusty wind.” In 2023, Bangladesh’s southern subdistrict of Hatiya and its island Nijhum Dwip were connected to the national grid for the first time through the Bangladesh Power Development Board‘s (BPDB) “100% Reliable and Sustainable Electrification Project.” Since April 2024, Nijhum Dwip has had a 50-km- (31-mile-) long power line network with 1,500 metal electric poles. The tallest ones, standing at 12 meters (39 feet), carry 11 kilovolts of primary electricity, while some shorter, 9-meter (29.5-foot) poles deliver usable electricity. Power line installations inside the Nijhum Dwip National Park. Image by Sadiqur Rahman. The electrification project neither followed the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - The Bangladesh government recently converted off-grid Nijhum Dwip Island in the Bay of Bengal into an on-grid locality powered by fossil fuel-fired plants, posing a threat to the country’s second-largest mangrove forest. - The island’s inhabitants had depended on individual solar-run power, and the government planned to install a mini solar grid for an uninterrupted power supply a few years back. - Instead, the government has facilitated the construction of a 15 megawatt heavy-fuel-run power plant at Hatiya, the subdistrict headquarters of Nijhum Dwip, under the ‘100% Reliable and Sustainable Electrification Project,’ which seems to be a reverse transition from renewable to fossil fuel-based electrification. - Nature conservationists believe that due to the connection to the national grid, human activities will increase around the forest and endanger the already cornered wildlife of the national park on the island. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Mexico Indigenous community makes strides to land rights, but obstacles remain 14 May 2024 09:15:32 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/mexico-indigenous-community-makes-strides-to-land-rights-but-obstacles-remain/ author: Jeremy Hance dc:creator: Astrid Arellano content:encoded: The Rarámuri Indigenous people of Bosques de San Elías Repechique have traveled a long road to defend their community territory in northern Mexico. Living in the state of Chihuahua, the Rarámuri have fought for decades to protect a coniferous forest damaged by logging, airport construction and a gas pipeline. After a long legal battle, a Mexican court sided with the Rarámuri this past February, ruling that the territory belongs to them. The ruling by the Tenth Federal District Court of the State of Chihuahua concludes a six-year process that recognizes the community’s existence as an Indigenous people and the negative environmental impacts on 11,415 hectares (28,207 acres) of their territory. A peaceful protest by the Rarámuri on the Creel–San Rafael highway in 2022 demanding the legal recognition of their territory and an end to the intimidation efforts against them. Image courtesy of Carolina Ruiz/CONTEC. “Our ancestors left us the task of taking care of the forest, of taking care of water sources and rivers. Each of these things has a mystical meaning for the community,” said Luis Pérez Enríquez, governor of the Bosques de San Elías Repechique community. “Now a judge is forcing the state and government institutions to respect our territories and forests before engaging in any project that affects the community.” However, Mexico’s environment ministry, as well as the state government and two private individuals who hold logging permits in Rarámuri territory, filed appeals against the ruling in early March, according to Repechique’s legal team, which is led…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - In a watershed ruling, a federal court in Mexico recognized the land rights of the Rarámuri Indigenous community of Bosques de San Elías Repechique, in the state of Chihuahua. - The ruling annulled the forest-harvesting permits held by private individuals on the community’s ancestral property and required an Indigenous consultation process should the permits be reapplied for. - The Rarámuri had been demanding the recognition of their ancestral territory for more than 40 years while facing aggression and resource grabbing. - However, Mexico’s environment ministry and two private individuals with forest-harvesting permits have filed appeals against the ruling. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Amid ravaging wildfires in Venezuela, experts cite institutional collapse 14 May 2024 06:24:46 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/amid-ravaging-wildfires-in-venezuela-experts-cite-institutional-collapse/ author: Alexandrapopescu dc:creator: Tony Frangie Mawad content:encoded: CARACAS, Venezuela — In early March, a series of wildfires ravaged the savannas of Canaima National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the southeastern state of Bolivar, bordering the Venezuelan Amazon, and reached the Auyantepui, one of the park’s iconic, billion-year-old tabletop mountains, or tepuis, known for their unique mountain ecosystems. For days, the fires, which local environmentalists later reported began as a forest clearance attempt by a local Indigenous community, ravaged around 1,100 hectares (about 2,720 acres) on the Auyantepui. According to local reports, only 12 badly equipped firefighters were deployed in the area, fighting the flames unsuccessfully until rainfall came. But the fires in the Auyantepui were not isolated. Between January and February, data from NASA show, more than 9,000 fires were recorded across the country — a number higher than in any similar months since the agency started monitoring in the early 2000s. In March, NASA reported 11,000 fires. Venezuela’s National Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology declared most of the country to be at “very high” risk of fires during mid-April. Other national parks were also affected. Between 100 and 120 hectares (250-300 acres) of the Henri Pittier National Park in northern Venezuela, which protects coastal cloud forests and is home to more than 500 bird species and 22 endemic species, were burned in March, according to the local governor. In early April, fires also appeared in the hills surrounding Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, covering parts of the city in ashes and smoke. That same month, fires…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Since the start of the year, Venezuela has been experiencing record-breaking fires. Apart from the highest number of fires in any January and February for the last two decades, wildfires continued all the way to early May, devastating national parks and affecting the capital of Caracas. - Some experts say that in 2024 so far, up to 2 million hectares (4.94 million acres) of land appear to have already burned. - Higher temperatures, drought and the fact that Venezuela lacks fire-tolerating plants have been contributing to more intense fires, which have been made worse by the country’s institutional failures. - Experts say that a lack of adequate institutions, a collapse of public services and an absence of planning and monitoring strategies have resulted in Venezuela being unable to handle the wildfires. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Indonesia civil society groups raise concerns over proposed Borneo nuclear reactor 14 May 2024 00:34:45 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/indonesia-civil-society-groups-raise-concerns-over-proposed-borneo-nuclear-reactor/ author: Philip Jacobson dc:creator: Irfan Maulana content:encoded: JAKARTA — Civil society organizations in Indonesia staged protests in late April to raise awareness of a planned nuclear plant near Pontianak, capital of West Kalimantan province on the island of Borneo. “We are advocating that West Kalimantan be kept away from the threat of a nuclear radiation disaster. Indonesia is not Chernobyl,” said Hendrikus Adam, executive director of the West Kalimantan chapter of the Indonesia Forum for the Environment, a national NGO known as Walhi, referring to the site of a notorious 1986 nuclear meltdown in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. Indonesia’s first experimental nuclear reactor, the TRIGA Mark II, opened in the city of Bandung in February 1965. Since then, however, the world’s fourth-largest country has yet to open a full-fledged nuclear power station. In March 2023, Indonesia and the U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) signed a partnership agreement to develop small modular reactor technology for the archipelago’s power network. The agreement included a $1 million grant to PLN, the state-owned power utility, to carry out feasibility studies on a nuclear reactor. PLN has proposed a 462-megawatt facility in West Kalimantan, which would use technology supplied by NuScale Power OVS, a publicly traded company based in Oregon in the U.S. In capacity terms, that represents almost one-tenth of the giant Paiton coal-fired complex in East Java province, a mainstay of the Java-Bali power grid. Walhi’s action to reject plans to build a nuclear power plant in West Kalimantan in front of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Indonesia’s largest environmental advocacy group, Walhi, staged demonstrations in Jakarta and West Kalimantan province to raise awareness about a proposed nuclear power plant in West Kalimantan’s Bengkayang district. - In 2021, a U.S. agency signed a partnership agreement with Indonesia’s state-owned power utility to explore possibilities for a reactor in the province. Survey work is currently being conducted to determine the project’s viability and safety. - Some environmental groups have questioned the merit of the plan on safety grounds and the availability of alternative renewable sources. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
African health experts warn of climate change & rising vector-borne diseases 13 May 2024 16:05:22 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/african-health-experts-warn-of-climate-change-rising-vector-borne-diseases/ author: Karencoates dc:creator: Juliet Akoth Ojwang content:encoded: Health experts are particularly concerned about the role of climate change in the rise of vector-borne diseases in Africa’s low- and middle-income countries, which already face numerous health and socioeconomic disparities. “It is crucial to acknowledge the gravity of the situation that we are facing today, especially around climate change, as it is no longer only an environmental concern, but it has evolved into a significant public health crisis with far-reaching implications for communities worldwide,” said Edward Miano, executive director of the Health Rights Advocacy Forum (HERAF). He noted that climate change is worsening disease patterns, and diseases are emerging in areas where they did not exist before. A good example is that previously in Kenya’s highland regions, such as parts of the Rift Valley and Kericho county, malaria was not prevalent. But the disease has returned in recent years, a development that some experts say is linked to subtle changes in the region’s climate. Miano spoke during a webinar that took place on April 4, jointly organized by HERAF, the African Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF) and the African Institute for Development Policy (AFIDEP). The webinar was meant for science and environmental journalists from across the African continent, as it aimed to shed light on the intersection of climate change and public health, with a specific focus on the escalating threats posed by vector-borne diseases in various African countries. A study published in March in the journal Infectious Diseases of Poverty highlights that vector-borne diseases, which account for more…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Climate change has become a pressing public health crisis around the world, as disease patterns worsen and emerge in regions where they did not exist before. - Health experts are particularly concerned about the role of climate change in the rise of vector-borne diseases in Africa’s low- and middle-income countries. - Rising temperatures can expand and extend the life cycle of disease-carrying vectors such as mosquitoes, ticks and parasites. - Health experts discussed these issues in a recent webinar organized by the Health Rights Advocacy Forum, the African Medical and Research Foundation and the African Institute for Development Policy. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Latest palm oil deforester in Indonesia may also be operating illegally 13 May 2024 15:40:51 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/latest-palm-oil-deforester-in-indonesia-may-also-be-operating-illegally/ author: Hayat dc:creator: Hans Nicholas Jong content:encoded: JAKARTA — The largest case of deforestation for industrial palm oil in Indonesia is happening within a concession on a tiny island off the coast of southern Borneo, according to satellite analysis by technology consultancy TheTreeMap. The deforestation appears to be illegal, activists say, citing the irregularities surrounding the permits associated with the concession. Data from TheTreeMap, available at forest monitoring platform Nusantara Atlas, show that 15,822 hectares (39,097 acres) of new plantations were established in the concession on the island of Laut, part of Kotabaru district in South Kalimantan province, in 2022 and 2023. The concession has been linked to palm oil company PT Multi Sarana Agro Mandiri (MSAM), part of the Jhonlin Group owned by influential tycoon Andi Syamsudin Arsyad, popularly known as Haji Isam. To make way for these new plantations, up to 10,650 hectares (26,317 acres) of forest — one-sixth the size of Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta — were cleared during that period. This makes the concession the single biggest site of deforestation for palm oil in Indonesia, according to TheTreeMap. A time lapse animation of deforestation in the palm oil concession of PT Multi Sarana Agro Mandiri (MSAM), part of the influential Jhonlin Group, in Pulau Laut, South Kalimantan, from June 2022 to February 2024. Image courtesy of TheTreeMap. The figure is significant for an island as small as Laut, said Jefri Raharja, campaign manager with the South Kalimantan chapter of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), Indonesia’s biggest green NGO. At 202,400 hectares (500,100 acres), Laut is…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - The biggest deforestation hotspot for palm oil in Indonesia is located on a small island off the southern Borneo coast, new data show. - Up to 10,650 hectares (26,317 acres) of forest — one-sixth the size of Jakarta — were cleared from 2022-2023 inside the concession of PT Multi Sarana Agro Mandiri (MSAM), part of the influential Jhonlin Group. - Activists say the company’s operations may be illegal, given the questionable process through which it obtained its permits. - However, law enforcers have ignored calls to investigate, and previous efforts by journalists to expose the group’s business practices have led to their criminal prosecution on hate speech charges. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Final cheetah conservationists freed in Iran, but the big cat’s outlook remains grim 13 May 2024 15:38:50 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/final-cheetah-conservationists-freed-in-iran-but-the-big-cats-outlook-remains-grim/ author: Jeremy Hance dc:creator: Kayleigh Long content:encoded: In December 2023, three staff members from the Iranian Cheetah Society crowded around a laptop, moved to tears by the sight of a mother cheetah and her four cubs, caught on a camera trap. Population estimates for the critically endangered Asiatic cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus venaticus) vary, but experts say fewer than 30 may remain. Once found throughout Central and Southwest Asia, as far east as India, today the Asiatic cheetah is found only in Iran, where conservation of the species has been hampered by complex geopolitical dynamics. Cheetah conservationists finally freed In January 2018, Iran arrested nine conservationists from the Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation (PWHF) and charged them with spying for states hostile to Iran. They were sentenced in 2019. The decision was upheld in 2020, amid allegations of flaws in the judicial process, including reports of torture and forced confessions. Last month, the final four Iranian scientists and conservationists linked to the PWHF walked free from Tehran’s Evin Prison, pardoned after serving six years and three months apiece. Researchers Houman Jowkar, Sepideh Kashani, Taher Ghadirian and Niloufar Bayani were released on April 8 and 9. The organization’s co-founder, Morad Tahbaz, who also holds U.K. and U.S. citizenship, was released late last year as part of prisoner swap and sanctions waiver deal with the U.S., tied to the unfreezing of $6 billion in Iranian oil funds, earmarked for humanitarian purposes. Three other PWHF-affiliated conservationists, Sam Rajabi, Amir-Hossein Khaleghi and Abdolreza Kouhpayeh, were released between 2020 and 2023. However, the PWHF…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - In April, the last four cheetah conservationists from the Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation jailed in 2018 for alleged espionage were released from prison in Tehran; four of their colleagues had been released earlier, while one had died in custody. - The case had a chilling effect on scientific collaboration and efforts to save the critically endangered Asiatic cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus venaticus), which is today found only in Iran, with fewer than 30 believed to remain in the wild. - The cheetah faces a range of threats, chief among them vehicle collisions: some 52% of cheetah deaths in Iran are due to road accidents. - Saving the species will require a comprehensive and coordinated effort, and international scientific cooperation is crucial — but conservation work has been hampered by complex geopolitical dynamics, including sanctions. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Fishers, scientists restore mangroves on a Mexican isle wrecked by salt mining 13 May 2024 14:20:03 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/fishers-scientists-restore-mangroves-on-a-mexican-isle-wrecked-by-salt-mining/ author: Maxradwin dc:creator: Astrid Arellano content:encoded: In recent decades, salt extraction has taken its toll on the mangroves and wetlands of Isla del Carmen, in the Mexican municipality of Loreto. Since the start of the 20th century, salt mining even led to the creation of a town for workers traveling back and forth every day by boat. The industry boom ended in the 1980s, leaving only the ruins of buildings, machinery, a church and a dock. The island, situated in the Gulf of California, hasn’t been the same since. The severe environmental deterioration has left its mark. “That activity has undoubtedly created deterioration on the island,” said biologist Arturo Peña, director of the Loreto office of Vida Silvestre (OVIS), a conservation NGO that has spent three decades helping protect the area. “In the process, they had to flood certain lagoons and allow the sun to do its job evaporating the water, to get the salt.” Bahía de Loreto National Park was created in the 1970s to protect five islands, including Isla del Carmen. But the salt mine rush hit the southeast part of the island, called Bahía Salinas, where black mangroves (Avicennia germinans) grew. “When salt extraction ended, the island was abandoned and the people who lived there returned to the mainland to form the community of Ensenada Blanca,” Peña said. Today, the children and grandchildren of the salt workers live there. And since 2021, they’ve been the ones restoring the Isla del Carmen ecosystems. “There are 12 of us in the community — five women…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - For decades, salt mining has deteriorated the wetlands and natural flood patterns of Isla del Carmen, part of Bahía de Loreto National Park in Mexico. - Collaboration between two conservation organizations and a community of fishers on the mainland are working to restore the mangroves of Isla del Carmen by rehabilitating its hydrology and constructing “vegetation terraces” for the trees. - The project also involves training and educating communities about the importance of conserving the ecosystem for the sake of wildlife, the local economy and protecting against the effects of climate change. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Despite drought, Amazon deforestation alerts hit five-year low 10 May 2024 20:19:14 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/despite-drought-amazon-deforestation-alerts-hit-five-year-low/ author: Rhett Butler dc:creator: Mongabay.com content:encoded: Month-over-month deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon declined for the 13th consecutive month as forest clearing in Earth’s largest rainforest fell to the lowest level in five years. This decrease occurred despite a historic drought in the region, according to data published on Friday by Brazil’s national space research institute, INPE. In April, the area of forest loss registered by INPE’s deforestation alert system was 174 square kilometers, a 47% drop compared to last April. Over the past 12 months, deforestation totaled 4,661 square kilometers, marking a 51% decrease compared to the previous year. Accumulated deforestation for Jan 1-Apr 30 since 2009 according to INPE’s DETER alert system. 12-month- moving average data for deforestation alert data from Imazon’s SAD system and INPE’s DETER system. Imazon is a Brazilian NGO that independently monitors deforestation. Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, which comprises nearly two-thirds of the Amazon rainforest, has declined rapidly since President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took office in January 2023. President Lula has made it a priority to curb deforestation in the region by reinstating conservation programs, rebuilding and empowering environmental agencies, rallying international support for forest protection, and showing support for Indigenous rights. The Lula administration has also reimplemented programs that offer economic incentives for maintaining forest cover and called for the establishment of a novel alliance of tropical rainforest nations to seek international finance for conservation and restoration. Falling deforestation has come even as a severe drought has affected vast swathes of the northern Amazon. The state of…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - The Brazilian Amazon experienced a 47% decrease in deforestation in April compared to last year, marking the lowest level in five years, and a 51% decrease over the past 12 months. - Since President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took office in January 2023, his administration has effectively curbed deforestation by reinstating conservation programs, strengthening environmental agencies, and supporting Indigenous rights. - The decline in deforestation occurred despite a severe drought affecting the region, which includes record fires in the state of Roraima. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Ridiculously rare photo catches Asian caracal swimming a river in India 10 May 2024 15:30:57 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/ridiculously-rare-photo-catches-asian-caracal-swimming-a-river-in-india/ author: Glenn Scherer dc:creator: Jeremy Hance content:encoded: If you’ve ever thought of the caracal before, you’ve probably pictured it inhabiting the savannas of Africa, its long-fringed ears sticking up above the wild grasses. But although the caracal (Caracal caracal) is best known from its African habitats, a tiny population persists in India. It’s here, on the Chambal River, that a tourist, Vaibhav Sanghavi, took an astoundingly unusual photo of a caracal — a medium-sized wild cat with stunning ears — swimming the large river. The photo is noteworthy not only because of the cat’s unusual aquatic behavior, but because it was taken in Madhya Pradesh, a central Indian state where the caracal was recently declared extinct by the Forestry Department. “Quite surprising!” is how Shreyas Vijay describes the photo. “This is likely the first-ever recorded instance of such behavior in Asiatic caracals.” Vijay, the founder of India’s Caracal Conservation and Research Project, spends most of his time studying the charismatic cats in Gujarat state, west of Madhya Pradesh. The caracal is endangered in India according to the IUCN Red List, with fewer than 100 individuals estimated across the whole country. In addition to Africa and India, the caracal is also found in the Middle East as well as Central and Southwest Asia. Tourist Vaibhav Sanghavi took an unusual photo of a caracal swimming the large Chambal river. Image by Vaibhav Sanghavi. Researchers have observed caracals fording rivers in Africa; that includes Vijay, who saw one swim the Berk River in South Africa. But this is a first…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - A tourist took a surprising photo of a caracal, a medium-sized cat, fording a river in India. - What makes the photo doubly unusual is that India’s caracals aren’t known for swimming — and the cat was supposed to be extinct in the region. - Once an important species culturally in India, caracals are now endangered, according to the IUCN Red List. - The cat is also imperiled because it often occurs outside protected areas, inhabiting less-valued grasslands. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
On foot and by drone, radio tracking helps rehabilitate pangolins in Vietnam 10 May 2024 14:34:36 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/on-foot-and-by-drone-radio-tracking-helps-rehabilitate-pangolins-in-vietnam/ author: Jeremy Hance dc:creator: Claudia Geib content:encoded: When the organization Save Vietnam’s Wildlife receives a pangolin rescued from the wildlife trade, it can take months to remind the scaly, housecat-sized mammal how to be a pangolin again. After treating any diseases or injuries, SVW caretakers place the pangolin in a small, semiwild enclosure. Here they monitor the rehabilitating animals to see if they’re behaving the way they would in the wild: if they’re investigating tubes of bamboo filled with ants, if they’re climbing trees, and if they’re digging burrows in the soft dirt. It can take up to a year for rescued animals to start acting like wild pangolins again — a delay compounded by ongoing criminal investigations, in which the animals are evidence. But once a pangolin has been approved for release, SVW’s veterinarians might take an additional step: puncturing a hole in one of the pangolin’s fingernail-like scales and fastening on a small radio transmitter. Then they reintroduce the pangolin back to Vietnam’s forests and marshes, hoping that each animal has remembered enough to survive. For the pangolin, radio tracking offers a tremendous boon to research. These mammals are shy and nocturnal. Because they live in dense forest and burrow underground, much of their habits are still unknown. For SVW, radio tracking pangolins on foot and using a new radio telemetry-equipped drone is revealing previously unknown facets of the animals’ lives, as well as refining the reintroduction process. But like many conservation organizations, their work is also limited by funding challenges. A rehabilitated pangolin being…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Conservation NGO Save Vietnam’s Wildlife is employing radio tracking to follow rehabilitated pangolins rescued from the illegal wildlife trade, even in difficult terrain and when the animals burrow underground. - Tracking these pangolins on foot and using a novel radio telemetry drone has not only allowed the organization to assess the survival of released pangolins, but also improved the team’s knowledge of the secretive animals’ behaviors and habitat needs. - However, this radio-tracking work is vulnerable to funding challenges, as the expectation that conservation work result in published papers can make it difficult to find long-term funding for basic equipment like radio tags. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Research shows the Caatinga is Brazil’s most efficient carbon capture biome 10 May 2024 10:54:19 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/research-shows-the-caatinga-is-brazils-most-efficient-carbon-capture-biome/ author: Xavier Bartaburu dc:creator: Adriana Amâncio e Rafael Dantas content:encoded: Over a decade of studies conducted by the National Caatinga Observatory revealed that it has the best carbon sequestration performance among Brazilian biomes. For every 100 metric tons of CO2 absorbed by that forest in Brazil’s semiarid area, 45-60 tons are retained and do not return to the atmosphere. Even the researchers were surprised by the result of the studies. One of them was Aldrin Perez, from the National Institute of the Semiarid Region (INSA), one of the organizations responsible for the project. “To our surprise, the Caatinga is the most efficient biome in Brazil and one of the most efficient in the world. In general, plants absorb and release CO2 in the process of photosynthesis. That is a very positive balance. This forest is one of the solutions to the problem of climate change; it’s an excellent carbon sink,” says Perez, one of the authors of the studies. An ecosystem is called a “carbon sink” when it absorbs or captures more CO2 than it releases through plant respiration and soil. To compare the efficiency of the Caatinga, Perez says the balance in CO2 absorption and release in the Amazon ranges from 2-11%. In the case of the Brazilian Cerrado, for example, that efficiency is 23%. This comparative survey was based on data provided by several 15-meter- (49-foot-) high towers with equipment that captures gases and are installed in 30 different biomes around the world. Tower used in research to measure carbon balance in the Caatinga. Image courtesy of Aldrin…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Studies found that for every 100 metric tons of CO2 absorbed by dried-out forests in the semiarid area of Brazil’s northeasern region, 45-60 metric tons do not return to the atmosphere; in the Amazon Rainforest, the balance between carbon absorption and release ranges from 2-11%, compared with 23% in the Cerrado biome. - According to researchers, the Caatinga’s vegetation stores 8,677 metric tons of carbon per square mile [3,350 per square kilometer], which can be released in the event of deforestation — a problem that increased by 2,500% from 2019 to2022, making the Caatinga Brazil’s third-most deforested biome. - The solutions suggested to preserve the Caatinga include social carbon credit programs, new conservation units, and degraded areas recovered through agroecology. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Brazil takes pioneering action — and a vaccine — to rewild howler monkeys 10 May 2024 09:17:26 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/brazil-takes-pioneering-action-and-a-vaccine-to-rewild-howler-monkeys/ author: Jeremy Hance dc:creator: Bernardo Araujo content:encoded: It was Hope who first dared to approach Juvenal. They had been on the opposing sides of a quarrel ever since Hope’s family wrapped their tails around the branches of that 10,000-acre urban forest in the heart of Rio de Janeiro. The arrival of her clan contested the eight-year rule of Juvenal’s group in Tijuca National Park. Brown howler monkeys (Alouatta guariba) are, by primate standards, peaceful denizens of the Atlantic Forest — gentle leaf-eaters that also enjoy the occasional fruit. But that doesn’t put them above skirmishing for territory. Around two weeks ago, Juvenal and another male had attempted to attack the leader of Hope’s group, Max. The howlers, true to their name, kept exchanging threatening howls since the incident. On that day, though, Hope seemed to reach out for peace. She touched Juvenal, and — to the delight of the researchers spectating the scene — he accepted the gesture. Just like that, the howler groups appeared to reach an understanding. The human part of the drama, however, is more extensive. Just a few years back, brown howlers were considered a vulnerable species by the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio) — the Brazilian agency responsible for managing protected areas and biodiversity — but of least concern according to the IUCN Red List. Everything changed in December 2016, when brown howler numbers started to plummet; they became rare in many forests and disappeared altogether from others. The species is now among the 25 most threatened primates on the…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Brown howler monkeys (Alouatta guariba), endemic to the Atlantic Forest in Brazil and Argentina, became one of the 25 most threatened primate species following a yellow fever outbreak in late 2016. - In response, Brazilian government agencies and other conservation organizations launched a nationwide population management plan, the first of its kind in the country, focused on coordinating captive facilities with experts who could relocate animals to areas where populations have vanished or declined. - Nationwide management of howler monkeys was made possible by the adaptation of a vaccine — originally developed for humans — against the yellow fever virus. - Howler reintroduction initiatives in Brazil have already begun showing signs of success. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Experts highlight importance of ‘prebunking’ to combat climate disinformation 10 May 2024 02:00:53 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/experts-highlight-importance-of-prebunking-to-combat-climate-disinformation/ author: Karencoates dc:creator: Choki Wangmo content:encoded: With the rapid expansion of digital and AI tools, climate disinformation has become a major challenge for journalists and media organizations across the world. However, climate disinformation researchers say that “prebunking” is one of the best ways to fight it. Prebunking is a vital method used by agencies to tackle false claims before the public encounters them, helping them spot and resist manipulation. Based on inoculation theory in psychology, prebunking builds mental defenses by revealing deceptive techniques in advance. Beth Goldberg, from Google’s Jigsaw division, told National Public Radio that she sees prebunking as a shield against manipulation through early awareness. This proactive approach is increasingly used in campaigns to encourage critical thinking and combat false information with accuracy. According to The Guardian reporter Dharna Noor, the stories intended to misinform often follow clear patterns, making it easier to predict the lies they might tell. She spoke at a recent press briefing on how to prebunk climate disinformation hosted by the global journalism collaboration, Covering Climate Now, and the Climate Action Against Disinformation coalition. Citing an example of the war in Gaza, Noor said, the American Petroleum Institute launched a big ad campaign, claiming concerns about oil flow from the Middle East during the war. “By understanding these patterns, journalists can address industry tactics before they reach the public.” Prebunking stories often comes before there’s even a news event, she added. Journalists can prebunk stories, a preemptive strike against misinformation, instead of waiting for people to hear false claims. A…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - For journalists covering climate change and other complex issues, battling disinformation is a major challenge. - Disinformation experts use a method called “prebunking” to reveal deceptive techniques and guard against manipulation; it’s a proactive approach, rooted in inoculation theory in psychology, which encourages critical thinking in the face of false information. - However, the method faces cultural obstacles in some countries such as Bhutan; communication professionals say journalists and local communities should receive training so they are informed about climate science and other relevant subjects in order to fight disinformation. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Chimps are lifelong learners, study on tool use shows 09 May 2024 17:36:42 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/chimps-are-lifelong-learners-study-on-tool-use-shows/ author: Isabel Esterman dc:creator: Charles Mpaka content:encoded: Chimpanzees, like humans, can use a variety of tools to perform tasks such as getting food from hard-to-reach places. Now, a study published in PLOS Biology has found that, also like humans, chimps continue learning and refining those skills well into adulthood. This lifelong learning and continual development of skills is critical for the survival of chimpanzees in the wild, says lead author Mathieu Malherbe, from the Ape Social Mind Lab at Marc Jeannerod Institute of Cognitive Sciences in France and the Taï Chimpanzee Project in Côte d’Ivoire. “Chimpanzees’ ability to extract food [that would otherwise be inaccessible] using stick tools might be essential in times of food scarcity which is happening more and more due to climate change,” Malherbe said in an email to Mongabay. “Chimpanzees have one of the most diverse tool kit, apart from humans. Conservation projects should be focusing on helping preserving these behavioral traits as preserving this species will help us understand our evolutionary history,” he added. Researchers trying to understand human evolution have identified tool use as a driving force behind both brain development and the long-term dependency of juveniles in the primate lineage, Malherbe said. Likewise, humans’ ability to learn across our entire lifespan has been credited for our ability to flexibly use a wide array of tools. The researchers note that while many studies have examined how chimps acquire the skills to use tools, very few have looked at how they develop these abilities across their lifetime, especially in the wild. As…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - A recent study assessed wild chimpanzees’ use of sticks as a tool, monitoring how chimps of different ages gripped and manipulated the implement to retrieve food from tricky places. - The study found that older chimps were more adept at choosing the right grip for the task at hand, indicating that chimpanzees, like humans, refine tool-use skills well into adulthood. - The researchers say this continued development of skills is critical for chimpanzees’ survival in a changing climate, and that it highlights the importance of conservation interventions aimed at supporting the preservation of chimpanzee cultures. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Saving Asia’s fishing cat means protecting threatened wetland habitat 09 May 2024 14:52:36 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/saving-asias-fishing-cat-means-protecting-threatened-wetland-habitat/ author: Glenn Scherer dc:creator: Sean Mowbray content:encoded: Many cats despise mud and water, but not so the fishing cat. This enigmatic medium-sized cat species roams South and Southeast Asia and is uniquely adapted to life in wetlands — so much so that its call resembles the quack of a duck. Little known and underresearched, it faces an uphill battle against multiple threats, including loss of its wetland habitat to humanity’s incursions, and escalating climate change, as extreme drought and rising coastal waters disrupt aquatic ecosystems. Though in peril, the fishing cat (Prionailurus viverrinus) has many champions fighting for its survival. A pioneer of that effort is Tiasa Adhya, co-founder of the Fishing Cat Project in India, the world’s first and longest-running conservation and research program dedicated to the species. Her journey to researching and becoming a voice for P. viverrinus began on a tiger survey in the Sundarbans of West Bengal, India, in 2010. “There was this miniature pugmark — [a footprint] like that of a small tiger — that the forest department ranger pointed me to,” she recounts. “They said it belonged to the fishing cat. It was the state animal of West Bengal. But I had no idea what a fishing cat was, and that was true for most people [living] in my state.” Adhya went on to co-found the Fishing Cat Project that same year. Over time, the group’s relentless awareness-raising efforts, community outreach, and government lobbying boosted the fishing cat’s visibility, she says. In 2022, she received the Future for Nature Award, in…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Fishing cats are uniquely adapted to life in wetlands, possessing a double-layered coat that serves as a water barrier and insulation, partially webbed feet, ears that plug when submerged, and a curious call reminiscent of a duck. - Spread across Asia, this small wild cat species faces myriad threats, including habitat loss, hunting and retaliatory killings, road kill, and more. Considered vulnerable across its range, the felid is also elusive and underresearched, with many knowledge gaps about its distribution and ecology. - Conservationists are working across its range to raise the profile of this wildcat, reduce threats and understand the species. Linking its protection to equally threatened wetlands is vital, they say. Initiatives such as the Fishing Cat Project in India have achieved success in making this cat the face of these habitats. - Multiple conservation and research projects operate in Asia under the banner of the Fishing Cat Conservation Alliance, a cooperative model that provides funding lifelines and enables international collaboration to protect this small cat. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Desperation sets in for Indigenous Sumatrans who lost their forests to plantations 09 May 2024 12:09:44 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/desperation-sets-in-for-indigenous-sumatrans-who-lost-their-forests-to-plantations/ author: Philip Jacobson dc:creator: Teguh Suprayitno content:encoded: SEPINTUN, Indonesia — Past generations of Dahwas’s family lived off the food and fuel growing all around them, traversing Sumatra’s forest unobstructed whenever cultural norms required the seminomadic Suku Anak Dalam people to seek out a fresh location. Dahwas has lived with his seven children inside the forest here in Indonesia’s Jambi province his entire life, but in recent decades the land available to the Suku Anak Dalam has been shrinking. “We have been living here for 13 years,” Dahwas told Mongabay Indonesia, as he pointed to nearby fruit trees and the family cemetery. Around half of the Suku Anak Dalam, perhaps as many as 2,500 people, have lost their customary territory to plantation firms, according to KKI Warsi, a Sumatra-based NGO that advocates for the community. Among the companies is PT Alam Lestari Nusantara (ALN), an Indonesian state-owned firm that manages rubber plantations. It has a permit to manage 10,785 hectares (26,650 aces) of land here in Sepintun village, and sells the latex to a local processor owned by Thailand-based Sri Trang Group, one of the world’s biggest suppliers of natural rubber. In 2016, according to Dahwas, an ALN representative visited his family and asked them to relinquish their claim to the land. Someone claiming to own the land had already sold it, all 70 hectares (173 acres), to the company without Dahwas’s knowledge. Now, the ALN representative was asking him to vacate it and, in a goodwill gesture, offering to build him a new house and pay him…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - The seminomadic Suku Anak Dalam Indigenous people have lived in two areas of what is now Jambi province on Indonesia’s Sumatra island for generations, but an influx of plantation interests has shrunk the customary territory available to their society. - More than 2,000 Suku Anak Dalam have lost their land to oil palm and rubber plantations, which have also led to a loss of the native trees from which community members collect forest honey to sell. - Several Suku Anak Dalam interviewees said state-owned rubber plantation company PT Alam Lestari Nusantara had failed to properly compensate them for their land. - The company did not respond to several requests for comment. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Bangladeshi farmers find zucchini’s high yields & low costs palatable 09 May 2024 11:22:55 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/bangladeshi-farmers-find-zucchinis-high-yields-low-costs-palatable/ author: Abusiddique dc:creator: Farhana Parvin content:encoded: For long, cucumbers and pumpkins remained the only popular squash vegetables in Bangladesh. When Bangladesh Agricultural Extensions introduced zucchinis to farmers in the late 1990s, there was some confusion among both farmers and consumers regarding the cultivation and uses of this new type of squash. However, zucchini squash has now gained popularity among farmers in Bangladesh as a short-duration crop. Farmers feel secure cultivating this vegetable because it requires less water, requires lower production costs, has higher yields, and a growing market demand. Shithi Rani is a farmer from the northern district of Nilphamari, which is crisscrossed by many rivers and naturally generates many river islands. Consequently, most of her arable lands remain flooded during the monsoon season, June through October. For her, the remaining months are crucial, as she needs to use the lands properly to manage the livelihood for her 5-member family. Considering this, five years back, she dared to cultivate the unknown-to-her vegetable, zucchini squash, following one of her neighbors. This year, Shithi Rani is cultivating about half an acre of zucchini squash and has already produced around 5,000 kilograms (11,000 pounds) of the vegetable. “Squash is being sold at 25-30 taka ($0.22-$0.27) per kilogram in the local market, and till now, I received 130,000 taka ($1,184) after spending 50,000 taka ($455) as production cost, which is a big profit for me,” she told Mongabay. Zucchini squash, also called courgette, has long been known in other parts of the world to be a delicious and popular vegetable.…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Though long considered “foreign” to Bangladeshi farmers, zucchini squash is now cultivated among growers who value its high productivity, lower production cost and short growing time. - Farmers living in dry regions and river islands prefer to cultivate this vegetable, where watering the plant is an issue. - Bangladesh Agricultural Extensions expects more zucchini squash cultivation in the coming days based on farmers’ enthusiasm and growing local demand in the market. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
From polling stations to weather stations, the heat is on in India (commentary) 09 May 2024 04:00:25 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/from-polling-stations-to-weather-stations-the-heat-is-on-in-india-commentary/ author: Nandithachandraprakash dc:creator: S. Gopikrishna Warrier content:encoded: “April is the cruelest month,” wrote T.S. Eliot in the poem The Waste Land. For the 30 million residents of India’s southern state of Kerala, this April was particularly cruel, with the India Meteorological Department (IMD) declaring the first ever recorded heatwave in the state. The heatwave also came at a time when Kerala, along with other parts of the country, is part of the national elections process, with campaigning, public meetings and voting taking place in high temperatures. The ambient heat is expected to continue in the coming days, too, while the political heat is likely to continue until June 4 and beyond. Every year, summer comes early to Kerala, compared to the other parts of the country. It starts in February, when the rest of the country is still shaking away the winter cold. Located at the southwestern edge of the Indian peninsula, Kerala has to pilot in the southwest monsoon. For that to happen, the state needs to become hotter earlier than the other parts of the country. By May, when the rest of the country sizzles with summer heat, Kerala usually receives a few pre-monsoon showers and become relatively cooler. In the years of the decades past, when the southwest monsoon would come with regularity, June 1 was considered the date for its onset. Voting underway in Kerala. The southern state is experiencing its first recorded heatwave amid the ongoing election campaign. Image by S. Gopikrishna Warrier/Mongabay. It is not the summer itself that surprised the…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Parts of India are facing a heatwave, for which the heat in the state of Kerala is a curtain raiser. Kerala experienced its first recorded heatwave amid the ongoing election campaign. - Heatwaves, droughts and floods do not distinguish along political lines. If the destruction is across board, the mitigating action also has to be across political lines, writes Mongabay-India’s Managing Editor, S. Gopikrishna Warrier, in this commentary. - Climate change poses economic, social and political challenges, influencing election discourse and policy agendas. - This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Indonesian company defies order, still clearing peatlands in orangutan habitat 09 May 2024 03:58:11 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/indonesian-company-defies-order-still-clearing-peatlands-in-orangutan-habitat/ author: Karencoates dc:creator: Hans Nicholas Jong content:encoded: JAKARTA — Indonesia’s largest deforesting company has continued to clear peatland despite an order by the government for the firm to stop clearing rainforests. The company in question is pulpwood producer PT Mayawana Persada. Since 2016, the company has cleared more than 35,000 hectares (86,500 acres) of forests to establish monoculture pulpwood plantations — an area half the size of Singapore — in its concession in West Kalimantan province, sized at 136,710 hectares (337,800 acres). Activists noted that these clearances happened on critical orangutan habitat and carbon-rich peatlands. Some 30,296 hectares (74,900 acres) of peatland, with 15,560 hectares (38,400 acres) of them being protected, had been converted as of March 2024, according to an analysis by a coalition of NGOs. Map of peatland conversion in PT Mayawana Persada’s concession in West Kalimantan as of March 2024. The analysis also found clearance of 15,643 hectares (38,700 acres) of known habitat for the critically endangered Bornean orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus) from 2016-22. The case has attracted a public spotlight due to the sheer scale of the deforestation and the importance of the ecosystems in the concession for climate change and the survival of endangered wildlife. A recent report, which investigated Mayawana Persada’s activities, described it as “one of Indonesia’s biggest ongoing cases of deforestation” and linked the company to Singapore-based paper and palm oil conglomerate Royal Golden Eagle (RGE). RGE has denied any affiliation with Mayawana Persada, despite findings of shared key personnel, operational management connections and supply chain links. Numerous media and…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Indonesian Pulpwood producer PT Mayawana Persada is continuing to clear peatlands on critical Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus) habitat, despite a government order to stop clearing. - An NGO coalition analysis found that 30,296 hectares (74,900 acres) of peatland, including 15,560 hectares (38,400 acres) of protected lands, had been converted as of March; 15,643 hectares (38,700 acres) of known Bornean orangutan habitat were cleared between 2016 and 2022. - Conservationists are calling on the Ministry of Environment and Forestry to revoke the company’s permits. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Rights groups call for greater public input in ASEAN environmental rights framework 08 May 2024 14:11:10 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/rights-groups-call-for-greater-public-input-in-asean-environmental-rights-framework/ author: Isabel Esterman dc:creator: Carolyn Cowan content:encoded: Civil society groups in Southeast Asia are calling for greater public participation and transparency in the drafting process of a regional declaration on environmental rights, as well as stronger levels of commitment from states within the final agreement. First tabled in 2021 by the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the bloc’s declaration on environmental rights, known as ADER, aims to provide an unprecedented regional framework to push for the implementation of international environmental rights standards. These include the 2022 U.N. General Assembly declaration of access to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment as a universal human right. “Currently, many countries in Southeast Asia have been experiencing heat waves due to climate change, so this is an important moment for ASEAN member states to take genuine actions to address issues around the environment and climate change for the better of the people,” Duch Piseth, a lawyer at Cambodia-based Business and Human Rights Law Group, told Mongabay in an interview. The working group tasked to formulate the agreement, comprising representatives of ASEAN states and civil society groups, has so far been through four rounds of talks. The latest negotiations on the current draft of the agreement were held in Jakarta from May 6-8. A community leader from a village near Jantho in Indonesia. Image by Rhett A. Butler / Mongabay. Observers say the agreement could be a landmark instrument for environmental and Indigenous defenders across the region, particularly if it fully recognizes their critical role in combating the triple…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Civil society and Indigenous rights groups are calling for greater public participation and transparency in the drafting process of what they say could be a pivotal agreement to protect environmental rights and defenders in Southeast Asia. - The Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ (ASEAN) declaration on environmental rights was initially envisioned as a legally binding framework, but the scaling back of the level of commitment to a nonbinding declaration has raised concerns among observers. - Groups are calling for an extension of the public consultation period, which lasted for only one month, and greater commitments to address key issues in the region, such as strengthening Indigenous rights, access to environmental information and justice, and clarifying mechanisms for resolving transboundary development impacts. - If the treaty remains non-legally binding, its ultimate success will depend largely on the political will of each separate ASEAN state and on the continued efforts of civil society to hold their governments accountable. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Is the extractive sector really favorable for the Pan Amazon’s economy? 08 May 2024 14:00:19 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/is-the-extractive-sector-really-favorable-for-the-pan-amazons-economy/ author: Mayra dc:creator: Timothy J. Killeen content:encoded: The Pan Amazon is a significant source of several key industrial commodities. Global markets are not overly dependent on the region; nonetheless, production from Amazonian mines is not insignificant. Development of mineral resources is a decades-long process and, if the extractive sector were to abandon the region, as proposed by some environmental advocates, the global economy would find other geographies to supply these essential minerals. Oil and gas production is insignificant at the global scale (< 0.1%) and production could be wound down without difficulty. In purely financial terms, the Amazonian minerals sector is minuscule, with a total GDP of ~US$20 billion in a global economy estimated at US$85 trillion in 2020, of which about 3% was attributed to oil and gas (US$2.1 trillion) and 1% to industrial minerals (US$850 billion). The global economy could easily adapt to an Amazon that did not include an extractive sector. The same cannot be said for the Amazonian countries. Royalty income from the mineral sector in Pará, Brazil. The municipality of Parauapebas received the lion’s share of royalties due to the mines at Carajás Serra Norte (iron ore) and Salobo (copper). After 2018, operations at the S11D (iron ore) and Sossego (copper) mines started generating revenues for the municipality of Canaã do Carajás. Data source: CGA (2022). The net revenues from minerals extracted from the Pan Amazon in 2017 were equivalent to about 8% of regional GDP. If all extraction were to stop, the impact would be even greater, however, due to the…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - The Pan Amazon is an important source for several key industrial raw materials. Although financially, its minerals sector is minor within the world economy, the economy of Amazonian countries is highly dependent on extractive activities. - Extractive industries in the region play a strategic role. Without them, Brazil would suffer a major economic disruption from mineral revenues, and the impact would be catastrophic for Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia. - Most other countries in the Pan Amazon region return only a portion of royalties from revenues to local jurisdictions, while corporate income taxes go to the central government. However, despite criticism on lack of investment in Amazonian hinterlands, local governments continue to support extractive industries. - None of the money from royalties is allocated to conservation, nor is any allocated to the remediation of the environmental impacts linked to its exploitation. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Scientists explore nature’s promise in combating plastic waste 08 May 2024 13:36:26 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/scientists-explore-natures-promise-in-combating-plastic-waste/ author: Glenn Scherer dc:creator: Claire Asher content:encoded: Plastic is a remarkably versatile and durable material, which has made it indispensable in almost every area of modern life. But these same properties, amplified by our “take-make-waste” linear economy, have created a brewing environmental catastrophe. It’s hard to grasp the gigantic scale of our global plastic waste problem. Since 1950, humanity has produced more than 8.3 billion metric tons of plastic. Most has ended up in landfills or the environment, where it is harmful to wildlife, ecosystem functioning and human health. Once in the environment, plastic slowly breaks down into smaller and smaller fragments, known as micro- and nanoplastics. But it can take hundreds or even thousands of years for plastic, which itself contains thousands of chemicals, to degrade into its basic natural components. That’s because plastics are made up of repeating units of tightly bonded carbon-rich molecules, which makes them very difficult to break down. But nature brings cause for hope: scientists are working on a range of biological solutions to address the plastic pollution crisis at every stage of the material’s life cycle, from capturing waste before it enters the environment, to upcycling plastics into new, useful products. In the environment, plastic slowly breaks down into smaller and smaller fragments, known as micro- and nano-plastics, which are extremely challenging to clean up. Researchers are exploring bio-based filters that can capture these tiny plastic fragments from water. Image by Florida Sea Grant via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0). Nature-based filters: Microplastics come to a sticky end Micro- and nanoplastic…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Since 1950, humanity has produced more than 8.3 billion metric tons of plastic. Most has ended up in landfills or the environment. Now, scientists are working on biological solutions to address the plastic pollution crisis at every stage of the material’s life cycle. - Innovative new filters built from naturally occurring ingredients can capture micro- and nanoplastics in all their diverse forms. These filters could remove plastic contamination from drinking water, and prevent microplastic pollution in industrial and domestic wastewater from reaching rivers and oceans. - Plastic-degrading enzymes, isolated from microbes and insects and engineered for efficiency and performance in industrial conditions, can break plastics down at the molecular level and even be used to turn plastic waste into new useful chemicals. - Biological solutions are being developed for a range of pollutants, not just plastics. But this technological research is still young. Crucially, we must not allow solutions for existing pollutants to make us complacent about the impact of new chemicals on the environment, or we could risk making the same mistakes again. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Secrets from the rainforest’s past uncovered in Amazonian backyards 08 May 2024 10:53:48 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/secrets-from-the-rainforests-past-uncovered-in-amazonian-backyards/ author: Xavier Bartaburu dc:creator: Carolina Pinheiro content:encoded: Small fragments of ancestral Amazonian culture are emerging from the ground in the backyards of homes in the rural and urban parts of Parintins, Amazonas: pieces of broken pots, chips with clear drawings, elaborately sculpted figures of human and nonhuman beings, decorative objects and burial urns — all made of pottery. Among these particles of time that include stone instruments as well, people and objects are intertwined amid diverse landscapes composing an ancient biocultural mosaic called a sustainable agroecological system in archaeology. In this municipality located on Tupinambarana Island, a “floating terrace” as researchers describe, the population of some 96,000 people are discovering remnants of what were at one time the pre-Columbian societies in the region. The place, some 420 kilometers (260 miles) from the state capitol of Manaus, was given the name Tupinambarana by passing visitors who came into contact with the territory’s Indigenous people, the Tupinambá. Today, the collective work of scientists and local communities is filling in gaps with pieces to the historical jigsaw puzzle of this region. This new understanding is opening new paths to the study of South America’s history. These fragments reveal important information about pre-Columbian occupation in the state and are commonly found by those living in Parintins. The city is also home to Brazil’s two most famous Boi, or sacred folkloric steer entities: the Caprichoso and the Garantido. The stage of a world-famous folkloric festival celebrating the Boi, Parintins is also becoming famous for the ancient remains driving an investigation that connects…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Riverbank communities in Amazonas and Rondônia are helping to piece together the puzzle of human presence in the rainforest over the last 10,000 years with archaeological remains found in their backyards and nearby their homes. - Preserved in household museums, pottery fragments compose a collective project drawing together scientists and communities seeking to understand Amazonia’s past. - Ancestral soils known as Amazonian Dark Earths with remains of farming and food preparation are offering clues about how humans transformed the forest over time authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
In a Himalayan Eden, a road project promises opportunity, but also loss 08 May 2024 10:00:41 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/in-a-himalayan-eden-a-road-project-promises-opportunity-but-also-loss/ author: Latoya Abulu dc:creator: Stuart Butler content:encoded: TSUM VALLEY, Nepal — “In the future, when war, strife and difficult times come,” said Thrisong Deutsen, an eighth-century Tibetan king, “will there be a safe place where people can go to practice Buddhism?” His guest, Padmasambhava, otherwise known as Guru Rinpoche, quickly calmed the king’s worries with his response: “Yes, there will be valleys where warfare will never happen and where people will live in peace with animals.” Nearly 1,300 years later, Karma, a monk, stands in the colorful monastery of Phurbe staring out the window into the sacred Tsum Valley of legend below. Surrounded by hand-painted murals of Padmasambhava, the Buddha and other Buddhist deities, the 82-year-old is troubled. “The road will change everything here,” says Karma, who has lived all his life in the sacred valley of Tsum, which today lies in central Nepal. “It’s all about money. There are a few good points, but it will really destroy everything. Even this monastery might be destroyed.” For believers, Padmasambhava, a real historical figure, is one of the most important of all Tibetan Buddhist saints. Founder of the oldest sect of Tibetan Buddhism, he’s chronicled as having spread Buddhism through much of the Himalayas and the world’s highest peaks. A man of great spiritual powers, he was also said to have been frequently embroiled in magical duels with demons to restore harmony on Earth. Invariably, Padmasambhava won such contests, but despite his successes, he was said to believe that one day a dark period would come to this…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - In Nepal’s sacred Tsum Valley, Buddhist community members are conflicted about the ongoing construction of a road that will pass through the region. - The Tsum Valley is one of the few, if not last, remaining beyul, or sacred valleys, governed by customary and Buddhist laws, where humans and wildlife have lived together in harmony for more than a millennium. - The valley has maintained its religious and cultural traditions that have conserved biodiversity and its cultural uniqueness due to its remote location. - The road is part of a government project that aims to connect every town across the country, bringing economic development and government services closer to remote mountainous communities. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
As plastic talks wrap up in Canada, fishers in Indonesia count the costs 08 May 2024 08:14:54 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/as-plastic-talks-wrap-up-in-canada-fishers-in-indonesia-count-the-costs/ author: Philip Jacobson dc:creator: Falahi MubarokYogi Eka Sahputra content:encoded: PULAU SERIBU, Indonesia — Mustaghfirin unmoors his boat every day in the Thousand Islands archipelago, two hours’ sailing from the Jakarta coast, and sets off into a sea filled with garbage. “This plastic waste is extremely annoying,” Mustaghfirin told Mongabay Indonesia in April. “The motor we use to propel the boat is small, so it often gets jammed.” In 1950, global production of plastic amounted to around 2 million metric tons per year. By 2019, the world produced more than 450 million metric tons, according to production figures compiled by Our World in Data at the University of Oxford in the U.K. In just the last two decades, production of these polymer resins has doubled, the data show. In coastal low- and middle-income countries like Indonesia and the Philippines, a large share of throwaway plastic flows down rivers and out to sea, where it asphyxiates, ensnares and poisons an array of marine life. On average, 53-year-old Mustaghfirin, a resident of Pari Island in this archipelago about 40 kilometers (25 miles) northwest of the Indonesian capital, will have to stop fishing for two days every week to work on the engine, mostly untangling old plastic waste obstructing the propeller. Recently the boat’s engine overheated and broke down after hitting a mine of plastic, leaving Mustaghfirin stranded. Mustaghfirin is also catching fewer fish, missing out on what he estimates is up to 2 million rupiah ($125) of revenue per day. Tono, another Pari Island fisherman, said he’s now catching just a quarter…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Fishers in the Thousand Islands archipelago off the Jakarta coast have reported extensive economic losses due to the scale of plastic waste littering their seas. - Declining catch volume and costly repairs to boat engines are cited as drags on productivity, with one fisher telling Mongabay that his family now earns less than a decade earlier. - Negotiators convened by the U.N. hope to conclude an international agreement in November that would limit the hundreds of millions of tons of plastic produced around the world each year. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
The Narwhal makes waves in Canada for environmental journalism 07 May 2024 22:12:41 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/the-narwhal-makes-waves-in-canada-for-environmental-journalism/ author: Erik Hoffner dc:creator: Mike DiGirolamoRachel Donald content:encoded: The Narwhal is an award-winning, non-profit, environmental news outlet based in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. It was co-founded in 2018 by podcast guest Emma Gilchrist, who joins the show to discuss the array of environmental issues they cover and how they feature Indigenous views and topics via a “story telling vs. story taking” point of view. Her news organization recently advanced one of the most potentially significant efforts for press freedom in Canada, when it made the decision to sue the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for arresting and detaining their journalist Amber Bracken who was on assignment covering protests against a gas pipeline being built through the Wetʼsuwetʼen First Nation’s land in 2021. Gilchrist speaks about the success of The Narwhal’s reader-supported, nonprofit model and their hopes for the future during the latest episode of the Mongabay Newscast with co-host Rachel Donald. Listen here: “We saw this huge void and we just stepped into it with The Narwhal. We really wanted to create a brand that was beautiful, that drew people into our shared love of the natural world. That’s something that people in Canada are almost universally proud of [and] so we really wanted to tap into that shared value,” says Gilchrist. Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website, or download our free app for Apple and Android devices to gain instant access to our latest episodes and all of our previous ones. Banner image: Narwhals near the…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - On this episode of Mongabay’s podcast, co-founder of the award-winning Canadian nonprofit news outlet The Narwhal, Emma Gilchrist, speaks with co-host Rachel Donald about their successes covering the most vital environmental news in the nature-rich nation. - Gilchrist discusses what’s special about Canada’s natural legacy, the state of environmental reporting there, how she sees The Narwhal filling the gaps in historically neglected stories and viewpoints, and why something as universally appreciated as nature can still be a polarizing topic. - She also details a legal battle her organization is involved in that could have significant implications for press freedom in Canada. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Indigenous leader’s killer is convicted in Brazil, but tensions over land remain 07 May 2024 20:22:00 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/indigenous-leaders-killer-is-convicted-in-brazil-but-tensions-over-land-remain/ author: Alexandredesanti dc:creator: Sarah Brown content:encoded: On April 17, 2020, an Indigenous leader who fought to protect his ancestral land was violently killed in the Brazilian state of Rondônia. Almost exactly four years later, a local bar owner has been convicted and sentenced to 18 years in prison for Ari Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau’s murder. The ruling marks a rare case of justice for violence against Indigenous land defenders, even as conflicts over traditional territories in Brazil persist. On April 15 this year, a court in Rondônia convicted João Carlos da Silva for double aggravated homicide of the Indigenous land defender and teacher — meaning the murder was intentional, the motive was frivolous, and defense was impossible for the victim. According to court records, Silva had offered Ari drinks at his bar until he became unconscious, before then killing him with blows to the neck and head and taking his body to a different location and leaving it by the side of a road in order to hinder the investigation. The trial was broadcast live with the presence of several Indigenous people, including family members. Ari’s sister, Mandeí Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau, testified in the trial, calling her brother “a good boy who always defended our territory.” The crime was originally thought to have been related to Ari’s work in land and environmental surveillance, but the Federal Police ruled out a link between the murder and land defense. Instead, they concluded that Silva knew Ari and killed him due to a dislike of the victim and being bothered by his presence. Bar…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Bar owner João Carlos da Silva was on April 15 sentenced to 18 years in prison for the murder of Indigenous land defender and teacher Ari Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau four years earlier. - Ari’s murder became symbolic of the struggle land defenders in Brazil face when protecting their ancestral territories, including constant threats and sometimes deadly violence. - The Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau Indigenous Territory faces fresh threats after a national lawmaker claimed its current boundaries are wrong and vowed to reduce the area in favor of local cattle ranchers and farmers. - It’s one of several territorial setbacks that Indigenous lands across Brazil are currently facing; others include a territory in Paraná state whose demarcation process has been suspended, and one in Bahía state that could potentially be auctioned off. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
At its fourth summit, 170 nations strive toward a global plastics treaty by 2025 07 May 2024 18:11:09 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/at-its-fourth-summit-170-nations-strive-toward-a-global-plastics-treaty-by-2025/ author: Glenn Scherer dc:creator: Charles Pekow content:encoded: Hopes for a worldwide plastics treaty gained some momentum at the fourth of five scheduled summits to hash out an agreement. But while the week-long session of the UN International Negotiating Committee made some headway, it didn’t leave environmentalists feeling overly optimistic. INC-4, which took place the last week of April in Ottawa, Canada, was the latest step in a United Nations effort to develop international law to control plastic pollution. Representatives of 170 nations converged on Ottawa, where they greatly shortened a lengthy draft text, and reached consensus on the need for intersessional work before the fifth and (according to plan) final summit to agree on a treaty. This hoped-for final summit is scheduled in late November/early December 2024 in Busan, South Korea. In 2022, the United Nations Environment Programme set a goal of finalizing the treaty by 2025, via five negotiating sessions. Observers left Ottawa in a somewhat better mood than after the INC-3 session held last November in Nairobi, Kenya, where the talks stalled as delegates spent long hours debating procedure rather than policy, and where nations that produce and consume the most plastic and petroleum resisted progress. However, a major sticking point in Ottawa arose over a first time ever proposal made by Peru and Rwanda to reduce the production of primary plastic polymers by 40% in 15 years, from a 2025 baseline. While 29 nations backed these ambitious production limits, the United States, United Kingdom and other developed nations did not. Further discussion on production…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Last week, the International Negotiating Committee of the United Nations Environment Programme wrapped up the fourth of five scheduled negotiating sessions to develop an international treaty to control plastic pollution. - Environmentalists say the atmosphere in Ottawa was better and more cooperative, with more achieved than at the third meeting, which took place in November and bogged down in procedural disagreements. However, there was little forward progress in Ottawa on a proposal to significantly reduce plastic production. - For the first time ever, the pollution of the world’s oceans by large amounts of “Ghost gear” came under discussion at a treaty summit. This plastic waste includes a variety of fishing equipment, including plastic traps, nets, lines, ropes and artificial bait left floating in the world’s seas which can harm marine life and degrade into microplastics. - Two committees have been authorized to work during intersessional meetings on draft language for discussion and possible adoption at the next, and potentially final treaty session, scheduled for late November in Busan, South Korea. The goal is to achieve a plastic pollution treaty by 2025. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Indonesian palm oil, Brazilian beef top contributors to U.S. deforestation exposure 07 May 2024 15:45:17 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/indonesian-palm-oil-brazilian-beef-top-contributors-to-u-s-deforestation-exposure/ author: Lizkimbrough dc:creator: Liz Kimbrough content:encoded: If you’re in the United States, your meal might come with a side of deforestation. The US imported palm oil, cattle products, soybeans, cocoa, rubber, coffee and corn linked to an estimated 122,800 hectares (303,445 acres) of tropical deforestation between October 2021 and November 2023 — an area the size of the city of Los Angeles, according to a new report provided by the NGO Trase for Global Witness. More than a third (33.8%) of the deforestation was linked to oil palm imports, primarily from Indonesia. Cattle products, sourced mainly from Brazil, Australia and Mexico, were the second-largest contributor, at 31.8%. Coffee placed third, at 24.2%, followed by cocoa (7.6%), soybeans (2%), corn (0.37%) and rubber (0.15%). “I think it’s quite striking how palm oil was potentially quite a big source of deforestation exposure for the U.S. as a commodity that has received lots of attention,” Mark Titley, senior research associate at Trase, told Mongabay. Several Latin American countries were identified as significant sources of deforestation. Brazil was the second-largest contributor to U.S. deforestation exposure, primarily through cattle products. Colombia was the source of nearly a fifth of the deforestation linked to U.S. coffee imports. Mexico, Peru, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Honduras also contributed, mainly by exporting cattle products, coffee and cocoa. Trase’s methodology combines satellite data on tree cover loss with trade records and commodity production data to estimate the amount of deforestation per ton of production in each country and year. “So if we’re looking at palm oil, we…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - 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. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Pro-business parties accused of holding back Indonesia’s Indigenous rights bill 07 May 2024 13:09:59 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/pro-business-parties-accused-of-holding-back-indonesias-indigenous-rights-bill/ author: Hayat dc:creator: Hans Nicholas Jong content:encoded: JAKARTA — Fear among Indonesia’s ruling class of losing control of natural resources to Indigenous people is why the country’s parliament continues to delay passing a long-awaited bill on Indigenous rights, according to activists. The bill was proposed in 2012 and has been placed on parliament’s list of national priority legislation every year since 2014, but never passed since. A lawmaker on the legislation committee discussing the bill now says that’s because it keeps being blocked by two of the biggest parties in parliament. Luluk Nur Hamidah said her committee had as early as 2020 submitted a final draft of the bill to the parliamentary speaker, Puan Maharani, but that the latter had since done nothing about it. As speaker, Puan — a member of the PDI-P, the biggest party in parliament and the main party in the ruling coalition — was supposed to bring the bill to a plenary session of parliament for a vote. If passed, parliament would then notify the administration of President Joko Widodo, also a PDI-P member, which would have an opportunity to identify specific problems to be resolved in the draft legislation. This list of problems is known as a “problem inventory list,” or DIM by its Indonesian acronym. The next step would be for parliament to discuss the DIM with the government to resolve any outstanding issues, before passing the bill into law. But none of that has happened, with Puan refusing to move the bill from committee level to the wider plenary,…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Pro-business political parties in Indonesia have deliberately stalled the passage of an Indigenous rights bill for more than a decade, lawmakers and activists allege. - These parties fear ceding control of natural resources to Indigenous communities by giving them land rights, they add. - Lawmakers trying to push the bill through have identified the PDI-P and the Golkar Party as the main opponents of the bill, but others say it’s the entire ruling coalition: seven parties that control 82% of seats in parliament. - Indigenous activists say the bill is urgently needed to formalize Indigenous land rights and stop the hemorrhaging of customary lands and forests to commercial, industrial and infrastructure projects. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Plastic pollution talks end & Arctic peoples return home to a ‘sink’ of plastic 07 May 2024 10:00:33 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/plastic-pollution-talks-end-arctic-people-return-home-to-a-sink-of-plastic/ author: Latoya Abulu dc:creator: Sonam Lama Hyolmo content:encoded: Global plastic pollution talks in Ottawa came to a close April 30, and with them a group of Indigenous leaders from the Arctic are on their way home. But the mood remains bittersweet for the delegation that must return to a region that has become a “sink” collecting plastic pollution that arrives from around the world. “Oil-producing countries and industries have wielded undue influence,” says Pamela Miller, executive director and senior scientist at Alaska Community Action on Toxics (ACAT) and co-chair of the International Pollutants Elimination Network (IPEN). “We must ensure that the [next round of talks in November] is free of conflict of interest.” Though Indigenous delegates say there was significant progress in negotiations on a global treaty to curb plastics pollution by developing language to address harmful plastics chemicals, they were disappointed to see no commitments for cutting plastic production. They see high production and consumption of plastic as the root of the pollution problem. With the Arctic warming nearly four times faster than the rest of the world, communities in the Arctic are among the world’s most impacted by climate change and plastic pollution, according to a report published by ACAT and IPEN. Plastic pollution and the oil exploitation process to produce these petrochemicals are threatening Indigenous people’s health, food, livelihood, lands and human rights, say the authors. Climate change, they tell Mongabay, is exacerbating all these impacts. “This is a crisis,” Miller says. “And without curbing fossil fuel extraction and plastics production, the Arctic will continue…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - In the wake of the plastics treaty talks in Ottawa, a new report highlights the severe impacts of plastics and petrochemicals on Arctic Indigenous communities. - Indigenous delegates were left with bittersweet feelings that negotiations did not lead to commitments to cut plastic production, while oil companies and producing countries say more recycling is the answer. - The Arctic is a hemispheric sink collecting plastic pollution from all corners of the world and is melting four times faster than the rest of the world. - Indigenous communities in Alaska are among those who bear the brunt of climate change and plastic pollution, with studies finding toxic chemicals in peoples’ blood, breast milk and placentas, and melting ice impacting hunting and food security. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Indonesia resumes lobster larvae exports despite sustainability, trade concerns 07 May 2024 06:38:34 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/indonesia-lobster-larvae-exports-vietnam-aquaculture-sustainable-fisheries-illegal-smuggling/ author: Basten Gokkon dc:creator: Basten Gokkon content:encoded: JAKARTA — The Indonesian government is resuming a controversial policy of exporting lobster larvae — the latest chapter in an eight-year saga that began over concerns for wild lobster stocks and led to a fisheries minister being jailed for corruption. The country’s current fisheries minister, Sakti Wahyu Trenggono, said recently that the decision to reinstate the export policy was to capitalize on the global multimillion-dollar lobster trade. The government initially banned exports of lobster larvae in 2016 to prevent the overharvesting of wild stocks from the country’s rich waters. For now, exports are permitted only to Vietnam, whose lobster-farming industry produces around 1,600 metric tons a year of premium-grade lobster grown from mostly imported larvae. Sakti previously suggested that much of the wild-caught lobster larvae supplied to Vietnam was most likely smuggled out of Indonesian waters. “We can’t fight against [lobster smuggling],” Sakti said at a press conference in Jakarta on April 19. “We tried to do that by imposing regulations, but we’re still unable to tackle them.” Lobster larvae like this is typically harvested from the sea and raised in aquaculture facilities to maturity. Image courtesy of the Indonesian Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries. Lobsters are among Indonesia’s top fisheries commodities, but the illegal export of larvae cost the country 900 billion rupiah ($62 million at the time) in lost revenue in 2019 alone, according to the PPATK, the government’s anti-money-laundering watchdog. A key destination is nearby Singapore, from where the larvae are often reexported to third countries…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - The Indonesian government will resume a controversial policy of exporting lobster larvae, initially just to Vietnam, in exchange for investment in its own lobster-farming industry. - The ban has met with controversy since it was introduced in 2016; a subsequent attempt to lift it failed after the fisheries minister at the time was arrested for taking bribes to issue export permits. - The current minister says the lifting this time around is based on pragmatic considerations, with law enforcement efforts failing to stop the smuggling of lobster larvae. - Critics say the move will benefit Vietnam more than it will Indonesia, given that the former’s far more advanced lobster-farming industry generates far more value from the sale of mature lobsters than Indonesia ever could from the sale of larvae. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
‘Our rights are on trial in Brazil’: Interview with Indigenous movement pioneer Brasílio Priprá 06 May 2024 18:09:55 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/our-rights-are-on-trial-interview-with-pioneer-of-brazils-indigenous-movement-brasilio-pripra/ author: Latoya Abulu dc:creator: Amanda Magnani content:encoded: The “People of the Sun,” as the Xokleng Indigenous people of Brazil call themselves, are no strangers to conflict and violence. In the early 20th century, as the southern region of the country was colonized by newly arrived Germans and Italians, bugreiro militias hired by the imperial government decimated an estimated two-thirds of their population. “There are accounts of bugreiros killing pregnant women and throwing babies and children up in the air to be impaled,” Brasílio Priprá, a 65-year-old Xokleng authority, told Mongabay at the Free Land Camp (Acampamento Terra Livre, ATL), the largest mobilization of Indigenous peoples in Brazil, which takes place every April in Brasília since 2004. He is one of the mobilization’s pioneers. Priprá, who worked at Funai, the National Foundation of Indigenous Peoples, before retiring, has been a part of the Indigenous movement’s fight for land over the past 40 years. It has now been almost 110 years since the defunct Indigenous Protection Service (Serviço de Proteção aos Índios) forced contact and the integration of the Xokleng people under the pretense of putting an end to the genocide. But little changed for the People of the Sun. The tutelage that followed turned out to be the institutionalization of violence over their lands, which peaked in the 1970s during Brazil’s military dictatorship. In subsequent years, the construction of the containment dam Barragem Norte displaced entire families and flooded a large portion of their territory. To this day, the Xokleng people still face public calamities caused by the…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - In an interview with Mongabay, Brasílio Priprá, one of the pioneers of the Free Land Camp, the largest event of the Brazilian Indigenous movement, looks back on its 20 years of existence. - Priprá, who has been active in the Indigenous movement for 40 years, has seen few changes, but enough to keep fighting for his rights. - Land demarcation has been the main demand over the two decades of the Free Land Camp. Since 2019, marco temporal, a legal thesis that aims to restrict Indigenous land rights, has made this demand more pressing. - Priprá shares his thoughts on the impacts of marco temporal on Indigenous rights, Brazil’s environmental goals and the future of the country for all citizens. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
CITES halts Ecuador’s shark trade; trafficking persists amid lack of transparency 06 May 2024 15:34:59 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/cites-halts-ecuadors-shark-trade-trafficking-persists-amid-lack-of-transparency/ author: Rebecca Kessler dc:creator: Carlos Chunga content:encoded: Illegal trafficking of shark fins and bodies from Ecuador to Peru has gone on for years. On Feb. 6, Ecuador announced measures to restrict fishing of these animals. The announcement came in response to an ultimatum given in November 2023 by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) demanding the country take measures to guarantee sustainable shark fishing. This followed CITES’ findings of a series of irregularities in shark trading, primarily discrepancies in the import and export numbers of fins reported by Ecuador and Peru. Ecuador had until the end of March to respond satisfactorily to the requirements imposed by CITES, otherwise the exportation of sharks and rays would be suspended. But since CITES’ ultimatum, there were at least three seizures of exports on the border with Peru. On March 11, after this story was originally published on Mongabay Latam on Feb. 21, CITES made good on its threat and suspended commercial trade in sharks and rays from Ecuador. According to experts consulted by Mongabay Latam, a lack of transparency has made it difficult to stem this criminal trade. A need to establish fishing quotas Peru is a transit country for shark fins en route to Asia. But it’s a destination country for shark meat, sold as tollo, after coming in through the Peruvian cities of Tumbes or Piura. The market figures are different in Peru and Ecuador because shark fishing lies on the fringes of the law. In 2021, for example, CITES…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Ecuador is one of the top exporters of sharks in the world. - In February, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) suspended commercial trade in sharks and rays from Ecuador, after the country had failed to take measures to guarantee sharks were being fished sustainably. - Protected species from Ecuador enter Peru through the cities of Tumbes and Piura. The fins are then sent to Asia, but the meat is sold in local markets. - A lack of transparency has made it difficult to stem this criminal trade, according to experts consulted by Mongabay Latam. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
New ban threatens traditional fishers in Brazil’s Mato Grosso state 06 May 2024 14:02:20 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/new-ban-threatens-traditional-fishers-in-brazils-mato-grosso-state/ author: Alexandredesanti dc:creator: João Paulo Guimarães content:encoded: CÁCERES, Brazil — Fisher and bait seller Enilza Silva, 52, is a daughter of Pantanal fishers. When she was younger, Silva tried to keep a job in the municipality of Cáceres, in Mato Grosso state, but the river always called her back. She decided to return to the banks of the Paraguay River to live among fish, tuiuiú birds (Jabiru mycteria), alligators and jaguars. Silva has been fishing for 15 years and is worried about the approval of a new bill that banned commercial fishing in Mato Grosso on Jan. 1 for five years. Authored by the state’s governor, Mauro Mendes, the law, known in Brazil as Cota Zero (Zero Quota), was approved under an environmentalist rhetoric of protecting fishing stocks. “A true professional fisherman respects the law and the quantity of fish he can take from the river,” Silva told Mongabay. “We respect the environment in which we live. The bait we catch if it is too small, we select and take it back to the place where we fished the bait. That’s respect.” The law exempts subsistence fishing by Quilombola, Indigenous and other Native peoples from restrictions and catching fish on river banks for local consumption. However, the transport, storage and sale of fish are prohibited. Experts and locals like Silva say the law was tailored to boost sport fishing since catch-and-release activities remain permitted — a tourism modality that Mendes wants to encourage in Mato Grosso. “I’m tired of seeing tourists who catch the fish, come with…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Legislation in effect since Jan. 1 has banned fishing in Mato Grosso state rivers for five years, with heavy opposition from environmental defenders and traditional fishers. - The bill affects part of the Brazilian Amazon Rainforest, the Cerrado savanna and part of the Pantanal wetland, one of the largest continuous wet areas on the planet. - Experts consider fishers in the region guardians of the rivers and fear the bill could eliminate traditional fishing in the state. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
UK’s Drax targets California forests for two major wood pellet plants 06 May 2024 13:38:44 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/uks-drax-targets-california-forests-for-two-major-wood-pellet-plants/ author: Glenn Scherer dc:creator: Justin Catanoso content:encoded: Drax, a major global manufacturer of wood pellets for bioenergy, has joined a California nonprofit in a controversial plan to build two industrial-scale wood pellet plants in the state. The two mills combined will be capable of making and exporting 1 million tons of pellets annually, primarily for Asian markets. The proposed California siting of two large biomass mills would mark a major expansion of the industry outside of the U.S. Southeast, where most pellet making is currently centered. The project has raised red flags with forest advocates. Golden State Natural Resources (GSNR), a state-funded nonprofit focused on rural economic development, has been planning the wood pellet plants for several years. Those plans received a boost in February when U.K.-based Drax, which operates 17 pellet-making plants in the U.S. Southeast and British Columbia, signed a memorandum of understanding with GSNR to be involved in the California project. Greg Norton, GSNR’s president and CEO, said in public meetings that a goal of the nonprofit is to improve forest resiliency in rural California and reduce the risk of catastrophic forest fires, which have ravaged the state for decades. After evaluating various options, Norton said his group decided on wood pellet making as a way of harvesting “low-value” trees and forest residue and creating economic opportunities through a product with high demand in Japan and South Korea; those two nations imported 6 million metric tons of pellets in 2021 and are poised to import far more to help meet their Paris climate agreement…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Golden State Natural Resources (GSNR), a California state-funded nonprofit focused on rural economic development, along with the U.K.’s Drax, a global maker of biomass for energy, have signed an agreement to move ahead on a California project to build two of the biggest wood pellet mills in the United States. - The mills, if approved by the state, would produce 1 million tons of pellets for export annually to Japan and South Korea, where they would be burned in converted coal power plants. The pellet mills would represent a major expansion of U.S. biomass production outside the U.S. Southeast, where most pellet making has been centered. - GSNR promotes the pellet mills as providing jobs, preventing wildfires and reducing carbon emissions. California forest advocates say that cutting trees to make pellets —partly within eight national forests — will achieve none of those goals. - Opponents note that the U.S. pellet industry is highly automated and offers few jobs, while the mills pollute rural communities. Clear-cutting trees, which is largely the model U.S. biomass firms use, does little to prevent fires and reduces carbon storage. Pellet burning also produces more emissions than coal per unit of energy produced. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |