theindependent--2019-02-01--How Gorongosa National Park went from civil war battlefield to conservation leader

African wild dogs are not known for their heavenly scent. Quite the opposite. So you have to feel for the pilot and vet who have been flying in a tiny, sweltering plane with 14 of the malodourous animals from South Africa to Gorongosa National Park in central Mozambique.  There is an air of bubbling anticipation and excitement as throngs of park employees await the dogs’ arrival on the airstrip. On touchdown, Paola Bouley, Gorongosa’s associate director of carnivore conservation, and David Marneweck, carnivore conservation programme manager for South Africa’s Endangered Wildlife Trust, oversee the moving of the sedated dogs from the plane to the truck, which will take them to a temporary boma, or enclosure.  Everyone crowds around as close as they can get, filming on their phones and craning their necks to see the endangered canids, with their dappled copper and black coats and white bushy tails that act as beacons on a hunt.  “It’s amazing to see them up close,” grins Ana Albazini, a teacher from Maputo working pro bono on Gorongosa’s education programmes. “It’s the type of thing you see on National Geographic.”  Visiting Gorongosa does feel a bit like being in a National Geographic documentary; indeed, several have been filmed here. The park is a rich, fertile expanse of wetlands and forests, savannah and lakes, most of it a wilderness without road access. One of the most biodiverse places on Earth, it is a hive of activity, a magnet for researchers, filmmakers and conservationists. Gorongosa is often used as an example of successful, multifaceted restoration – but it hasn’t been an easy road.  In the 1960s, Gorongosa was one of the most popular parks in Africa, visited by Hollywood stars and wealthy travellers. Vasco Galante, Gorongosa’s director of communications – known around the park as “Vascopaedia” due to his immense knowledge of everything Gorongosa – tells me that the first film he ever saw at the cinema as a young boy in Portugal was a pre-movie trailer for the park. He was captivated by the scenes of Gorongosa’s prolific wildlife and decided he had to go and see Gorongosa for himself one day.  Years later, in 2005, he travelled to Mozambique to work as a teacher and took the opportunity to finally visit Gorongosa. But what he found was a mere shell of the glamourous images he had seen as a boy. Gorongosa had been a key battlefield in Mozambique’s brutal, 16-year civil war, with the Renamo resistance fighters using nearby Mount Gorongosa as their base – and the park had been utterly decimated.  A few months later, Galante happened to meet US philanthropist Greg Carr in Maputo. Carr had a plan to work with the government in a long-term, public-private partnership to restore Gorongosa, primarily to uplift and empower the surrounding communities. Galante signed up immediately.  In 2008, a 20-year joint management agreement was signed between Carr’s Gorongosa Restoration Project and the Mozambique government; and extended a further 25 years in 2016. Since then, the park has battled relentless poaching and worked around flare-ups in government/rebel tensions – yet despite what they were up against, the project’s successes are numerous.  In 2008, there were around 10,000 large animals in Gorongosa; today there are over 100,000. Wildlife crime has been aggressively tackled with key leaders of domestic poaching operations arrested and over 200 rangers employed to patrol the park. Gorongosa has become an international centre for science, attracting academics from all over the world. Over 600 people are employed by the park and the two biggest departments are human development and sustainable development. Industries such as cashew farming have been set up in the buffer zones. The Girls Club aims to keep girls in education and give them choices in life. Thousands of local children are brought into the park every year to learn about the ecosystem and experience safaris for themselves, inspiring the next generation of conservationists.  In light of a now indefinite ceasefire that started at the end of 2016, there is renewed hope that the final piece of the puzzle will now slot into place: tourism.  Tourism is an essential element of Gorongosa’s long-term mission. Tourists create local employment: “They place a value on the ecosystem,” explains Carr. “It creates opportunities for advancement.”  A visit to Gorongosa is not like any other safari experience. It is not just about wildlife and game drives. Being here offers a chance for tourists to delve into projects that reveal the complexity of conservation, to learn about one of the most biodiverse places in the world with ecology experts, to meet the locals who run female empowerment programmes and initiatives to defuse conflict between communities and wildlife.  Being at the main camp, Chitengo, currently run by Portuguese company Montebelo, feels like being in a research centre. Mealtimes are often used for informal meetings between departments who spend most of the day out in the field. Carr, a dynamic, endlessly enthusiastic Idahoan who spends around 50 per cent of his year in Gorongosa, darts around from table to table, laptop tucked under one arm. There is constant activity and each person I sit with at lunch or dinner has a wealth of information and stories to share.  “In 2014, when we arrived, there were times it was just us,” explains Anne Marchington, operations and logistics coordinator, who moved to Gorongosa with her husband Mike, the park’s operations director.  But with a calmer political situation and a global trend for off-beat destinations, Gorongosa has seen renewed interest.  “Last year was incredible,” Marchington says of the spike in tourism, adding that September 2017 saw all of Montebelo’s 50 comfortable cottages booked.  Ease of access has also improved: you can reach Gorongosa via a one-hour, 45-minute flight from Johannesburg to Beira, followed by a 30-minute light aircraft hop into the park.  Carr has long been convinced of the need for a luxury camp, which creates more jobs and more revenue per guest. It has been a challenge to find a suitable partner, but with the current stability comes exciting news: Royal Portfolio – the company that owns some of South Africa’s most luxurious properties, such as The Silo in Cape Town and Royal Malewane safari lodge – has recently confirmed they will open Royal Gorongosa in July 2019, their first property outside South Africa. The company’s involvement could be a game-changer when it comes to sustainable tourism in Gorongosa.  The conservation team’s success will directly impact tourism in the park, as wildlife is always going to be a big draw. The reintroduction of the wild dogs, for example, brings multiple benefits: “Carnivores are essential everywhere,” says Bouley. “It’s essential for the ecosystem, but also tourism.”  The wild dogs will stay in their boma for six to eight weeks to acclimatise to their new environment and to bond; the males are from the same pack, but the females were separate, so this is crucial. Marneweck tells me that rubbing the dogs’ faces in the others’ genitals when sedated aids the bonding process. Not exactly subtle, but the dogs certainly seem happy when I visit the boma a few days later, playfully leaping up at each other on their hind legs. If the reintroduction goes well, Bouley says the park, which has been home to wild dogs in the past, could take “upwards of 10 packs”.  Lurking outside the boma, drawn by the smell of the carcass fed to the dogs, we spot another carnivore: lions. Prior to the civil war, there were approximately 200 lions in Gorongosa; the conflict saw large animal populations fall by over 95 per cent. Today, there are 104 identified lions in the park, the subjects of ongoing research led by Bouley. She tells me the young, blonde-maned male we see outside the dogs’ boma is Buce; tourists’ photos are always welcomed by the conservation team to help them track the animals’ movements.  Since 2008, there hadn’t been a single leopard sighting in the park, even on camera traps. But in March 2018, guests and guides were surprised and elated to see a male leopard coolly stroll across the road in front of them, just 20 minutes from camp. Head guide, Richard Lusinga, a Zimbabwean with 27 years of experience, tells me they think the cat will still be in the area and that it’s likely more leopards will follow.  Then there are the elephants of Gorongosa. Survivors of mass poaching, they are still uneasy around people and vehicles. Their mistrust is passed from mother to young, so it’s a difficult association to break – but persistence and patience will eventually pay off. These impressive mammals are reminders of how wild Gorongosa still is; self-driving will not be permitted until the elephants have been habituated (meaning relaxed around vehicles), something to which every encounter contributes in a positive way.  We come across a herd during an afternoon drive. The park’s vegetation is thick and lush from April’s unexpectedly heavy rainfall (the wet season is from mid-December to March, during which time the park is closed) and we find the elephants feeding a short distance from the road. They permit us to watch for a few minutes, before there’s a low grumble followed by a tremendous, fierce trumpeting. Castro Maquina, our guide from nearby Vila Gorongosa, is used to this behaviour and starts the engine. The elephants spread out in a line alongside and behind us. As we drive, they run cumbersomely in single file alongside the vehicle, ushering us away. After a short distance keeping pace with us, the elephants come to a halt, eyeballing us, ears fanned out: their message is clear, and we move on. It’s just a warning.  Though it’s not exactly enjoyable being around animals so obviously apprehensive, habituating the Gorongosa elephants is an important part of the park’s development – and they are undeniably fascinating. Elephant expert Dr Joyce Poole and her ElephantVoices team have been working in the park since 2011, studying the elephants and their behaviour. Gorongosa emphasises passing on knowledge and skills to Mozambicans, and one of Poole’s protegees is Dominique Gonçalves. Gonçalves had her MSc studies in the UK funded by the Gorongosa Project and is now manager of the park’s Elephant Ecology Project and a National Geographic Explorer, presenting talks around the world.  Gonçalves is one of many Mozambicans to have benefited from Gorongosa’s restoration.  People are central to the project: 98 per cent of the team are Mozambican, 85 per cent are local, and education and training opportunities range from the Community Education Centre to the master’s programme in conservation biology, which was officially launched in April this year with 12 local students (five of whom are female) currently enrolled. It is considered the first master’s programme to be taught entirely within a conservation area and the aim is to enable the next generation of Mozambicans to become vets, ecologists and lab technicians.  The master’s programme would not be possible without the EO Wilson Biological Laboratory, opened in 2014 and which, since the end of 2017, includes a molecular lab, so samples can be studied right here in the park. It was Dr Edward O Wilson – the first person to use the term “biodiversity” – who claimed that Gorongosa was “ecologically the most diverse park in the world”.  Dr Marc Stalmans is the park’s director of science, born and raised in Congo before moving back to Belgium to complete his education. He shows me around the herbarium, a darkened, temperature-controlled room of plant specimens.  “It’s very Victorian in a way,” Stalmans comments, revealing a sample carefully protected between acid-free paper, before explaining the less Victorian element: each specimen has a barcode that links to a central database complete with information and photographs. “We have the luxury of starting from scratch,” Stalmans says of their modern system.  Associate director Dr Piotr Naskrecki is out in the field during my stay, but Stalmans relays that the biodiversity expert and acclaimed photographer (his images of bats are outstanding) estimates there are around 75,000 visible flora and fauna species in the park; there are 5,000 currently recorded in their database. “We are a project with a long view,” Stalmans notes, wryly. He predicts it will take more than 20 years to complete the catalogue.  During my visit a gentleman from the UK arrives, having travelled all the way here to meet katydid specialist Naskrecki and study Gorongosa’s leafhoppers. In the evening, the team set up a light for him at the camp, allowing him to examine species he’d never seen before. This is an example of Gorongosa’s wide-ranging appeal and how the park’s focus on science makes it stand out as a destination for curious minds.  All the departments work closely together, and science in particular is of huge importance to the whole park: “In order to do anything, you need information,” Stalmans points out. Such information is being used in the development of Gorongosa’s coffee project, on the slopes of Mount Gorongosa, just outside the park. Coffee production is a sustainable industry for the communities left destitute and often traumatised after the war – and, as a bonus, it’s an incentive to protect the mountain’s rainforest, as coffee needs partial shade to grow. The team have just produced their first batch and are now organising distribution. Carr tells me there’s potential for a coffee lodge on the mountain: another ecotourism venture.  Gorongosa is a genuinely inspiring destination that shows how much is possible when people work together. The park tends to have an unforgettable impact on visitors – but visitors also have a positive impact on the park. Ecotourism is what will ultimately sustain Gorongosa, the final piece in a holistic approach to conservation.  “When you come here, you’ll see how it all fits together,” Carr enthuses. “Come here – and expand your imagination.”


theindependent--2019-07-23--Millions of indigenous forest-dwelling Indians face aposworldaposs biggest evictionapos in nam

Millions of indigenous forest-dwelling Indians face 'world's biggest eviction' in name of conservation

India’s Supreme Court is set to decide the fate of almost two million forest-dwelling families facing what activists say would be the world’s largest mass eviction in the name of conservation.  At a hearing on Wednesday, the apex court must decide whether to uphold its eviction notice towards all households living in protected forest areas whose claims to the territory under the Forest Rights Act (FRA) have been denied.  Those affected include many members of India’s “adivasi” or indigenous community, rights groups say, whose claims to their ancestral land have been rejected due to a lack of paperwork or flaws in the application system.  Wildlife conservation groups say the FRA has been used by encroachers to snatch land in previously unoccupied forests, much-needed habitats for endangered species including pangolins, sloth bears, the one-horned rhinoceros and India’s national animal - the tiger.  But tribal leaders and the Indian government say the FRA provides much-needed protections to some 104 million adivasis who have historically lost out the most as their resource-rich lands were plundered to fuel the country’s economic boom in the second half of the 20th century.  Nicholas Barla, a tribal leader of the Oraon people in Odisha state, said that of around 150 families in his village, 70 were facing eviction.  He described how the villagers maintained a traditional way of life, praying in special places of worship in the forest, surviving off the produce of different fruit trees and bushes for months at a time and maintaining a “peaceful coexistence” with wildlife that goes back thousands of years.  “We are feeling anger and uncertainty,” he told The Independent. “We have lived in a peaceful manner for all of history together with the animals here, but today suddenly the Supreme Court and the forest department want to evict us. I do not understand.  “The indigenous communities lived here before the formation of the country. So it is actually the government who has encroached on our territory. I ask the judge - please, do not send us to some other place where we do not know, and we do not want to go.”  It is in part the tribal people’s isolation from modern society deep in forests, the thing they are trying to preserve, which has led them to be caught up in the threatened evictions.  Even those with some of the most seemingly clear-cut claims to ancestral land have faced a hostile bureaucratic system requiring dozens of supporting documents, often without success.  Guruvaiah, a leader of the protected Chenchu tribe that has occupied lands in what is now the Amrabad Tiger Reserve for thousands of years, said his village never heard back on whether their claim under the FRA was successful, and that they were now worried the Supreme Court would kick them out.  “The forest department want to kick us out of the forest in the name of protecting animals,” he said. “But we believe the forest is our mother. We say the tiger is our brother. We protect the forest, we won't let anyone come to disturb the forest in any way.”  The petitioners in the Supreme Court case argue that human habitation of any kind in the forests leads to the fragmentation of wildlife habitats, and are calling for reform of the FRA.  While they have not recommended changing the regulation, the judges did rule in February that state governments must act when land claimants had failed at the final point of appeal, with records showing 1.89 million people were continuing to live in the forest despite being told they had no right to do so.  That ruling was suspended for nearly five months after the government requested more time for the application system to be investigated, and it is understood that some state governments will submit requests on Wednesday for up to another 18 months to get their records in order.  The confusion surrounding their status has inevitably led many tribals to question the authorities’ motives. Mr Barla said he suspected “there may be minerals in my village” and that the government would hand the land over to corporations for mining once the indigenous people were evicted.  Guruvaiah said the problem was that the tribal people, some of India’s most impoverished and under-resourced, had to rely on others to advocate on their behalf.  “We are just forest lovers. We are not politicians, we do not have money, and we are very few. We will always have to depend on someone,” he said.  VS Roy David, national convener of the National Adivasi Alliance, blamed the looming evictions on “the tiger lobby”.  “We are hoping the Supreme Court will postpone again,” he said. “These people are just creating problems saying that if communities live there there will be conflict between the humans and the animals. This is not true.  “The adivasis are not encroachers, they are the virgin settlers and it is their homeland. Their way of life revolves around protecting the animals and the forest. They maintain the ecological balance, not disturb it.”  The tribal leaders did accept, however, that some genuine encroachment of protected forests by outsiders was taking place, though they argued that this paled compared to the logging and mining operations that the authorities either permitted or turned a blind eye to.  Praveen Bhargav, trustee and co-founder of Wildlife First, one of the groups petitioning for the Supreme Court to reform the FRA, said the situation with regards to the loss of forests in India was “alarming and all pervasive”.  He said studies showed that almost 6 per cent of the country’s forest coverage vanished in the thirty years to 2005, and that a government report in 2015 found another 2.5 per cent was encroached by illegal human settlements.  Bhargav said evidence showed that wildlife populations recovered when reserves were “strictly protected”. “Harmonious co-existence between people and large wildlife in the Indian context is a myth,” he said.  “While it is imperative that we redress injustices done to impoverished forest dwellers, it is vital that we do not perpetuate injustice to wildlife and forests, which have neither a voice nor a vote,” he told The Independent. “We must not forget that wildlife colonised this planet much before the first human set foot [here].”  If it upholds its ruling, the Supreme Court would be doing so in the face of international condemnation.  Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, the UN special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous people, said in a statement earlier this month that the "basic premise of this decision, which treats tribal peoples as possibly illegal residents of the forest, is wrong".  "Indigenous peoples and local communities are treated as squatters when in fact the land is theirs, and they have protected and stewarded their holdings for generations and play an important role for conservation,” she said.  The indigenous rights group Survival International, which has campaigned on the issue, said Supreme Court risked passing a "death sentence" for India’s tribal people that would lead to the "biggest mass eviction in the name of conservation”.  The Indian government, which was criticised by judges in February’s ruling for only just “waking up” to the issue of indigenous land rights, said it will defend the constitutional validity of the FRA and "do everything to safeguard the interests of the tribals".


theindependent--2019-08-02--Ditch colonial attitudes to elephant hunting conservationists tell EU

Ditch colonial attitudes to elephant hunting, conservationists tell EU

Conservationists and former senior African politicians are calling on the European Union to drop “colonial” attitudes and vote to save elephants from extinction.  If EU chiefs back conservation steps at a meeting next month, it would represent a U-turn from their historic voting patterns.  An open letter to Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission, and his successor Ursula von der Leyen, charges that using elephants for commercial gain is “an imported Western concept”.  Its authors warn: “There are still colonial ideological remnants when elephants are still regarded from an instrumental or market-valued perspective.”  They also deny that money made from elephant ivory is returned to people living in the countries it comes from.  Cites, the international agreement on protecting endangered wildlife, is being asked to increase protection for all of Africa’s elephants at a major summit, which begins on 17 August. Currently, only some animals are afforded the highest level of protection - something the proposal seeks to extend to other members of the species.  The European Union holds the largest voting block at Cites, and at previous votes has insisted African states all agree before backing any elephant-protection motions.  “Europe, with its great influence on the global stage, has continued to back the trade in elephants at Cites, and each time they do, our elephant populations decline a little further,” the letter, signed by Moody Awori, the former vice-president of Kenya, Azizou El Hadj Issa, a former agriculture minister of western African nation Benin, and Nomusa Dube, founder of the Zimbabwe Elephant Foundation, states.  If passed, the motion will protect elephants in Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe from the global ivory trade. The four countries want the ivory trade rules relaxed. Zambia, meanwhile, wants the status of its elephants downgraded to allow its ivory to be legally sold.  “In most of Africa, elephants have never been treated as commodities for commercial gain,” the letter says. “This is an imported Western concept based on anthropocentric values.  “Since this continent was first colonised, elephants have been reduced from being valued intrinsically to being instrumentally valued as mere commodities to be traded and killed for human gratification. In colonial days, the desire for ivory nearly wiped them out.  “This is a construct that still weighs heavily on Africa today even though Africa is no longer physically shackled by colonialism.  “There are still colonial ideological remnants when elephants are still regarded from an instrumental or market-valued perspective.”  The letter says the mammals are still hunted or slaughtered, or babies are snatched from their mothers to be exported as trophies, ivory ornaments or live specimens.  China still buys baby elephants from Zimbabwe for zoos, with claims their health suffers as a result.  The writers add: “Contrary to the prevailing western views of wildlife management that elephants are destroying natural habitats, we Africans instead view their role as the great gardeners and architects of our natural environment.”  The EU says it has launched numerous initiatives against international ivory trafficking, and is the main donor supporting African countries and law-enforcement agencies to fight the illegal trade.  The European Commission says it has provided €2.25m (£2.06m) to help developing countries implement Cites, but declined when asked by The Independent to respond to the claims of “colonialism” from those who signed the letter.


theindependent--2019-11-09--A Lebanese conservationist's fight to save the striped hyena

Close to midnight, Mounir Abi-Said sits on the roof of his bright yellow Land Rover and shines a spotlight across the landscape, looking for striped hyenas. Warm fog swirls in the headlights. A bat detector crackles as it picks up sonar.  Some years ago, when Abi-Said, a conservation biologist and striped hyena expert at Lebanese University in Beirut, was conducting his PhD research, he developed a trap that, in the dead of night, as he waited alone in his tent, caused a dangling red light to shake and swing when a hyena was caught. “It looked really very scary,” he says.  Abi-Said’s hyena-spotting mission had brought him and three assistants to the outskirts of Kfar Toun, a village 40 minutes from the Syrian border. His spotlight illuminated the eyes of spiders, foxes and a small owl. Then, early in the morning as he rumbled along in a valley between two steep mountain ridges, the spotlight lit up two pairs of – could it be? – hyena eyes. But they closed straight away and did not reappear.  The striped hyena (Hyaena hyaena) is Lebanon’s national animal. Smaller than the spotted hyena of sub-Saharan Africa, it has a prominent black-and-white mane that, when raised in alarm, gives it the appearance of having been electrocuted while trying to transform into a zebra. The striped hyena is an important part of the ecosystem: a scavenger, equipped with a formidable immune system that enables it to safely consume rotting meat and prevent the spread of disease.  But striped hyenas are elusive, understudied and not exactly well-liked. In Lebanon they are shot on sight, out of fear, or hunted for sport, although both activities are illegal. In north Africa and elsewhere in the Middle East, where striped hyenas also roam, the animals are run over, poisoned or killed for use in traditional medicine.  Abi-Said has spent much of his career trying to change Lebanese attitudes towards hyenas. His doctoral thesis, published a decade ago, was the first major study of the striped hyena’s ecology and distribution in Lebanon; he and his wife, Diana, run Animal Encounters, a wildlife sanctuary and small zoo near Beirut. They started the centre in 1993 in their backyard, shortly after the end of Lebanon’s 15-year civil war. “People thought we were crazy,” Abi-Said says. “It was after the war, and some people didn’t have food. And we were doing this?”  Conflict has continued to shape the animals’ lives. Stripey, a female striped hyena, was born at the centre in 2006, but the war that year between Israel and Hezbollah prevented her release. Nineteen of her siblings from previous litters have returned to the wild, but Stripey became too accustomed to captivity and is now the centres’ mascot and oldest resident.  Einat Bar-Ziv, a doctoral student in conservation behaviour at Ben Gurion University of the Negev, has found that turning specific hyenas into “ambassadors” is a good way to mitigate conflict between people and hyenas. With an urban striped hyena named Ruthi, Bar-Ziv has worked to dispel the scary notion that striped hyenas move in packs. In 2018, Ruthi, who lives in the city of Modi’in-Maccabim-Re’ut, 22 miles from Tel Aviv, was captured, fitted with a GPS tracker, released and followed for 18 weeks. She got around.  “We could tell city residents that it’s not ‘groups’, it is mainly one young adult female that walks all over the city,” Bar-Ziv says.  At Animal Encounters on a recent Bat Night, children crawled through a tent and cloth network of “caves” as brown, googly-eyed rubber bats bounced above their heads. Stripey growled when Abi-Said approached her cage, then scratched herself, one long paw dangling in the air. Her head was half bat, half dog.  In Lebanon, Abi-Said says, parents scare their children by tapping their fingernails on bedside tables to imitate creeping claws: the hyena will get you if you don’t go to sleep. Some people believe a hyena will use its stripes to mesmerise you before luring you to its lair and tickling you to death. The legend made sense when Stripey emitted an uneven wheeze reminiscent of someone trying desperately to stop laughing long enough to catch her breath.  There are fewer than 10,000 striped hyenas left in the wild. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature lists them as near threatened globally, with their numbers decreasing. (Abi-Said conducted the union’s last survey of the animals in Lebanon in 2014.)  The conservation union’s hyena specialist group is currently conducting the largest global survey of the four species of hyena – spotted, striped, brown and the aardwolf – since the 1990s. Data is readily available for three of those species, but not for striped hyenas, which are the least studied of the four. “We have huge areas of what we think should be striped hyena habitat where we don’t have any information,” says Stephanie Dloniak, a zoologist at Michigan State University and chair of the specialist group. “What the preliminary map shows has us worried about the striped hyena in relation to other species.”  Striped hyenas are especially hard to monitor because they are nocturnal, live alone or in pairs, and favour inaccessible habitats. They rarely kill livestock, but they really like melons, which they use to get water. They are also partial to dates. Farmers often mistake fruit-seeking hyenas for marauders hunting their herds.  “Hyenas can eat anything, from an elephant to a caterpillar,” Dloniak says. The union specialist group has no data on striped hyenas from Syria, Egypt or Libya. They have some from Iraq and Iran, and a little from Pakistan. There are no reliable figures for the number of wild striped hyenas in Lebanon, although it’s likely to be in the low hundreds. The country, which has an area of just 6,000 square miles, shares borders with Israel, with which it is still technically at war, and Syria, where a protracted civil war continues.  Cross-border collaboration is important for wildlife conservation, Dloniak notes, but is sometimes almost impossible. The good news, she says, is that striped hyenas appear to occur over a wider range than previously thought; they have been found in Turkey, Nepal and Tajikistan, at the very edges of their range  Animals Lebanon, an animal welfare organisation, has set itself the task of protecting wild hyenas from capture. On a recent Sunday, Jason Mier, the organisations’ co-founder, brought several staff members and volunteers to a private zoo in southern Lebanon to collect three striped hyenas. Volunteers from another, year-old organisation, Lebanese Wildlife, were there, too. Almost every caged animal at the zoo was mislabeled. The “blackbuck” were impala; the “wolf” was a mix between a dog and “something else, maybe a wolf,” Mier says.  The zoo owner, who wore a cowboy hat and jeans, paid $800 (£621) for each hyena, but Animals Lebanon convinced him to give them up. All three hyenas were being held in a single 4-by-6-foot concrete-and-steel enclosure. One had scabies, broken teeth, an abscess and scars from the snare that had captured it. The other two, year-old cubs, slept curled up in a corner. The wall was marked by three horizontal stripes of different heights, made by the paws of the hyenas jumping at the enclosure.  Jirhi Maasri, a volunteer veterinarian enlisted by Lebanese Wildlife, darted the hyenas with a tranquillizer. As he waited for the effects to kick in, he confided that he imported wildlife for private clients’ personal collections. “I used to have my own small collection, before the war,” he says.  The aesthetic didn’t work. The hyenas were woozy but not docile enough for blood and hair samples to be collected or for their paws to be imprinted on round pats of clay. Mier called off the operation. Animals Lebanon rescued a wallaby (labeled “kangaroo”) instead.  A month later, hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets to protest government corruption and mismanagement. Abi-Said’s group have arranged for a veterinarian, Ian Sayer, to fly in from the United Kingdom to dart the three captive hyenas. He arrives just after the protests close roads across the country.  On an overcast Sunday, Mier decides to attempt the mission, despite plans by protesters to form a human chain across the country. The two young hyenas, named Freedom and Unity in honour of the protests, are darted and dragged by their scruffs, one by one, from the enclosure. They lie on the ground, tongues lolling, as Sayer checks their health and takes samples. A curious and persistent emu uses the opportunity to escape from its enclosure, and a volunteer is put on emu-shooing duty.  The older hyena is evaluated, given antibiotics and left at the zoo, where she may stay for another three months. Because of the protests, the government will not grant the permit needed to send her to Cerza Park Zoo, a sanctuary and breeding zoo in France. But the two cubs are placed in a cage and into the back of white van. Two hours on bumpy, winding roads, through rain and hail, brings the group to the Shouf Biosphere Reserve, a refuge of golden grass and green cedars high up in the mountains.  The van is parked in a clearing, and the hyenas left alone to calm down from the journey. The tapping of hail grows gentler and eventually stops. The cage is carried into the fresh air. As it is set down, the cubs begin to snarl and squabble. The humans draw a sharp breath, the cage is opened, and Freedom and Unity scamper away. They do not look back.


theirishtimes--2019-09-21--Irelands habitat survey lays the groundwork for better conservation

Ireland’s habitat survey lays the groundwork for better conservation

To go back to basics . . .  A “habitat” is where particular plants and animals live and reproduce most successfully. Its size and character depend on the local soil and its moisture, on climate, food supply, level of predators and so on.  Sorting the landscape into its habitats was basic to conserving what was left of Europe’s natural world – the ideal of a vastly detailed enterprise by the European Union. Scientists from all the member countries, at endless meetings with the European Commission, decided the priorities of the Habitats Directives. By 2007, the list of habitats had gone through three versions, adding new ones as the EU was enlarged.  The accession of Bulgaria and Romania, for example, added the “Panonian” region to the Continental, Mediterranean, Alpine, Atlantic, Macaronesian and Boreal regions, plus novelties such as “Moesian silver lime woods”, “Iberian gypsum steppes” and “Baltic esker islands”.  Ireland’s 58 habitats and their species, surveyed every six years, include eight distinctive sorts and stages of sand dune, five kinds of lake (think of turloughs and lagoons), special stretches of coastal mud, beach drift-lines and stony banks, sea cliffs and Mediterranean salt meadows.  One that has repeatedly caught my eye, however, is “Calaminarian grassland”. What on earth could this be?  It has now arrived on my desk as a glossy fistful of some 270 pages: the latest monitoring survey of the habitat for the National Parks and Wildlife Service (online as Irish Wildlife Manual 105). It has abundant photographs of its local landscapes, a good many of which, even on a sunny day, are bleak and uninviting.  These are, indeed, wastelands – the tracks and spoil heaps of mines. Their marginality encourages the dumping of builders’ rubble and the furrowing of the ground by weekend bikers and errant 4 x 4s.  Nature, however, will always grow something, even on such toxic “metalliferous substrates”. The adapted vegetation includes sheep’s fescue grass and even common coastal wildflowers such as bladder campion and thrift. But the scientific focus is on mosses and liverworts so rare as to warrant European conservation.  “Calaminarian grassland” is actually named after a yellow-blossomed wildflower of continental Europe, Viola calaminaria, which in turn was named after the zinc ore calamine. Neither Britain nor Ireland grow this viola among the limited flowering plants of spoil heaps, though zinc is plentiful enough on both islands, along with lead, chromium, cobalt and copper.  Most of the 29 sites in the survey (by bryophyte consultants Rory Hodd and Nick Hodgetts) are in Wicklow and Cork and have the poor range of species typical of many old mine sites in Cornwall. The leading showpiece of Ireland’s mining heritage, however, is at Allihies in west Cork, which also happens to harbour the scarcest of the mosses, found in small cushions in 2006 and legally protected in 2015.  Mining for copper began at Allihies in 1812 and later warranted a towering engine house, of Cornish design, that still stands sentinel on the mountainside. Here too, among the slopes of vegetated spoil, are patches of Ditrichum cornubicum, a moss only known at two other sites in Cornwall. Its supposedly “common” name of “Cornish path moss” fits oddly with its place in the International Union for Conservation of Nature red list of the most threatened species in the world.  The continuing decline of Ireland’s Calaminarian sites, detailed in the latest survey, is inevitable and due simply to the passage of time. The toxicity of the spoil heaps decreases with exposure, so that plant succession over the years brings changes to other sorts of habitat such as gorse scrub, heath and acid grassland. Several of the sites are already dwindling as the surrounding grassland edges in.  Of the 29 sites so laboriously surveyed, only nine were assessed as in “favourable” condition. The Allihies hillside, with its fenced-off open mine shafts, is one of them. But the few plants of the phenomenally rare Ditrichum cornubicum are still candidates for suggested conservation measures.  Along with stopping the dumping of rubble, the report’s proposal is to scrape back the surface of the soil to expose new metalliferous ground on which the moss could spread.  A recent study by UK bryologist Des Callaghan describes a trial at the moss’s habitat at the Phoenix United Mine in Cornwall. “Turf stripping of trial habitat management plots,” he reports, “using a mechanical excavator [and] re-exposing bare metalliferous ground, is shown to be remarkably successful, providing a 20-fold increase in the population, presently making it the most important site for the plant in the world.”  At Allihies, access to this minute moss will probably be limited to admiring its photograph in the visitor centre. Out on the hillside, this proof of plant adaptation to an extreme environment will become, like the mine, a museum piece, painstakingly preserved.


thenewyorktimes--2019-02-12--Senate Passes a Sweeping Land Conservation Bill

Want climate news in your inbox? Sign up here for Climate Fwd:, our email newsletter.  WASHINGTON — The Senate on Tuesday passed a sweeping public lands conservation bill, designating more than one million acres of wilderness for environmental protection and permanently reauthorizing a federal program to pay for conservation measures.  The Senate voted 92 to 8 in favor of the bill, offering a rare moment of bipartisanship in a divided chamber and a rare victory for environmentalists at a time when the Trump administration is working aggressively to strip away protections on public lands and open them to mining and drilling.  “It touches every state, features the input of a wide coalition of our colleagues, and has earned the support of a broad, diverse coalition of many advocates for public lands, economic development, and conservation,” said Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, the majority leader.  Western lawmakers of both parties have been working for four years on the bill, which will next be taken up by the House of Representatives, where it also enjoys bipartisan support.


thetelegraph--2019-07-29--Indian tiger population soars after conservation drive

The Indian tiger population has increased by 30% since 2014, according to encouraging figures released by the Indian Government on Monday.  The number of wild tigers has risen to 2,967 from 2,226, largely thanks to a nationwide conservation push.  Indian conservationists estimated the new figures could mean India is home to 70% of the global tiger population, in what Prime Minister Narendra Modi described as a "historic achievement."  It would mean India is on-track to honour its promise in the St Petersburg Declaration of 2010 to double its Big Cat population by 2022. As recently as 2010, the number of Indian tigers had plummeted to 1,706.  Studies have identified poaching and heightened human-tiger contact as the major causes of tiger deaths in India.  India’s human population has skyrocketed by 50% in the last 20 years, leading to greater encroachment into tiger habitats to create new homes and farmland. In some cases, tigers found exploring the new human settlements on their old land have been killed.


thetelegraph--2019-08-24--Conservationists urge Mexico trade sanctions over near-extinct porpoise

Conservationists are urging countries to slap trade sanctions on Mexico over its failure to rein in illegal fishing that could doom the vaquita marina porpoise to extinction within months.  With only around 10 vaquita believed to remain in their sole habitat off northwestern Mexico, environmentalists insist only "drastic measures" can rescue the world's smallest porpoise from disappearing altogether.  They are appealing to countries attending the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in Geneva to wield the treaty's harshest sanction in a bid to force Mexico to ensure the vaquita's survival.  "The parties should sanction Mexico and put a ban on trade of CITES-listed species from Mexico until they get the situation under control," Zak Smith, Director of International Wildlife Conservation for the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), told AFP.  CITES, which regulates trade in more than 35,000 species of plants and animals, has the power to sanction countries that break the rules or fail to rein in illegal trade in species protected under the treaty.


theguardianuk--2019-01-17--Stop treating seas as a sewer MPs urge in bid for protection treaty

‘Stop treating seas as a sewer,’ MPs urge in bid for protection treaty

A new global agreement to protect the seas should be a priority for the government to stop our seas becoming a “sewer”, according to a cross-party group of MPs.  Plastic pollution is set to treble in the next decade, the environmental audit committee warned, while overfishing is denuding vital marine habitats of fish, and climate change is causing harmful warming of the oceans as well as deoxygenation and acidification.  The effects of plastic pollution are particularly poorly understood, the committee found in its report, published on Thursday. It found “a lack of data on the serious long-term harm and health implications of plastic particles entering the food chain” and accused the government of treating the oceans as “out of sight, out of mind”.  One way of tackling the problem would be through a “Paris agreement for the sea”, the MPs recommended. Governments are still working on a possible new ocean protection treaty, under the UN. The MPs also called for the government to bring forward the target date of phasing out avoidable plastic waste from 2042, and urged greater action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  Labour MP Mary Creagh, chair of the committee, said: “We have to stop treating our seas as a sewer. Plastic, chemicals and sewage are choking our oceans, polluting our water and harming every ocean species from plankton to polar bears. Supporting Indonesia and Malaysia to reduce plastic while simultaneously exporting our contaminated plastics to them shows the lack of a joined-up approach at the heart of the government’s strategy.”  Deep-sea mining also posed a new threat to the oceans, and should be closely regulated, the report suggested. Chemical pollution, including excess nutrients from fertilisers and mismanaged waste and contaminants, was identified as another problem needing attention.  The report noted the government’s efforts on marine-protected areas, but warned that allowing industrial fishing and damaging practices such as bottom trawling was undermining their effectiveness.  A UK government spokesperson said: “The UK is already a global leader in protecting our seas and oceans. We have recently proposed 41 new marine conservation zones, led calls to protect 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030, and we are going further and faster to tackle the plastic that harms marine life with our ambitious resources and waste strategy.     “We know there is more to do, and we will soon publish an international ocean strategy to drive global action to conserve the world’s oceans.”  Will McCallum, head of oceans at Greenpeace UK, said: “Our government has repeatedly stated its desire to lead the world in ocean protection, and this report outlines exactly how to do that. Reducing how much plastic we use in the first place will be vital, as well as banning problem plastics and introducing a plastic bottle return scheme as soon as possible.”  He also called for Antarctic ocean sanctuaries and a halt to deep-sea mining until its impacts are understood. “The oceans are our life support system,” he said.


theguardianuk--2019-05-31--Large expansion to blue belt of UKs protected marine areas announced

Large expansion to 'blue belt' of UK's protected marine areas announced

An area nearly twice the size of England will become a “blue belt” of protected waters after the government created 41 new marine conservation zones.  The short-snouted seahorse, the ocean quahog, ross worm reefs and blue mussel beds are among the species and habitats that will benefit from the new protections, although dredging and other damaging activities can only be halted in zones that lie within inshore waters, up to 12 nautical miles from the coast.  The newly-protected areas ranging from Studland Bay, near Bournemouth, to the Goodwin Sands off the Deal coast in Kent will cover 4633 sq miles (12,000 sq km) of marine habitat, eight times the size of Greater London, bringing the total number of marine protected areas around the British coastline to 355.  The environment secretary, Michael Gove, said: “The UK is already leading the rest of the world by protecting over 30% of our ocean – but we know there is more to do. Establishing this latest round of marine conservation zones in this year of green action is another big step in the right direction, extending our blue belt to safeguard precious and diverse sea life for future generations to come.”  Critics have in the past dismissed marine conservation zones as “paper parks” with few creating “no-take” zones that prevent all fishing, but conservationists said these zones had begun to make a real difference, with some damaging activities halted.  Joan Edwards, director of living seas at The Wildlife Trusts, said: “They are not paper parks. Many of the sites here in Devon have had scallop dredging banned so the most damaging activities have been stopped.  “The pressure of fishing has been removed from a very large part of our seabed which is good for nature conservation, and good for fishermen because if you have areas that are left alone they will produce more fish.”  After scallop dredging was banned in Lyme Bay in 2008, the seabed’s sea fans, sunset corals and ross corals have flourished.  Edwards said: “We thought it would take 20 years at least for Lyme Bay to recover but it’s recovering in three years, with divers spotting baby sea fans appearing. By designating these sites and taking away damaging activities, recovery will happen. We need a healthy marine environment because it will absorb more carbon dioxide so it’s good for climate change, good for nature conservation and good for fishermen as well.”  Tony Juniper, chair of Natural England, said: “Today really does mark a major step forward for the conservation of our precious marine environment, but there is still much to be done, including putting in place more of the good practices that we know are needed to secure the long-term health of our seas and their wildlife.”  The management of each zone differs depending on the requirements of marine life and local people including fishermen, who are consulted on new regulations and management. Trawling can be restricted and new cabling for offshore windfarms will normally have to be routed around the parks.  Alec Taylor, head of marine policy at WWF, said: “These new zones are critical in creating a network to protect our marine wildlife, but at the moment they are just empty words on a page. The UK is nearing 30% coverage of its waters protected, but these areas are poorly monitored and we have little evidence that wildlife is benefiting.”  Edwards added: “Now we need to see good management of these special places to stop damaging activities such as beam-trawling or dredging for scallops and langoustines which harm fragile marine wildlife.  “Let’s make sure we actually monitor them. These are sites where we’re taking human pressure away and we might see our wildlife recover and we need to see what that looks like.”


theindependent--2019-01-17--UK must support aposParis agreement for the seaapos to protect global oceans say MPs

UK must support 'Paris agreement for the sea' to protect global oceans, say MPs

British seas are being treated “like a sewer”, polluted by an endless stream of plastics, untreated waste and farming effluent, MPs have warned.  In a damning new report, the Environmental Audit Committee has laid out the dangers facing the nation’s oceans and what needs to be done to address them.  Besides pollution, climate change, overfishing and deep sea mining are all threatening marine ecosystems and the trillions of pounds they deliver to the economy, the report states.  The UK is responsible for an area of ocean roughly 30 times the size of the country itself, but the committe accused ministers of “sea blindness” when it comes to tackling marine environmental problems.  Besides taking action to protect its national waters, it said Britain should leverage its international clout to push for a legally-binding “Paris agreement for the sea”.  Urgent domestic action will also be necessary, with more ambitious targets both to achieve zero avoidable plastic waste and to completely decarbonise the economy in a bid to avert devastating climate change.  “Our children deserve to experience the wonders of the ocean but climate change poses a triple whammy of threats from ocean warming, deoxygenation and acidification, which are decimating marine life,” said committee chair and Labour MP Mary Creagh. “The government’s ‘out of sight, out of mind’ attitude on the seas must change.”  More than 80 per cent of the pollution that ends up in the sea comes from the land, and the MPs called for more stringent measures to cut off this flow.  These included bans on unrecyclable plastic packaging and legally binding targets for water quality to cut chemical pollution draining into the seas.  “Our government has repeatedly stated its desire to lead the world in ocean protection, and this report outlines exactly how to do that,” said Will McCallum, head of oceans at Greenpeace UK.  As well as cutting plastic, Mr McCallum said “strong international leadership” on marine issues like Antarctic Ocean sanctuaries would be vital.  Previous efforts to protect areas of the ocean such as the Weddell Sea have proved unsuccessful, suggesting a more concerted global effort is required.  A network of non governmental organisations known as the High Seas Alliance has been campaigning for a Paris agreement-style deal that would have the power to create and protect huge marine protected zones.  The committee said the government should mobilise the highest levels of government, including the foreign secretary, and the UK’s position as chair of the Commonwealth to push for these measures.  Responding to the report, a government spokesperson said: “The UK is already a global leader in protecting our seas and oceans. We have recently proposed 41 new marine conservation zones, led calls to protect 30 per cent of the world’s oceans by 2030, and we are going further and faster to tackle the plastic that harms marine life with our ambitious resources and waste strategy.”


theindependent--2019-05-31--Marine wildlife aposblue beltapos area almost eight times the size of London to be introduced

Marine wildlife 'blue belt' area almost eight times the size of London to be introduced

An area almost eight times the size of London has been designated as a series of protected “blue belt” zones in the seas around England’s coastline, the government has announced.  The 41 marine conservation zones will cover 12,000 square kilometres (4,600 square miles) of England’s seas and range from the coast of Northumberland to the seas south of the Isles of Scilly.  The areas are designated to help protect a diverse group of species, such as eider ducks, basking sharks and short snouted seahorses.  With the newly announced zones, the UK’s full “blue belt” of protected sites will span 220,000 square kilometres (85,000 square miles) around the seas of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.  Conservationists described the announcement as “fantastic” but warned that good management of the 41 areas was needed to protect wildlife.  The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs has designated 91 marine conservation zones in three waves since 2013, bringing the total number of Marine Protected Areas in the UK to 355.  Joan Edwards, director of living seas at The Wildlife Trusts, said: "It's fantastic news that now we have 91 marine conservation zones - they will form a vital series of underwater habitats which can be nursed back to health.  "Now we need to see good management of these special places to stop damaging activities such as beam-trawling or dredging for scallops and langoustines which harm fragile marine wildlife."  The new designation follows a consultation, which included local fishermen, marine conservation experts and 48,000 responses from the public.  All 41 of the proposed sites have been designated and protections have been expanded at 12 existing sites.  Michael Gove, the environment secretary, said: "The UK is already leading the rest of the world by protecting over 30 per cent of our ocean - but we know there is more to do.  "Establishing this latest round of marine conservation zones in this 'year of green action' is another big step in the right direction, extending our blue belt to safeguard precious and diverse sea life for future generations to come."  The protected areas include a Holderness offshore site, which has a mosaic of habitats that protect crabs and lobsters, and an Orford inshore site off the Suffolk coast, which is an important nursery and spawning ground for fish.  However, although the UK has protected nearly 30 per cent of its waters, some conservationists warned that the protections do not go far enough.  Alec Taylor, head of marine policy at WWF, argued that “these areas are poorly monitored and we have little evidence that wildlife is benefiting."  He said: "We need proper management of activities within the boundaries of all marine protected areas and strict enforcement of safeguarding laws. Only then can we secure a future where people and nature thrive."  Dr Jean-Luc Solandt, from the Marine Conservation Society, agreed, adding: “The government must now invest in proper management of these sites and keep them free of all activities that damage the seabed so that our spectacular marine wildlife can recover from decades of destruction and degradation."


dailyheraldchicago--2019-11-26--How a small stretch of ocean stirred a conservation movement

SAVANNAH, Ga. -- From the surface, these 22 square miles of water are unexceptional.  But dip beneath the surface - go down 60 or 70 feet - and you'll find a spectacular seascape. Sponges, barnacles and tube worms cover rocky ledges on the ocean floor, forming a 'live bottom.'  Gray's Reef is little more than a drop in the ocean 19 miles off the Georgia coast, but don't confuse size for significance. In one of his last official acts, President Jimmy Carter declared the reef a national marine sanctuary at the urging of conservationists who said its abundance of life was unique and worth saving for future generations.  For nearly 40 years, the U.S. government has protected the reef, home to more than 200 species of fish and an amazing array of nearly 1,000 different kinds of invertebrates. Recreational fishing and diving are allowed, but commercial fishing and other kinds of exploitation are not.  And Gray's Reef has served as a global inspiration. Following the lead of the U.S., other nations have designated similar sanctuaries and protected areas, which now cover about 6% of the world's oceans - a bonanza for researchers but, more importantly, an important tool for safeguarding the seas.  Doubts remain about how much of the ocean they can truly save. Last year was the hottest on record for the planet's oceans, and protected areas can't slow the biggest source of that warming - increasing greenhouse gases. The federal government says more than 90% of the warming that has occurred on the planet over the past half-century has taken place in the ocean.  That has had dramatic effects in the waters that cover 70% of Earth's surface. Scientists have tied the warming to the rise of sea levels, the disappearance of fish stocks and the bleaching of corals. The ocean also has become more acidic as humans have released higher concentrations of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, and that jeopardizes valuable shellfish and the plankton that form the base of the food chain.  The supporters for the protected areas range from sustenance fishermen on the tiniest islands of the Pacific to researchers at the most elite institutions of academia.  'We're not protecting these areas just for ourselves,' Roldan MuÃ±oz, a research fishery biologist with the U.S.'s National Marine Fisheries Service, says during a research trip to the reef, 'they're for our nation.'  On a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration expedition to Gray's Reef, the federal research vessel Nancy Foster is packed with scientists conducting research on subjects ranging from whether invasive lionfish are present to how changing ocean conditions are affecting coral species.  Sanctuary research coordinator Kimberly Roberson and other scientists prepare to dive to collect data about what fish can be found in the area, while Craig Aumack, an assistant professor of biology at Georgia Southern University, peers through a microscope at algae.  Aumack notes that more types of seaweed and tropical species of fish are appearing on the reef as waters warm, like the odd-looking and colorful clown wrasse, a fish native to the Caribbean Sea that was found off the coast of Georgia this summer, most likely pushed hundreds of miles to the north by changing ocean temperatures.  The sanctuary is named after Milton 'Sam' Gray, a biologist who studied it in the 1960s and identified it as an ecosystem worth saving - a reef not far from the U.S. coast that teemed with life, especially an 'abundance of diversity of invertebrates,' Roberson notes.  Without that designation, the habitat could have vanished due to high-impact industries such as bottom-trawl commercial fishing, which are now prohibited there.  'In some ways, it's a test of what a marine protected area can do for surrounding areas,' says Clark Alexander, director and professor at the University of Georgia Skidaway Institute of Oceanography and a former member of the sanctuary's advisory board. 'It was sort of an ideal spot to preserve this kind of habitat and make it available for research and recreation.'  In the decades since Gray's was established, large and more stringently protected zones have popped up all over the world.  Phoenix Island Protected Area, established in January 2008, covers more than 150,000 square miles off the tiny island republic of Kiribati and has been cited by scientists for bringing back species of fish in just over a decade. And an area nearly twice as large, the Rapa Nui Marine Protected Area, now surrounds Easter Island after its creation in 2018.  Former U.S. Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama greatly expanded the U.S.'s protected areas. Bush created the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument off Hawaii and Obama extended it late in his presidency to a whopping 582,578 square miles.  Smaller protected areas, such as the 5,000-square-mile Northeast Canyons and Seamounts National Monument off New England, created by Obama in 2016, also have been established.  Nine years ago, the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity agreed to the goal of protecting 10% of the world's oceans by 2020. The UN said in 2017 that it was on its way to meeting that target and that protected areas 'contribute substantial social, economic and environmental benefits to society' and 'provide food security and livelihood security for some 300 million people.'  One commonly cited problem with the protected areas is the difficulty of enforcing rules that restrict commercial fishing and other intrusive industries from vast areas where few people ever venture, particularly in developing parts of the world where resources are limited.  Creating new protected areas without reducing fishing quotas won't save species, says Daniel Pauly, a professor of fisheries at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.  And that is not a small issue, as some estimates say the number of fish in the ocean was reduced by half from 1970 to 2015, with warming oceans expected to add to that loss.  'Rebuilding will require not just new protected areas, but it will require quotas reduced,' Pauly says.  Many scientists believe protecting broad swaths of the ocean simply might not be enough.  Last year, a group of researchers led by University of North Carolina marine ecologist John Bruno published a pessimistic study of the effects of climate change on the world's marine protected areas. Their findings: those areas will warm by nearly 5 degrees Fahrenheit by 2100, destroying species and marine life despite the existence of protections.  Bruno's study reflects the reality of coral bleaching in places such as the Great Barrier Reef off Australia, which is heavily protected but still vulnerable to the impacts of a warming world.  It's a lesson that illustrates the legacy of Gray's Reef: Protected areas can save pieces of the ocean from extinction, but they can't save it all.  'If it was up to me, we'd protect about 30% of the ocean,' Bruno says. 'We're just saying we've got to directly address climate change with emission reduction. There's no way around it.'  This Associated Press series was produced in partnership with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.


dailybeast--2019-11-19--Why We Must Save the Elephants... or Else

“Everyone loves elephants.” We hear it a lot, but do we love them enough to want to ensure their survival on this planet? Not as zoo inmates or residents of elephant sanctuaries, but as free-roaming keystone species in savannas and forests living in family groups? Elephants are waterhole-excavating, bulldozing, bark-stripping engineers and gardeners of their environments—and for that they need space. Their migration routes and deep-trodden paths, some of them probably hundreds of years old, once meandered across the African continent, connecting waterholes, rivers, food sources, salt licks. Elephants prefer not to climb, so where they could, rather than traverse ridges, their paths followed the contours of the land. It is no surprise that civil engineers often followed them to put in roads.  Today, migration routes are truncated—gradually becoming blocked by railways, embankments, roads, farms and fences. The more that elephants lose the ability to range, the more destructive their impact on the environment. Allowed to roam, their presence increases biodiversity. The trees they feed on, and the branches they break will recover once the elephants move on and in the meantime provide extra habitat for insects, amphibians and reptiles. If elephants are confined, then the vegetation doesn’t have time to recover before their next visit. As a result, biodiversity decreases and localized desertification follows. The same happens if elephants are attracted to areas by the provision of permanent water: the habitat suffers, the trees go first, then the bush, then the grass. You see it around almost every safari-lodge waterhole in Africa.  Elephants are intelligent—they can distinguish between human languages. In Amboseli in southern Kenya they know, by sound alone, which tribe to ignore and which they should flee from. Elephants prefer eating oranges and tomatoes to stripping the bark from trees. As agriculture expands into their home ranges, some turn to crop-raiding. Who can blame them? Elephants know where they are safe. Elephants fitted with GPS collars have been tracked leaving National Parks at night to raid crops. Just before dawn, they ran back to the park—only stopping once inside the park’s invisible boundary. As wildlife filmmakers, we found that an elephant’s behavior differed depending on whether it was inside or outside a National Park. Outside, where the threat of poaching was higher, they’d be far less approachable, move less and be more nocturnal. Once inside the park, the same elephants would allow us within filming distance, and be out in the day—and as they progressed further into the park, they became more confiding.  Raiding crops brings elephants into conflict with people—most often poor farmers who can least withstand their depredations. A herd of elephants can destroy an entire crop in a few hours; as a result, a subsistence farmer’s family might starve or be unable to send children to school. The same elephant that destroyed your crop might carry tusks worth $1,000 or more on the black market. It’s no surprise that poaching flourishes in the poorest areas. It is understandable if killing an elephant can mean the survival of your family. So how do we ensure people aren’t tempted to do that?  Alleviating poverty has been shown to reduce poaching, but it’s not easy in the face of expanding rural populations which puts increased pressure on agricultural land and encourages the expansion of farming into marginal areas that have traditionally been left for wildlife. Education helps. Educating girls through secondary school and beyond means they have children later in life and have smaller families.  The elephant in the room is climate change. Many of Africa’s National Parks were gazetted in the colonial era as they were areas where lack of rainfall or the disease-transmitting tsetse fly made them unsuitable for ranching cattle. Unfortunately, they are the first areas to feel the impact of climate change. As rains become less predictable and droughts become more prevalent, elephants will be increasingly pushed into conflict with people and their farms.  Spatial planning can help. We need to zone areas, to ensure elephant corridors persist and that farms don’t butt up against park boundaries. We need to create wildlife areas and buffer zones outside National Parks and compensate local communities for them—to lease areas for wildlife to roam and then make them pay through tourism.  In areas of high elephant-human conflict we need to mitigate for it, employing innovative schemes like those of the ‘Elephants and Bees Project.’ In the Sagalla area outside Kenya’s Tsavo National Park, small-scale farmers are encouraged to fence their land with strings of beehives. The wire fence, with suspended hives, uses the elephants’ fear of bees to protect crops. If the elephants try to push through the fence, it disturbs the hives, and they are chased off by swarms of angry bees. A bonus is a cash crop: a honey harvest for the farmers at the end of the season.  A REDD+ carbon credit scheme, pioneered by Wildlife Works on Rukinga Ranch, helps maintain and improve arid bushland habitat in Kenya’s Kasigau corridor, which is good news for elephants and local communities. Income generated by the purchase of carbon credits helps fund schools and dispensaries. A similar model for the Chyulu Hills, which will help protect 4000 square kilometers of elephant habitat is currently in the verification process.  Paradoxically, the presence of elephants can benefit pastoralists. In Kenya’s Ndoto Mountains, elephants were eliminated decades ago by hunting and poaching. The paths they had made up the mountains to dry season grazing, and which were used by Samburu pastoralists for their livestock, became overgrown and impassable. As a result, herders lit fires to gain access, and every year centuries of growth of ancient forest was destroyed. The Milgis Trust has worked alongside local communities to encourage elephants back into the area. Now, forty years later, elephants are once again opening paths up the mountains and fires are less frequent.  Our aim with The Elephant Queen was to tell an emotional story to a global audience that would showcase the elephants’ sentience, empathy and intelligence—to make a film that would inspire people to fall in love with them. For with love and understanding, collectively, we can help elephants and get behind the organizations that are working to ensure their continued existence on this planet.  Apple announced on Friday that for all views of the film in 2019 on Apple TV+, Apple will make a donation to support elephant conservation efforts in the region where was filmed. Apple has partnered with The Wildlife Conservation Network, Save the Elephants, and Conservation International for the initiative. To view the film and related content, go to http://www.theelephantqueen.com.


theindependent--2019-01-09--Electrocution is a rising threat to wildlife

SouthAfrica" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-8707421-https://www.independent.co.uk/topic/SouthAfrica" data-vars-event-id="c6">South Africa is a country of ranches, farms, reserves and national parks, many surrounded by miles of electric fencing. The fencing keeps out unwanted animal and human intruders and protects livestock and desirable wildlife.  But the fencing also has a deadly, unintended side effect: it frequently kills smaller animals, particularly birds and reptiles that scientists are eager to conserve. Trip wires are often to blame. Positioned about half a foot off the ground, the wires are meant to send a deterring zap to hungry lions and crop-raiding bush pigs.  But not all creatures respond by turning tail. Tortoises that hit a trip wire withdraw into their shells rather than retreat, while pangolins curl over the wire into a defensive ball. The animals stay put, shocked until their hearts give out.  “Farmers will walk along fences and find six to eight dead tortoises in the space of 100 metres,” says Luke Arnot, a veterinary surgeon and lecturer at the University of Pretoria. “With tortoises, we tend to think of poaching and bush fires, but electric fences are as big, if not a bigger problem.”  According to a 2008 study, some 21,000 reptiles in South Africa are killed each year after coming into contact with electric fences. Arnot has tried to sound the alarm, by publishing articles in farming and ranching magazines that detail practical, inexpensive fixes and by devising wildlife-friendly guidelines for electric fence installation.  His remedies are simple: lifting trip wires higher off the ground, for example, or running the current only at night, when predators are around.  “These fences have got the capacity to decimate whole populations, and they’re doing that,” he says. But the threat posed to wildlife “is still not something a lot of people think about”.  South Africa is not the only country struggling with the problem, and it’s not just fences that kill. Power lines are being strung haphazardly across poor countries; these, too, electrocute animals, and collisions alone often prove fatal for birds.  “There are studies from all over the world that have documented this as an issue,” says Scott Loss, an ecologist at Oklahoma State University.  Electrocution affects a diverse variety of species; in some, it is so common that it jeopardises the survival of species. In southern African countries, electrocution is considered a leading threat to endangered Cape vultures and critically endangered white-backed vultures.  In central Asia, electrocution kills an estimated 4,000 endangered saker falcons each year. In the US, Loss and his colleagues have estimated that tens of millions of birds are killed by power lines annually.  Scientists aren’t yet sure how great a threat electrocution poses to many of the affected species. “Birds of conservation concern, like red-tailed hawks and golden eagles, are dying from electrocution, but we don’t have a good handle on how that mortality source is contributing to changes in populations of these species, if at all,” Loss says.  Making reliable estimates is especially difficult in wilder areas because scavengers quickly sniff out fallen carcasses, says Simon Thomsett, an ornithologist and trustee of the Kenya Bird of Prey Trust.  “In wildlife areas in Kenya, hyenas and other animals make paths to power lines to get at dead birds,” he says.  Electrocuted animals are also not necessarily killed on the spot. Birds may “get zapped”, says Thomsett, and then fly hundreds of miles away, only to die a week or two later when their damaged limbs atrophy and become necrotic.  “This makes it impossible to go underneath power lines to enumerate the number of deaths,” Thomsett says. “But I think this is a growing threat and that it’s enormously underestimated by most wildlife conservationists, wardens and conservancy managers.”  Even large animals are threatened. More than 100 endangered Asian elephants were killed by electrocution in the state of Odisha, India, over 12 years, mostly by contact with power lines. Giraffes, African elephants, leopards, Cape buffalo and white rhinos have all been electrocuted in various countries.  Primates are especially frequent victims. At least 30 species and subspecies, half of which are threatened with extinction, are affected by electrocution in Asia, Africa and Latin America. “This is a widespread problem, but it’s also underreported and understudied, so there could be more species affected,” says Lydia Katsis, a recent graduate of Bristol Veterinary School in Britain.  In July, Katsis published research in the International Journal of Primatology identifying electrocution hot spots for five primate species in Diani Beach, Kenya. Electrocution accounts for up to 20 per cent of primate mortality and injury cases reported to Colobus Conservation, a conservation group based in the town.  In general, primates that are electrocuted die instantly or from the impact of a fall, but if they survive the initial jolt, they may succumb later to secondary infections from “horrific injuries” caused by the shock, Katsis says.  In addition to the conservation costs, animals that come in contact with power lines or other electric infrastructure extract a significant economic toll. In 2016, for example, a vervet monkey caused a nationwide blackout in Kenya after tripping a transformer, cutting off power to some 4.7 million homes and businesses.  “Animals have caused outages, disruptions and damage to infrastructure amounting to billions of dollars,” says Constant Hoogstad, a senior manager of industry partnerships at the Endangered Wildlife Trust, a nonprofit conservation organisation in South Africa. “We estimate that 60 per cent of line faults and interruptions in South Africa are wildlife-related.”  Hoogstad and his colleagues work directly with Eskom, South Africa’s state-owned electricity provider, to carry out various mitigation strategies. These include making power lines more visible to birds, insulating conductors on pole tops, and designing poles so birds cannot make contact with live components.  “It’s really important to engineer this problem out,” says Hoogstad.  The results have been hit or miss. For some species, such as Ludwig’s bustard, interventions to reduce collisions with power lines have met with little success. For others, including blue cranes and flamingoes, mortalities can be reduced by 90 percent or more.  Why these measures work for some species and not others is “the million-dollar question”, Hoogstad says, and one that his research colleagues are working to answer.  The Endangered Wildlife Trust’s efforts are being replicated in Jordan, Namibia, Tanzania and Australia. In the US, the Avian Power Line Interaction Committee, whose members include more than 50 utility companies, also works to reduce bird deaths.  Most other countries lack such initiatives, however, and in many places the problem is only set to worsen, Thomsett warns.  In Kenya, for example, power lines are being installed at breakneck speed, often in protected areas and along major pathways used by migratory birds. In October, Thomsett’s colleagues found the electrocuted remains of a threatened martial eagle – Africa’s largest eagle – beneath newly constructed power lines near the Maasai Mara National Reserve.  The bird, a juvenile, was one the conservationists knew: they had tagged it just seven months before as part of a long-term study on the species’ ecology and survival in Kenya.  “The terrible thing about power lines is that every single one will kill,” Thomsett says. “But people here say they don’t care because we need to develop our country.”


theindependent--2019-07-26--Tanzania inaugurates giant dam in wildlife reserve that will aposboost electricity supplies but th

Tanzania inaugurates giant dam in wildlife reserve that will 'boost electricity supplies but threaten rhino and elephants'

The president of Tanzania has inaugurated a huge controversial hydroelectric dam project in a wildlife reserve at the centre of warnings over rhino and elephant populations.  Conservation groups have opposed the Stiegler’s Gorge project in the Selous Game Reserve, the country’s largest wildlife area, which Unesco says has one of the most significant concentrations of elephants and black rhinos.  President John Magufuli called the project “the start of economic liberation”, saying the reserve – which is also a haven for cheetahs and giraffes – has been considered a potential energy source for decades.  Only one in 10 households in in the East African nation has access to the national grid and electricity prices are high.  “Beginning today, this will indicate that Tanzania is an independent country... and not a poor country,” Mr Magufuli said.  The scheme, expected to take three years to finish, will mean chopping down 2.6 million trees to flood an area covering about 1,200sq km, including the habitats of the site’s last remaining black rhinos.  The dam would be 130 metres high and stretch 700 meters across the Stiegler Canyon at the Rufiji River, in a Unesco World Heritage Site that is one of Africa’s largest protected areas and relatively undisturbed by humans.  The president said he hoped the project would boost industrial development.  “It’s time to benefit from our national resources,” he said.  Opponents of the project say it could also threaten the livelihoods of tens of thousands of people downstream, who depend on the river for agriculture and fisheries.  Last month the IUCN, together with Unesco’s World Heritage Centre, called for an immediate halt to logging and other preparations, warning of “irreversible damage” if it went ahead.  An independent review commissioned by IUCN highlighted the “inadequacy” of the environmental impact assessment.  “It would cut the heart out of the Selous reserve, with catastrophic impacts on the site’s wildlife and habitats,” said Peter Shadie, of the IUCN’s World Heritage Programme.  After the inauguration, the Worldwide Fund for Nature said the game reserve was of “extraordinary importance” and urged Tanzania’s government to consider “less harmful energy alternatives”.  But earlier this month, Mr Magufuli downplayed fears for the environment, saying that by providing energy, the dam would deter locals from felling trees for fuel.  “I want to reassure everyone this project in fact aims to promote the environment,” Magufuli said, Business Day reported.  “Also, it’s just a small part of the reserve – just 3 per cent of the total area.”  The president said the dam would not only meet national electricity needs but would also provide power to export.  The International Monetary Fund predicts the economy of Tanzania, will grow by 4 per cent this year, down from 6.6 per cent last year.  The Elephant Protection Initiative said the fact that a leading wildlife country was “prepared to contemplate drowning their natural crown jewels in pursuit of megawatts must serve as a serious wake-up call to everyone in conservation”.  “We need to make the case urgently that wildlife conservation can not only pay for itself, but that it is often the best way for the human populations who live around it to realise their legitimate aspirations for development and prosperity.  “Destroying habitat may present the illusion of short-term economic gain, but in the long run is counterproductive, not just for wildlife of course, but also people and economies.”  Additional reporting by the Associated Press


wakingtimes--2019-05-06--Billionaire Intends to Buy 15 of the Planet to Protect It

Billionaire Intends to Buy 15% of the Planet to Protect It

Last month, when over a billion dollars was donated for the restoration of the Notre Dame Cathedral, many people were askingwhy such large sums of money aren’t available for more pressing issues like homelessness or the environment. It is certainly rare for such a large contribution to go towards something that actually helps the planet, but it does happen every now and then.  Back in October, Billionaire philanthropist Hansjörg Wyss, CEO of the Wyss Foundation, pledged to donate a billion dollars towards environmental conservation efforts over the next ten years.  In an article for the New York Times, Wyss announced an incredible plan to buy large plots of land all over the world and turn them into parks that will be open to the public.  “It is the idea that wild lands and waters are best conserved not in private hands, locked behind gates, but as public national parks, wildlife refuges and marine reserves, forever open for everyone to experience and explore. The notion of holding these places in public trust was one I became deeply influenced by as a young man, when I first climbed and hiked on public lands in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains,” Wyss said.  “Every one of us – citizens, philanthropists, business and government leaders – should be troubled by the enormous gap between how little of our natural world is currently protected and how much should be protected. It is a gap that we must urgently narrow, before our human footprint consumes the earth’s remaining wild places,” he added.  Wyss hopes that his contribution will be able to protect 30% of the planet by the year 2030.  According to Business Insider Wyss has already donated more than $66 million to at least nine different organizations in the two months after making his pledge.  Some of those donations included $750,000 to help the Dehcho First Nations in Canada create a management program for the Edéhzhíe National Wildlife Area in the Northwest Territories, which is part of a 3.5 million acre wetlands ecosystem and home to many animals. The foundation is also making a $5.8 million donation to Aves Argentinas, the oldest conservation group in Argentina. This donation will help create a 1.5 million acre national park. Wyss is also donating $22 million to Fundación Flora y Fauna, to establish a 178,000 acre national park in Argentina’s Tucumán Province.  Hansjörg Wyss may not be a household name, even for conservationists, but he has been silently donating his millions to the environment for the past twenty years. In fact, Wyss has given over $450 million to similar efforts prior to his recent pledge.  In his Op-Ed for the Times, Wyss said shared his optimism for the future.  “This money will support locally led conservation efforts around the world, push for increased global targets for land and ocean protection, seek to raise public awareness about the importance of this effort, and fund scientific studies to identify the best strategies to reach our target. I believe this ambitious goal is achievable because I’ve seen what can be accomplished. Indigenous peoples, local leaders and conservation groups around the world are already busy setting aside protected areas that reflect the conservation, economic and cultural values of nearby communities,” Wyss said.  “I’ve seen this unfold firsthand. Over the past two decades, my foundation has supported local efforts to protect wild places in Africa, South America, Europe, Canada, Mexico, and the United States, donating more than $450 million to help our partners conserve nearly 40 million acres of land and water,” he added.


wakingtimes--2019-09-09--Regenerating New Zealand Using Nature to Restore Forests

Regenerating New Zealand: Using Nature to Restore Forests

Imagine a place in nature that’s thriving with life, where native plants and wildlife exist in abundance, and the crystal-clear flowing streams are clean enough to drink. Welcome to the Hinewai Nature Reserve & Wildlife Sanctuary, an ecological restoration project located in New Zealand’s Banks Peninsula that’s open for the public to visit and enjoy.  A new documentary titled, “Fools & Dreamers: Regenerating a Native Forest,” produced by Happen Films, features the project and one of its key supporters, botanist, nature buff and native New Zealander, Hugh Wilson, who serves as the day-to-day manager of the reserve.  The Hinewai Reserve aims to promote the natural regeneration of native vegetation and wildlife on about 1,500 hectares (3,706 acres) of land in the south-eastern corner of Banks Peninsula on the South Island’s east coast.  In its natural state, the region was covered by thick, healthy forests ripe in diversity. But over time, the forest was cleared and nearly completely destroyed by human settlers from Polynesia and Europe. By 1990, less than 1 percent of the old-growth forest was left, according to the film.  From a young age, Wilson, who grew up in the area, took a liking to plants and wildlife, particularly bird life. He dreamed about what it would be like to restore or regenerate the forests in the Banks Peninsula. His dream became reality when he met Maurice White, who had established a fund to purchase land for conservation.  When asked if he wanted to be involved, Wilson quickly agreed, and the pair began searching for land to buy. Due to his familiarity with the area, Wilson suggested a piece of land that was a little over 100 hectares (247 acres) in size and was an original part of Hinewai. The land was ideal because it was reasonable in size, but not too big, and it had old-growth forest, which meant it would be easier to track the results of a regeneration program.  In September 1987, 109 hectares (269 acres) were purchased by the Maurice White Native Forest Trust. Over time, the conservation project expanded to about 1,500 hectares (3,706 acres) with the purchase of Ōtānerito Station in 1991, as well as several other additions.  From the very beginning, the idea was to harness the power of Mother Nature to speed up the regeneration of forest and biodiversity — and to make the restoration project open to the public so people could come and enjoy nature in its purest form.  Using a “minimal interference” approach, Wilson had this idea to use the exotic plant gorse to regenerate native forest plants and trees. Once word of his method spread, it drew quite a bit of skepticism and doubt from the locals.  Gorse is considered one of New Zealand’s most pesky weeds. It first originated in Europe but was introduced to New Zealand as a hedge species.1 Characterized by its yellow flowers and sharp spiny leaves, Gorse can grow from about 6 to 9 feet tall. It matures and grows quickly, and is highly resilient to herbicides. It’s also tolerant of hot and cold temperatures, high-to-low rainfall and wind and salt.2  Gorse became hated by pastural farmers because it reduced the area available for grazing livestock on pasture land. Most people go to extreme lengths to fight and kill gorse. But not Wilson. He understood that the “weed” had its benefits, too. “Nothing is black and white,” said Wilson in the film.  Gorse is an opportunistic plant that takes advantage of clear ground and forest climates. But it must have full sunlight. It can’t survive in the shade. As soon as it’s shaded, it’s dead, he says.  Gorse grows fast in full sunlight, which allows other plants to grow underneath it, such as shade-tolerant trees. This is how gorse provides the perfect canopy for native forest plants to grow and thrive. It’s also an excellent nitrogen fixer, which means it fertilizers the soil, and in turn, promotes new plant life. Another benefit to gorse is that it can stop steep hillsides from eroding due to its ability to spread and cover the ground in dense vegetation.  Within a short decade, Wilson has made significant progress in regenerating native forests in the Hinewai Reserve. A local farmer interviewed in the film said:  Thanks to the efforts of Wilson and the restoration project, the Hinewai Reserve has returned to its roots. The forest has 47 waterfalls that never dry up, and is home to trees that are centuries old. The reserve hosts 60 different species of fern, including six species of tree fern.  It also supports many native birds such as bellbird, brown creeper and the grey warbler, just to name a few. It’s home to green and brown geckos, Australian frogs, native eels and fish such as galaxiids, torrentfish and bullies. The coastline nearby supports more diversity including seabirds, marine mammals and fish.3  Many people have asked Wilson if he himself helped replant the forest bed. In the film, he chuckles and explains that there’s no way to physically do it because of the rough terrain and vast size of the land. “Nature plants the forest bed, in ecologically appropriate and scientifically interesting ways,” he says.  The local community was initially skeptical of Wilson and his idea to use gorse to regrow native forest trees and plants. But he’s proved that nature knows best. Wilson is now regarded as a hero both locally and abroad.  Not only do the locals support the work being done at Hinewai, but they have also started to change the way they think about food and farming. Wilson has shown that instead of trying to farm all land intensively — especially land that’s not all that productive in terms of producing food — it’s beneficial to set some aside and let nature take over. “Let’s stop trying to farm that land and let it regenerate on its own and act as one big carbon sink,” says Wilson.  The end result is a surge in biodiversity — plants, animals, insects — which support a healthier environment, and healthier humans. Regenerating native forests is also beneficial for the climate, as they act as giant carbon sinks that help capture and store excess atmospheric carbon in the soil.  But regenerating native forests and other wildlife areas isn’t enough if we want to solve climate change, says Wilson. We must also significantly reduce the use of fossil fuels, he says, adding:  Wilson practices what he preaches. He rides his bicycle most places and walks two hours to and from work every day. He also lives in a house with no electricity and uses water heated by solar energy. His primary mode of communication is through a landline telephone.  The work at Hinewai Reserve is made possible in part due to the donations of generous supporters from all over the world. Find out how to support the reserve at FoolsandDreamers.com.  The big takeaway of the featured film is to encourage people to do their part in protecting the planet. That could mean planting for the birds and bees and putting a few flowers in your garden. It could mean riding your bicycle more, using solar energy or growing your own food. For tips on how to grow your own garden using permaculture or regenerative agriculture practices, click here.


tass--2019-01-21--Yakutia organizes nature reserve to protect polar bear population

YAKUTSK, January 21. /TASS/. Yakutia’s Ministry of Ecology plans to organize in 2020 in the region’s north a federal nature reserve to protect the polar bears’ population. The new reserve’s base will be the existing Bear Islands National Park, which is the animals’ main area for reproduction, the ministry told TASS.  Scientists say it is practically impossible to count polar bears due to the wide area and migration. The main criterion is how many times scientists "meet" polar bears during their autumn and spring monitoring sessions. For example, in 2018, they registered 31 meetings, a year earlier - 15, and in 2016 - 50.  The national park, organized in 2014, takes almost 14,000 hectares. The group of Bear Islands is in the East Siberian Sea, some 130 km north from the Kolyma’s estuary. The distance to nearest shore is 35-90 km.  The national park was created to preserve and protect highly productive wetlands, Arctic birds’ nesting sites, areas, where rare and endangered species of animals live. The rocky coastal cliffs are bird bazaars, and the islands are well-known for being "maternity homes" for polar bears.  In other media


theguardianuk--2019-09-20--Englands national parks must do more to protect nature

England’s national parks ‘must do more to protect nature’

National parks and areas of outstanding natural beauty have not done enough to protect nature or welcome diverse visitors, and extra government funding must help drive radical change, according to a review.  The independent review, commissioned by the former environment secretary Michael Gove, praises the work of England’s 44 “national landscapes”, including the Lake District and Dartmoor, but calls for a new focus to stop declines in nature and welcome working-class and black and minority ethnic visitors.  The review, led by the writer Julian Glover, calls for parks, which cover nearly a quarter of England, to have a clear national mission to reverse environmental decline, assisted by 1,000 new rangers. It says every schoolchild should be given the chance to visit the parks and spend a night under the stars.  “National parks and AONBs have done their best to protect nature but it’s not been good enough,” said Glover. “Nature is in crisis in our protected landscapes just as it’s in crisis outside them. We’re not blaming national parks and AONBs but we want to give them to the tools to do more, and recover declining nature.”  Glover said the national parks were created after the second world war to serve the whole country and have proved “immensely popular”, managing natural beauty well, particularly when receiving just £48m annual government funding between them. National parks generate more than £20bn for the rural economy, and support 75,000 jobs.  He added: “But our country has changed and we need to change the way we run our landscapes to keep pace with that. One thing is to make sure everyone feels welcome in those landscapes and the other is to make sure the way they are run reflects the country as a whole.”  The review calls for the boards of national parks to better represent modern Britain – more than 99% of board members are white – and for a new programme to increase ethnic minority visits and ensure that minority groups see the parks as places for them.  Although more than 66% of people live within half an hour of a national park or AONB and they receive 94 million visitors each year, Glover said too many people don’t know what they are for.  The review calls for a new national park in the Chilterns and a new “national forest” covering areas such as Sherwood Forest, to help increase woodland to fight the climate crisis.  It wants long-term programmes to increase black and minority ethnic visitors, better information to guide visitors, affordable homes within the parks, and consideration of expanding open access rights – the right to roam – in the landscapes.  Other ideas in the review include improved transport to help widen access, bike racks for buses as occurs in Switzerland, and electric bikes and charging points for electric vehicles. There are currently almost no electric vehicle charging points in some vast national parks.  The environment secretary, Theresa Villiers, welcomed the “spirit of ambition” and said the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which commissioned the review, would “carefully consider” its recommendations.  She said: “These landscapes are the jewels in the crown of our countryside and are a cornerstone of our rural economy. We are committed to ensuring they flourish as havens for nature and sites that everyone in the country goes to visit for inspiration, adventure or relaxation.”  Corinne Pluchino, the chief executive of the charity Campaign for National Parks, said: “We welcome the timely publication of this ambitious agenda for our most beautiful landscapes. There is an pressing need to address the urgent challenges in our national parks. We will be reviewing the report in detail and will be working to ensure the momentum is maintained.”