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		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
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	<title>Britain environmental news</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/britain/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>Uncertainty about weakening Atlantic currents isn’t a reason to wait but to act (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/uncertainty-about-weakening-atlantic-currents-isnt-a-reason-to-wait-but-to-act-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/uncertainty-about-weakening-atlantic-currents-isnt-a-reason-to-wait-but-to-act-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Jun 2026 10:18:27 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Helen Findlay]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/02100930/Puffin_UjvalPasupuleti_09-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320448</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Atlantic Ocean, England, Europe, European Union, and United Kingdom]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Climate, Climate Change, Commentary, Ecosystems, Fisheries, Marine, Marine Conservation, Oceans, and Research]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[When a scientist says, “We don’t know yet,” it can sound like a shrug. In reality, it often means the opposite: We are worried enough to be careful. The public can reasonably ask why some climate risks, especially tipping points, don’t arrive with alarm and immediate action. George Monbiot recently voiced a frustration many people [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[When a scientist says, “We don’t know yet,” it can sound like a shrug. In reality, it often means the opposite: We are worried enough to be careful. The public can reasonably ask why some climate risks, especially tipping points, don’t arrive with alarm and immediate action. George Monbiot recently voiced a frustration many people feel: Why has the possibility of an Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) shift not prompted a bigger political and media response? Climate scientists are trained to avoid overclaiming and, instead, to communicate what the evidence shows, what it suggests, and what remains unresolved. That approach underpins my team’s recent research on ocean acidification, supported by the Frontiers Planet Prize. In that work, published in Global Change Biology, we found that large parts of the global ocean have already crossed into a “zone of risk” for ecosystem change. That caution can serve to downplay the threat, but the latest research on the AMOC should be understood as a warning sign: The potential outcomes could be even more severe than projected, and the uncertainty around timing and thresholds is not a reason to delay, but an argument for action now. Ocean life depends on AMOC The AMOC is often described as a giant conveyor belt of Atlantic currents. Warm, salty surface waters flow north from the tropics to the subpolar North Atlantic. On its way, the water releases heat to the atmosphere, so that by the time it reaches the subpolar region, it has cooled and become&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/uncertainty-about-weakening-atlantic-currents-isnt-a-reason-to-wait-but-to-act-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/uncertainty-about-weakening-atlantic-currents-isnt-a-reason-to-wait-but-to-act-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320448</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The European wildcat hovers between recovery and local extinction</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/the-european-wildcat-hovers-between-recovery-and-local-extinction/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/the-european-wildcat-hovers-between-recovery-and-local-extinction/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 May 2026 13:12:52 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/07014556/Image_1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318902</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Czech Republic, Europe, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Scotland, Spain, and Turkey]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Cats, Climate, Climate Change, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Diseases, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Forests, Funding, Genetics, Habitat Loss, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Human-wildlife Conflict, Hunting, Mammals, Parasites, Population, Reintroductions, Saving Species From Extinction, Small Cats, Solutions, Species recovery, Wildlife, and Zoos]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A quiet comeback story is unfolding for the European wildcat in the Czech Republic’s Lusatian Mountains. Conservationists tracking this elusive species there have spotted a male and female, named Jonáš and Tonka, the first to be found in the region in nearly a century. This small cat species lives in forests across Europe. It’s doing [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A quiet comeback story is unfolding for the European wildcat in the Czech Republic’s Lusatian Mountains. Conservationists tracking this elusive species there have spotted a male and female, named Jonáš and Tonka, the first to be found in the region in nearly a century. This small cat species lives in forests across Europe. It’s doing relatively well in some places and is imperiled in others, like the Czech Republic, where it’s critically endangered. The European wildcat (Felis silvestris), which is around the size of a large housecat, was wiped out because of disappearing habitat — and persecution. They were considered vermin and killed because they preyed on poultry and they were hunted for sport. More recently, they’re sometimes hybridizing, breeding with domestic cats. Numbers are spotty across parts of their range, so overall population numbers and trends, whether they’re rebounding or declining, is currently unknown. That’s a challenge shared by many of the world’s 30-plus small wildcat species that are often overlooked by research and funding. But they are hanging on in the Czech Republic. Earlier this year, Tonka gave birth to at least three kittens, offering hope that a slow wildcat recovery may be underway. Conservationists set up “hair traps,” wooden posts smeared with a lure that attracts the wildcats, then analyzed DNA from fur they left behind when they rubbed on them to mark their territory, as cats do. Genetically confirmed records of wildcat births are “exceedingly rare” in the country, said Kristýna Chroboková, field coordinator with the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/the-european-wildcat-hovers-between-recovery-and-local-extinction/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/the-european-wildcat-hovers-between-recovery-and-local-extinction/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-318902</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>When nature becomes a security risk</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/when-nature-becomes-a-security-risk/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/when-nature-becomes-a-security-risk/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Feb 2026 14:58:27 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/12/12231629/GP1T2OKD-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313602</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Britain, Europe, and United Kingdom]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conflict, Environment, Food, food security, Forests, Green, Human Migration, Pandemics, Water, and Water Scarcity]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Britain’s national security thinking has traditionally been shaped by familiar concerns: hostile states, terrorism, energy supply, and, more recently, cyber threats. A new assessment from the U.K. government adds a different category to that list. Global biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse, it argues, now pose a direct and growing risk to national security, with implications [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Britain’s national security thinking has traditionally been shaped by familiar concerns: hostile states, terrorism, energy supply, and, more recently, cyber threats. A new assessment from the U.K. government adds a different category to that list. Global biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse, it argues, now pose a direct and growing risk to national security, with implications that extend well beyond conservation policy and into food supply, economic stability, migration, and conflict. The assessment is explicit about its framing. This is not a scientific review, nor an environmental strategy. It is an intelligence-style analysis, designed to support national security planning under conditions of uncertainty. It draws on scientific literature, expert judgment, and probabilistic reasoning, applying the same tools used to assess geopolitical or military risk. Its core judgment is delivered with high confidence: global ecosystem degradation already threatens U.K. prosperity and security, and without major intervention, those risks are likely to intensify through mid-century and beyond. Deforestation for palm oil production in Malaysian Borneo. At the heart of the argument is the idea of cascading risk. Ecosystems underpin food production, water availability, climate regulation, and disease control. When they degrade, the effects rarely remain local. Crop failures in one region can ripple through global markets. Water scarcity can destabilize fragile states. Disease outbreaks can spread rapidly through interconnected societies. The assessment emphasizes that biodiversity loss should be understood not as an isolated environmental problem, but as a multiplier of existing social, economic, and political stresses. The report identifies several pathways through which&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/when-nature-becomes-a-security-risk/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/when-nature-becomes-a-security-risk/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313602</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Photos: Kew Gardens&#8217; top 10 newly named plants and fungi for 2025</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/photos-kew-gardens-top-10-newly-named-plants-and-fungi-for-2025/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/photos-kew-gardens-top-10-newly-named-plants-and-fungi-for-2025/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Jan 2026 23:24:04 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/12223115/02.-Telipogon-cruentilabrum-CREDIT-L.Baquero-03-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312879</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Botswana, Brazil, Ecuador, England, Namibia, Peru, and South Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Botany, Conservation, Deforestation, Endangered Species, Environment, Forest Destruction, Forests, Fungi, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, New Discovery, Plants, Rainforests, Species Discovery, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Over the past year, scientists at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in the U.K., officially named 125 plants and 65 fungi. The new-to-science species include a parasitic fungus that turns Brazilian spiders into “zombies,” a critically endangered orchid with blood-red markings from Ecuador&#8217;s cloud forests, and a shrub named after the fire demon from the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Over the past year, scientists at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in the U.K., officially named 125 plants and 65 fungi. The new-to-science species include a parasitic fungus that turns Brazilian spiders into “zombies,” a critically endangered orchid with blood-red markings from Ecuador&#8217;s cloud forests, and a shrub named after the fire demon from the 2004 Hayao Miyazaki film Howl&#8217;s Moving Castle. Each year, Kew releases a list of its “top 10” new plant and fungal species to showcase nature&#8217;s vast diversity, as well as its fragility, as many newly described species are already in danger. According to Kew’s “State of the World&#8217;s Plants and Fungi 2023” report, three out of four undescribed plants are threatened with extinction. One species described in 2025, Cryptacanthus ebo, a bromeliad from the Ebo Forest in Cameroon, may have already gone extinct. Each year, researchers worldwide officially name about 2,500 new plants and even more fungi. An estimated 100,000 plant species and between 2 million and 3 million fungal species remain to be described and named by science. Many of these unnamed fungi are endophytes that live entirely within plant tissues, making up the plants’ microbiomes. &#8220;Describing new plant and fungal species is essential at a time when the impacts of biodiversity loss and climate change accelerate before our eyes,&#8221; Martin Cheek, a senior research leader in Kew&#8217;s Africa team, said in a press release. &#8220;It is difficult to protect what we do not know, understand and have a scientific name for.&#8221; Although a species may be&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/photos-kew-gardens-top-10-newly-named-plants-and-fungi-for-2025/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/photos-kew-gardens-top-10-newly-named-plants-and-fungi-for-2025/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312879</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Stuart Brooks, peat protector, has died</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/stuart-brooks-conservationist-of-unfashionable-landscapes/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/stuart-brooks-conservationist-of-unfashionable-landscapes/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Dec 2025 08:02:17 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/21223629/stuart-brooks-header-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311832</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Europe, Scotland, and United Kingdom]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Obituary, Peatlands, and Wetlands]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Founder&#8217;s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. For much of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, peatlands sat awkwardly at the edge of public consciousness. Neither conventionally scenic nor easily commodified, they were drained, burned, planted over, or dismissed as wasteland. Only gradually did [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Founder&#8217;s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. For much of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, peatlands sat awkwardly at the edge of public consciousness. Neither conventionally scenic nor easily commodified, they were drained, burned, planted over, or dismissed as wasteland. Only gradually did they come to be understood as systems of consequence: for biodiversity, for water, and, increasingly, for climate. That shift owed less to sudden revelation than to sustained, patient work by a small number of specialists who understood both the science and the politics of land. Among them was Stuart Brooks, who died on December 11, aged 56. He spent much of his career explaining why peat mattered and persuading institutions to act accordingly. He was not the first to do so, but he was unusually effective at translating technical knowledge into policy, and policy into practice. His professional life unfolded largely in Scotland, though he was not born there. Trained as a geographer, he encountered peatlands as a student and stayed with them as they moved from obscurity to prominence. In the 1990s he worked on raised bog restoration and helped assemble what was then a scattered body of practical knowledge. That effort culminated in Conserving Bogs: The Management Handbook, published in 1997, which became a standard reference for practitioners. He later rose through the Scottish Wildlife Trust, eventually serving as its director of conservation. From there he moved to the John Muir Trust, first&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/stuart-brooks-conservationist-of-unfashionable-landscapes/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/stuart-brooks-conservationist-of-unfashionable-landscapes/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311832</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>&#8216;Myopic&#8217; fisheries managers toy with a new ‘tragedy of the commons’ (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/myopic-fisheries-managers-toy-with-a-new-tragedy-of-the-commons-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/myopic-fisheries-managers-toy-with-a-new-tragedy-of-the-commons-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Dec 2025 18:15:49 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Charles Clover]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/09175811/meritt-thomas-I9y_6J-HhY8-unsplash_optimized_950_7577-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=310924</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Atlantic Ocean, England, Europe, European Union, Global, and United Kingdom]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Business, Commentary, Ecosystems, Environment, Ethics, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Governance, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Protected Areas, Oceans, Overfishing, and Sustainability]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The way the oceans are managed is meant to be like a successful medieval commons. Most medieval commons weren’t open-access, but commoners had distinct rights in law and committees organized the grazing. Commons were saved from overexploitation by the practice of “stinting”: commoners decided how many cows the pastures could stand and limited themselves accordingly. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The way the oceans are managed is meant to be like a successful medieval commons. Most medieval commons weren’t open-access, but commoners had distinct rights in law and committees organized the grazing. Commons were saved from overexploitation by the practice of “stinting”: commoners decided how many cows the pastures could stand and limited themselves accordingly. That way, commoners prevented the tragedy that befell those commons where access was open, where selfishness and lack of governance meant overgrazing prevailed, and the cows died. The ruin of commons that went unmanaged was a phenomenon first described in the 19th century by a fellow of the Royal Society, William Forster Lloyd. His observations were exhumed in the 1960s by a Californian ecologist, Garrett Hardin, who gave them a compelling headline, “The Tragedy of the Commons.” Hardin conceded that there were some well-managed commons, but also, crucially, that a well-managed common could evolve into a tragic one. When commoners perceive that other commoners are cheating, it becomes “every commoner for themselves.” “With an unmanaged common,” he wrote, “ruin is inevitable.” A Dutch super trawler. Image courtesy of Pierre Gleizes/Greenpeace. There are many analogies for a ruined terrestrial common, whether in the atmosphere as a result of carbon dioxide pollution, or in the oceans because of marine plastics. But arguably the largest in the world is caused by overfishing, where the absence of credible regulation endangers whole oceans and the billions of people who depend upon them. It is hard not to recognize several trending tragedies of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/myopic-fisheries-managers-toy-with-a-new-tragedy-of-the-commons-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-310924</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Small grants are key to a successful next generation of conservationists (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/small-grants-are-key-to-a-successful-next-generation-of-conservationists-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/small-grants-are-key-to-a-successful-next-generation-of-conservationists-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Nov 2025 02:00:47 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Paul Barnes]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/13221742/EDGE-CTC-c-Dr-Paul-Barnes-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=309537</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[England, Global, and United Kingdom]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Commentary, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Conservation leadership, Conservation Solutions, Environment, Finance, Funding, philanthropy, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In a meeting room in a head office in London, a handful of early-career conservationists from around the world sat in a circle on the floor to share their challenges of working in conservation. The conversation was sobering. From affording everyday bills, juggling multiple unsecured jobs and dealing with burnout to harassment in the field, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In a meeting room in a head office in London, a handful of early-career conservationists from around the world sat in a circle on the floor to share their challenges of working in conservation. The conversation was sobering. From affording everyday bills, juggling multiple unsecured jobs and dealing with burnout to harassment in the field, threats by extractive industries and abduction by narcotic gangs, the breadth of burdens on these young emerging leaders was astonishing. After three more similar workshops hosted by the project I lead — the Zoological Society of London’s (ZSL) EDGE of Existence program — and fast-forward a year, my inbox holds 1,700 applications for our annual fellowship call, a bewildering demand for perhaps 10 places and all for roles that encounter the burdens described in the workshops. This kind of demand is not unusual; I’ve heard similar ratios for other fellowships and small grant schemes. In the same month, numerous blows to funding pipelines for organizations, both large and small, worldwide, have surfaced. Now, like many others, we find ourselves facing a sharp juxtaposition: an overwhelming demand from talented, dedicated teams working on urgent conservation projects that are ready for implementation, contrasted with decreasing, fragile and unpredictable upstream funding. Many young conservationists like Lucero Vaca, shown here conducting a jaguar study, have struggled to make a career in the sector, yet as she told Mongabay in 2017, &#8220;If we stop underestimating people based on their age and [help] young conservationists [carry] out their innovative ideas, we&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/small-grants-are-key-to-a-successful-next-generation-of-conservationists-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/small-grants-are-key-to-a-successful-next-generation-of-conservationists-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-309537</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Assisted colonization could be our ally in adapting to climate change, study suggests</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/assisted-colonization-could-be-our-ally-in-adapting-to-climate-change-study-suggests/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/assisted-colonization-could-be-our-ally-in-adapting-to-climate-change-study-suggests/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Jul 2025 13:21:17 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Spoorthy Raman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/02104815/butterfly-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=301786</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Britain, Europe, and United Kingdom]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation, Adaptation To Climate Change, Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Colonization, Conservation, Ecosystem Services, Ecosystems, Environment, Forests, Impact Of Climate Change, Politics, Research, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[From Shakespeare’s plays to William Wordsworth’s poetry to J.R.R Tolkien&#8217;s fantasy realms, Britain’s lush green forests are described as a paradise of trees. Thousands of species have called these oak, hazel, beech and pine woodlands home for millennia. But as human-caused emissions warm up the planet, many of Britain’s iconic species are at risk: a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[From Shakespeare’s plays to William Wordsworth’s poetry to J.R.R Tolkien&#8217;s fantasy realms, Britain’s lush green forests are described as a paradise of trees. Thousands of species have called these oak, hazel, beech and pine woodlands home for millennia. But as human-caused emissions warm up the planet, many of Britain’s iconic species are at risk: a 2023 State of Nature report finds that one in six of the 10,000 species assessed are at risk of being lost from the U.K. due to the climate crisis. As climate change forces species to shift their ranges and find new refuges, others may take their place so that key ecosystem services, such as pollination, soil nutrient cycling and carbon storage, can keep going. However, in islands like Great Britain, where most species can’t naturally disperse due to the sea barrier, the loss of vital species may mean ecosystems can no longer function. This begs the question: Could some humans help disperse species? That’s a thought conservation ecologist James Bullock, at the UK Centre for Ecology &amp; Hydrology, and his colleague Charlie Gardner pondered over. In a recent perspective published in the Journal of Applied Ecology, the duo suggest that assisted colonization — or introducing species that can better adapt to a future climate — could benefit some geographies to adapt to rapid climate change. They use the hypothetical future forest ecosystems of Great Britain to argue that proactive approaches, such as mass-scale assisted colonization, could be better for conservation in a warming climate than reactive&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/assisted-colonization-could-be-our-ally-in-adapting-to-climate-change-study-suggests/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/assisted-colonization-could-be-our-ally-in-adapting-to-climate-change-study-suggests/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-301786</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Protecting coastal waters may be the best investment you&#8217;ve never heard of, says Kristin Rechberger</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/protecting-coastal-waters-may-be-the-best-investment-youve-never-heard-of-says-kristin-rechberger/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/protecting-coastal-waters-may-be-the-best-investment-youve-never-heard-of-says-kristin-rechberger/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Apr 2025 22:32:58 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/04/29033926/Revive-our-ocean-07_NGSPS2016REV_EnricSala_San-Benedicto-UW-729-768x512-1.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=298307</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Nature conservation Influencers]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Britain, Global, Greece, Indonesia, Mexico, Philippines, Portugal, and Turkey]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[30x30 conservation target, blue economy, Coastal Ecosystems, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Economics, Environment, Fishing, Interviews, Marine Protected Areas, Oceans, Overfishing, Protected Areas, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The ocean has long been treated as the world’s forgotten frontier—out of sight, out of mind, and dangerously overused. Yet efforts to reverse decades of neglect are gathering speed. Last week saw the launch of Revive Our Ocean, a new initiative aimed at helping coastal communities create marine protected areas (MPAs) to restore both marine [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The ocean has long been treated as the world’s forgotten frontier—out of sight, out of mind, and dangerously overused. Yet efforts to reverse decades of neglect are gathering speed. Last week saw the launch of Revive Our Ocean, a new initiative aimed at helping coastal communities create marine protected areas (MPAs) to restore both marine life and local economies. The effort, led by Dynamic Planet with support from National Geographic’s Pristine Seas initiative, comes at a pivotal time. In 2023, countries agreed to a historic treaty to safeguard ocean biodiversity. But of the 100-plus nations that signed, only 21 have ratified the deal, with crucial backers such as the United States notably absent. With a 2030 deadline looming to protect 30% of the oceans, Revive Our Ocean’s founders argue that waiting for governments alone will not be enough. &#8220;We&#8217;ve seen that marine protection works,&#8221; says Kristin Rechberger, founder of Dynamic Planet and the force behind the new initiative. &#8220;But the creation of MPAs has been far too slow. To meet 30&#215;30, the world would need to establish over 190,000 new protected areas. That’s why we’re focusing on communities—those who know their waters best.&#8221; Kelp bed in the waters of Arran, Scotland. Credit: Henley Spiers Rechberger&#8217;s optimism is grounded in experience. Over the past decade, Dynamic Planet and Pristine Seas have supported the creation of 29 of the world’s largest marine reserves, covering nearly seven million square kilometers, mostly in remote national waters. Now, attention is shifting closer to shore, where&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/protecting-coastal-waters-may-be-the-best-investment-youve-never-heard-of-says-kristin-rechberger/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/protecting-coastal-waters-may-be-the-best-investment-youve-never-heard-of-says-kristin-rechberger/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-298307</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Getting rewilding right with the reintroduction of small wildcats</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/getting-rewilding-right-with-the-reintroduction-of-small-wildcats/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/getting-rewilding-right-with-the-reintroduction-of-small-wildcats/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Feb 2025 17:05:21 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/02/18095213/11-An-ocelot-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=294574</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Argentina, Brazil, Global, Portugal, Scotland, Spain, and Taiwan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Carnivores, Cats, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Extinction, Habitat, Mammals, Predators, Reintroductions, Restoration, Rewilding, Small Cats, Top Predators, Wildlife, and Zoonotic Diseases]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For the briefest moment earlier this year, the Eurasian lynx — extinct in the U.K. for thousands of years — returned to the wild in Scotland. But this release wasn’t scientifically planned. Rather, it was an illegal act that drew condemnation from authorities and conservationists alike. Though the four lynx were swiftly captured; one died [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For the briefest moment earlier this year, the Eurasian lynx — extinct in the U.K. for thousands of years — returned to the wild in Scotland. But this release wasn’t scientifically planned. Rather, it was an illegal act that drew condemnation from authorities and conservationists alike. Though the four lynx were swiftly captured; one died shortly after. Following the illegal release, Scottish First Minister John Swinney ruled out a legal reintroduction of lynx (Lynx lynx), or other large carnivores, under his government. “Acting illegally and without consultation is extremely damaging to the cause of conservation and well-planned releases,” says Helen Senn, head of conservation and science programs at the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland. “I think [the illegal release] will really undermine the trust of stakeholders like farmers and landowners [involved] in the process that conservationists go through … to get releases approved.” Senn is part of a legal rewilding project that aims to restore the Scottish wildcat (Felis silvestris), also affectionately dubbed the “Highland tiger” by the Scottish people, even though it’s not much bigger than a house cat. This project is supported and funded by the Scottish government so will be unaffected by Swinney’s recent statement barring large carnivore reintroductions. The Scottish wildcat — a subpopulation of the European wildcat that arrived on what is today the island of Britain at the end of the last ice age 9,000 years ago, and which has remained isolated from mainland populations — was declared “functionally extinct” in 2018 largely due&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/getting-rewilding-right-with-the-reintroduction-of-small-wildcats/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/getting-rewilding-right-with-the-reintroduction-of-small-wildcats/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-294574</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Mass salmon deaths hit Scottish farms as government investigates</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/mass-salmon-deaths-hit-scottish-farms-as-government-investigates/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/mass-salmon-deaths-hit-scottish-farms-as-government-investigates/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Feb 2025 16:35:21 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Francesco De Augustinis]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/02/12113637/Smolt_salmo_salar_29119938758-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=294269</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Europe, Scotland, and United Kingdom]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Aquaculture, Conservation, Consumption, Diseases, Environment, Environmental Policy, Fish, Fisheries, Food, Food Industry, food security, Global Environmental Crisis, Industry, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Oceans, Parasites, Politics, Resource Conflict, and Saltwater Fish]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Hundreds of thousands of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) died on fish farms in Scotland in the final months of 2024. The mass mortality events took place as a parliamentary committee concluded an inquiry into the industry, saying it was “disappointed” by the lack of progress on environmental pollution and animal welfare issues. Among the most [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Hundreds of thousands of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) died on fish farms in Scotland in the final months of 2024. The mass mortality events took place as a parliamentary committee concluded an inquiry into the industry, saying it was “disappointed” by the lack of progress on environmental pollution and animal welfare issues. Among the most striking incidents recorded by the Scottish Fish Health Inspectorate, 59,000 adult salmon died between September and October 2024 at a farm in Loch Torridon owned by Norwegian multinational Mowi that Mongabay visited in September. The main causes of death were gill disease and mechanical treatments to remove parasitic sea lice (Lepeophtheirus salmonis). Due to this and previous incidents, in the 18-month production cycle ending in October, the farm, which can hold at least 2,500 metric tons of salmon at a time, declared a 30% loss of production. Even more salmon died on other farms. Between September and November, 323,000 dead salmon were reported at the Invertote farm on the Isle of Skye, owned by local company Organic Sea Harvest. Many of these deaths, the company reported, were due to string of pearls jellyfish (Apolemia uvaria), whose poisonous tentacles can wound salmon’s skin, eyes and gills. This jellyfish is also responsible for several episodes at the Mowi farm on the Isle of Muck, where 272,000 salmon died between October and November, either as a direct result of injuries or due to the emergency transfer of fish to other sites. “In the last couple of years, my&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/mass-salmon-deaths-hit-scottish-farms-as-government-investigates/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/mass-salmon-deaths-hit-scottish-farms-as-government-investigates/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-294269</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>AI can already identify species in photos. Can it extract even more data?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/ai-can-already-identify-species-in-photos-can-it-extract-even-more-data/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/ai-can-already-identify-species-in-photos-can-it-extract-even-more-data/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Feb 2025 13:37:40 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhishyant Kidangoor]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhishyantkidangoor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/02/05123718/Hermit-Crab_Photo-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=293931</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Scotland and United Kingdom]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Artificial Intelligence, Research, Species, Technology, Wildlife, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[How do you identify an animal in a photo? These days, a host of AI-driven apps are available that make this an easy task. But what if you have more questions? Is the animal looking healthy? Are its surroundings polluted? Does it look stressed because of the heat? Getting these answers would be key to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[How do you identify an animal in a photo? These days, a host of AI-driven apps are available that make this an easy task. But what if you have more questions? Is the animal looking healthy? Are its surroundings polluted? Does it look stressed because of the heat? Getting these answers would be key to understanding how habitat degradation, pollution and global warming are adversely affecting biodiversity around the world. Artificial intelligence might not be able to answer such intricate questions from an image just yet. However, the potential is there. Researchers have developed a new data set and evaluation tool to gauge how AI models perform when asked for extra information from images captured and shared by citizen scientists. The INQUIRE tool was developed by teams at the University of Edinburgh, University College London, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, UMass Amherst and iNaturalist, a citizen science platform where people can share photos of plants and animals. On applying the data set to various AI models and algorithms, researchers found that artificial intelligence performed well with simple prompts, but failed when more complicated ones were introduced. Nevertheless, the team said further work will enable AI models to help scientists gather more intricate and nuanced data from images taken by citizen scientists around the world. Team member Oisin Mac Aodha, associate professor in machine learning at the University of Edinburgh, told Mongabay that identifying species from photos is only the “tip of the iceberg.” He emphasized the need to capitalize on the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/ai-can-already-identify-species-in-photos-can-it-extract-even-more-data/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/ai-can-already-identify-species-in-photos-can-it-extract-even-more-data/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-293931</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Scottish salmon farms seek growth despite mounting fish deaths and environmental concerns</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/scottish-salmon-farms-seek-growth-despite-mounting-fish-deaths-and-environmental-concerns/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/scottish-salmon-farms-seek-growth-despite-mounting-fish-deaths-and-environmental-concerns/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Nov 2024 08:00:36 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Francesco De Augustinis]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/11/19114342/salmon-farms-scotland-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=290298</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Europe, Scotland, and United Kingdom]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Aquaculture, Conservation, Consumption, Environment, Environmental Policy, Fish, Fisheries, Food, Food Industry, food security, Global Environmental Crisis, Industry, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Oceans, Overconsumption, Politics, Resource Conflict, and Saltwater Fish]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[ULLAPOOL, U.K. — The fish float on the surface by the dozen, their bellies pointing toward the still-dark sky of the early morning. We are peering into a cage of an intensive Atlantic salmon farm, owned by the Norwegian multinational Mowi, in Upper Loch Torridon along Scotland’s west coast. It’s September 2024. It&#8217;s difficult to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[ULLAPOOL, U.K. — The fish float on the surface by the dozen, their bellies pointing toward the still-dark sky of the early morning. We are peering into a cage of an intensive Atlantic salmon farm, owned by the Norwegian multinational Mowi, in Upper Loch Torridon along Scotland’s west coast. It’s September 2024. It&#8217;s difficult to tell why these salmon died. On one carcass, a salmon louse (Lepeophtheirus salmonis) can be seen moving, but most of the fish in the pens, alive or dead, have abrasions and wounds, perhaps from treatments to eliminate lice and other parasites. Jamie Moyes, a local activist who has been investigating salmon farms for years and accompanied Mongabay to the farm in a small dinghy, inspects the fish carcasses while collecting footage to post on his social media channels. Behind him, the lights turn on in a boat, signaling that the company workers who are sleeping there have been alerted to our presence. “We filmed that farm a year and a half ago, and it was absolutely terrible,” Moyes said later, back on dry land, recalling a massive infestation of lice. “The most shocking thing today was the amount of death floating on the surface,” he said. “It could easily be up to 50 dead salmon in one cage, floating on the top. There’s something wrong there.” Activist Jamie Moyes on Upper Loch Torridon, with salmon cages in the background. Image by Francesco De Augustinis for Mongabay. A few weeks later, we find out the reason&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/scottish-salmon-farms-seek-growth-despite-mounting-fish-deaths-and-environmental-concerns/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/scottish-salmon-farms-seek-growth-despite-mounting-fish-deaths-and-environmental-concerns/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-290298</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Trial begins in U.K. for victims of Minas Gerais dam disaster</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/trial-begins-in-u-k-for-victims-of-minas-gerais-dam-disaster/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/trial-begins-in-u-k-for-victims-of-minas-gerais-dam-disaster/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Oct 2024 18:49:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/10/28170728/Feature-attempt-1-768x450.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=289298</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, England, Europe, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Environment, Environmental Law, extractives, Human Rights, Law, Mining, Politics, Pollution, Research, and Threats To Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A civil trial began October 21 to determine whether several mining companies are liable for the collapse of a dam that released toxic sludge into communities in rural Brazil, resulting in one of the worst environmental disasters in the country’s history. The class action lawsuit, filed in the U.K., will decide whether the Fundão tailings [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A civil trial began October 21 to determine whether several mining companies are liable for the collapse of a dam that released toxic sludge into communities in rural Brazil, resulting in one of the worst environmental disasters in the country’s history. The class action lawsuit, filed in the U.K., will decide whether the Fundão tailings dam collapse was the fault of mining companies Broken Hill Proprietary (BHP) and Miners Vale, which may have to pay billions of dollars in compensation to affected individuals. “Our legal case will publicly hold BHP to account and set a precedent; making it more difficult for multinational corporations more broadly to neglect their responsibility to the communities in which they operate,” said Tom Goodhead, CEO of Pogust Goodhead, the firm that filed the lawsuit. The Fundão tailings dam stored the toxic byproduct from iron ore drilling in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais. When the dam broke on November 5, 2015, it released approximately 50 million cubic meters (1.7 billion cubic feet) of arsenic-laced mud down the Doce river, killing 19 people and destroying the towns of Bento Rodrigues and Paracatu de Baixo. The accident created an economic and public health crisis for millions of people, whose crops and drinking water were poisoned, according to the lawsuit. Many businesses were forced to close. Around 620,000 claimants in the lawsuit could receive around $46 billion in compensation if the court rules in their favor, according to Pogust Goodhead. A recent study found that 15 metals, including iron, nickel,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/trial-begins-in-u-k-for-victims-of-minas-gerais-dam-disaster/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-289298</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>As tidal power rides a wave of clean energy optimism, pitfalls persist</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/as-tidal-power-rides-a-wave-of-clean-energy-optimism-pitfalls-persist/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/as-tidal-power-rides-a-wave-of-clean-energy-optimism-pitfalls-persist/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Oct 2024 20:07:34 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/10/14180553/Image_1-scaled-e1764628379529-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=288653</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Circular economy and Oceans]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global, Scotland, and United Kingdom]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Alternative Energy, carbon, Clean Energy, Conservation, Energy, Energy Efficiency, Environment, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Oceans, and Renewable Energy]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the Pentland Firth off of Scotland’s coast, an array of underwater turbines churn 24/7, spun by powerful ocean tides. Operational since 2018, this tidal stream project reached a milestone last year, generating 51 gigawatt hours of power — a first anywhere in the world for tidal stream technology. Though limited to only four turbines, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the Pentland Firth off of Scotland’s coast, an array of underwater turbines churn 24/7, spun by powerful ocean tides. Operational since 2018, this tidal stream project reached a milestone last year, generating 51 gigawatt hours of power — a first anywhere in the world for tidal stream technology. Though limited to only four turbines, this long-running demonstration (known as the MeyGen project, and operated by the SAE Renewables company) is one of several tidal stream trials that experts say offers proof of concept and shows off the possibilities of harnessing the world’s tides as an alternative energy source. Its annual output is enough to power roughly 6,000 homes. The Pentland Firth array could eventually scale up to 269 turbines and produce up to 398 megawatts of clean power — enough to power around 175,000 homes. “MeyGen has demonstrated now beyond doubt that three-bladed, horizontal axis, seabed-mounted tidal turbines work,” says Fraser Johnson, the project’s operations and maintenance manager. But to become an alternative energy player in the coming years, he adds, the nascent tidal stream industry needs to get more turbines in the water and demonstrate ongoing proof of capabilities, while driving down costs. For now, the United Kingdom stands at the forefront of tidal stream development, with MeyGen and around half a dozen other U.K. projects currently generating enough electricity to power thousands of homes. If planned developments go ahead, around 130 megawatts of capacity will be operational in the country’s surrounding waters by 2029, though this figure&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/as-tidal-power-rides-a-wave-of-clean-energy-optimism-pitfalls-persist/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/as-tidal-power-rides-a-wave-of-clean-energy-optimism-pitfalls-persist/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-288653</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The promise of ecocide law, from boardroom to courtroom (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/the-promise-of-ecocide-law-from-boardroom-to-courtroom-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/the-promise-of-ecocide-law-from-boardroom-to-courtroom-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Aug 2024 17:52:53 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Judith SchwartzMonica Lennon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/04/05182948/GP0STT0QY_Medium_res_with_credit_line-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=286259</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global and Scotland]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Business, Climate Change, Commentary, Conservation, Corporate Social Responsibility, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Ethics, Forest Destruction, Habitat Loss, and Law]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Every day, decisions are made worldwide that generate substantial profits but cause severe environmental harm. This degradation affects everyone, including the decision-makers themselves. Business is not immune to externalities: climate change and ecosystem collapse are disrupting operations and driving up costs, pushing economies to the brink. It is a conundrum: whilst the majority of people [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Every day, decisions are made worldwide that generate substantial profits but cause severe environmental harm. This degradation affects everyone, including the decision-makers themselves. Business is not immune to externalities: climate change and ecosystem collapse are disrupting operations and driving up costs, pushing economies to the brink. It is a conundrum: whilst the majority of people and organizations do not set out to destroy nature, existing regulatory frameworks provide few mechanisms for meaningful protection. Indeed, our market-based economies evolved under the assumption that natural resources were infinite. The exploitation of the natural world continues because we lack both the means and the incentive to stop it. Consider a paper company aiming to reduce costs by sourcing wood from untouched tropical forest in Indonesia. Despite the Environmental, Social, and Governance Department’s objections on grounds including potential social and environmental impacts of habitat loss, depletion of local food sources and air pollution from machinery and vehicle dust, the project goes ahead. Mangrove forests and other nearshore ecosystems like seagrass meadows and coral reefs support myriad species and human communities, but often become degraded by activities like aquaculture and mining. Image by Rhett A. Butler / Mongabay. Similarly, picture a company supplying cobalt and lithium for electric vehicle batteries. To bolster supplies amid limited global stocks of these minerals, the firm seeks licenses for deep sea exploration in the western Pacific, disregarding potentially irreversible and widespread damage to the marine environment. In each case the balance sheet took precedence. So how can we engineer&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/the-promise-of-ecocide-law-from-boardroom-to-courtroom-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/the-promise-of-ecocide-law-from-boardroom-to-courtroom-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-286259</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>U.S. and U.K. lawmakers must wake up to the coffee problem (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/u-s-and-u-k-lawmakers-must-wake-up-to-the-coffee-problem-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/u-s-and-u-k-lawmakers-must-wake-up-to-the-coffee-problem-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Dec 2023 01:19:13 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Etelle Higonnet]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2016/11/09112559/coffeecup2-683x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=276892</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Britain, Europe, European Union, Global, United Kingdom, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Business, Coffee, Commentary, Commodity Roundtables, Conservation, Deforestation, Food, Food Industry, Forest Products, Forests, Green, Human Rights, International Trade, Slavery, Trade, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Coffee. Nectar of the gods. Lifesaving energy booster that helps many of us start our days. Ubiquitously consumed around the world by people like me – without my beloved morning brew I am something of a discombobulatedgrumpyhedgehog. And yet, this top, globally traded agri-commodity is also a major driver of deforestation, mass extinction, child labor, slavery, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Coffee. Nectar of the gods. Lifesaving energy booster that helps many of us start our days. Ubiquitously consumed around the world by people like me – without my beloved morning brew I am something of a discombobulatedgrumpyhedgehog. And yet, this top, globally traded agri-commodity is also a major driver of deforestation, mass extinction, child labor, slavery, and other abuses. Few consumers realize that only 10% to 1% of coffee&#8217;s retail price ends up in the coffee farmers’ hands, most of whom do not earn a living wage, and are subsisting in grinding poverty. (Sorry for this downer, please don&#8217;t read any further till you&#8217;ve had a good strong cup to brace for the rest!) Coffee is thought to be one of the top seven commodities driving deforestation worldwide – not as bad as cattle, but right up there with cocoa, rubber, and wood fiber; sometimes even nipping at the heels of the notorious palm oil industry. Coffee replaced about 1.9 million hectares of forest from 2001 to 2015. Coffee doesn&#8217;t just kill forests though. Pesticide-soaked monoculture coffee is a significant contributor to the mass extinction we are in, especially the insect apocalypse. Forest area replaced by commodity crops. Table via World Resources Institute. Bizarrely, almost no NGOs work to document abuses in the coffee industry, but thanks to some fearless journalists, we know quite a bit about abuses in coffee supply chains from Mexico to Vietnam, Guatemala to Ethiopia, Brazil to Cote d&#8217;Ivoire, Honduras to Indonesia. Despite valiant efforts by some pioneering investigators though, not much is said however about horrific conditions in the coffee industry, compared to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/u-s-and-u-k-lawmakers-must-wake-up-to-the-coffee-problem-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/u-s-and-u-k-lawmakers-must-wake-up-to-the-coffee-problem-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-276892</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>What does the decline of natural history museums mean for biodiversity conservation? (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/06/what-does-the-decline-of-natural-history-museums-mean-for-biodiversity-conservation-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/06/what-does-the-decline-of-natural-history-museums-mean-for-biodiversity-conservation-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Jun 2023 22:20:38 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rajith Dissanayake]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/06/28194157/giraffe-puzzle-copy-e1687990363682-768x411.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=270263</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Britain, England, Europe, Global, and United Kingdom]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Commentary, Conservation, Global Environmental Crisis, History, Research, Science, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[With the disappearance of European empires, many associated internationally important natural history museums (NHMs) are struggling to continue. They are being underfunded, short-staffed; collections split up and hived off. Many are, in short, dying, despite much window dressing with specimens being digitally archived away with even less access for naturalists who may need them. Fred [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[With the disappearance of European empires, many associated internationally important natural history museums (NHMs) are struggling to continue. They are being underfunded, short-staffed; collections split up and hived off. Many are, in short, dying, despite much window dressing with specimens being digitally archived away with even less access for naturalists who may need them. Fred Naggs, previously of London’s NHM, recently provided a review of such trends in the science journal Megataxa in a wide-ranging, 27 page article addressing global biodiversity problems, with several suggested solutions. Given that firsthand observations about museum culture are rarely articulated, such observations should interest all those interested in institutions that are often publicly funded to support biodiversity research and conservation including zoos, societies and botanic gardens. Although Naggs’s article concentrates on the Natural History Museum in London, its remit is much wider (uncredited quotations below are taken from it). Despite declines, many museums and institutes still seem to thrive – these include NHMs in Copenhagen, Sydney and at Harvard, and also the British Museum and Kew Gardens – perhaps the best-known botanical institute in the world. I’ve been fortunate to visit at least a dozen important NHMs around the world, including a tiny one in Riga, Latvia, and expanding modern ones such as in Singapore. A natural history museum in Latvia with a diorama of taxidermies of Asian wildlife. Image courtesy of the author. Several museums and their collections have been severely damaged or destroyed by fires such as the Lisbon NHM in 1978,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/06/what-does-the-decline-of-natural-history-museums-mean-for-biodiversity-conservation-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/06/what-does-the-decline-of-natural-history-museums-mean-for-biodiversity-conservation-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-270263</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Air pollution sensors found to store crucial biodiversity data</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/06/air-pollution-sensors-found-to-store-crucial-biodiversity-data/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/06/air-pollution-sensors-found-to-store-crucial-biodiversity-data/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Jun 2023 13:31:01 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhishyant Kidangoor]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhishyantkidangoor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/06/23132527/owl-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=270173</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Europe, Scotland, and United Kingdom]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Air Pollution, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Ecosystems, Environment, Pollution, Research, Sensors, Technology, Wildlife, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[It seems a cache of biodiversity data was hiding in plain sight all along. In the midst of hazardous particulate matter trapped in the filters of two air quality monitoring systems in the U.K., scientists discovered DNA samples that they were able to extract to study and survey the biodiversity in the region. The two [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[It seems a cache of biodiversity data was hiding in plain sight all along. In the midst of hazardous particulate matter trapped in the filters of two air quality monitoring systems in the U.K., scientists discovered DNA samples that they were able to extract to study and survey the biodiversity in the region. The two air pollution sensors, one in London and another in Auchencorth Moss in Scotland, unintentionally collected airborne DNA shed by plants and animals. Scientists in the U.K. and Canada analyzed the samples to identify more than 180 taxa of mammals, plants, birds and invertebrates. According to a study published by the team in the journal Current Biology, the detected species include animals such as badgers (Meles meles) and little owls (Athene noctua), trees such as ash (Fraxinus spp.) and linden (Tilia spp.), as well as pathogenic fungi like Septoriella. While the current findings are based on data collected only from two sensors, it signals the possible presence of a huge trove of biodiversity data around the world that could be extracted and studied. If demonstrated to be scalable, it could potentially be instrumental in making biodiversity surveys easier for scientists and researchers. Air pollution sensors “collect data at very regular intervals,” Joanne Littlefair, one of the authors of the study and a lecturer in biological sciences at Queen Mary University of London, told Mongabay in a video interview. “It’s potentially a huge untapped source of biodiversity information and sampling at a very fine temporal scale.” Surveying&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/06/air-pollution-sensors-found-to-store-crucial-biodiversity-data/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/06/air-pollution-sensors-found-to-store-crucial-biodiversity-data/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-270173</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Kew Gardens joins local partners to save tropical plants from extinction</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/kew-gardens-joins-local-partners-to-save-tropical-plants-from-extinction/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/kew-gardens-joins-local-partners-to-save-tropical-plants-from-extinction/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Feb 2023 14:53:23 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sue Branford]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/02/13120131/kew-garden-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=265518</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cameroon, England, Ethiopia, Global, Guinea, Mozambique, Tropics, and United Kingdom]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Botany, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Forestry, Forests, Fungi, Global Environmental Crisis, Mass Extinction, Plants, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Research, Saving Species From Extinction, Solutions, Species Discovery, Trees, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A worldwide international collaboration is locating tropical areas with high concentrations of plants not yet identified by science, then working with local communities to conserve those plants and their habitats.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KEW GARDENS, U.K. — There have been five known mass extinctions in Earth’s history. Today, most scientists agree we are in the midst of the sixth. “Species are going extinct at an unprecedented rate,” attests Meryl Westlake, senior digital content manager at Britain’s Kew Gardens, “with some estimates that we are [now] losing 135 plants, animals and insects every day, compared with the baseline extinction rate — the rate … before humans had a big impact on the planet — of 1-5 species every year.” Humankind, being the driving force behind this rapidly escalating extinction crisis, may have a chance of halting it, or at least slowing it down, at least in theory and hopefully in practice. Which is where the U.K.’s Royal Botanic Gardens, popularly known as Kew Gardens, enters the picture. While the London-based internationally renowned botanical research institute is best known for its vast collection of tropical plants kept under glass against the U.K’s harsh climate since 1840, today its researchers are working with partners around the globe in a race to slow the pace of extinction. Mongabay went to London at the start of 2023 to see how the effort is progressing. Saxicolella deniseae is a member of the Saxicolella genus, a group of plants highly adapted to survive in very specific whitewater environment, with some species only encountered at a single waterfall. In 2022, scientists identified several new species within this genus, including S. deniseae on the Konkouré River in Guinea. Dams need to have solid&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/kew-gardens-joins-local-partners-to-save-tropical-plants-from-extinction/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-265518</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Peatland restoration in temperate nations could be carbon storage bonanza</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/peatland-restoration-in-temperate-nations-could-be-carbon-storage-bonanza/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/peatland-restoration-in-temperate-nations-could-be-carbon-storage-bonanza/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Feb 2023 15:46:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/02/09142504/bear-and-swans-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=265420</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Canada, Global, Scotland, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Biodiversity, carbon, Carbon Sequestration, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Ecosystems, Environment, Fires, Forest Carbon, Forestry, Forests, Freshwater, Global Warming, Impact Of Climate Change, Oil Sands, Peatlands, Protected Areas, Restoration, Soil Carbon, Temperate Forests, and Wetlands]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Temperate peatlands sequester tremendous amounts of carbon, but many have experienced extensive harm. Now, as climate change worsens, land managers are urgently moving to restore these vital ecosystems.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[On April 6, 1985, a soil mining machine sparked a peat fire near the North Carolina coast in an ecosystem called a pocosin, an Indigenous Algonquin term that means, aptly, “swamp on a hill.” The flames spread quickly across 95,000 acres (38,400 hectares) of temperate peatland ecosystem, made more susceptible to the blaze by decades of logging, draining and degradation. The dried-out peat burned ferociously, trees ignited, wildlife (including deer, alligators and black bears) tried to flee, and the sky darkened with smoke — a sign of long-stored soil carbon rushing up into the atmosphere. It took responders six days to contain what was dubbed the Allen Road Fire. But that didn’t extinguish the conflagration. You see, peat soils are naturally wet and fire-resistant, but the pocosin soils had been ditched, drained and dried, so the peat went on burning — the fire slowly eating through millennia-old, compacted, once waterlogged vegetation. This is called a ground fire, and the Allen Road blaze continued burning, spewing smoke and carbon dioxide long after the main fire was out. It took 200 marines 13 days to put out all the ground fires. But bad news has long since turned to good: Five years after the fire, the U.S. government established the Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge in the area. Responding to the blaze, land managers decided to begin restoring the ditched, dried and now partially burned peatlands to bring water back to this “swamp on a hill,” revitalizing this temperate peatland — an&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/peatland-restoration-in-temperate-nations-could-be-carbon-storage-bonanza/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/peatland-restoration-in-temperate-nations-could-be-carbon-storage-bonanza/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-265420</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Wildlife lover and artist records 5 decades of change on iconic U.K. river</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/09/wildlife-lover-and-artist-records-5-decades-of-change-on-iconic-u-k-river/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/09/wildlife-lover-and-artist-records-5-decades-of-change-on-iconic-u-k-river/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Sep 2022 16:05:45 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rebecca BranfordSue Branford]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/09/07092849/Janet-Marsh-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=260038</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Covering the Commons and Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[England, Europe, and United Kingdom]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Animals, Arts, Biodiversity, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Freshwater, Habitat Degradation, Rivers, Water Pollution, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[England’s Itchen River and other chalk rivers have been dubbed the nation’s coral reefs due to high biodiversity, but like small watersheds worldwide, they’ve gotten little attention, despite threats. That’s where Janet Marsh steps in.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[“I was a teenager, 14, when I first visited the valley. My father was a dead-keen fisherman, so he was in his camouflage,” Janet Marsh tells us. “I didn’t want to fish — and still don’t. But I did like to draw. And I had hours and hours of time to observe the wildlife.” Marsh, now 69, is relating her first encounter with the Itchen River, a rare chalk stream in the southern U.K. county of Hampshire, where her love of painting and illustration blossomed in the 1960s — as did her love of all things wild. One of her Itchen paintings (the banner image for this article) was featured by a local newspaper, eliciting interest from art book publishers. Janet then decided to create an illustrated nature diary as part of her degree in art. It was published in 1979. Decades on, this visual chronicle provides a vivid ecological record: a time capsule of flora and fauna along the Itchen, a 42-kilometer (26-mile) river that rises east of the historic city of Winchester and flows to the English Channel in Southampton. Her long association with the valley also provides an evolving view of ecosystem change, including a major motorway extension, which disturbed the stream’s sleepy course. Janet Marsh at work in her London apartment beside the Thames River. Image courtesy of Sue Branford. Some 85% of the world’s 200 chalk streams are found in England, and WWF, the conservation organization, says those watersheds make a big contribution to U.K.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/09/wildlife-lover-and-artist-records-5-decades-of-change-on-iconic-u-k-river/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/09/wildlife-lover-and-artist-records-5-decades-of-change-on-iconic-u-k-river/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-260038</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Scotland changes course to save its last native wildcats</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/scotland-changes-course-to-save-its-last-native-wildcats/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/scotland-changes-course-to-save-its-last-native-wildcats/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Jun 2022 21:47:47 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[James Fair]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/06/16211527/wildcat-1-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=257389</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Europe, Scotland, and United Kingdom]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Cats, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Ex-situ Conservation, Extinction, In-situ Conservation, Predators, Small Cats, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Great Britain has lost its entire suite of top land predators over the past few thousand years: wolves (Canis lupus), brown bears (Ursus arctos) and lynx (Lynx lynx) have all vanished from the island, largely due to habitat loss, hunting and persecution. Now it’s on the verge of losing a much smaller one, and its [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Great Britain has lost its entire suite of top land predators over the past few thousand years: wolves (Canis lupus), brown bears (Ursus arctos) and lynx (Lynx lynx) have all vanished from the island, largely due to habitat loss, hunting and persecution. Now it’s on the verge of losing a much smaller one, and its only remaining native felid: the European wildcat (Felis silvestris). Found today in a few small pockets of northern Scotland, the wildcat has been put on what’s described as an “intensive care” program of captive breeding and reintroduction into one carefully selected area. The plan is to release 20 cats a year, starting in 2023, for up to three years, with the aim of sufficiently reinforcing those cats that are still there to build a self-sustaining, viable population. But how did the situation get so desperate that such a last-gasp intervention was deemed necessary? Wildcats are small carnivores, slightly larger than domestic cats, and are found across Europe, including in France, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, Italy, most of the Iberian Peninsula and large parts of Eastern Europe. Wildcat. Image courtesy of Saving Wildcats/Royal Zoological Society of Scotland. While there are concerns about population declines in mainland Europe, the situation is nowhere near as perilous for the species as it is in Scotland. Will this new captive-breeding approach save an animal affectionately called the “Highland tiger” and regarded as emblematic of Scotland’s wildness? Even those conservationists in charge of the program accept this is far from certain. “If&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/scotland-changes-course-to-save-its-last-native-wildcats/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/scotland-changes-course-to-save-its-last-native-wildcats/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-257389</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Sea restoration projects quilt a ‘mosaic of habitats’ with striking results</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/sea-restoration-projects-quilt-a-mosaic-of-habitats-with-striking-results/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/sea-restoration-projects-quilt-a-mosaic-of-habitats-with-striking-results/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Jun 2022 15:00:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Claire Alberts]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/06/15135317/16-seagrass-restoration-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=257249</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[England, Europe, Scotland, and United Kingdom]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Coastal Ecosystems, Conservation, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Fish, Global Environmental Crisis, Habitat, Habitat Degradation, Marine, Marine Conservation, NGOs, Oceans, Research, Restoration, Saltwater Fish, and Seagrass]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[After years of scallop dredging and fish farming, Loch Craignish, a coastal inlet near Argyll, Scotland, was in disrepair. The dredging had destroyed parts of the seafloor, effluent had polluted the water, and the biodiversity was noticeable only by its absence. But in 2020, members of community group Seawilding began to restore the loch by [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[After years of scallop dredging and fish farming, Loch Craignish, a coastal inlet near Argyll, Scotland, was in disrepair. The dredging had destroyed parts of the seafloor, effluent had polluted the water, and the biodiversity was noticeable only by its absence. But in 2020, members of community group Seawilding began to restore the loch by laying cages of native oysters in the shallow waters. As they worked to build back the shellfish, they noticed a few plots of seagrass speckled across the seafloor, close to where oyster reefs had once grown. “We were finding tiny patches of seagrass all the way around, and areas where it looked as if there should be seagrass but there isn’t,” Danny Renton, director of Seawilding, told Mongabay. The realization led members of Seawilding to add another species to their restoration plan: seagrass. They began to collect seeds from the existing plants, which they brought onto land to bundle into hessian bags before replanting them into the seabed. Now, in addition to restoring about 300,000 native oysters (Ostrea edulis), there is also about a quarter of a hectare (0.6 acres) of seagrass. Renton said he and other members are already noticing a boost in biodiversity across the integrated habitat of oyster reef and seagrass, as fish and other species gravitate there to feed, spawn and shelter. “The two just went hand in hand,” Renton said. “It was by ecological accident, in a way.” Members of community group Seawilding began to restore the loch by laying&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/sea-restoration-projects-quilt-a-mosaic-of-habitats-with-striking-results/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/sea-restoration-projects-quilt-a-mosaic-of-habitats-with-striking-results/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-257249</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Ambitious English rewilding project aims to give 20% of land ‘back to nature’</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/11/ambitious-english-rewilding-project-aims-to-give-20-of-land-back-to-nature/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/11/ambitious-english-rewilding-project-aims-to-give-20-of-land-back-to-nature/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Nov 2021 15:40:57 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rebecca BranfordSue Branford]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/11/08064902/17-Exmoor-ponies-on-Somerleyton-Estate-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=249136</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Agroecology and Covering the Commons]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[England, Europe, and United Kingdom]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroecology, Biodiversity, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Ecosystems, Environment, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Land Use Change, Landscape Restoration, Nature-based climate solutions, Plantations, Protected Areas, Reforestation, Restoration, Rewilding, Solutions, and Temperate Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[WildEast hopes to rewild large, interconnected tracts in East Anglia and also introduce regenerative farming practices on farmland still in use, but some local farmers complain the project lacks consultation.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[“Folklore has it that the last great bustard in the U.K. was shot here, where we are standing, in 1832,” says Olly Birkbeck, as he surveys Massingham Heath, a large tract of open land in eastern England. “They&#8217;re almost like a small ostrich — crested and rather peculiar looking.… They make an extraordinary clucking noise and they&#8217;re just the most gorgeous things you&#8217;ve ever seen. They&#8217;re rather cumbersome-looking creatures and they used to stalk around here in the hundreds in the old days. I think they were used to decorate ladies’ hats quite a lot as well. “The next project, potentially, is to bring them back.” This may not be wishful thinking. It was clear to the Mongabay reporting team standing with Birkbeck on the heath in mid-September that far-reaching change is underway. As afternoon sunlight penetrated billowing clouds, tall grasses swayed in a gentle breeze. Birkbeck was taken aback by what happened on the heath last spring, change that he attributes to his rewilding project. “Whoosh! It all came to life … this extraordinary sort of alchemy happened,” he recalls. Flowers bloomed in an explosion of color. “Skylarks, stone curlews and turtle doves, all desperately endangered, are proliferating!” The great bustard (Otis tarda). It became locally extinct in the mid-19th century when the bird was overhunted, partly to provide feathers for ladies’ hats. It was recently reintroduced onto Salisbury Plain, a move that Olly Birkbeck hopes to copy in Massingham Marshes. Image by Andrej Chudý via Wikimedia Commons (CC&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/11/ambitious-english-rewilding-project-aims-to-give-20-of-land-back-to-nature/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-249136</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Honey bees find food more easily in cities, thanks to abundant urban gardens</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/11/honey-bees-find-food-more-easily-in-cities-thanks-to-abundant-urban-gardens/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/11/honey-bees-find-food-more-easily-in-cities-thanks-to-abundant-urban-gardens/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Nov 2021 10:18:02 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jude Coleman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/11/14231709/bee-honeyComb-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=249469</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[England, Europe, and United Kingdom]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Cities, Ecology, Environment, Green, Insects, Pollinators, and urban ecology]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Despite living in a concrete jungle, London’s urban bees fly shorter distances to feast on nectar-rich flowers than their neighbors in the countryside—a counterintuitive discovery explained by the many lush gardens in the city, researchers reported recently in the Journal of Applied Ecology. Urban beekeeping has become more popular, as city residents look for ways [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Despite living in a concrete jungle, London’s urban bees fly shorter distances to feast on nectar-rich flowers than their neighbors in the countryside—a counterintuitive discovery explained by the many lush gardens in the city, researchers reported recently in the Journal of Applied Ecology. Urban beekeeping has become more popular, as city residents look for ways to support bee populations. However, established beekeepers in London now claim that flower food stops are overcrowded. Questioning whether this is true, biologist Ash Samuelson at Royal Holloway University and their team set out to compare the distances traveled by urban honey bees on their foraging flights with the flights of rural bees. Worker bees come and go from an urban hive. Photo by Jude Coleman To do so, the scientists translated nearly 3,000 “waggle dances,” the unique body language sequences bees use inside the hive to advertise foraging successes—like insect Yelp reviews. Full of nectar, a returning worker lands on the honeycomb, flies forward a short distance, cuts to the left, and loops back to the starting point. She then repeats this choreography, this time cutting to the right, while other bees watch from the crowd. Previous researchers converted the lengths and angles of these dances into distances and directions to food sources. Through a glass-sided beehive, the team observed western honey bees (Apis mellifera) describe foraging flights to workers in 20 colonies—10 in London, and 10 in rural farmland. Translating the “conversations” allowed the scientists to compile an array of food sites. Samuelson&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/11/honey-bees-find-food-more-easily-in-cities-thanks-to-abundant-urban-gardens/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-249469</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New protections announced for Galápagos Islands and beyond at COP26</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/11/new-protections-announced-for-galapagos-islands-and-beyond-at-cop26/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/11/new-protections-announced-for-galapagos-islands-and-beyond-at-cop26/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Nov 2021 18:39:55 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Claire Alberts]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Elizabethalberts]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/11/03182459/DSC4591-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=248959</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Oceans]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Galapagos, Panama, and Scotland]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Deep Sea, Ecosystems, Fish, Fishing, Global Environmental Crisis, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Marine, Marine Conservation, Marine Mammals, Marine Protected Areas, Oceans, Protected Areas, Wildlife, and Wildlife Corridors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Ecuador will expand the marine reserve encircling the Galápagos Islands, President Guillermo Lasso announced on Nov. 1 at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland. The current Galápagos Marine Reserve covers 133,000 square kilometers (51,400 square miles) around its namesake islands, and the extension will protect an additional 60,000 km2 (23,200 mi2). The majority of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Ecuador will expand the marine reserve encircling the Galápagos Islands, President Guillermo Lasso announced on Nov. 1 at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland. The current Galápagos Marine Reserve covers 133,000 square kilometers (51,400 square miles) around its namesake islands, and the extension will protect an additional 60,000 km2 (23,200 mi2). The majority of the addition will be established across the Cocos Ridge, an underwater mountain range on the northeastern side of the Galápagos Islands that forms an important migration highway known as the Cocos-Galápagos Swimway. In one part of the new reserve, all fishing activity will be banned, while another part will only prohibit longline fishing. “The proposal that I&#8217;m bringing here is a result of five months of negotiations with … the fishing industry and other sectors,” Lasso said at a press conference through a translator. “We made them understand the importance of this marine reserve.” Lasso said the reserve will not only support and strengthen the region’s biodiversity, but will help combat climate change. He added the reserve’s establishment would be a debt swap for conservation, but didn’t provide further details about this. The president has not yet signed the decree for the establishment of the reserve, but experts say they expect this to happen soon. Earlier this year, activists presented a scientific proposal to extend Galápagos Marine Reserve by 445,953 km2 (172,183 mi2) — more than triple its existing size — to then-president Lenín Moreno, but the Ecuadoran government didn’t take any action at that time. Lasso&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/11/new-protections-announced-for-galapagos-islands-and-beyond-at-cop26/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/11/new-protections-announced-for-galapagos-islands-and-beyond-at-cop26/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-248959</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>As fossil fuel use surges, will COP26 protect forests to slow climate change?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/11/as-fossil-fuel-use-surges-will-cop26-protect-forests-to-slow-climate-change/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/11/as-fossil-fuel-use-surges-will-cop26-protect-forests-to-slow-climate-change/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Nov 2021 13:33:14 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Justin Catanoso]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/11/01123246/16-BANNER-IMAGE-768x453.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=248798</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[European Union, Global, Scotland, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, carbon, Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Footprint, Carbon Market, Carbon Offsets, Carbon Sequestration, Climate, Climate Change, Climate Science, Conservation, Controversial, Emission Reduction, Energy, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Forest Carbon, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Law, Mitigation, Monitoring, Politics, Pollution, and Research]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[With humanity emitting more carbon skyward, nature-based climate solutions — and their ecosystem carbon storage capacity — are put at risk by agribusiness and extraction industries. Will world leaders act in time to conserve forests?]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[As delegates from more than 190 nations gather today in Glasgow, Scotland, for the opening of the United Nations climate summit known as COP26, they find themselves in a perilous situation largely of their own making. In the years since the signing of the historic Paris Agreement in 2015, the world was supposed to act decisively, putting humanity in a far better position climate-wise now than it was then. The planet’s largest economies — the U.S., China, India, U.K. and E.U., along with other nations — were to cut greenhouse gas emissions. The wealthiest countries were also to raise billions of dollars to be committed to vulnerable nations for climate change-related losses and damage, and for adaptation to climate impacts. Also, fossil fuel burning was to be rapidly cut, with solar and wind energy on the rise. And heavily forested nations, such as Brazil, Russia, the U.S. and Canada, were to curtail deforestation and advance reforestation, a commitment enshrined in Article 5 of the Paris Agreement. The Scottish Event Campus in Glasgow, Scotland, U.K., venue for COP26. Courtesy of Scottish Trade Assoc. Six years on, the global community has failed to advance significantly on every one of those Paris goals. In fact, in many ways it has regressed, especially regarding the conservation of forests as “sinks and reservoirs of greenhouse gases” under Article 5. The Amazon, the world’s largest tropical forest, Earth’s greatest green carbon storehouse and the size of the continental U.S., is tipping from being a net carbon&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/11/as-fossil-fuel-use-surges-will-cop26-protect-forests-to-slow-climate-change/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-248798</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Beyond tree planting: When to let forests restore themselves</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/10/beyond-tree-planting-when-to-let-forests-restore-themselves/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/10/beyond-tree-planting-when-to-let-forests-restore-themselves/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Oct 2021 13:35:50 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mike Gaworecki]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/10/18093424/banner2-forest-restoration-Great-Tit-Parus-major-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=248284</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Britain, Europe, and United Kingdom]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Forest Recovery, Forest Regeneration, Forestry, Forests, Landscape Restoration, Reforestation, Research, Restoration, and Trees]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In May, the U.K. Forestry Commission announced a grant program designed to encourage the creation of new English woodlands as a means of mitigating climate change, boosting biodiversity, and reducing flooding. The program will make 15.9 million pounds ($21.7 million) available in its first year to “provide greater financial incentives for landowners and farmers to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In May, the U.K. Forestry Commission announced a grant program designed to encourage the creation of new English woodlands as a means of mitigating climate change, boosting biodiversity, and reducing flooding. The program will make 15.9 million pounds ($21.7 million) available in its first year to “provide greater financial incentives for landowners and farmers to plant and manage trees,” according to a statement a Forestry Commission spokesperson provided to Mongabay. But tree planting isn’t the only woodland-creating activity the grant supports: For the first time ever, the British government will also pay landowners for allowing forests to naturally reestablish themselves. U.K. environmentalists have welcomed the new policy supporting natural regeneration. “We&#8217;re really pleased that the UK Government [is] finally giving financial support for the natural regeneration of trees, rather than just for planting trees,” Guy Shrubsole, policy and campaigns coordinator for the NGO Rewilding Britain, told Mongabay. Rewilding Britain has called for a doubling of woodland cover in Britain by 2030 and argues that natural regeneration should be considered “the default approach” to achieving that goal. Image via PxHere (Public Domain). Rewilding Britain has called for a doubling of woodland cover by 2030 and argues that natural regeneration should be considered “the default approach” to achieving that goal. It has a number of advantages over planting trees. For one thing, natural regeneration is cheaper, since you don’t have to collect seeds, grow seedlings, plant them, and maintain them to ensure their survival. And, as Shrubsole pointed out, natural regeneration “produces&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/10/beyond-tree-planting-when-to-let-forests-restore-themselves/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/10/beyond-tree-planting-when-to-let-forests-restore-themselves/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-248284</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>To save salt marshes, researchers deploy a wide arsenal of techniques</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/08/to-save-salt-marshes-researchers-deploy-a-wide-arsenal-of-techniques/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/08/to-save-salt-marshes-researchers-deploy-a-wide-arsenal-of-techniques/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Aug 2021 07:00:08 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Lisa Golden]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/08/11145847/Essex-salt-marsh-sausages-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=245821</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[England, Europe, and United Kingdom]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, carbon, Climate Change, Climate Science, Coastal Ecosystems, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Environment, Erosion, Estuaries, Forest Recovery, Impact Of Climate Change, Invasive Species, Landscape Restoration, Nature-based climate solutions, Ocean Warming, Oceans, Research, Sea Levels, Soil Carbon, Solutions, and Wetlands]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[On one of the first dry, hot days of summer, Rachel Langley walks past farmhouses and tractors, heading for the edge of the Colne Estuary in Essex, U.K. She’s on her way to see how her “salt marsh sausages” are doing. Six years ago, the U.K. government’s Environment Agency broke through the seawalls on the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[On one of the first dry, hot days of summer, Rachel Langley walks past farmhouses and tractors, heading for the edge of the Colne Estuary in Essex, U.K. She’s on her way to see how her “salt marsh sausages” are doing. Six years ago, the U.K. government’s Environment Agency broke through the seawalls on the west side of the estuary that dated back to the medieval period. The breach allowed the tide to flow in and create 22 hectares (54 acres) of new salt marsh and mudflats. It was part of the government’s “managed realignment” program to fortify suitable coastal sites against the erosive effects of rising seas and stronger storms that are becoming more common as climate change unfurls. On the other side of the estuary, however, an existing salt marsh was showing signs of erosion. In 2018, Langley and her team introduced the sausages, 3-meter (9-foot) bundles of coconut coir, to try to stabilize the degrading habitat. Coir rolls are commonly used into restore riverine habitats, and restoration projects, but Langley and her team wanted to test their usefulness in the more energetic estuarine environment with higher energy levels than a river. Could the sausages, installed across narrow channels running through the marsh, help raise the marsh, slow the water flooding it with each tide, and ultimately prevent it from succumbing to the sea? The chestnut-wood spikes holding stacked coir rolls in place stick out of the fine mud. As Langley approaches, crabs skitter in and out of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/08/to-save-salt-marshes-researchers-deploy-a-wide-arsenal-of-techniques/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-245821</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Scotland, the rewilding movement looks to the past to plan its future</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/06/in-scotland-the-rewilding-movement-looks-to-the-past-to-plan-its-future/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/06/in-scotland-the-rewilding-movement-looks-to-the-past-to-plan-its-future/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Jun 2021 13:49:56 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Kieran Dodds]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Genevieve Belmaker]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/06/17123422/header-scotland-rewilding-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=243768</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Europe, Scotland, and United Kingdom]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Science, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Ecosystems, Environment, Forest Recovery, Forest Regeneration, Forestry, Forests, Governance, Grasslands, Landscape Restoration, Politics, Reforestation, Restoration, Rewilding, Solutions, Trees, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[SCOTLAND &#8211; “To restore the landscape we need cathedral thinking,” says Thomas Macdonell gazing up at a stand of ancient pines within Glen Feshie, Scotland, where he has worked as director of conservation and forestry for the past two decades. Under three different landowners, the former engineer has transformed this valley into a flagship site [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[SCOTLAND &#8211; “To restore the landscape we need cathedral thinking,” says Thomas Macdonell gazing up at a stand of ancient pines within Glen Feshie, Scotland, where he has worked as director of conservation and forestry for the past two decades. Under three different landowners, the former engineer has transformed this valley into a flagship site for rewilding in Scotland. But there is a long way to go. “What we are doing now goes beyond my lifespan and the owner of the estate’s lifespan. To give people a different vision, I came up with a 200-year plan for the estate,” Macdonell said. This rolling timescale offers a dramatic reimagining of the Scottish landscape, one that informs his everyday work but is now also influencing contemporary political ambition in the U.K. Thomas Macdonell, the conservation manager of Glen Feshie for Wildlands Ltd., a flagship site for rewilding in Scotland, pictured with a copy of Landseer&#8217;s Monarch of the Glen, an iconic work in Scottish landscape painting. Image courtesy of Kieran Dodds. In November, global leaders will gather in nearby Glasgow for the pivotal COP26 climate summit. Given the recent isolation of the pandemic, it will present a highly valued opportunity for policymakers, leaders and environmentalists to push for change but also highlight solutions and successes on a grand scale. The Scottish Rewilding Alliance (SRA) is calling on the Scottish government (a devolved power within the U.K.) to become the world’s first rewilding nation ahead of the summit, where ecosystem management has become a&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/06/in-scotland-the-rewilding-movement-looks-to-the-past-to-plan-its-future/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-243768</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Without planting more trees in the tropics, we can’t fix the climate (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/11/without-planting-more-trees-in-the-tropics-we-cant-fix-the-climate-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/11/without-planting-more-trees-in-the-tropics-we-cant-fix-the-climate-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Nov 2020 13:02:35 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Edward Mitchard]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/02/20105658/tnc_20291874_Full_1200px-cropped-768x438.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=236969</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Europe, European Union, Global, Scotland, and Tropics]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Agroforestry, Carbon Offsets, Climate Change, Commentary, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Corporate Social Responsibility, Ecosystems, Forests, Mitigation, Reforestation, Restoration, Solutions, Trees, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[I don’t know whether it’s all thanks Greta Thunberg, or due to unusually strong fire seasons in Australia, North and South America, and Siberia in the past 12 months, but there appears to be an increasing realization among the world’s politicians that action on climate change is urgently needed. We know what needs to be [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[I don’t know whether it’s all thanks Greta Thunberg, or due to unusually strong fire seasons in Australia, North and South America, and Siberia in the past 12 months, but there appears to be an increasing realization among the world’s politicians that action on climate change is urgently needed. We know what needs to be done. We must cut emissions from across our power, transport and industry sectors drastically and fast. And we must stop tropical deforestation. But the basic physics and complex economics of climate change are clear that cutting emissions drastically and stopping deforestation, while necessary, are not by themselves sufficient. We need to also suck out massive amounts of carbon from the atmosphere, partly because emissions reductions cannot run fast enough, and partly because we’ve already emitted far too much carbon. The only technology we have currently that can suck carbon out of the atmosphere at any kind of scale is growing trees. So tree planting and forest restoration are essential, and we need to scale up our current paltry efforts urgently. Fire on the border of Kaxarari Indigenous lands in Lábrea, Amazonas state, Brazil, 17 Aug, 2020. Photo © Christian Braga/Greenpeace. Funding is available for this: governments are increasingly investing in ecosystem restoration both within their countries and abroad (e.g. the Bonn Challenge commitments), but we will not get near to what is needed without the financial firepower of companies. I believe companies should be encouraged to purchase carbon offsets to assist with forest protection and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/11/without-planting-more-trees-in-the-tropics-we-cant-fix-the-climate-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-236969</doi>				</item>
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