theguardianuk--2019-11-12--'We depend on the Tongass': Alaskans fight to save US’s largest national forest

Tribal leaders, fishermen and environmentalists from Alaska will testify before Congress on Wednesday in a bid to save America’s biggest national forest – the latest battle against the Trump administration’s assault on environmental protections.  The Tongass national forest, one of the world’s last intact temperate rainforests which plays a crucial role in fighting the climate crisis, is under threat of logging as Alaska seeks exemption from the Roadless Rule, which protects millions of acres of pristine forests across the US. The Tongass is considered the “crown jewel” of the national forest system, sequestering huge amounts of carbon dioxide to keep the greenhouse gas out of the atmosphere.  The Roadless Rule prevents mass clearcutting of trees in undeveloped forested areas and is seen as one of the most broadly supported environmental protections in the US.  Donald Trump has reportedly intervened in the Alaska case, raising fears that other states with strong extractive industry lobbying machines will seek to fast-track similar exemptions without properly consulting communities on the impact that felling trees in wilderness areas will have.  “There are indications that many other states are watching to see what happens with Alaska, which has shown us how this administration is blindly following whatever industry, corporations and lobbyists want without thinking about future generations,” said Blaine Miller-McFeeley, senior legislative representative at the legal not-for-profit Earthjustice.  Wednesday’s hearing by the Natural Resources Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Land (NPFPL) will hear evidence on the potentially devastating consequences for the Tongass and its people.  “We’ve been here for thousands of years. These are our lands and we depend on the Tongass for food security,” Joel Jackson, 63, president of the organized village of Kake, said.  “Tribes everywhere are worried and watching very closely at what they’re trying to do in Alaska,” added Jackson, who will testify.  “Tourism and commercial fishing run this region economically, not timber, which is a pathetically small sector,” said Lance Preston, 47, a fisherman and board member of the Seafood Producers Cooperative in Sitka. “The salmon already faces challenges from ocean acidification and warming … A very small minority stands to gain economically by being very irresponsible.”  Stretching 16m acres over 500 miles, the Tongass is unique in its size and biodiversity, with thousands of islands, waterways, glacial fjords and green valleys flanked by rugged mountains and sprawling forests of old-growth cedar, spruce and hemlock trees.  It is home to myriad species including wild Pacific salmon, brown bears, wolves, Sitka black-tailed deer and bald eagles, and attracts more than a million visitors annually.  The Roadless Rule was adopted during the Clinton administration after an extensive public consultation, in which 96% of the 1 million participants nationwide supported protection for unspoiled forests.  Since then Alaska has fought the regulation, but its efforts to roll back the protection have been repeatedly thwarted in Congress and the courts.  Then, the state’s petition for an exemption was granted by the Department of Agriculture in August 2018 without consulting any tribal nations.  The state was given $2m in federal funds by the Forest Service (FS) to help facilitate dialogue about six potential outcomes ranging from no change to full exemption.  At least 10% of this money was given to the Alaska Forest Association – a timber industry group – to aid their participation in the process, according to documents obtained by KTOO.  The Angoon Cooperative Association, Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes, Hoonah Indian Association, Hydaburg Cooperative Association, organized village of Kake and organized village of Kasaan – which all have roots in the Tongass dating back thousands of years – were belatedly offered a seat at the table as “cooperating agencies” alongside the state in the review process.  The tribes say they were not given any financial support leaving them scrambling to make sense of complex long document. Their requests for extensions were repeatedly denied.  In June, Trump held a private meeting with Alaska’s governor, Mike Dunleavy, on Air Force One. Shortly after, Trump instructed the agriculture secretary, Sonny Perdue, to grant a full exemption, according to the Washington Post.  Last month, a full exemption, opening the door for the logging industry to bulldoze roads and clearcut trees over 9m acres, was recommended in the draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).  In response, tribal leaders wrote to Perdue condemning the federal government’s rushed and unfair handling of the proposed exemption, which they said “represents the most controversial and potentially destructive assault on our way of life to date”.  In the Tongass, the tribes mostly live on isolated islands, relying on salmon fishing, deer, moose, grouse and berries. This traditional diet remains extremely important amid rising food prices and cuts to ferry services.  “All communities deserve to have access to the resources they rely on for subsistence, but this administration has gone out of its way to change the rules for their friends who seek to profit off those resources,” said the New Mexico congresswoman Deb Haaland, chair of the NPFPL.  In May, fellow committee member and Arizona congressman Ruben Gallego, and the Washington senator Maria Cantwell, senior member of the Senate energy and natural resources committee, introduced legislation to codify the Roadless Rule in order to permanently protect millions of acres of pristine national forests.  The 2019 Roadless Area Conservation Act would prevent state exemptions to the rule, which nationwide protects habitats for 1,600 threatened or endangered species, reduces wildfire risk and supplies clean drinking water to 60 million Americans and 350 communities across the US.  “The administration continues to try to solve 21st-century problems with 19th-century thinking, trying to extract a relatively small amount from our few remaining pristine natural areas,” said Cantwell.  Nationally, public support for the Roadless Rule remains strong: a Pew poll in March of this year found three-quarters of respondents want protections to remain in place.  Locally, the vast majority of south-east Alaska’s 32 native and white communities also support the current roadless protection.  But the Alaska congressman Don Young, the Republican leader of the NPFPL, believes the Roadless Rule has been a “disaster” for his home state. He has been working closely with Trump, senior White House staff and the rest of the Alaska delegation to secure an exemption.  “Congressman Young believes an exemption is needed to not only boost the economy of south-east Alaska, but to bolster the long-term health of the Tongass national forest by promoting active resource management,” a spokesperson said.  The rule already allows for individual exemptions: in Alaska, every single request for the Tongass to date – more than 50 – for projects like mines and dams has been approved.  Dunleavy’s office did not respond to requests for comment, but has previously blamed the rule for destroying logging and thousands of jobs.  The timber industry contributes less than 1% to the south-east Alaska economy, compared to 25% by the fishing and tourism industries combined.  Tongass waterways produce 80% of the commercial salmon annually harvested from south-east Alaska, valued at $60m. The FS has lost almost $600m on Tongass timber sales over the last 20 years, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense.  The FS is legally obliged to take into account public opinion before making its final decision, which is expected in mid-2020.  If it is fully repealed as Alaskan Republicans want, 5m acres of the Chugach national forest, which is second only to the Tongass in roadless acreage, could also be threatened, according to the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council.  In both forests, vital food sources and Native cultural and sacred sites are at risk.  “If we didn’t have wild food to eat, we would be starving right now. We are living in virtual poverty because of the systems of government,” said Wanda Culip, a Tlingit advocate for the Tongass in Hoonah. “The Roadless Rule is just the latest example of how we jump through hoops but get nowhere – there is no due process for indigenous communities. We are nuisance communities standing in the way of industry profits.”


theindependent--2019-02-16--Plan to plant genetically engineered trees throughout US to save dying forests

Plans are under way to plant swathes of genetically engineered trees across the ailing forests of North America in a bid to save them from the ravages of disease and pests.  Species such as the ash tree and whitebark pine have faced catastrophic declines of up to half their populations after creatures introduced from overseas tore through their defences.  With some trees driven to the brink of extinction, some scientists have called for drastic action to help forests fight back against the pests.  “The reason they are so deadly is that native species are not genetically adapted to defend against them,” explained Dr Ines Ibanez, an ecologist from the University of Michigan.  This problem can be fixed by providing trees with the genetic tools they need to fight their attackers.  “People are interested in exploring the potential of biotechnology, which could be used to introduce a specific trait unto a tree species or make it resistant or tolerant a disease or pest,” said Dr Jason Delborne, a social scientist at North Carolina State University  While genetic engineering normally takes place within tight restrictions, these GM trees would be created with the express intention of spreading far and wide.  This prompted the US government to enlist Drs Delborne and Ibanez along with other collaborators from across the academic spectrum to assess whether the nation should embark on such an enormous leap into the unknown.  Their work has come at a crucial time, as efforts to genetically modify trees are already under way.  Perhaps the most successful project has been one targeting the American chestnut, which was all but wiped out by a fungal blight in the mid-1900s.  Chestnuts used to make up around a quarter of the trees in eastern US forests, but after 6 billion were killed the remnant population is nothing but stumps.  But the tree may have found a saviour in the form of a pioneering project led by Professor William Powell at SUNY-ESF, which has created chestnut trees with an extra gene from wheat that detoxifies the fungus.  Tests have shown these new strains are resistant to the blight, providing hope for the future of the species.  “The goal for them is to make it deregulated so they could plant it freely in the environment, then over a decade you could plant chestnut tees and they would spread and repopulate the forest. That’s the vision,” said Prof Powell.  Unlike many GM species, these trees would not be commercial given the primary end goal is simply to restore nature to its former glory and not make money.  Nevertheless, such technologies could still face a backlash, and the scientists presenting their work at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Washington DC urged caution.  “Some people love that idea, others say ‘You want to release a GMO in wild forests, are you kidding?’ said Dr Delborne.  Dr Ibanez said a broad range of measures will be necessary to save the nation’s forests, including breeding programmes and the search for natural genetic resistance in populations. While genetic engineering cannot yet be viewed as a silver bullet to solve the problem, it may still prove essential.  “We may start losing species quite fast, and want to have this in our toolbox,” she said.


theindependent--2019-04-24--The fight to save Polandaposs Bialowieza Forest from destruction

The fight to save Poland's Bialowieza Forest from destruction

The forest floor is a graveyard, covered with fallen spruce and oak trees. But beneath the broken limbs and rotting leaves, thousands of species of insects are feeding in Bialowieza Forest. Fungi of many types are found only here and sprout year-round. More are discovered every year.  More than 200 species of birds, including rare woodpeckers and owls, fill the air with song.  “There is more life in a dead spruce than a living one,” says Professor Rafal Kowalczyk, the leader of the Mammal Research Institute at the Polish Academy of Sciences, during a tour of the forest – one of Europe’s last remaining primeval forests and part of an ecosystem largely untouched since the last glaciers receded from the continent more than 10,000 years ago.  It has been more than a year since the European Court of Justice ordered an end to logging in the forest, finding that it posed a clear threat to the world heritage site.  The scars, though, are still visible – from the tracks gouged into the earth by the heavy machinery used to cut down thousands of ancient trees to the gaping holes in the canopy created by their removal.  The ruling was a major defeat for Poland’s governing Law and Justice party, which supported the logging. Warsaw initially defied the court order, but relented when faced with a fine of €100,000 (about £87,000) for each day it violated the directive.  The battle over Bialowieza is just one of many being waged by the right-wing government against the European Union, which has accused Poland of posing a risk to democratic values and the rule of law by trying to pack its courts and restrict press freedoms.  Now there are fears that the Polish government is once again drawing up plans to increase logging in the area, skirting the ruling by increasing the quota for wood in the hundreds of square miles of forest that lies outside the boundaries of the world heritage site.  The protected part of the Bialowieza woodland, which covers about 550 square miles and extends into neighbouring Belarus, was long the hunting ground for European nobility and royalty, including Lithuanian dukes, Polish kings and Russian czars.  During the German occupation of Poland, Hermann Göring was so enamoured of the forest that he drew up plans to create the world’s largest hunting grounds and establish a Nazi Jurassic Park of sorts, reintroducing prehistoric animals to the landscape.  As a playground of the rich and powerful, Bialowieza was spared the fate of so many of the continent’s other forests, most of which were razed and some of which were turned into intensively controlled versions of nature.  The order imposed on some of these European forests is remarkable.  Armies of forest rangers relentlessly clear dead wood and undergrowth to create near perfect carpets beneath the pines. The woods can feel more like nurseries than wild spaces.  “We have forgotten what nature looks like,” Kowalczyk says.  But Bialowieza has remained wild and unruly.  Its remoteness and mostly pristine condition helped make it the site of one of the continent’s great conservation victories – the reintroduction of bison after the last free-roaming animal was hunted and killed in 1919.  The forest is now home to Europe’s largest herd of bison, or wisent.  “Most people, when they think about forests, think about managed nature,” says Kowalczyk, who first came to Bialowieza in the 1980s. “This place is so different than any forest I had ever seen.”  While the bison was a big success story, a much smaller creature, the hairy little bark beetle, set off the logging fight.  Spruce trees, especially when in a weakened state, make a perfect mating ground for the beetles. The male bores into the tree, creating a chamber where he will release pheromones to attract females. He will mate with several of them, who in turn will deposit dozens of eggs in the chamber before flying off to find new mates.  The larvae left behind will feed on the vascular tissue of the tree. By the time they pupate, the damage they have done often has sucked the life from the spruce.  The tracks from the beetles, known as printers, can still be spotted in felled trees all across the forest.  Warmer winters, brought on by climate change, have allowed the population to explode. And the preference of forest managers for spruce trees has expanded the territory where they can thrive.  By 2016, it was clear that the beetle infestation in Bialowieza was devastating large tracts of trees.  For many scientists, the best way to manage the infestation was to leave it alone, letting nature take its course.  “The bark beetle has been a part of the ecosystem for hundreds of years,” says Adam Bohdan, a biologist from the Wild Poland Foundation. “This phenomenon is a natural adaptation to the new climate situation.”  But the Polish government did not agree. It argued that the lack of human intervention in the forest would doom it.  So Jan Szyszko, the environment minister at the time, ordered a large-scale logging campaign, allowing heavy machinery to roll into pristine areas of woodland.  “We will rebuild the valuable habitats in the Bialowieza Forest by removing dead trees as much as is necessary and restoring the oaks and ashes,” Szyszko declared in 2016.  The move was greeted with outrage, with protesters descending on the forest, setting up an encampment and forming human blockades to try to stop the heavy machinery.  An army of more than 1,000 forest rangers from around the country was dispatched to a small village on the border of Belarus ready to confront the activists.  At times, tempers boiled over into violence. Skirmishes broke out as activists engaged in coordinated acts of civil disobedience.  But it was not until the European court threatened financial penalties that the logging ended.  A report issued by Unesco in February found that the “logging operations and other forest management activities have disrupted the ecological and natural processes in the property”.  But it was not beyond repair, according to the report. And the forest is much quieter now. New life is replacing the old, although beetles remain a problem with no easy solution.  “In the natural forest, there is two times more dead wood than living,” says Bohdan, who took part in the protests a year ago. “It is really a unique laboratory.”  “But all the time,” he says, “there is a worry that they will start logging again.”


theindependent--2019-06-19--2020 was supposed to be a crucial milestone in the fight to save our precious rainforests - but comp

2020 was supposed to be a crucial milestone in the fight to save our precious rainforests - but companies are giving up

Cargill – one of the world’s biggest agricultural commodities traders – has warned that it, along with the broader food industry, expects to miss its target to halt deforestation.  Cargill, along with household names like Nestle and Unilever, is one of 400 companies that have signed a pledge to achieve zero net deforestation by 2020 through responsible sourcing of commodities like soya and palm oil from producers. But in the decade since this agreement was penned, little progress has been made in tackling the global deforestation associated with food production. In fact, in that time an area twice the size of the UK of forest has been cut to grow our food.  The news sits uncomfortably next to accusations that major global firms are not disclosing their environmental impact – with disclosure group CPD calling out over 700 companies, including Amazon, Tesco and ExxonMobil, for a lack transparency.  At a time of big words and big intentions – like the climate emergency declared by the UK Parliament just weeks ago – we need to take real action if we're going to stop this impending crisis.  Theresa May, in her recent commitment to end the UK’s emissions by 2050, didn't even mention in her government press release the emissions generated through UK imports, like the impact of mass deforestation in other countries to grow the UK’s food.  In this frame, it wouldn’t be entirely cynical to suggest that Cargill’s warning last week is just an expectations management PR exercise, rather than a real willingness to reverse this troubling trend on global deforestation.  If the destruction of tropical forests were a country it would be the world’s third-largest emitter of CO2 – behind only China and the US. Forests act as vital carbon sinks, representing a quarter of all planned emissions reductions by 2030. Yet we are cutting them down ever faster: deforestation in the Amazon hit a decade high last year. If we don’t stop destroying our forests, we don’t stand a chance of slowing catastrophic climate breakdown.  And we’re not just in danger of failing to fulfil (potentially empty) emissions promises. Agribusiness and deforestation are an enormous risk and danger to human lives – a key driver of violence against land and environmental activists. These land and environment defenders are routinely intimidated, attacked and, in far too many cases, killed for resisting the seizure of their land for industrial agriculture and other environmentally destructive industries like mining and hydropower.  Last year, Global Witness reported on the death of Mexican activist Isidro Baldenegro. His work defending the forests of the Sierra Tarahumara was so widely admired it won him the prestigious global Goldman Award for activism. But it also caught the eye of local loggers and drug traffickers, and he was shot and killed by a suspected hitman – the same fate as befell his father 30 years earlier. These kind of attacks lie at the sharpest end of harmful deforestation, driven by major global businesses.  As businesses have shown they can’t get their own house in order, governments now need to step up. The EU is soon to announce overdue plans to step up their efforts to tackle deforestation. The UK also has an opportunity through the forthcoming Environment Bill. Pressures are increasing for policy makers to adopt new rules forcing companies to check their supply chain and investments for deforestation, environmental harm and human rights abuses.  But companies like Cargill – the largest privately held corporation in the United States by revenue – play a critical role too. Cargill’s moto is ‘Helping the World Thrive’, boasted on its website header with smiling videos of families walking through luscious fields of greenery.  But, as they warned, they themselves are falling short on their promise. As we hurtle towards environmental disaster, words are no longer enough. If Cargill wants to deliver on its pledges, and other companies like it really want to help the world thrive, they’re going to need to redouble their efforts to stop deforestation, protect the people who defend the environment and tackle the climate crisis face on.  2020 was supposed to be a crucial milestone in the fight to save our precious rainforests. There is still time for companies to rise to the challenge, but all the signs are that this will need real, swift and – crucially – lasting action.  Jo Blackman is head of advocacy at Global Witness


theguardianuk--2019-07-28--How an army of citizen scientists is helping save our most elusive animals

How an army of ‘citizen scientists’ is helping save our most elusive animals

Roland Ascroft’s first attempt to become a citizen scientist was nearly his last. The 63-year-old conservationist volunteered to take part in a wildlife monitoring project in 2015 and began by placing a camera trap in the woods opposite his house at New Brancepeth, near Durham. For three weeks he checked every day to see if the device had been triggered by animals moving in front of it, but found nothing had set it off.  “I was about to give up when I moved my camera trap for one last attempt – and found next morning that I had photographed a roe deer in the early morning,” says Ascroft. “I was hooked.”  Since then Ascroft has set up 20 camera traps that have taken more than 75,000 remotely triggered photographs of wildlife in Deerness Woods.  His work is one of a series of projects that have been set up by Doing It Together Science (Dito), an EU citizen science programme that has been co-ordinated by researchers at University College London. Two major strands were selected for special attention: bio-design – the use of living things (such as bacteria and plants) in product design, and environmental monitoring. As one of the latter projects, a group at Durham University, led by Dr Phil Stephens and including researcher Pen-Yuan Hsing, set up MammalWeb which uses camera traps – digital cameras triggered by an animal’s heat and movement – to monitor wildlife in the north-east. Ascroft was one of their first volunteers.  His images of Deerness have revealed that, in addition to cats and dogs, 17 different species of mammal have made their homes in the woods – animals that range from roe deer to pygmy shrews and include otters, hares, stoats and badgers. For good measure, Ascroft has also photographed 38 species of birds, including jays, sparrowhawks, owls and woodpeckers.  It is a startling, rich array of wildlife and has led to moves to have Deerness Woods formally declared a nature reserve by Durham county council. “The idea is particularly satisfactory as the site used to be a colliery and an industrial centre that were not closed until the 1960s,” says Ascroft. “As my camera trap photographs have shown, there has been a remarkable return of wildlife to the place.”  He added: “Once I got the hang of locating my camera traps, I was most pleased to find that there were otters on the river here. They are shy, nocturnal and stick to cover, so getting pictures of them is hard. I was delighted to get images of them – and also to get pictures of a stoat, which is also tricky to photograph.”  However, the most surprising of the images he found on his camera traps were those of a pair of South American or ring-tailed coatis, a member of the raccoon family that derives from tropical and subtropical regions – and which turned out to be escapees from a local owner. They have since been caught and returned.  By contrast, the discovery, from his photographs that there are mink in Deerness Woods was grim news. Mink are predators of the water vole, which has suffered catastrophic declines in population in recent decades.  “I am sure it is no coincidence I have not seen a single image of a water vole in the woods,” says Ascroft, although both bank and wood voles have been targeted by his cameras.  Pen-Yuan Hsing, who helped to set up MammalWeb and who recruited Ascroft, told the Observer that his work had demonstrated the power of citizen science in general and the Dito scheme in particular. “Roland’s data was so good it fed into the local authorities who are now planning a local nature reserve there, one that includes protection for the population of deer,” says Pen-Yuan. “This is how someone as a citizen has used science to discover something that led to real policy change.”  The Dito project, which ran in nine EU countries, has just come to an end after three years.


thetelegraph--2019-11-11--Drought-hit Zimbabwe plans mass elephant rescue to save animals at risk of starvation

Zimbabwe is planning an enforced mass migration of wildlife away from a park in the country's south, where thousands of animals are at risk of death due to drought-induced starvation.  At least 200 elephants have already died at two other parks due to lack of food and water, along with scores of buffalo and antelope, Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (Zimparks) said on Monday.  "They will continue (to die) until the rains come. The biggest threat to our animals right now is loss of habitat," Zimparks spokesman Tinashe Farawo told Reuters.  The El Nino-induced drought has also taken its toll on crops, leaving more than half of the population in need of food aid.  Ms Farawo said Zimparks and private partners planned to move 600 elephants - as well as giraffe, lions, buffalo, antelope and spotted wild dogs - from Save Valley Conservancy in southern Zimbabwe to three other national parks.  "This is the biggest translocation of animals in the history of wildlife movement here because we are talking of distances of more than 1,000 kilometres," said Ms Farawo.  It will start once the summer rains come. Those are expected to start this week, which would offer major relief for the stricken animals and for farmers who are preparing for the 2019/20 planting season.


cnn--2019-02-12--Butterfly conservationists ask court to stop border wall construction

The association operates the National Butterfly Center, which is just north of the Rio Grande in Texas and adjacent to one of the first new wall projects being constructed under President Donald Trump. These projects are already approved and funded as part of the fiscal year 2018 budget.  The National Butterfly Center posted a photo last week that appeared to show one of the first excavation vehicles that will be used for wall construction. A Customs and Border Protection official could not confirm the photo, but did confirm that an excavator had been staged on US Fish and Wildlife Service property near the center.  The nonprofit association argues that construction must be stopped to prevent the "seizure and destruction" of its property and to prevent "adverse environmental impacts" to threatened and endangered species and critical habitats, according to the complaint it filed Monday.  The association is asking the judge to grant a temporary restraining order against construction. The government's response is due to the court on February 22.  The butterfly conservationists have been fighting the wall construction in court for more than a year, first filing suit in December 2017 against the Department of Homeland Security over the government's plans.


eveningstandard--2019-05-31--UKaposs aposblue beltapos now twice the size of England as 41 marine conservation zones added

UK's 'blue belt' now twice the size of England as 41 marine conservation zones added to the zone

More than 40 new areas have been added to the UK’s “blue belt” of marine conservation zones around England’s coastline.  The 41 new protected areas range from the coast of Northumberland, designated to protect eider ducks, to the seas south of the Isles of Scilly, which supports seabirds, fish and basking sharks.  Other species that could benefit from the new wave of protection include the rare stalked jellyfish, short-snouted seahorse and blue mussel beds.  The newly designated protected areas cover 4,600 square miles of England's seas - an area almost eight times the size of London, the Environment Department (Defra) said.  With the new marine conservation zones, the UK's "blue belt" of protected sites spans 85,000 square miles around the seas of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.  Conservationists described the introduction of the 41 areas as "fantastic" and said good management was now needed to stop damaging activities in the sites in order to protect wildlife.  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."  The designation of the new sites follows a consultation, including with local fishermen, marine conservation experts and 48,000 responses from the public.  All of the proposed sites have been designated, and protections expanded at 12 existing sites.  Dr Jean-Luc Solandt, from the Marine Conservation Society, said: "The UK has a growing network of more than 300 marine protected areas, but 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."  Alec Taylor, head of marine policy at WWF, warned: "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.  "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.  Charles Clover, executive director of the Blue Marine Foundation, warned there was a need to protect the conservation zones from fishing, otherwise they were just "paper parks".  "Places highly and fully protected from fishing, especially fisheries using towed gears like bottom trawls and scallop dredges, as well as from aggregate dredging, maintenance dredging, dumping and land-based pollution, are shown to have thriving seabed communities."  But he said trawls and dredges were only banned in 5% of UK marine protected areas, and there was more trawling and fewer fish inside them than outside.  "If we dramatically increase levels of protection for these places, we would have a world class network that would deliver the clean, healthy, safe, productive and biologically diverse oceans and seas the government aspires to," he said.


eveningstandard--2019-06-26--Conservation work begins on largest protected area for oysters on Thames estuary after years of poll

Conservation work begins on largest protected area for oysters on Thames estuary after years of pollution and over fishing

The first Mother Oyster Sanctuary is set to be created in the Thames estuary in a bid to increase the oyster population which have been hit by pollution, disease and loss of natural habitat.  Working in the only Marine Conservation Zone in England for native oysters, the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) - chaired ENORI, which is a coalition of oystermen, local communities, NGOs, universities and UK Government, have begun creating the habitat required for the Mother Oyster Sanctuary, replenishing the Thames estuary’s lost oysters.  Over the last 200 years the oyster population has decreased by 95% due to historic overfishing and the oysters’ recovery has also been hindered by habitat loss, pollution and the introduction of diseases. Conservationists have concluded that microplastics do pose a risk to the health of shellfish and fish, though some species such as mussels are better at expelling microplastics and oysters are more sensitive to microplastics than mussels. The main risk pollutant on the Thames was previously TBT (Tributyltin), an anti-fouling paint used on boats which is now banned but as oysters are filter feeders, any chemical spill disrupts them.  As part of the project, ‘recycled’ shells from oysters bred in Mersea and sold in Borough Market and West Mersea as well as cockleshells from the Thames cockle fleet have been used to “lay the cultch” which means there is a hard surface for the oysters to grown on.  Once the “cultch laying” is completed, adult females or ‘mother oysters’ are laid, which when conditions are right, will spawn in the coming weeks; initiating the first stages of the native oyster’s life cycle.  Oyster farming has been recorded in Mersea since the Roman times, although populations of the European native, or Colchester oyster have suffered dramatic declines.  ZSL’s senior conservation programme manager for UK & Europe, Alison Debney, said: “It may not be glamorous work, but laying ‘mother oysters’ at the right time is vital to the success of the restoration programme, and therefore vital for the survival of this native British species.ENORI was founded in 2013 by the conservation coalition in an attempt to restore a nationally important breeding population that once supported hundreds of fishermen.  “The coalition has since moved more than 25,000 native oysters to Essex estuaries, as well as ensuring that fishing in the area is prohibited until the oyster stocks have sufficiently recovered and are able to withstand sustainable harvesting.”  Oysters are known as ‘ecosystem engineers’ and one adult oyster, for example, can filter more than 140 litres of water in a single day.  Dr Rebecca Korda, senior marine advisor at Natural England, said: “We are thrilled to be part of this collaboration which sees an array of stakeholders coming together and showing incredible innovation and drive to work to restore the native oyster and the native oyster beds back to the Essex waters. This is a hugely exciting and important step in taking this work forward and we are delighted to continue to support and contribute to the project."  Rachel Langley, living seas co-ordinator at Essex Wildlife Trust, said: “We are delighted that this exciting project is evolving into its next phase and we have no doubt that the outcome of ENORI’s pioneering restoration work will be extremely positive for the Native oyster population and subsequently the marine ecosystem in Essex.”  ENORI is a joint venture between ZSL, Essex Wildlife Trust, Blackwater Oysterman’s Association, Blue Marine Foundation, The University of Essex, The Nature Conservancy, River Roach Oyster Company, Colchester Oyster Fishery, CEFAS, Natural England, the Environment Agency, and the Kent and Essex Inshore Fisheries Authority (KEIFCA).  To find out more about ZSL’s Thames conservation projects and the Mother Thames campaign, visit www.zsl.org/MotherThames


eveningstandard--2019-10-16--Remembering Lions: London photography exhibition raises money for big cat conservation

A new photography exhibition has opened celebrating the majesty of lions.  Remembering Lions is running at La Galleria Pall Mall, showing images from a charity book aiming to raise awareness for the plight facing these big cats, as well as raising funds to protect them.  There are 70 photographs on show and all are for sale. Wildlife photographers Marsel van Oosten, Frans Lanting, Art Wolfe, Steve Winter and Michael Poliza are among those featured.  Remembering Lions is the fourth book in a series that highlights animals in danger — the number of lions has decreased by half in the last 25 years. The book was funded via kickstarter so that all profits would go to conservation projects. The previous editions profiled rhinos, elephants and great apes.  Take a look through the gallery at some of the breathtaking images.


france24--2019-08-28--Conservationists hail global agreement to limit sales of African elephants

TONY KARUMBA / AFP | This file photo taken on June 21, 2018 shows elephants clustered near a water source spotted from the air during a trial run for an aerial census at the Amboseli National Park.  Countries that are part of a global agreement on trade in endangered species agreed Tuesday to limit the sale of wild elephants caught in Zimbabwe and Botswana, delighting conservationists but dismaying some of the African countries involved.  Wildlife experts said a resolution approved by parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora at a meeting in Geneva was a "momentous win" for elephants because it restricts their sale to zoos.  The European Union tweaked the language of the resolution to reach a compromise that limits exports of live elephants outside of Africa but allows for some exceptions relevant to Europe.  Conservationists explained the change by giving an example, saying it would allow for an elephant already in France to be shipped to nearby Germany without having to be sent back to Africa first.  But the new resolution also means zoos will no longer be able to import wild-caught African elephants to the United States, China and many other countries beyond the elephants' natural habitat. The resolution passed by a vote of 87 in favor, 29 against and 25 abstaining. The U.S. voted against it.  Animal advocates applauded the move, even though some felt it didn't go far enough.  "While it is disappointing that it is not an outright ban on trade in live elephants, the new language adds vital independent oversight and scrutiny," said Audrey Delsink, wildlife director at Humane Society International.  "The capture of wild African elephants for export to zoos and other captive facilities is incredibly traumatizing for individual elephants as well as their social groups," she said in a statement.  Dozens of celebrities, including actress Judi Dench and comedian Ricky Gervais, had signed a letter to the president of the EU's executive branch saying it would be "obscene for the EU to endorse snatching wild baby elephants and condemning these beautiful leviathans to a life of captive misery."  Renowned primatologist Jane Goodall weighed in, too, saying she was "absolutely shocked" at the idea of separating young elephants from their families and shipping them off to zoos.  D.J. Schubert, wildlife biologist at the Animal Welfare Institute, said the VIP lobbying paid off.  "Probably thanks to the celebrities that got involved and all the press attention this initial decision got, the European Union was put in a bit of a box," Schubert said. "What they ultimately decided to do, to their credit, is they decided to come up with amended text instead of trying to trash the entire decision that was made last week."  The EU's action was part of a debate over language at CITES to restrict trade in live elephants to countries with "in-situ conservation programs" or secure areas in the wild - essentially in Africa.  Botswana and Zimbabwe have the world's largest populations of African elephants, for a combined total of about 200,000.  Some African officials said the new proposal would deny them some much-needed cash and that they should be free to do what they wished with their elephants.  "The government has been pumping out a lot of money for conservation with no real return, yet our government has competing social needs," said Tinashe Farawo, spokesman for Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority.  "We view our animals as an economic opportunity, so we should sell our elephants."  Farawo said that Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia and other southern African countries would meet for consultations following the CITES meeting.  "We cannot continue to be hamstrung and told what to do with our resources," Farawo said. "We cannot continue to allow powerful countries and NGOs to set the agenda when the elephants are ours," he said, disputing there was any conservation concern.  "We have too many of them so selling them should not be a problem for anyone. Why should we continue to impoverish our people when we have the resource?"


npr--2019-04-20--In Korean DMZ Wildlife Thrives Some Conservationists Worry Peace Could Disrupt It

In Korean DMZ, Wildlife Thrives. Some Conservationists Worry Peace Could Disrupt It  The quiet of the late-winter morning is interrupted by a staccato of gunshots.  "Military drills," shrugs Kim Seung-ho, 58, the director of the DMZ Ecology Research Institute, a nonprofit organization that does research on the wildlife in the Demilitarized Zone, or DMZ, which is the border area between North and South Korea. A thick blanket of fog seeps over the forested hills on this late-winter morning as Kim stands, searching the horizon for birds, on the bank of the Imjin River just north of Paju, South Korea.  This morning, Kim and the institute's intern Pyo Gina, 24, are on their weekly trip to count birds just outside the DMZ, a 155-mile-long, 2.5-mile-wide strip of land that has been virtually untouched by humans for more than six decades. This strip of land became an unintentional wildlife sanctuary when the two Koreas pulled back from the area after an armistice was signed in their 1950-53 war.  The DMZ is fortified with tall, barbed-wire fences, riddled with land mines and heavily guarded by the respective countries' militaries, keeping all human disturbances to a minimum. After people left the area, plants and wildlife were able to grow unrestrained. But with increasing goodwill between North and South Korea, environmentalists like Kim fear that the protected nature of the area is changing and may lead to detrimental effects on the wildlife.  "I can't help but worry that this area will face a serious threat. If we had preserved the region because we had agreed it's environmentally valuable, then it can be kept intact regardless of political circumstances. But this region was preserved because of the presence of military forces," says Kim. "Once the military tension disappears, it may naturally follow that people feel a strong urge to transform the area."  Even with tentative overtures toward peace, the two Koreas appear to be far from a place where the DMZ would disappear completely. Talks of a peace agreement have come up in the past, like a peace declaration made in 2000, but progress has been slow. Despite positive measures at a summit between North and South Korean leaders last fall, President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's failed summit in Hanoi in February was a setback for all.  "A sea eagle!" gasps Pyo. The white-tailed eagle coasts on spread wings before quickly ducking around a bend in the Imjin and is lost to sight.  According to South Korea's Ministry of Environment, more than 5,000 species of plants and animals have been identified in the area, including more than 100 that are protected. Vulnerable, near-threatened and endangered animals in the DMZ include the Siberian musk deer, white-naped crane, red-crowned crane, Asiatic black bear, cinereous vulture and long-tailed goral — a species of wild goat.  Kim and Pyo count birds in the Civilian Control Zone, an area up to about 6 miles wide that runs along the southern side of the DMZ. Because of the restricted nature of the DMZ itself, the institute can only do research on the periphery. Although public access to the civilian zone is also restricted and the perimeter is lined by barbed wire and military guard posts, Kim has clearance to enter for research purposes.  The CCZ is mainly used for agriculture — farmers are allowed in to work their fields and the acres of rice paddies grown inside the perimeter are a quiet feeding ground in the winter for many migratory birds.  Don't see the graphic above? Click here.  "Preserving the DMZ area should also mean preserving the Civilian Control Zone," says Kim, standing on a narrow path between rice paddies. "If we only preserve the DMZ proper, the variety of birds that come here will be curtailed. Small forest birds can both find enough food and inside the DMZ, but bigger birds come out here for food and go back in the DMZ just to sleep."  The endangered red-crowned crane, one of the rarest cranes in the world, winters in the area, relying on the spent grains left in the fields of the CCZ for food and sleeping in the quiet of the DMZ. There are only about 3,000 of this type of crane left in the world, according the International Crane Foundation. The civilian zone plays an important role in the preservation of the DMZ wildlife, acting as a buffer to minimize traffic to the edges of the DMZ itself.  In a sign of thawing tensions, the two Koreas began a joint project in October to remove land mines from the DMZ. Development projects are in the works, as well as roads and railroads and, eventually, possible development in the civilian zone.  "Demining inevitably destroys the nature," says Jung Suyoung, 37, a taxonomy expert and researcher at the National DMZ Botanical Garden, as he looks out from the grounds toward the edge of the zone, less than 5 miles away. He fears the detrimental effects of digging up land mines and the displacement of plants that is inevitable in the process.  "Some, including myself, argue that we should leave the DMZ as it is and try not to utilize the land," he says.  The botanical garden, opened in 2016, is filled with plants indigenous to the DMZ. It spills down a landscaped hillside in a valley encircled by mountains.  Inside a greenhouse, a group of researchers fill hundreds of wide, flat trays with soil and carefully sow long, black seeds from the hosta plant, a leafy native species that won't grow tall enough to disrupt the military's view of the zone — a limitation the researchers must work around when planning their operations. The seeds will eventually grow into low-lying, bushy plants that the researchers plan to return to the edges of the DMZ to repopulate areas affected by landslides and invasive plant growth.  Efforts to preserve the DMZ and surrounding areas are underway. The Ministry of the Environment in South Korea says it will announce measures this year to protect the environment before more development in the area. Talks will be held with the defense ministry and other key players before finalizing conservation guidelines.  The South Korean government is also pushing for the entire DMZ to be named a biosphere reserve through UNESCO, as a joint effort with North Korea. This allocation would require a wide buffer zone that limits development in areas alongside the DMZ. A previous application by the South Korean government in 2012 failed, in part because of a lack of rules limiting development by landowners in the surrounding areas.  Kim and Pyo, along with a handful of institute volunteers, continue their research every week. The institute plans to use data they collect to advise the government on where it might be best to build roads and buildings and where people could come and go with the least amount of disruption to the animals.  "It's a sad reality that we have preserved the area because we can get killed if we go inside — not because of an ethical sense of duty to preserve the nature," Kim says after returning from the bird count, having tallied 32 different species of birds in just a few hours.  "Love of the nature is indeed my motivation, but at the same time, I do think the nature can provide answers to the problems humankind suffers from," he says. "We have to protect it — force it, if necessary — because it's an important asset for the future."


npr--2019-10-13--Border Wall Rising In Arizona, Raises Concerns Among Conservationists, Native Tribes

Construction has begun on President Trump's border wall between Arizona and Mexico, and conservationists are furious. The massive barrier will skirt one the most beloved protected areas in the Southwest — Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, recognized by the United Nations as an international biosphere reserve.  On a recent drive along the borderline, a crew was transplanting tall saguaro cactus out of the construction zone.  "There may be misconceptions that we are on a construction site and just not caring for the environment," intones a voice on a video released by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is overseeing the project. "We are relocating saguaro, organ pipe, ocotillo..."  But a half-mile away, a big yellow bulldozer was scraping the desert clean and mowing down cactus columns that were likely older than the young man operating the dozer.  Customs and Border Protection later said 110 desert plants have been relocated, and unhealthy ones get bulldozed.  This scene illustrates why environmentalists are deeply skeptical of the government's plans. They fear that as CBP and the Defense Department race to meet the president's deadline of 450 miles of wall by Election Day 2020, they will plow through one of the most biologically and culturally rich regions of the continental United States.  The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has warned that the wall, with its bright lights, human activity and impermeable barrier, could negatively impact 23 endangered and at-risk species, including the Sonoran pronghorn antelope. And the National Park Service says construction could destroy 22 archaeological sites. Yet, for this stretch of western desert, the government has waived 41 federal environmental laws to expedite construction.  "This is a wall to fulfill a campaign promise. It's really clear. And that's what makes so many of us so angry. It's being done so fast outside the rule of law and we know it'll have an incredible impact," says Kevin Dahl, Arizona representative for the National Parks Conservation Association. He sits beside a serene, spring-fed pond fringed by cattails, and dive-bombed by dragonflies. It is called Quitobaquito Springs, and it's located on the southern edge of the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument.  A biologist peers into a rivulet that feeds this oasis in the middle of the Sonoran desert.  "These guys are very tiny, maybe half the size of a sesame seed. Those are the Quitobaquito tryonia. And there are literally thousands in here," says Jeff Sorensen, wildlife specialist supervisor with Arizona Game and Fish Department. He's an expert on this tiny snail, which is one of three species — along with a mud turtle and a pupfish — whose entire universe is this wetland.  The springs have been used for 16,000 years by Native Americans, followed by Spanish explorers, traders and farmers.  But the pond is a stone's throw from the international border, and the path of the wall. Conservationists fear workers will drill water wells to make concrete, and lower the water table which has been dropping for years.  "We do have concerns," Sorensen continues. "Our species that are at this site rely on water just like everything else here in the desert southwest. And to take that water away from them means less of a home."  The Trump administration is building 63 miles of wall in the Tucson Sector, to replace outdated pedestrian fences and vehicle barriers. CBP says this stretch of desert is a busy drug- and human-trafficking corridor. In 2019, the Tucson sector had 63,490 apprehensions and seized more than 61,900 pounds of illegal narcotics. The Defense Department is paying Southwest Valley Constructors, of Albuquerque, N.M., to erect 18- to 30-foot-tall, concrete-filled steel bollards, along with security lights and an all-weather patrol road. It will cost $10.3 million a mile.  The rampart is going up in the Roosevelt Reservation, a 60-foot-wide strip of federal land that runs along the U.S. side of the border in New Mexico, Arizona and California. It was established in 1907 by President Theodore Roosevelt.  Congress refused to authorize money for construction of the wall in Arizona. Under Trump's national emergency declaration, the Defense Department has reprogrammed counterdrug funding to build the border wall.  In responses to questions from NPR, CBP says contractors will not drill for water within five miles of Quitobaquito Springs. The agency says it is coordinating with the National Park Service, Fish & Wildlife and other stakeholders to identify sensitive areas "to develop avoidance or mitigation measures to eliminate or reduce impacts to the environment." Additionally, CBP is preparing an Environmental Stewardship Plan for the construction project.  "There is a whole new level of recklessness we're seeing under Trump. We thought Bush was bad, but this is a whole other order of magnitude," says Laiken Jordahl, a former national park ranger and now borderlands campaigner with the Center for Biological Diversity.  There was an outcry, too, back in the late 2000s when President George W. Bush built the first generation of bollard wall. Those barriers topped out at 18 feet. The structures rising southwest of Tucson are as tall as a two-story building. They look like they could hold back a herd of T-rexes.  The Trump administration is using the same Real ID Act of 2005 that empowered President George W. Bush to build his border wall without heeding environmental protections. But the pace of waivers is quickening under Trump's aggressive construction timeline. Under Bush, the Department of Homeland Security issued five waiver proclamations. Under Trump, DHS has issued 15 waivers that exempt the contractors from a total of 51 different laws, ranging from the Clean Water Act to the Archeological Resources Protection Act to the Wild Horse and Burro Act.  "The waivers allow them to bypass a lot of red tape and waive the public input process," says Kenneth Madsen, a geography professor at Ohio State University at Newark who monitors border wall waivers. "It allows them to avoid getting bogged down in court cases that might slow down their ability to construct border barriers along the nation's edges."  The most important law that CBP is able to sidestep is the National Environmental Policy Act, NEPA—known as the Magna Carta of federal environmental laws. It requires a detailed environmental assessment of any "federal actions significantly affecting the quality of the human environment." NEPA covers most large federal construction projects, such as dams, bridges, highways, and waterway projects.  Considering the construction of 450 miles of steel barriers on the nation's southern boundary, "There is no question that NEPA would require preparation of an environmental impact statement, with significant input from the public, from affected communities, tribal governments, land owners, and land managers throughout the process. And it is outrageous that a project of this magnitude is getting a complete exemption from NEPA and all the other laws," says Dinah Bear. She served as general counsel for the White House's Council on Environmental Quality for 24 years under four presidents.  To some border residents, barriers — regardless how controversial — are the best way to stop illegal activity.  "I support Donald Trump 100%. If you're going to build a wall, build it!" declares rancher John Ladd.  His family has bred cattle in Arizona since it was a territory. Their ranch backs up to the Mexican border near the town of Naco. The surrounding mountains purple at dusk, as a bull and his harem of cows munch gramma grass.  Time was when the Ladd ranch was overrun by people crossing the border illegally. They stole things and cut fences and left trash in the pastures. Then in 2016, at the end of the Obama years, CBP built a fence, continuing what Bush started.  Ladd reserves judgment on the propriety of a wall through a federally protected wilderness. But for his ranch, walls worked.  "When this 18-foot wall went in, it was obvious that immigrants quit coming through here," he says. "It was an immediate improvement with the security of our border as well as our houses."  The vast Tohono O'odham Nation — nearly as big as Connecticut — shares 62 miles with Mexico. The tribe vehemently opposes the border wall. Several thousand tribal members live south of the border, and are permitted to pass back and forth using tribal IDs.  Already, border barriers are encroaching on the reservation from the east and west. While there is currently no funding to wall off the Arizona Tohono O'odham lands from Mexico, tribal members fear CBP could change its mind at any time.  "We have lived in this area forever," says Tribal Chairman Ned Norris, Jr. "And so a full-blown 30-foot wall would make it that much difficult for our tribal citizens in Mexico and in the U.S. to be able to actively participate with family gatherings, with ceremonial gatherings."  Traditions are important to the Antone family. The father, son and daughter recently joined other tribal members walking westward along State Highway 86, which runs through the reservation. They were on a pilgrimage for St. Francis.  Genae Antone, 18, stopped to talk about another rite of passage. Young Tohono O'odham men run a roundtrip of 300 miles from the reservation, across the border, to the salt flats at Mexico's Sea of Cortez.  "The salt run, for the men, that's really important for us as Tohono O'odham. For the men to run all the way to the water to get salt," she said. "Some people go and get seashells. So I don't really necessarily think it (the border wall) is a good idea."  The Antone family — carrying a feathered walking stick, a statue of the virgin, and an American flag — then continued on its pilgrimage.


rollcall--2019-11-25--Conservationists: Interior ignores court order on sage grouse protection

The Interior Department is offering leases to drill for oil and gas in greater sage grouse habitat using a species conservation plan nullified by a federal court last month for being too weak, according to conservation advocates.  The agency is supposed to be adhering to an Oct. 16 order by a federal judge in Idaho who temporarily suspended the Bureau of Land Management’s latest sage grouse conservation plan, which removed protections for the species on millions of acres across the West. The ruling effectively put back into effect plans written under the Obama administration for protecting the bird from increased habitat destruction by wildfires and energy development.  Environmental advocates including the Wilderness Society and the Center for Biological Diversity say BLM is implementing the ruling inconsistently. In some cases, the agency has postponed offering leases within sage grouse habitat from being sold to the public. But in others, the agency is still offering leases on land within the habitat under the terms of the relaxed conservation protections that were suspended by the court.  The Trump administration removed a subjective requirement that federal officials ensure that the species’ health and safety will be sustained if land is made available for lease within its habitat, which the rules call a “net conservation gain.” It also eliminated certain state-specific mandates, including one that made BLM prioritize offering land outside of the bird’s habitat when conducting auctions in states such as Utah and Wyoming.  Those changes were suspended by the court. However, according to an analysis of BLM data by the Wilderness Society, at least 117,000 acres of sage grouse habitat, an area slightly smaller than the city of Chicago, are available for energy leases in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming without those provisions. The parcels were offered at auction in September, after the Obama-era protections were lifted by the Trump administration but before the court ruling. Because there were no bids for parcels, they are now available for leasing on a first-come, first-served basis in accordance with federal mineral leasing law.  The agency is also moving ahead with a December auction in Wyoming that will offer leases on land in sage grouse habitat. Environmental groups have filed three separate petitions protesting the sale, arguing it should be delayed in light of the court order.  “Concerning doesn’t even begin to convey where we are,” said Nada Culver, vice president for public lands at The Audubon Society. “Damn the torpedoes and the sage grouse.”  While the environmentalists believe the court order required BLM to prioritize selling leases outside of the bird’s habitat, the agency says the edict didn’t change how it offers that land to potential bidders. The Trump administration’s plans “elaborated on but did not substantially modify” the Obama-era requirement, said BLM spokeswoman Beverly Winston.  “Regarding prioritizing development outside of sage grouse areas, the [order] had little effect there,” she wrote in an email Friday. The requirement for a net conservation gain varies by state, and the agency is working to “align our management” with each state plan, she said.  Sage grouse, which weigh about 4 pounds and are known for males’ mating practice of inflating air sacs on their chests, reside in areas across 173 million acres of the West, a habitat that includes places sought for their fossil fuel and mining potential.  Wildlife groups have tangled with the federal government over protecting the species since as early as 1991, when the Fish and Wildlife Service for the first time said it would consider listing the sage grouse as endangered. In 2015, after years of missed deadlines and court battles, FWS decided not to list the species as endangered. Instead, it released a management plan intended to prevent its habitat from degrading further.  But the management plan was opposed by oil, gas, mining and timber interests, as well as some Republican politicians. The Interior Department sought to do away with the 2015 plan in a bid to free up public land for drilling. In March, the Bureau finalized a replacement that removed conservation measures for states where sage grouse live, including buffer areas to insulate birds from projects. Environmental groups sued to block the rewrite and asked the judge overseeing the case to suspend its implementation as their case proceeded. Last month, the judge approved their motion and signaled he may knock the Trump administration’s conservation plan down.  “Under these weakened protections, the BLM will be approving oil and gas leases; drilling permits; rights-of-way for roads, pipelines, and powerlines; coal and phosphate mining approvals; and livestock grazing permit renewals. It is likely that these actions will cause further declines of the sage grouse under the weakened protections of the 2019 Plan Amendments,” wrote U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill.  While multiple environmental groups cheered the ruling, they are also laying the tracks for lawsuits to invalidate any leasing that occurred after the temporary suspension.  Michael Saul, a senior Center attorney, said those challenges will come down to how courts interpret more subjective provisions of the 2015 plan, including how BLM is supposed to prioritize leasing outside of sage grouse habitat. “The implementation of those more subjective provisions are not nearly as cut and dry as things like, ‘Is this within 1 mile of sage grouse breeding?’ So how all of these pieces get resolved is going to be up to the courts,” Saul said.  Get breaking news alerts and more from Roll Call on your iPhone.


thedailycaller--2019-07-21--Listen To The Facts Licensed Regulated Hunting Is Key To Wildlife Conservation In Africa

Listen To The Facts: Licensed, Regulated Hunting Is Key To Wildlife Conservation In Africa

Late last month, U.S. Representative Vern Buchanan (R-FL-16) decided to use Congress’ budget process as a vessel for his own legislative agenda by attaching an appropriations rider to H.R 3055, which would prohibit the import of sport-hunted elephant and lion from Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe to the U.S. Sadly, this is only the most recent effort by misinformed legislators to try to manage wildlife populations that they are neither responsible for, nor know enough about.  As the former Deputy Director of the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority, I have not only seen the bigger threats facing animals such as elephants and lions, but I have also seen the solutions to these threats that big game hunting has helped to create.  The biggest threats facing lion species, for example, are loss of habitat, loss of food sources and retaliatory killings. While all of these threats are intertwined, the biggest and “most powerful” threat to African lions is habitat loss. Enormous game hunting preserves, however, ensure that lions and other wildlife species have protected habitats in which they can sustain themselves without fear of agricultural encroachment from local communities. In Tanzania in particular, approximately 57 percent of the country’s lion population can be found in protected hunting areas that would not exist but for the land conservation incentives provided by big game hunting.  American hunters who pay large sums of money to local African communities to hunt on these game preserves will be radically disincentivized if the importation of trophies is banned, as Representative Buchanan’s amendment would do. The Congressman claims that banning the importation of trophies will help these species “on the verge of extinction.” Yet, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), lion populations have increased in countries that allow big game hunting. Bans like these, the IUCN goes on to say, are “blunt instruments that risk undermining important benefits for both conservation and local livelihoods, thus exacerbating rather than addressing the prevailing major threats of habitat loss and poaching.”  Poaching is another widespread threat to African wildlife, especially to elephants whose tusks fetch high prices on the illicit ivory market. In a press release regarding his trophy ban, Congressman Buchanan stated that “over 30,000 elephants are slaughtered for their tusks every year” as if to egregiously imply that all these deaths are at the hands of American hunters and not poachers. In reality, over 60 percent of the significant revenues from small elephant hunting quotas maintained by countries like Zimbabwe are reinvested towards anti-poaching efforts. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species’ (CITES) has published data showing that these efforts have helped “reduce the overall impact of poaching on elephant populations across a wide range of land tenures.”  As pointed out by former SCI President Paul Babaz, the wildlife management authorities of Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe; the 183 Parties to CITES; the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS); and the IUCN all credit licensed, regulated hunting as the cornerstone of successful conservation and wildlife management programs. As a result, these three countries are recognized by the IUCN as having some of the world’s largest populations of elephant and lion. It is clear that Representative Buchanan is unwilling to look at the conservation science supporting big game hunting and is, instead, pursuing passage of a law that will subject lions and elephants to tighter habitat restrictions and increased vulnerability to poaching.   It is my hope that Senators and conference committee appointees see fit to overrule and discard his dangerously misguided amendment as the legislative process for H.R. 3055 wears on.  George Pangeti is a Wildlife Management and Environmental Conservation Consultant in Zimbabwe. He is the former Deputy Director and Chairman of Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority.


thedenverpost--2019-02-15--Guest commentary Big Alaskan land giveaway tucked into a sweeping conservation bill

Guest commentary: Big Alaskan land giveaway tucked into a sweeping conservation bill

On Tuesday, the Senate passed the biggest conservation bill in years. The Natural Resources Management Act of 2019, Senate Bill 47, swells with more than 100 combined pieces of legislation related to public lands, water and natural resources. Many environmentalists are happy: Wins for public lands and wildlife have been scarce in recent years under an alternately hostile and sclerotic GOP-controlled Congress. The bill is expected to sail through the House.  Slice open this giant haggis and peer inside, though: Something reeks. The act contains language that would hand over nearly a half-million acres of federal lands in Alaska — your land, and mine — to private hands. That’s an area roughly equal to half the size of Long Island, or 31 Manhattans.  Alaska’s two Republican senators, Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, say their proposal would correct a lingering injustice by granting up to 160 acres each to Alaska Natives who are Vietnam veterans and who missed out on an earlier chance to stake a land claim because of military service during that war. They estimate about 2,800 veterans and heirs could take advantage of the program, which means 448,000 acres of land could be handed out. It presents a thorny issue for conservationists: Justice for Native veterans! What anthracite heart could object?  The Alaska Native Veterans Association didn’t return my calls and messages. But when a similar bill was previously introduced in the House, Nelson Angapak, an Alaska Native, Vietnam vet and former senior vice president for the Alaska Federation of Natives, testified in 2015 that impediments — from confusion about veteran land programs to poor communication up in the Last Frontier or outright rejection of applications by the government — had frequently blocked Native veterans from getting land. He urged passage: “The Vietnam War era veterans are an aging group and many of them are dying, this includes the American Indians and the Alaska Native veterans of that war.”  There’s one problem with this tale of Uncle Sam-finally-does-vets-a-solid, however: It’s not accurate. This wrong already has been righted. In 1971, to settle Native land claims, Congress passed the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, which gave newly formed Native “corporations” that represented Native peoples nearly $1 billion and the ability to select 44 million acres of the state. The act ended an earlier homesteading law that also had allowed Native peoples to claim land. Even so, Congress later worried that some Alaska Natives missed out on these programs during their Vietnam War service. So in 1998, it amended the law to explicitly make provisions for those veterans to claim land.  And yet, now Republicans are back for another bite at the apple. Proponents say past efforts only targeted veterans who were in the military through 1971, and the new language helps people who served later, up until the war’s end in 1975. But that’s a red herring: The whole point of the 1998 amendment was to help compensate vets who missed out on that 1971 deadline because they were gone fighting our war. A vet who was in Saigon in 1975 didn’t miss an opportunity.  Alaska’s delegation has tried this before. Nearly 20 years ago, they floated another land-to-vets program. George W. Bush’s Department of Interior — hardly the acme of conservation values — didn’t bite. Reopening the allotment program “no longer has any basis in missed opportunity,” Interior officials wrote in 2002. (The bill died.)  The latest plan would go even farther than the 1998 one. That program required veterans to have a historical connection to the land that they selected. In the new bill, vets could choose land regardless of connection. Heirs would also be eligible for a claim. They can turn around and sell it to others for development. “This dramatically changes the program from redressing a historical injustice to creating a novel land program,” three dozen environmental groups wrote to Congress in January, opposing the idea and asking to keep the program out of the larger conservation bill, which they supported.  The legislation does contain a few guardrails: National parks are off-limits to land claims, as are the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), designated wilderness areas and national forests. Democrats were able to add a provision barring allotments in Alaska’s 15 other national wildlife refuges — for now. The sponsors countered by adding language that the refuge ban be studied and revisited in a year. This means that private lands, and development on them, soon could pepper the nation’s premier habitat set-asides for birds and other wildlife. It’s easy to foresee, too, scenarios in which speculators snap up land on the cheap from aging vets or their heirs — then try to sell it back to the government or swap it for sweeter parcels to develop. And so the public loses twice. Such dealing has happened before, many times, in the Lower 48.  Alaska is big, though. So why do a few hundred thousand acres matter?  The American people together own 640 million acres of North America. Public land is one of America’s great ideas. When public land becomes private land, we are less for it. The most obvious loss is access — whether that’s access to hunt, fish, watch birds, or simply wander. Once gone, that access rarely comes back. In the hills outside Boise, Idaho, for instance, a chunk of public land was sold to a timber company decades ago. For a long time, that wasn’t a problem. The company let the public drive and snowmobile through the property, a very popular area to recreate and hunt. In 2016, the Wilks brothers, wealthy siblings from Texas, bought a large amount of land in Idaho, including this land. One year ago, they put up a gate and posted “no trespassing” signs. (They also have had run-ins over access issues in Montana.) The public is apoplectic. It’s unclear what will happen next. Now imagine Alaska with thousands of such pockets of private property sprinkled across the landscape.  Access is far from the only problem. When public land becomes private land, it means more development, and the roads and infrastructure that accompany it. Habitat declines. Pollution often increases. Water quality drops. Public lands provide services many of us never think about. For instance, the country’s national forestlands provide drinking water for 180 million Americans.  When it comes to insults to public lands, nowhere has been pummeled more by the Trump administration than Alaska, where the bruisings have come almost weekly — from opening ANWR to oil rigs, to reversing a ban on baiting bears with food in Denali National Park and Preserve so that they can be shot, to now-disgraced Secretary of Interior Ryan Zinke allowing a controversial land swap to allow a road through Izembek National Wildlife Refuge.  Western red-state pols have cheered on such efforts, eager to push Uncle Sam out of their state’s wide-open spaces whenever possible, or at least yield his grip. Murkowski, the powerful chair of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, is no exception, whether it’s trading her vote on the tax bill to score the opening of ANWR, or her push to lift the roadless ban to allow more logging of old-growth trees in the Tongass National Forest. Now comes this giveaway, smartly bound up with numerous other liberal wants.  “If this were public lands anywhere else in the Lower 48, there would be an absolute uproar. No one would accept that,” a frustrated Adam Kolton, executive director of the Alaska Wilderness League, told me. But, Kolton added, “Alaska’s public lands often tend to be the political grease for land conservation initiatives in the Lower 48, and that’s wrong. These are the last fully intact ecosystems in the United States. They shouldn’t just be trade-bait to pass broader public lands bills.”  It doesn’t help that the bill has been cynically packaged to further thwart liberal opposition – robed in patriotic warmth we share for veterans, and grotesquely manipulating native disenfranchisement and our guilt over our historic wrongs done to native peoples.  And so the land, which gets no voice, takes another blow from the hand of those who swore to do right by it.  Christopher Solomon is a 2019 fellow with the Alicia Patterson Foundation, focusing on energy development and its impacts in the Alaskan Arctic.  To send a letter to the editor about this article, submit online or check out our guidelines for how to submit by email or mail.


theguardian--2019-04-08--Trump administration sabotages major conservation effort defying Congress

Trump administration sabotages major conservation effort, defying Congress

Scientists and officials around the US have told the Guardian that the Trump administration has withdrawn funding for a large, successful conservation program – in direct contradiction of instructions from Congress.  Unique in scale and ambition, the program comprises 22 research centers that tackle big-picture issues affecting huge swaths of the US, such as climate change, flooding and species extinction. They are known as Landscape Conservation Cooperatives – or were, because 16 of them are now on indefinite hiatus or have dissolved.  “I just haven’t seen anything like this in my almost 30 years of working with the federal government,” said a scientist at the Fish and Wildlife Service who worked for one of the LCCs and wished to remain anonymous, because federal employees were instructed not to speak with the Guardian for this story. “There is this lack of accountability.”  “Congress approved $12.5m for the existing 22 landscape conservation cooperatives,” said Betty McCollum, chair of the House interior-environment appropriations subcommittee, at a recent hearing with an interior department official. “[But] we are hearing disturbing reports from outside groups and concerned citizens that the LCC program is being altered and may not receive any federal funding.”  McCollum requested a full accounting of the situation so her committee could investigate.  The LCCs were established under the Obama administration in 2010 and staffed by the Fish and Wildlife Service, and appeared to be achieving their goals. In Hawaii, a center found that many native Hawaiian forest birds would not have any suitable habitat remaining by the end of the century, which helped get one of the birds listed as “threatened” under the federal Endangered Species Act. In flood-prone areas of the Gulf coast, work by an LCC has resulted in more residents getting access to flood-insurance discounts. Another created the “California Climate Commons”, a website that aggregates studies, data visualizations and maps on how climate change will affect the state.  “No other federal program is designed to address landscape conservation needs at a national scale” in this way, according to a 2016 review by the National Academy of Sciences.  Donald Trump made it clear from the beginning that the LCCs – and science funding in general – were not a priority for his administration. His first budget proposal as president eliminated funds for the LCCs, and for other applied research programs run through the interior department. Ensuing budget requests followed the same pattern.  But Congress decides the federal budget, and it can disregard a president’s proposals. It has consistently rejected these cuts. In 2017, a consortium of NGOs, state fish and wildlife agencies, and tribal groups came together to convince Congress that LCCs were crucial. The Congress for American Indians passed a resolution in support of the LCC network, stating that “they have played an important role in advancing western science and traditional knowledge with our local communities that are continually struggling to adapt to increasingly unpredictable and dangerous environments due to climate change”.  These petitions were successful and since then Congress has continued to fund LCCs at the same level – about $12m.  Even so, in 2017 LCCs across the country began to receive the news that they would no longer receive federal support.  “With this administration, very few things come out on email or on paper. There’s very little paper trail. It’s just, this is the way it’s going to be,” said another Fish and Wildlife Service scientist who worked for one of the LCCs.  The scientist said that federal support for the LCC program appeared to dry up after the start of an unprecedented political review of scientific research at the interior department, of which the Fish and Wildlife Service is a part. It was led by Steve Howke, a high school friend of the former interior secretary Ryan Zinke. When this review began, said the Fish and Wildlife Service scientist, “it was known that nothing associated with LCCs, would be funded” and they “basically had to kind of wind everything down”.  There was also resistance to the centers within the interior department, several scientists associated with the LCCs said, because some officials did not like the loss of control that came with their collaborative approach.  “For most of us in the program, it was pretty disappointing. We put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into getting to where we were,” says Greg Wathen, the former coordinator for the Gulf Coastal Plains and Ozark LCC. “I always felt like we were right on the cusp of making some real good progress.”  Gary Tabor, a member of the LCC Network Council, a group that provided leadership for all 22 centers, said the LCCs had created a framework for the nation to address existential challenges, like natural disasters.  “That kind of architecture is now lost, and takes time to build up and it takes training the people and positioning the resources,” he said. “We’ve lost time, we’ve lost money, and we’ve lost momentum.”  According to information compiled by the FWS and shared confidentially with the Guardian, six LCCs are on hiatus, and 10 have officially dissolved. Another six continue to operate thanks to support from other sources. The California LCC is now hosted and funded by the state, for instance, and the Aleutian and Bering Sea Islands LCC in Alaska is now run by the Alaska Conservation Foundation.  A Fish and Wildlife Service representative conceded that it “no longer provides dedicated staff, administrative functions and funding for the Landscape Conservation Cooperatives (LCCs)”.  The first anonymous scientist is in despair. “I’d say there could be five to six years [of work] down the drain.”


theguardianuk--2019-01-11--Planned wild boar cull in Poland angers conservationists

Conservationists have branded plans by the Polish government to cull almost the entire wild boar population of the country as “pointless, counterproductive and evil”.  In a move to tackle an epidemic of African swine fever, the Polish government has ordered a series of hunts, beginning this weekend, with the aim of killing the vast majority of the country’s population of around 200,000 wild boar.  Last year, the country’s veterinary officials approved a plan to kill 185,000 wild boars this season, and the country’s PZL hunting union said it had already killed 168,000 since last April. The government has recently decided to speed up the process by calling all licensed hunters to go out seeking wild boars, including pregnant females, over weekends this month.  Opponents of the cull said it is not only cruel but pointless, or possibly even counterproductive.  “The massacre of wild boar in large-scale hunts will not stop [African swine fever], it will only help the spread of the virus to western Poland,” said an appeal by environmental organisations to the government to abandon the plan.  Mikołaj Golachowski, a biologist and conservationist who has been outspoken about the government’s plans, agreed that the cull was merely likely to disperse the animals rather than eradicate them entirely, risking spreading the disease further afield.  Golachowski said killing the animals would also cause enormous damage to the country’s ecosystem. When wild boars forage, they aerate the soil allowing seeds to germinate and also feed on rodents and insect larvae, meaning their absence could lead to an increase in these populations.  “They are a very important part of the ecosystem, and there is also the ethical question of slaughtering innocent animals for something that is not going to achieve any purpose. In every aspect it’s a terrible idea, and it’s also evil,” he said.  Poland is a leading exporter of pork products, and African swine fever can prove deadly to pigs and wild boar, though it does not infect humans. It can also be spread by insects and can survive for several months in carcasses and processed meat. There are no known antidotes or vaccines. However, critics said proper biosecurity measures involving special sterilised clothing and mats at farms would be a more effective way to avoid the spread of the disease than mass slaughter.  “It’s a political problem. Biosecurity is the only answer but it’s hard and costly. The government, being such a populist one, wants to fight for the votes of farmers,” he said.  Environmental groups, keen to show the government that there are other voters who strongly oppose the plans, have organised a series of street demonstrations and online protests against the cull.  Several thousand Poles have changed their Facebook profile picture to one of a wild boar, while an online petition to the government asking it to abandon the slaughter has received more than 300,000 signatures.  On Wednesday evening, hundreds of protesters took to the streets in Warsaw, some dressed as wild boar, holding signs that included “wild boar massacre” and “long live wild boars”.

Shaun Walker Central and eastern Europe correspondent


theguardianuk--2019-04-22--10 great conservation-led places to stay around the UK

Conservation comes first at the UK’s only family-owned and -managed national nature reserve. Elmley’s 1,335 hectares (3,300 acres) of freshwater grazing marsh, salt marsh, hay meadows and newly planted woodland on the Isle of Sheppey allow birdlife to thrive. Sightings of marsh harriers, short-eared owls and merlins are commonplace, but the success story is ground-nesting birds: 463 lapwings fledged at Elmley last year, which is 400 more than the next most successful reserve. Elmley’s owners are also on a mission to make wildlife open to all. Visitors can stay at one of six comfortable huts with mesmerising wetland views. Most guests are won over when they spot hares, butterflies and dragonflies on the two-mile drive from the nearest public road.  • Huts for two from £105 a night, lower rates for longer stays, elmleynaturereserve.co.uk  A disused slate quarry on the north Cornish coast is where to find this innovative back-to-nature experience. Cornish for “hideout”, Kudhva offers shelters designed to get visitors close to the wild: tree tents, eight-legged angular treehouses sleeping two, and a Danish cabin for six are scattered across the 45-acre site. Sustainability is a priority: showers are solar-powered and communal areas are built from reused materials. Kudvha was once a nature reserve and still contains diverse habitats, including a willow wood and a 12-metre waterfall. Owner Louise Middleton uses profits to gently manage the land, ensuring that low-lying plants thrive for the sake of birds and butterflies.  • Cabin for two nights from £210, kudhva.com  The National Trust’s Crom Estate is its most significant property in Northern Ireland. Here, ancient oak woodland meets the meandering Upper Lough Erne, which stretches towards the ruins of Crom Castle and a pair of gnarled Irish yews. The landscape attracts rare species, including pine martens, otters and red squirrels, and all eight Northern Irish species of bat. Seven converted farm cottages on the banks of the lough are ideal for switching off: wildlife and silence take centre stage once daytrippers have returned home. Canoes, woodland trails, cycling tracks and an accessible bird hide make nature easy to come by for all ages and abilities.   • Cottage for three from £342 for three nights, nationaltrust.org.uk  This eco-tourism business in the village of Comrie, an hour from Glasgow, hopes to provide a sustainable future for local people and nature. Owner Andrew Donaldson’s approach is warm and fuss-free: from mountain biking trails to converted farmhouses, the experience revolves around the great outdoors. Besides making the countryside more accessible via paths and shuttle services (to encourage visitors to leave their cars at home), Comrie Croft has set aside a 50-acre wilderness and planted more than 100,000 native trees. This has helped welcome back ospreys, barn owls and roe deer. Comrie is eco-minded, too: a permaculture vegetable garden supplies the shop, and there’s a 10% discount for those who come car-free.  • Camping pitches from £5pp pn, Nordic kata tipis, sleeping six from £99 a night, comriecroft.com  A few miles outside Northumberland national park in the pretty village of Wark, this pub with rooms is one of the UK’s most-proactive eco hotels. Battlesteads has more sustainable clout than time to shout about it. It has bee-friendly hedgerows, a pesticide-free garden, a wildlife meadow and built-in bird and bat boxes to support biodiversity. Twenty-eight species of bird, including willow warbler and bullfinches, and eight species of bee have been identified in the garden. An on-site dark sky observatory allows guests to explore the bigger picture.  • Doubles from £100 B&B, battlesteads.com  Sam and Clare Bosanquet have poured all their creative and conservation might into this nature retreat in Monmouthshire. Converted stable blocks are furnished with local fabrics and upcycled furniture from the estate’s attics. The honesty shop sells the walled garden’s “no dig” (an eco-growing method) produce, and the nature room is packed with curiosities and information. Sam is an ecologist and wildlife enthusiast: his nature walks enlighten guests about freshwater swan mussels, where to find otter spraints, and a variety of fungus and lichens. Proceeds from the accommodation and honesty shop help to keep the estate thriving.  • Cottage for four from £390 a week, old-lands.co.uk  With sands stretching to the sea in one direction and dunes in the other, Holkham is an iconic beach. It’s part of the 10,000-hectare Holkham Estate, where farming and game-keeping have rubbed along with conservation efforts for years. The Victoria Inn’s elegant rooms are moments from the beach and Holkham nature reserve. Field to Fork tours educate visitors about the history of the land and trails lead to wildlife encounters, including the UK’s only spoonbill colony. The estate continues to build on its environmental credentials: most recently, a head conservationist is exploring ways to strengthen ecosystems, and the new Lookout visitor centre is on a mission to cut plastic use.  • Doubles from £140 B&B, holkham.co.uk  Nicknamed the cwtch, Welsh for cubbyhole or cuddle, this two-bedroom cottage in the Teifi Marshes nature reserve is as compact as it is remote. Its white-washed stone walls disappear into the surrounding green thicket and at night, the air fills with the sounds of frogs and barn owls. Alongside otters and red deer, water buffalo are a more surprising sight. Buffalo are the chosen grazers to keep the marshes healthy. The reserve has a willow maze and adventure playground, and anyone can take to the trails on foot or bike. It’s owned and managed by the Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales and all profits go towards conservation.  • Cottage for four from £405 a week, fbmholidays.co.uk  Phil and Maria Newton have converted this 18th-century barn into a spacious two-bedroom holiday home to allow visitors to enjoy a slice of their private nature reserve. The 142-hectare reserve has been added to over the years, mostly thanks to Phil’s passion for the River Brede’s rare species. The woods and wetlands are home to 30 butterfly species and more than 120 species of birds: endangered lapwings dart overhead throughout the year. Phil is happy to give tours of the reserve, introducing the Shetland cattle, Konik ponies and Bagot goats which are thought to be Britain’s oldest breed.  • Barn for four from £935 a week, originalcottages.co.uk  Inspired by African safaris, Alex and Tara Nairn have created a back-to-the-wild experience in the East Neuk of Fife on Scotland’s east coast. Catchpenny is a site of special scientific interest, and Alex and Tara work with the RSPB, the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust, and the Fife Coastal and Countryside Trust to promote populations of red list birds, including corn buntings, grey partridges, and puffins. The fully equipped safari tents are moments from the Fife Coastal Path; guests are lulled to sleep by the waves; and a lucky few spot pods of dolphins from their sheltered deck. From nearby Anstruther, there are ferries to the puffin colony on the Isle of May and roe deer, hares and badgers can be spotted inland.  • Six-person tent from £94 a night, canopyandstars.co.uk  Looking for a holiday with a difference? Browse Guardian Holidays to see a range of fantastic trips  This article contains affiliate links, which means we may earn a small commission if a reader clicks through and makes a purchase. All our journalism is independent and is in no way influenced by any advertiser or commercial initiative. By clicking on an affiliate link, you accept that third-party cookies will be set. More information.


theguardianuk--2019-07-02--Worlds biggest youth-led conservation scheme begins in Wales

'World's biggest' youth-led conservation scheme begins in Wales

Twenty young people are embarking on an ambitious conservation project across 2,000 acres of the Brecon Beacons to help tackle the decline in British wildlife.  The volunteers are part of the Penpont project, which organisers say is the biggest youth conservation attempt in the world. They will work with tenant farmers, landowners and local people to enhance habitats in order to protect the local flora and fauna.  The organisers, Action for Conservation, say they are hoping to create a blueprint for how youth action and conservation can bring change. The charity gives young people from diverse backgrounds a chance to take part in environmental action.  Hendrikus van Hensbergen, the chief executive of the charity, said he hoped the project would create a game-changing example of how young people can work in collaboration with locals to protect the natural world.  “We are at a critical juncture when it comes to our environment,” said Van Hensbergen. “A recent UN report calls for transformative change to avert an extinction crisis.  “Now is the time to take positive action to reverse ecological and climate breakdown and there is compelling evidence to show the value of restoring nature to halt biodiversity loss and act as a natural climate solution.”  The initiative comes as young people have made their voices heard with school strikes and by taking part in direct action with Extinction Rebellion. “There is no better time to build on this energy with a transformative youth-led project here in the UK,” he said. “We hope the Penpont project acts as a beacon of hope and inspiration for like-minded initiatives the world over.”  The project will be launched in the Brecon Beacons on Tuesday. Gareth Davies, a tenant farmer whose family have farmed the estate for three generations, said: “We are looking forward to working together with these passionate young people to show how nature restoration can go hand in hand with sustainable farming practices, to make sure we maintain healthy soils, clean water and vital wildlife species long into the future.”  The youth leaders will start by undertaking ecological surveys of an initial 322-acre site alongside pupils from neighbouring schools. They plan to draw up restoration projects for the land, and hope to use the project to help educate children.  Nature is faring worse in Britain than in many other countries. Populations of endangered animals have declined by two-thirds since 1970, according to a recent report.  Deep Shah, a 16-year-old group member from London, said: “More people need to care about our environment in the UK and beyond, and our hope is that this pioneering project will inspire others to follow in our footsteps and spark a chain reaction of similar projects. If we can do it, then why can’t you?”