<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss version="2.0" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/" xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/" >

	<channel>
		<title>Conservation news</title>
		<atom:link href="https://news.mongabay.com/feed/?location=france&#038;type=post" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/france/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Thu, 06 Aug 2026 14:20:58 +0000</lastBuildDate>
		<language>en-US</language>
		<sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod>
		<sy:updateFrequency>1</sy:updateFrequency>
		<generator>https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0.2</generator>

<image>
	<url>https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/05/16160320/cropped-mongabay_icon-32x32.png</url>
	<title>France environmental news</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/france/</link>
	<width>32</width>
	<height>32</height>
</image> 
				<item>
					<title>France to send its last captive orcas to marine park, not sanctuary</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/france-to-send-its-last-captive-orcas-to-marine-park-not-sanctuary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/france-to-send-its-last-captive-orcas-to-marine-park-not-sanctuary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Jun 2026 18:23:41 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Spoorthy Raman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Autumn Spanne]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/03141906/Orques-du-Marineland-dAntibes-en-representation-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320536</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Europe, European Union, France, and Spain]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Welfare, Animals, Biodiversity, Captive Breeding, Conservation, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Mammals, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Marine Mammals, Oceans, Wildlife, and Zoos]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The French government recently announced it has greenlit a plan to send its last captive cetaceans — two orcas and 12 dolphins — to zoos and entertainment parks in Spain. These cetaceans live in the Marineland Antibes park on the French Riviera, which closed in 2025. In 2021, France passed a law banning the breeding [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The French government recently announced it has greenlit a plan to send its last captive cetaceans — two orcas and 12 dolphins — to zoos and entertainment parks in Spain. These cetaceans live in the Marineland Antibes park on the French Riviera, which closed in 2025. In 2021, France passed a law banning the breeding and keeping of cetaceans in captivity for entertainment shows, which will come into effect on Dec. 2, 2026. The orcas and dolphins at Marineland were the primary draw for visitors. The two orcas (Orcinus orca), Wikie, aged 25, and her son, Keijo, aged 12, were born at Marineland Antibes on the French Riviera and spent all their lives in concrete tanks and performing in display shows. They will now be moved to Loro Parque, a zoo and entertainment park in Tenerife on the Canary Islands. The dolphins will be split up between two parks in Valencia and Málaga on the Spanish mainland, with plans for some of them to return to France&#8217;s Beauval Zoo, when it’s ready to have them, according to reporting by Le Monde. A court-appointed expert team found in February 2026 that the concrete tanks in which the orcas lived at Marineland Antibes were in advanced structural decline, and if the mammals weren’t moved soon, they would have to be euthanized. “Faced with this emergency, we are acting to avert the worst,” Mathieu Lefèvre, France’s minister delegate for ecological transition, said in a statement, explaining the rationale for the decision. “Loro Parque&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/france-to-send-its-last-captive-orcas-to-marine-park-not-sanctuary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/france-to-send-its-last-captive-orcas-to-marine-park-not-sanctuary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320536</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>Brazil FOIA confirms Lula &#038; Macron talked before key CITES vote on endangered tree</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/brazil-foia-confirms-lula-macron-talked-before-key-cites-vote-on-endangered-tree/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/brazil-foia-confirms-lula-macron-talked-before-key-cites-vote-on-endangered-tree/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Apr 2026 00:01:13 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Emmanuelle PicaudFernanda WenzelSpoorthy Raman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Andy Lehren]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/22100823/c-lula-and-macron-in-a-boat-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317918</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Europe, France, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Deforestation, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Extinction, Forests, Governance, Mongabay investigation, Plants, Politics, Saving Species From Extinction, Solutions, Supply Chain, timber trade, Trees, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Early in 2026, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s office denied that he had a phone call with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, about easing proposed trade restrictions on Brazil’s endangered national tree. The denial to Mongabay came during reporting for a story published in February about Brazil’s efforts to seek the highest trade [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Early in 2026, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s office denied that he had a phone call with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, about easing proposed trade restrictions on Brazil’s endangered national tree. The denial to Mongabay came during reporting for a story published in February about Brazil’s efforts to seek the highest trade protections for Brazilwood (Paubrasilia echinata) — safeguards that were diluted during a global summit of representatives to CITES, a wildlife trade treaty signed by 184 countries and the European Union. Now, following a response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by Mongabay, Lula’s office confirmed that he had, in fact, been in communication with Macron just before a key vote on the proposal at the CITES conference, held five months ago in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. The conversations between Lula and Macron were “regarding the negotiations then underway” as part of CITES deliberations, according to Brazil’s Special Advisory Office of the President of the Republic. The office responded to Mongabay’s FOIA request on April 6. It did not specify what was discussed and did not state if the talks happened over a phone call, text or other means. The FOIA response marks the first official confirmation that the two leaders were in communications at CITES over the issue. Native to the country’s Atlantic Forest and a national symbol, Brazilwood is coveted in the music industry to make high-quality violin bows, which sell for as high as 7,000 euros ($8,200) apiece. The demand has led the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/brazil-foia-confirms-lula-macron-talked-before-key-cites-vote-on-endangered-tree/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/brazil-foia-confirms-lula-macron-talked-before-key-cites-vote-on-endangered-tree/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317918</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A French city cut its marine pollution — and its seagrass bounced back</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/a-french-city-cut-its-marine-pollution-and-its-seagrass-bounced-back/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/a-french-city-cut-its-marine-pollution-and-its-seagrass-bounced-back/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Apr 2026 19:53:26 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Edward Carver]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Autumn Spanne]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/07140421/5-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317096</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Europe, European Union, France, and Mediterranean Sea]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Ecosystem Engineers, Ecosystems, Environment, Marine, Marine Conservation, Oceans, Plants, Pollution, Research, Seagrass, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Neptune grass is generally regarded as the most ecologically important seagrass and shallow-water habitat in the Mediterranean Sea. It suffered a severe decline during the 20th century, and there have been myriad efforts to actively restore it via replanting schemes. A new study points to the merits of a different approach: Remove the human-caused drivers [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Neptune grass is generally regarded as the most ecologically important seagrass and shallow-water habitat in the Mediterranean Sea. It suffered a severe decline during the 20th century, and there have been myriad efforts to actively restore it via replanting schemes. A new study points to the merits of a different approach: Remove the human-caused drivers of the decline and let the meadows regrow on their own. The study, published March 5 in the journal Marine Environmental Research, found that following the introduction of stronger environmental regulations and practices in France in the mid-to-late 1980s, Neptune grass (Posidonia oceanica) repopulated sampled sections of the waters off the city of Marseille over the ensuing four decades. “We observed exceptional recovering of the meadow in the Bay of Marseille,” Patrick Astruch, a research engineer at GIS Posidonie and the study’s lead author, told Mongabay. GIS Posidonie is a nonprofit marine research group based on the Aix-Marseille University campus. Astruch called it a “very positive trend” and a lesson in the value of passive restoration, which involves letting seagrass meadows regrow naturally after reducing pollution and other threats. Neptune grass in the waters between the French cities of Marseille and Nice, photographed in 2024. The fish in the background are salema porgy (Sarpa salpa), one of the only grazers of Neptune grass. Image courtesy of Thomas Schohn/GIS Posidonie. Patrick Astruch, a research engineer at GIS Posidonie and the lead author of a new study on Neptune grass recovery, conducts research in the Bay of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/a-french-city-cut-its-marine-pollution-and-its-seagrass-bounced-back/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/a-french-city-cut-its-marine-pollution-and-its-seagrass-bounced-back/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317096</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Francis Hallé, the botanist who took a raft into the rainforest canopy</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/francis-halle-the-botanist-who-took-a-raft-into-the-rainforest-canopy/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/francis-halle-the-botanist-who-took-a-raft-into-the-rainforest-canopy/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Jan 2026 04:00:24 +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/20/2026/01/22035152/Francis-Halle-Thomas-Samson-AFP-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313216</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cote D'Ivoire, Europe, France, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Ecology, Environment, Forests, Green, Obituary, Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In most forests, a visitor’s eye is trained on what can be reached. The trunk can be measured. The leaves can be plucked. A specimen can be pressed, labeled, and filed away. Yet the largest share of life in a tropical rainforest is suspended overhead, in a zone of light, wind, and constant exchange. For [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In most forests, a visitor’s eye is trained on what can be reached. The trunk can be measured. The leaves can be plucked. A specimen can be pressed, labeled, and filed away. Yet the largest share of life in a tropical rainforest is suspended overhead, in a zone of light, wind, and constant exchange. For much of the 20th century, that upper world remained a blank on the map of biology, less from lack of curiosity than from a practical problem: it was hard to work where you could not stand. Science often advances when someone treats a logistical obstacle as an intellectual one. In the 1980s, a group of researchers and engineers devised a way to bring a laboratory to the canopy itself. A balloon could lift a platform, set it down on the crowns of trees, and allow botanists to move and observe without felling what they came to study. The method was unglamorous in its intent, even if the image was memorable: a raft perched in the treetops. It opened a layer of forest that had been described more than it had been examined. The botanist at the center of this project had little taste for grand titles. Asked if he was an explorer, he waved it away. “No, no, no, botanist is more than enough for me.” he said. “Life is too short for a botanist,” he added, as if the subject could never be finished. The remark was not a pose. It reflected a view&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/francis-halle-the-botanist-who-took-a-raft-into-the-rainforest-canopy/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/francis-halle-the-botanist-who-took-a-raft-into-the-rainforest-canopy/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313216</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Brigitte Bardot, who turned fame into a lifelong fight for animals</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/brigitte-bardot-who-turned-fame-into-a-lifelong-fight-for-animals/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/brigitte-bardot-who-turned-fame-into-a-lifelong-fight-for-animals/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Dec 2025 14:24:53 +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/20/2025/12/28142248/brigitte-bardot-getty-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312127</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Europe, European Union, and France]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Welfare, Animals, Celebrities, Green, and Obituary]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the second half of the 20th century, animal protection was often treated in public debate as a minor cause, sentimental at best and unserious at worst. It sat uncomfortably beside politics, economics, and diplomacy, and was rarely allowed to intrude on questions of trade, tradition, or national sovereignty. Those who tried to force it [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the second half of the 20th century, animal protection was often treated in public debate as a minor cause, sentimental at best and unserious at worst. It sat uncomfortably beside politics, economics, and diplomacy, and was rarely allowed to intrude on questions of trade, tradition, or national sovereignty. Those who tried to force it into public debate were usually dismissed as eccentrics or moral scolds. One figure helped shift that balance by refusing to treat animals as a side issue. She did not argue from policy papers or institutional authority. She argued from outrage, persistence, and the leverage of fame, insisting that suffering without a human voice was still suffering, and that wild animals were among the most exposed of all. That figure was Brigitte Bardot. Known first as a film star, she abandoned cinema while still a global celebrity and redirected her public life toward animal advocacy. What distinguished her work was not only its longevity, but its scope. She did not limit her concern to pets or laboratory animals. From the 1960s onward, wildlife became a central focus of her activism. Her most consequential campaigns targeted the commercial seal hunt. Bardot traveled to the ice floes of Canada and later to Arctic regions, confronting hunters and drawing international media attention to the killing of harp seal pups. The imagery was powerful, but she framed the issue in blunt terms. In a statement widely reported by the Associated Press, she said, “Man is an insatiable predator.” The problem,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/brigitte-bardot-who-turned-fame-into-a-lifelong-fight-for-animals/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/brigitte-bardot-who-turned-fame-into-a-lifelong-fight-for-animals/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312127</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>France’s largest rewilding project takes root in the Dauphiné Alps</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/frances-largest-rewilding-project-takes-root-in-the-dauphine-alps/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/frances-largest-rewilding-project-takes-root-in-the-dauphine-alps/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Nov 2025 15:52:52 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Marlowe Starling]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/17135442/%C2%A9%EF%B8%8FLucaMelcarne-Alpine-ibex-3-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=309576</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Europe, European Union, and France]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Forests, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Reintroductions, Restoration, Rewilding, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the foothills of the western Alps in southeastern France, horned alpine ibex roam the limestone cliffs of a smaller mountain range known as the Dauphiné Alps, a region once home to thriving populations of wild horses, bison, roe deer, gray wolves, Eurasian lynx, and four species of vultures. In June of this year, the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the foothills of the western Alps in southeastern France, horned alpine ibex roam the limestone cliffs of a smaller mountain range known as the Dauphiné Alps, a region once home to thriving populations of wild horses, bison, roe deer, gray wolves, Eurasian lynx, and four species of vultures. In June of this year, the nonprofit Rewilding Europe announced the landscape as its 11th restoration site, making it France’s largest rewilding project. The term “rewilding” emerged in the 1990s, but it’s only in the past decade that the approach has grown in popularity worldwide. Generally, rewilding is a restoration method that prioritizes conserving or reintroducing historically present species, including those wiped out locally, to boost overall biodiversity. For Rewilding Europe, this approach allows nature to flourish in a way that will make ecosystems more resilient to climate change. It also means creating economic opportunities for the people who live in these ecosystems. “A fixed approach to nature doesn’t really work anymore,” Fabien Quétier, head of landscapes for Rewilding Europe, told Mongabay. He said rewilding is about restoring core ecosystem functions by encouraging the establishment of herbivores to maintain the forests, scavengers to mitigate disease from carcasses, and aquatic mammals like otters and beavers to maintain rivers. The project is currently focusing on ungulates such as wild horses and cattle, historical predators such as wolves and lynx, and vultures. One of the reasons Rewilding Europe selected the French Alps for rewilding is that the region already had a head start. In&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/frances-largest-rewilding-project-takes-root-in-the-dauphine-alps/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/frances-largest-rewilding-project-takes-root-in-the-dauphine-alps/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-309576</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘Madness’: World leaders call for deep-sea mining moratorium at UN ocean summit</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/madness-world-leaders-call-for-deep-sea-mining-moratorium-at-un-ocean-summit/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/madness-world-leaders-call-for-deep-sea-mining-moratorium-at-un-ocean-summit/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Jun 2025 15:59:43 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Claire Alberts]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/06/11152306/unoc-oceans-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=300609</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[France, Global, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Conservation, Critical Minerals, Deep Sea, Deep Sea Mining, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Fish, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Marine, Marine Conservation, Mining, Oceans, and Politics]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center&#8217;s Ocean Reporting Network, where Elizabeth Claire Alberts is a fellow. NICE, France — At the 2025 U.N. Ocean Conference (UNOC), taking place in Nice, France, between June 9 and 13, world leaders renewed their call for a global moratorium on deep-sea mining, an emerging industry that many [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center&#8217;s Ocean Reporting Network, where Elizabeth Claire Alberts is a fellow. NICE, France — At the 2025 U.N. Ocean Conference (UNOC), taking place in Nice, France, between June 9 and 13, world leaders renewed their call for a global moratorium on deep-sea mining, an emerging industry that many experts say could seriously and irreversibly damage marine ecosystems. At the opening plenary, French President Emmanuel Macron denounced deep-sea mining as “madness.” He described the prospective industry as a “predatory” activity that threatens to destroy the seabed and potentially release stored carbon. France was among the first countries to take a stand against deep-sea mining, calling for a ban in 2022. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres echoed Macron’s concerns, warning that the deep sea “cannot become the Wild West.” He also voiced strong support for the International Seabed Authority (ISA), the U.N.-affiliated body tasked with both regulating deep-sea mining in international waters and with protecting the seabed. Since 2022, 33 countries have called for a precautionary pause, moratorium, or ban on deep-sea mining. That number has since risen to 37 with the addition of Slovenia, Latvia, Cyprus and the Marshall Islands. “We cannot afford to miss the ocean&#8217;s capacity to absorb our carbon,” President Hilde Heine of the Marshall Islands told reporters in a press briefing on June 10. “A ban is the safest choice for nature [and] marine life.” The Normand Energy deploying the Patania II nodule collector visible (green). The vessel is chartered by&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/madness-world-leaders-call-for-deep-sea-mining-moratorium-at-un-ocean-summit/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/madness-world-leaders-call-for-deep-sea-mining-moratorium-at-un-ocean-summit/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-300609</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Lawsuit is latest push to curb bottom trawling in protected European waters</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/lawsuit-is-latest-push-to-curb-bottom-trawling-in-protected-european-waters/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/lawsuit-is-latest-push-to-curb-bottom-trawling-in-protected-european-waters/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Feb 2025 13:12:52 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Edward Carver]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/02/12144949/3-A-bottom-trawler-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=294277</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Europe, European Union, France, Mediterranean Sea, and Netherlands]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Ecosystems, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Fish, Fisheries, Global Environmental Crisis, Illegal Fishing, Law Enforcement, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Mongabay Data Studio, Oceans, Saltwater Fish, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Bottom trawling, a fishing technique in which vessels drag weighted nets along the seafloor, has long been condemned by conservationists for disrupting seabed habitat and capturing species indiscriminately. Yet it remains common in marine protected areas around Europe, including in some sections of Dogger Bank, a massive sandbank that experts consider the ecological heart of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Bottom trawling, a fishing technique in which vessels drag weighted nets along the seafloor, has long been condemned by conservationists for disrupting seabed habitat and capturing species indiscriminately. Yet it remains common in marine protected areas around Europe, including in some sections of Dogger Bank, a massive sandbank that experts consider the ecological heart of the North Sea. On Dec. 23, four NGOs sued the Netherlands government in a bid to stop the country’s bottom-trawling vessels from operating in the Dutch section of Dogger Bank. “The Dutch government needs to stop allowing trawling inside protected areas because it is like allowing bulldozers in a protected forest,” Emilie Reuchlin, director of Netherlands-based Doggerland, one of the NGOs that filed the suit, told Mongabay in an email. “Our lawsuit will hopefully lead to a total ban for the most destructive fishing practice — that is, trawling — [in] the protected Dogger Bank.” The action in Dutch court follows four other lawsuits filed in Western Europe last year that seek to stop bottom trawling in marine protected areas (MPAs), as well as a complaint in Sweden with the same aim. This pressure on European nations to strengthen protections in their MPAs comes as they, like all the world’s nations, prepare to scale up MPA coverage to 30% by 2030 as part of the “30&#215;30” pledge under a 2022 international agreement. The lawsuits are part of an advocacy push to make sure MPA designations are meaningful, rather than an exercise in creating or maintaining&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/lawsuit-is-latest-push-to-curb-bottom-trawling-in-protected-european-waters/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/lawsuit-is-latest-push-to-curb-bottom-trawling-in-protected-european-waters/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-294277</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In the dark of the night, sponges help possum shrimp ‘smell’ their way home</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/in-the-dark-of-the-night-sponges-help-possum-shrimp-smell-their-way-home/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/in-the-dark-of-the-night-sponges-help-possum-shrimp-smell-their-way-home/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Oct 2024 15:02:22 +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/20/2024/10/10145340/frontiers-marine-science-mysid-shrimp-homing-behavior-01-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=288520</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Europe, France, and Mediterranean Sea]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Environment, Green, Oceans, Protected Areas, Water Pollution, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Scores of tiny shrimplike crustaceans make a nightly pilgrimage from underwater caves out to feed in the open sea. Bellies full, they find their way back, homing in on their specific cave over vast distances. (Vast for a shrimp.) How these millions of miniscule mysids find their way back home has been largely a mystery [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Scores of tiny shrimplike crustaceans make a nightly pilgrimage from underwater caves out to feed in the open sea. Bellies full, they find their way back, homing in on their specific cave over vast distances. (Vast for a shrimp.) How these millions of miniscule mysids find their way back home has been largely a mystery — until now. Mysid shrimp (Hemimysis margalefi), nicknamed possum shrimp because the females carry their larvae in pouches, are about the size of an aspirin tablet and live in caves along the Mediterranean coast. Researchers found they use specialized receptors on their bodies to “smell” their back to their home caves at night. The way mysids “smell” is different from the way humans experience odor through our noses. Instead, the shrimp sense a mix of chemicals dissolved in the water. This “chemical seascape” is made of compounds released by other creatures living in the home cave, especially sponges. &#8220;We show for the first time that mysids can tell the water-borne odor bouquet — its so-called chemical seascape characteristic of their home cave apart from that of nearby caves,” lead researcher Thierry Pérez from the Mediterranean Institute of Biodiversity and Marine and Continental Ecology (IMBE) in Marseille, France, said in a statement. Their findings were published in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science. Entrance of one of the caves where mysids live in Calanques National Park, southern France. Sponges make up a large part of the sessile community in the cave and emit chemicals that help&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/in-the-dark-of-the-night-sponges-help-possum-shrimp-smell-their-way-home/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/in-the-dark-of-the-night-sponges-help-possum-shrimp-smell-their-way-home/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-288520</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Reef damage from 2024 Olympics surfing venue is avoidable (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/reef-damage-from-2024-olympics-surfing-venue-is-avoidable-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/reef-damage-from-2024-olympics-surfing-venue-is-avoidable-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Dec 2023 02:19:02 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Georgina Seal]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/12/08011455/surfing-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=276446</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[France, French Polynesia, and Oceania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Commentary, Coral Reefs, Ecosystems, Greenwashing, Marine, Marine Conservation, and Oceans]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[From increased metro prices to severe security measures, the Paris 2024 Olympics have been coming under increasing pressure from Parisians. Yet its citizens are not the only locals who are critiquing the games. Residents of Tahiti, French Polynesia, where the Olympic surfing event is to be held, have been engaged in discussions with the Paris [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[From increased metro prices to severe security measures, the Paris 2024 Olympics have been coming under increasing pressure from Parisians. Yet its citizens are not the only locals who are critiquing the games. Residents of Tahiti, French Polynesia, where the Olympic surfing event is to be held, have been engaged in discussions with the Paris 2024 Olympic Committee for months over the environmental impacts of the event venue construction in the town and bay of Teahupo’o. Located 10,000 miles from Paris, the small town of 1,500 inhabitants will host the Olympic surfing event from July 27-30, 2024. Unsurprisingly there are mixed reactions to the event that will bring hordes of spectators, officials, staff, and security details to the island. Design concept for the new surfing tower. Image via Paris 2024 Olympic Committee. But plans to build a new judging tower for the surfing competition are being met with strong resistance from local surfers and fishermen. Earlier this year, the Olympic Committee released plans for the $5 million aluminum tower, to be built in place of an existing wooden tower. Efforts to protest the plans for the tower have come from the locals themselves, primarily through a community group called the Vai Ara o Teahupo’o Association. Social media campaigns led by Tahitian big wave pro surfer Matahi Drollet have garnered much support on Instagram and TikTok. One protest which drew 400 supporters was explicitly not against the games but only against the plans to build the tower. “It is a heritage&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/reef-damage-from-2024-olympics-surfing-venue-is-avoidable-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/reef-damage-from-2024-olympics-surfing-venue-is-avoidable-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-276446</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘The deep sea is vital to protect the ocean’: Q&#038;A with France’s Hervé Berville</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/the-deep-sea-is-vital-to-protect-the-ocean-qa-with-frances-herve-berville/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/the-deep-sea-is-vital-to-protect-the-ocean-qa-with-frances-herve-berville/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Aug 2023 12:57:44 +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/20/2023/08/02114333/WhatsApp-Image-2023-07-30-at-10.34.42-AM-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=271700</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Oceans]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Europe, France, and Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Conservation, Deep Sea, Deep Sea Mining, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Fish, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Interviews, Interviews with conservation players, Marine, Marine Conservation, Mining, Oceans, and Politics]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KINGSTON, Jamaica — In November, President Emmanuel Macron announced that France was calling for an international ban on deep-sea mining, a proposed activity that has received much attention due to its controversial nature. Proponents argue that deep-sea mining is necessary to obtain critical metals for renewable technologies essential to fight climate change. But critics say [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KINGSTON, Jamaica — In November, President Emmanuel Macron announced that France was calling for an international ban on deep-sea mining, a proposed activity that has received much attention due to its controversial nature. Proponents argue that deep-sea mining is necessary to obtain critical metals for renewable technologies essential to fight climate change. But critics say deep-sea mining would do more harm than good, irrevocably damaging marine ecosystems that took millions of years to form. Some countries have called for a “moratorium” or “precautionary pause” on deep-sea mining, but France is the only nation to have called for an outright ban. In January, the French Parliament also voted to ban deep-sea mining in the nation’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), which spans more than 10,186,624 square kilometers (3,933,078 square miles) around France itself and numerous archipelagic countries in the Pacific under French control. France has the second largest EEZ in the world. Among marine conservationists, France’s state secretary for the sea, Hervé Berville, is often viewed as a champion for the oceans, speaking out against deep-sea mining and supporting efforts to protect the international waters of the high seas through the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) Agreement, also known as the High Seas Treaty, which 160 states and other parties agreed upon in March. However, during his one year in office, he has also drawn controversy for opposing a ban on mobile bottom fishing, which includes destructive practices such as bottom trawling, inside European marine protected areas. At the recent meetings of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/the-deep-sea-is-vital-to-protect-the-ocean-qa-with-frances-herve-berville/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/the-deep-sea-is-vital-to-protect-the-ocean-qa-with-frances-herve-berville/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-271700</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Top French court orders closure of fisheries amid mass dolphin deaths</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/04/top-french-court-orders-closure-of-fisheries-amid-mass-dolphin-deaths/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/04/top-french-court-orders-closure-of-fisheries-amid-mass-dolphin-deaths/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Apr 2023 13:54:21 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Juliette Portala]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Maria Angeles Salazar]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/04/14134522/0.-Several-dolphins-swimming-together.-Image-by-Charl-van-Rooy-via-Unsplash.-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=267517</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Europe and France]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Dolphins, Fellows, Fisheries, Fishing, Marine, Marine Animals, Oceans, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[READER ADVISORY: This story contains images of dead wildlife that some viewers may find disturbing. Monday, March 20. That’s a date French marine conservation groups will remember. Fishers, too. France’s top administrative court, the Council of State, gave the government six months to close areas to fisheries during portions of the year to curtail dolphin [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[READER ADVISORY: This story contains images of dead wildlife that some viewers may find disturbing. Monday, March 20. That’s a date French marine conservation groups will remember. Fishers, too. France’s top administrative court, the Council of State, gave the government six months to close areas to fisheries during portions of the year to curtail dolphin deaths on the French Atlantic coast. But conservationists say there’s still a long way to go. An image search of “dolphins” and “France” won’t just yield the typical photos of these marine mammals moving in the ocean, sunbeams dancing on their smooth skin. Instead, many of the pictures will show bloodied animals lying dead on the beach. Earlier this year, France’s Stranding Network, or RNE, revealed that nearly 400 of the small cetaceans had washed up dead along the country’s west coast between Dec. 1, 2022, and Feb. 15, 2023. The Pelagis Observatory, which coordinates the RNE, reported that 90% of these were common dolphins (Delphinus delphis), with most bearing traces of injuries from fishing gear. However, the true number of deaths is likely far higher. Pelagis estimates that up to 10,000 dolphins may die every year off France’s west coast, as more than 80% of them sink or decompose at sea. The death toll is much higher than the more notorious dolphin massacres on the Danish Faroe Islands and Japan&#8217;s Taiji Cove combined. Dolphins face a number of human-caused perils at sea, including oil spills, boat strikes, exposure to toxic chemicals, and the impacts&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/04/top-french-court-orders-closure-of-fisheries-amid-mass-dolphin-deaths/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/04/top-french-court-orders-closure-of-fisheries-amid-mass-dolphin-deaths/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-267517</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Climate change lawsuits take aim at French bank BNP Paribas</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/deforestation-lawsuits-take-aim-at-french-bank-bnp-paribas/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/deforestation-lawsuits-take-aim-at-french-bank-bnp-paribas/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Mar 2023 16:25:37 +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/20/2023/03/03161737/Feature-10-768x450.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=266086</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, France, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Beef, Cattle, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Energy, Environment, Environmental Law, Fires, Forest Destruction, Forests, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Indigenous Peoples, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Natural Gas, Oil, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Ranching, Supply Chain, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[One of Europe’s biggest banks is facing two ambitious new lawsuits that claim it finances some of the worst contributors to environmental destruction and climate change. French bank BNP Paribas is being sued by a group of environmental and human rights advocacy groups that allege it provides financial services to oil and gas companies as [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[One of Europe’s biggest banks is facing two ambitious new lawsuits that claim it finances some of the worst contributors to environmental destruction and climate change. French bank BNP Paribas is being sued by a group of environmental and human rights advocacy groups that allege it provides financial services to oil and gas companies as well as meat producers that clear the Amazon to make space for cattle pastures — a direct violation of a French due diligence law. The lawsuits, filed in French court, are some of the first to go after big banks for their role in the climate crisis, potentially opening up a new legal avenue for activists trying to combat climate change. “The financial sector has an enormous collective responsibility to meet or not meet the Paris Agreement,” Justine Ripoll, campaign manager for Notre Affaire à Tous, said in a statement. “This climate litigation against a commercial bank is undoubtedly the first in a long series — all over the world.” BNP Paribas officials speaking at a climate financing event. (Photo courtesy of BNP Paribas) The first lawsuit, filed this month by Oxfam, Friends of the Earth and climate justice NGO Notre Affaire à Tous, accused BNP Paribas of giving loans to oil and gas companies like BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil and Shell, among others. The other lawsuit, filed a week later by Comissão Pastoral da Terra and Notre Affaire À Tous, said the bank funds companies like Marfrig, a meat producer that continues to purchase cattle&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/deforestation-lawsuits-take-aim-at-french-bank-bnp-paribas/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/deforestation-lawsuits-take-aim-at-french-bank-bnp-paribas/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-266086</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>France seeks EU okay to fund biomass plants, burn Amazon forest to power Spaceport</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/france-seeks-eu-okay-to-fund-biomass-plants-burn-amazon-forest-to-power-spaceport/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/france-seeks-eu-okay-to-fund-biomass-plants-burn-amazon-forest-to-power-spaceport/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Feb 2023 16:37:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Justin Catanoso]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/02/23150019/1-Sentinel-2A_satellite_-_liftoff_-_18448230354-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=265881</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Amazon Conservation and Bioenergy]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Europe, European Union, France, and French Guiana]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Bioenergy, Conservation, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Energy, Environment, Environmental Law, Forests, Governance, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Technology, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Seemingly contrary to French President Macron’s green image, France is asking for an EU policy exemption to make biomass energy for Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana — resulting in the clearing and burning of rainforest.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[France, which hosted the historic 2015 Paris Climate Agreement meeting, and will soon co-host an international summit to help preserve the world’s three largest remaining rainforests, is seeking a European Union policy exemption that would allow for subsidies that could result in the clearcutting of thousands of hectares of intact, biodiverse Amazon rainforest for bioenergy production. If that plan goes ahead, the cut trees and woody biomass grown on the deforested land in French Guiana would provide fuel new biomass plants, helping power Europe’s Spaceport for decades. In early February, political allies of French President Emmanuel Macron quietly introduced the proposal as an amendment in the final stages of negotiations on the EU’s third Renewable Energy Directive (REDIII). The directive’s overarching goal is to provide the policies for complying with continental law to reduce EU carbon emissions by 55% by 2030. Within REDIII are new regulations aimed at limiting subsidies and wood harvested from native forests for the purpose of making wood pellets to burn for energy generation. However, the latest iteration of RED continues to define woody biomass as a carbon neutral, renewable energy source, even though a host of studies show it to “release higher levels of emissions than coal,” and despite the fact that trees cut to make biomass and then regrown over many decades cannot achieve carbon neutrality within the urgent timeframe required to effectively curb the climate crisis. More than 98% of French Guiana is covered by intact, biodiverse mangrove and tropical forest. But France&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/france-seeks-eu-okay-to-fund-biomass-plants-burn-amazon-forest-to-power-spaceport/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/france-seeks-eu-okay-to-fund-biomass-plants-burn-amazon-forest-to-power-spaceport/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-265881</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Illegal bottom trawling widespread inside Mediterranean marine protected areas</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/11/illegal-bottom-trawling-widespread-inside-mediterranean-marine-protected-areas/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/11/illegal-bottom-trawling-widespread-inside-mediterranean-marine-protected-areas/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Nov 2022 21:05:15 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Edward Carver]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/11/22205209/d-768x386.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=262877</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Oceans]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Europe, European Union, France, Italy, and Mediterranean Sea]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Ecosystems, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Fish, Fisheries, Global Environmental Crisis, Illegal Fishing, Law Enforcement, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Oceans, Saltwater Fish, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Mediterranean Sea isn’t the source of plenty it once was. It now contains some of the most ecologically degraded marine areas in the world, and has been the site of dead zones and fish stock collapses in recent decades. Populations of countless species are in decline, including sharks, seagrasses and marine mammals. The sea [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Mediterranean Sea isn’t the source of plenty it once was. It now contains some of the most ecologically degraded marine areas in the world, and has been the site of dead zones and fish stock collapses in recent decades. Populations of countless species are in decline, including sharks, seagrasses and marine mammals. The sea is “on the verge of ‘burn out,’” WWF has declared. Overfishing and destructive fishing practices, including bottom trawling, are part of the problem. Bottom trawlers drag fishing nets weighted down with heavy “doors,” and they often damage the seabed, destroying coral and sponge habitats, and catch unintended species at a high rate. Conservationists have pushed the creation of marine protected areas (MPAs) and no-trawl zones, but these are only effective if managed and regulated well, and reports in recent years have indicated that, in the Mediterranean, this isn’t the case. Now the Med Sea Alliance (MSA), an umbrella group of NGOs and environmental advocates, has launched an “atlas” showing widespread illegal bottom trawling in the Mediterranean. The atlas, an interactive online map, shows thousands of days of apparent bottom-trawling activity in areas where it is banned, in 2020 and 2021. The atlas uses data from transponders that fishing vessels carry, as well as 169 confirmed infractions based on coast guard records and media reports. “It’s the first time such an atlas [has been] released,” Anne Rémy, MSA’s movement coordinator, told Mongabay. “It can appear like a very scientific map, but behind this map, you have&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/11/illegal-bottom-trawling-widespread-inside-mediterranean-marine-protected-areas/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/11/illegal-bottom-trawling-widespread-inside-mediterranean-marine-protected-areas/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-262877</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>France’s Macron joins growing chorus calling for deep-sea mining ban</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/11/frances-macron-joins-growing-chorus-calling-for-deep-sea-mining-ban/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/11/frances-macron-joins-growing-chorus-calling-for-deep-sea-mining-ban/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Nov 2022 17:18:16 +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/20/2022/11/08170004/macron-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=262315</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Oceans]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[France and Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Conservation, Deep Sea, Deep Sea Mining, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Fish, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Marine, Marine Conservation, Mining, Oceans, and Politics]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[On Nov. 7, French President Emmanuel Macron announced at the COP27 climate summit in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, that France is calling for a complete ban on deep-sea mining. This marks the first time a head of state has directly called for an outright ban on this activity that would extract industrial quantities of minerals from [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[On Nov. 7, French President Emmanuel Macron announced at the COP27 climate summit in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, that France is calling for a complete ban on deep-sea mining. This marks the first time a head of state has directly called for an outright ban on this activity that would extract industrial quantities of minerals from the seabed in international waters. Macron’s statement comes at a time of heightened scrutiny into deep-sea mining. Delegates of the International Seabed Authority (ISA), the multinational organization tasked with overseeing deep-sea mining, are currently meeting in Kingston, Jamaica, to discuss mining regulations, and many member states are using this forum to voice their opinions and concerns. Costa Rica, Chile, Germany, France, Spain and Panama have all called for a “precautionary pause” on deep-sea mining due to a lack of scientific data about its potential impacts and insufficient regulations to protect the environment. Last month, New Zealand also announced that it would support a “conditional moratorium” until the ISA has implemented environmental rules backed by “robust science.” At the U.N. Ocean Conference earlier this year in Lisbon, Palau also launched an alliance of nations calling for a moratorium against deep-sea mining, which Fiji, Samoa and Micronesia subsequently joined. Delegates from other countries, including Canada, Brazil, Portugal, the Netherlands, Singapore and Switzerland, made various statements at the current ISA meetings to the effect that deep-sea mining shouldn’t go ahead without sufficient research and regulations. On the other hand, nations like Norway, South Africa, Australia, Japan and India&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/11/frances-macron-joins-growing-chorus-calling-for-deep-sea-mining-ban/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/11/frances-macron-joins-growing-chorus-calling-for-deep-sea-mining-ban/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-262315</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Fish-feed industry turns to krill, with unknown effects on the Antarctic ecosystem</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/fish-feed-industry-turns-to-krill-with-unknown-effects-on-the-antarctic-ecosystem/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/fish-feed-industry-turns-to-krill-with-unknown-effects-on-the-antarctic-ecosystem/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Oct 2022 16:19:37 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Francesco De Augustinis]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Food systems]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/10/19135253/1-penguin-antarctica-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=261659</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Oceans]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Antarctica, Chile, Europe, France, South America, and Uruguay]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Aquaculture, Business, Climate Change, Conservation, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Fish, Fisheries, Food, Food Industry, Global Environmental Crisis, Industry, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Oceans, Overfishing, Politics, Saltwater Fish, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay/PUNTA ARENAS, Chile/PORDENONE, Italy — A mountain of krill meal has been packed inside a huge warehouse: divided into bags and stacked in hundreds of piles that stretch almost to the ceiling. The warehouse is near the port of Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay, inside the main logistics center of Aker BioMarine, a Norwegian [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay/PUNTA ARENAS, Chile/PORDENONE, Italy — A mountain of krill meal has been packed inside a huge warehouse: divided into bags and stacked in hundreds of piles that stretch almost to the ceiling. The warehouse is near the port of Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay, inside the main logistics center of Aker BioMarine, a Norwegian company that accounts for about 65% of the world’s Antarctic krill production. Ground-up Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba), a shrimp-like crustacean a few centimeters long, reach this warehouse after being processed on board Aker BioMarine’s vessels trawling the Southern Ocean around Antarctica. From this same warehouse, shipments depart each day for ports around the world. “We have three fishing vessels operating in Antarctica, and we have one vessel that is in charge of the transport, the Antarctic Provider,” says Gian Franco Guerrieri, Aker BioMarine’s sales manager for South America. “It comes to Montevideo port every roughly 45 days, maybe 60 days.” Almost all the bags in the warehouse are destined for the aquaculture feed industry — food for farmed fish — while a small part will become pet food. The rest of Aker BioMarine’s catch, minor in comparison, never comes here but instead goes to a different production center in Houston, Texas, where the company makes omega-3 pills for human use. “Generally 80% of our catch and production on board goes to aquaculture and pets, but most of it is aquaculture,” says Ragnhild Dragøy, Aker BioMarine’s vice president of product management. “We sell all over the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/fish-feed-industry-turns-to-krill-with-unknown-effects-on-the-antarctic-ecosystem/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/fish-feed-industry-turns-to-krill-with-unknown-effects-on-the-antarctic-ecosystem/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-261659</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New tech aims to track carbon in every tree, boost carbon market integrity</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/09/new-tech-aims-to-track-carbon-in-every-tree-boost-carbon-market-integrity/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/09/new-tech-aims-to-track-carbon-in-every-tree-boost-carbon-market-integrity/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Sep 2022 02:42:36 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carolyn Cowan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Carolyncowan]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/09/19022943/CTrees-map_Globalcarbon-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=260416</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Denmark, France, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Artificial Intelligence, carbon, Carbon Credits, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Market, Carbon Sequestration, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Environment, Forest Carbon, Forests, Innovation, Mapping, Old Growth Forests, Plantations, Primary Forests, Rainforests, Reforestation, Satellite Imagery, Trees, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Users of a new digital platform from nonprofit CTrees will be able to track in near-real-time the carbon stored and emitted in the world’s forests. The platform is borne out of two decades of research and development by a team of the world’s leading climate scientists and data engineers. It’s being touted as the first-ever [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Users of a new digital platform from nonprofit CTrees will be able to track in near-real-time the carbon stored and emitted in the world’s forests. The platform is borne out of two decades of research and development by a team of the world’s leading climate scientists and data engineers. It’s being touted as the first-ever global system for calculating the amount of carbon in every tree on the planet. “Forests are extremely important to mitigate climate change because they absorb a major part of the carbon in the atmosphere annually,” Sassan Saatchi, a senior scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory who collaborated with colleagues in the U.S., Brazil, Denmark and France to develop the platform, told Mongabay. However, because trees are so efficient at stashing away carbon dioxide, they release vast quantities of carbon back into the atmosphere when forests are degraded, felled or burned. Recent studies have shown that many forests are nearing a tipping point that compromises their ability to store carbon, with parts of Southeast Asia and the Amazon already net carbon emitters due to multiple human-induced stressors. Pine trees in the Sierra Nevada, U.S. Photo by Rhett A. Butler for Mongabay Due to this weighty influence on atmospheric carbon, forest conservation and restoration have become major components of climate change mitigation efforts through climate policy initiatives that rely on forests to offset carbon emissions. But up until now, the world has lacked a globally consistent and transparent means of quantifying and tracking forest carbon. The new CTrees platform&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/09/new-tech-aims-to-track-carbon-in-every-tree-boost-carbon-market-integrity/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/09/new-tech-aims-to-track-carbon-in-every-tree-boost-carbon-market-integrity/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-260416</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘There’s not much hope’: Mediterranean corals collapse under relentless heat</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/02/theres-not-much-hope-mediterranean-corals-collapse-under-relentless-heat/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/02/theres-not-much-hope-mediterranean-corals-collapse-under-relentless-heat/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Feb 2022 14:56:41 +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/20/2022/02/04134325/3_P_clavata-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=252335</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Oceans]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[France and Mediterranean Sea]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Coral Bleaching, Coral Reefs, Ecosystems, Extinction, Extreme Weather, Global Environmental Crisis, Impact Of Climate Change, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Marine Protected Areas, Ocean Warming, and Oceans]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For years, Joaquim Garrabou donned scuba gear and dove into the waters of the Scandola Marine Reserve in Corsica to find a paradise. Twenty meters (66 feet) beneath the surface, there were reef walls draped with soft red coral (Corallium rubrum) and red gorgonian sea-whips (Paramuricea clavata), all swarming with fish and other sea creatures. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For years, Joaquim Garrabou donned scuba gear and dove into the waters of the Scandola Marine Reserve in Corsica to find a paradise. Twenty meters (66 feet) beneath the surface, there were reef walls draped with soft red coral (Corallium rubrum) and red gorgonian sea-whips (Paramuricea clavata), all swarming with fish and other sea creatures. But in 2003, a marine heat wave hit Scandola, leading to the death of many coral reefs. More than 15 years later, the reefs have still not recovered. Now when Garrabou dives at Scandola, he’s greeted by the skeletons of once-thriving corals. “It&#8217;s like seeing someone who is ill, who has a disease that you cannot find the solution for,” Garrabou told Mongabay in a video interview. “You hope that someday there will be a [solution] but you see that there’s not much hope.” After the 2003 marine heat wave, Garrabou and colleagues began monitoring Scandola’s coral reefs to track their recovery. But after accumulating reef survey data and temperature data over many years, they eventually realized they were actually tracking the reefs’ collapse. The results of their long-term study were recently published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B. “We knew something bad was happening to the corals around the world, but we weren’t expecting a collapse in all of the populations that we studied,” study lead author Daniel Gómez-Gras, a marine ecologist at the Institut de Ciències del Mar in Barcelona, told Mongabay in a video interview. “The point of tracking these populations&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/02/theres-not-much-hope-mediterranean-corals-collapse-under-relentless-heat/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/02/theres-not-much-hope-mediterranean-corals-collapse-under-relentless-heat/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-252335</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>French deforestation database pressures Brazilian soy traders to clean up supply chain</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/french-deforestation-database-pressures-brazilian-soy-traders-to-clean-up-supply-chain/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/french-deforestation-database-pressures-brazilian-soy-traders-to-clean-up-supply-chain/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Dec 2021 15:26:39 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Maxradwin]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/12/14152227/FEATURE-FINAL-768x450.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=250632</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Amazon Conservation, Global Forests, and Latin America]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Europe, France, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Forest Destruction, Politics, Protected Areas, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Soy, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[France is taking new steps to ensure that products imported from Brazil aren’t contributing to deforestation in vulnerable forests and savannahs. The French government published a new risk analysis platform earlier this month that shows how much activity by soy traders is causing tree cover loss. The tool is intended to implement more rigorous oversight [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[France is taking new steps to ensure that products imported from Brazil aren’t contributing to deforestation in vulnerable forests and savannahs. The French government published a new risk analysis platform earlier this month that shows how much activity by soy traders is causing tree cover loss. The tool is intended to implement more rigorous oversight of the country’s supply chain by helping French companies determine which soy traders they should work with. “Deforestation is happening in Brazil to feed our markets, our European markets,” said Klervi Le Guenic, a campaign manager at Canopée, one of the organizations that helped assemble the data. “As French consumers, we are responsible for what is happening in the soy industry in Brazil.” Brazilian soy is the single largest driver of deforestation connected to French economic activity. Most of the soy comes from the Brazilian cerrado, a massive 438,910 square-kilometer (169,464 square-mile) network of savannah and wooded grasslands that accounts for around 20% of the country’s total land. The area contains over 300 species of mammals, 14,000 species of insects and 935 species of birds. Over 4,000 plant species endemic to Brazil are also found there. Mongabay has reported on the increasing destruction of this ecosystem, including the possibility that the entire biome is in danger of collapse in the next 30 years, according to one study published this year. According to 2020 deforestation data, the area has already shrunk 78% from its original size. The food company Bunge, one of France’s largest soy traders,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/french-deforestation-database-pressures-brazilian-soy-traders-to-clean-up-supply-chain/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/french-deforestation-database-pressures-brazilian-soy-traders-to-clean-up-supply-chain/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-250632</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Deep-sea mining gets a resounding rejection from conservation authorities</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/deep-sea-mining-gets-a-resounding-rejection-from-conservation-authorities/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/deep-sea-mining-gets-a-resounding-rejection-from-conservation-authorities/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Sep 2021 14:46:11 +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/20/2021/09/09130825/mar22-1-hires-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=246955</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Deep Sea Mining 2021]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[France]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Business, Deep Sea, Deep Sea Mining, Ecosystems, Global Environmental Crisis, Marine, Marine Conservation, Mining, Oceans, and Politics]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[MARSEILLE, France — Delegates at this year’s global conservation summit have voted overwhelmingly in support of a motion that calls for a moratorium on deep-sea mining and the reform of the International Seabed Authority (ISA), the U.N.-mandated body tasked with regulating this activity. Eighty-one governments and government agencies attending the IUCN World Conservation Congress voted [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[MARSEILLE, France — Delegates at this year’s global conservation summit have voted overwhelmingly in support of a motion that calls for a moratorium on deep-sea mining and the reform of the International Seabed Authority (ISA), the U.N.-mandated body tasked with regulating this activity. Eighty-one governments and government agencies attending the IUCN World Conservation Congress voted in favor of the moratorium, laid out in Motion 69, while 18 voted against and 28 abstained. Five hundred and seventy-seven NGOs and civil society organizations also voted in favor, while only 32 voted against and 35 abstained. Farah Obaidullah of the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition (DSCC) called the motion’s approval “excellent news.” “We&#8217;re very happy to see &#8230; such overwhelming support for Motion 69,” she told Mongabay in an interview. “It sends a clear and resounding message to the International Seabed Authority that there is no social license and no global appetite to mine the deep sea.” The results of the vote on motion 69 at the IUCN World Conservation Congress. Image courtesy of Deep Sea Conservation Coalition. Deep-sea mining activities would target three types of deep-sea habitat to extract minerals: abyssal plains, seamounts, and hydrothermal vents. Proponents say deep-sea mining would be less destructive to biodiversity than terrestrial mining, and that the extraction of minerals from the seafloor is necessary to fuel the rise of renewable energy technologies, such as electric cars. But a large consortium of conservationists and scientists say that deep-sea mining would irreversibly damage deep-sea habitats as well as other&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/deep-sea-mining-gets-a-resounding-rejection-from-conservation-authorities/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/deep-sea-mining-gets-a-resounding-rejection-from-conservation-authorities/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-246955</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>European public roundly rejects Brazil trade deal unless Amazon protected</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/02/european-public-roundly-rejects-brazil-trade-deal-unless-amazon-protected/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/02/european-public-roundly-rejects-brazil-trade-deal-unless-amazon-protected/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Feb 2021 18:32:15 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jenny Gonzales]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/02/16175629/BANNER-IMAGE-13-768x451.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=239639</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Amazon Conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Argentina, Brazil, European Union, France, Paraguay, United Kingdom, and Uruguay]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Conservation, Controversial, Corporate Social Responsibility, Deforestation, Environment, Farming, Fires, Food Industry, Forest Loss, Forests, Globalization, Governance, Green, Industrial Agriculture, International Trade, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Supply Chain, Threats To Rainforests, and Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[An average 75% of respondents in 12 European nations say the gigantic EU-Mercosur trade pact should not be ratified if Jair Bolsonaro’s Brazil doesn’t end Amazon deforestation; EU governments are listening.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Netherlands is one of the EU countries that stands strongly for an end to Amazon deforestation before ratifying the free trade agreement with Mercosur. This sign in front of Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum Museum was created by Greenpeace Netherlands and reflects the position of the nation’s populace and Parliament. Image © Olivier Truyman / Greenpeace. A new poll shows that the grand majority of Europe’s people favors implementing effective protections of the Brazilian Amazon, ending deforestation there, before the EU agrees to ratify the free trade agreement with Mercosur (composed of Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay). The EU-Mercusor pact, when or if signed, would be the biggest trade deal in history, worth US$19 trillion, and would greatly benefit Brazilian agricultural commodities producers and the nation’s struggling economy. However, the South American country’s horrific environmental record under President Jair Bolsonaro could now doom the agreement, as the EU’s conservation-sensitive public rejects Mercosur. The new poll, conducted by YouGov, a London-based public opinion and market research company, interviewed 12,703 people via the Internet. An average of 75% of respondents aged 18+ across 12 European countries — France, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal, Germany, the UK, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Austria — believe that their governments should halt ratification of the free trade deal at least until the deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon is halted. They agree that trade deal approval should be paused, even if a delay would reduce European exports to the South American countries. Only 12% of respondents wish for&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/02/european-public-roundly-rejects-brazil-trade-deal-unless-amazon-protected/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/02/european-public-roundly-rejects-brazil-trade-deal-unless-amazon-protected/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-239639</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>France&#8217;s tropical forest conservation efforts: an interview with AFD&#8217;s Gilles Kleitz</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/12/frances-tropical-forest-conservation-efforts-an-interview-with-afds-gilles-kleitz/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/12/frances-tropical-forest-conservation-efforts-an-interview-with-afds-gilles-kleitz/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Dec 2020 23:40:33 +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/20/2020/12/16202945/GUYANE_GENTILHOMME_Didier_Papaichton_MARIN_21_header-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=237945</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Nature conservation Influencers]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Congo Basin, European Union, and France]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Certification, Conservation, Forestry, Forests, Interviews, Interviews with conservation players, Logging, Rainforests, Sustainable Forest Management, Tropical Forests, and Zero Deforestation Commitments]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Since hosting the United Nations Climate Change Conference in 2015 which resulted in the Paris Climate Agreement, France has become a leading proponent for tropical forest conservation. This effort has included establishing a National Strategy to Combat Imported Deforestation (SNDI) to effectively apply a zero deforestation policy to commodities produced at the expense of forests [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Since hosting the United Nations Climate Change Conference in 2015 which resulted in the Paris Climate Agreement, France has become a leading proponent for tropical forest conservation. This effort has included establishing a National Strategy to Combat Imported Deforestation (SNDI) to effectively apply a zero deforestation policy to commodities produced at the expense of forests in the tropics. One of the key institutions charged with implementing the SNDI abroad is the Agence Française de Développement (AFD), France’s overseas development agency. Since last year, AFD has been putting tens of millions of euros annually toward projects that contribute to conservation and restoration of tropical forests, while also supporting the groundwork for the “zero deforestation” public purchasing policy which is set to take effect in 2022. AFD has also been working to support France’s biodiversity conservation goals. Deforestation in French Guiana. Photo © Didier Gentilhomme AFD has a long history of operating in tropical forests, especially in its former colonies and overseas territories. These programs have not always been without controversy—NGOs have alleged that AFD has supported industrial logging companies which contribute to deforestation—but AFD says it has incorporated this criticism as well as findings from research institutions into safeguards it now applies to the projects it finances. Accordingly, AFD’s emphasis around tropical forests in recent years has shifted toward conservation and “sustainable forest management”, which includes establishing forest management plans to reduce the impact of logging operations in places like the Congo Basin, where deforestation is now rising at the fastest&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/12/frances-tropical-forest-conservation-efforts-an-interview-with-afds-gilles-kleitz/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/12/frances-tropical-forest-conservation-efforts-an-interview-with-afds-gilles-kleitz/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-237945</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>French Guiana soy biofuel power plants risk massive Amazon deforestation</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/12/french-guiana-soy-biofuel-power-plants-risk-massive-amazon-deforestation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/12/french-guiana-soy-biofuel-power-plants-risk-massive-amazon-deforestation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Dec 2020 16:30:48 +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/20/2020/12/02161530/BANNER-IMAGE-FG-768x449.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=237442</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Amazon Conservation and Amazon Infrastructure]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Europe, France, French Guiana, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biofuels, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Energy, Environment, Forests, Governance, Green, Infrastructure, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Renewable Energy, Soy, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Deforestation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[South America’s French Guiana, a French overseas department, is slated for major new liquid biofuel power stations, fueled by soy plantations that will cause largescale Amazon deforestation, say environmentalists.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The heavily forested port of Larivot in Cayenne, French Guiana, where a 120-megawatt soy liquid biofuels energy station is planned. Image courtesy of Francois Kuseni. French Guiana, an overseas department of France on the northeast coast of South America, lies mostly within Amazonia. Bordered by Suriname and Brazil, 98% of this Indiana-sized area is covered by dense rainforests and mangrove — ecosystems chockful of biodiversity, critical to climate change mitigation, and now in the crosshairs of France’s long-term energy policy. The French government launched a multiyear plan in 2018 to convert French Guiana’s aging energy infrastructure to power stations that will mostly burn biofuels — with major negative implications for the region’s wildlife, rainforests, carbon emissions, and by extension, global climate change mitigation. “A local government representative has authorized the establishment of an oil-fired power station in a mangrove forest two miles from the edge of the Amazon forest,” says Francois Kuseni, an environmental activist and member of French Guiana’s Ecology Party from Cayenne, French Guiana’s capital city. In addition, “The government has promised a study of two years to supply the power station with bio oil. The representative said explicitly that they want to grow the soy plants [to be made into biofuel] locally.” The overarching concern: French Guiana has limited available farmland (the region imports 80% of its food), so growing soy as a biofuel could lead to massive deforestation in a part of Amazonia already suffering widespread ecological devastation: French Guiana borders on the Brazilian Amazon where&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/12/french-guiana-soy-biofuel-power-plants-risk-massive-amazon-deforestation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/12/french-guiana-soy-biofuel-power-plants-risk-massive-amazon-deforestation/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-237442</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Meet the 2020 Goldman Environmental Prize Winners</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/11/meet-the-2020-goldman-environmental-prize-winners/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/11/meet-the-2020-goldman-environmental-prize-winners/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Nov 2020 03:48:38 +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/20/2020/11/29225455/Screen-Shot-2020-11-29-at-9.53.52-PM-768x500.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=237219</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Bahamas, Ecuador, France, Ghana, Mexico, and Myanmar]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Energy, Environment, Forest Destruction, Forests, Governance, Green, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Infrastructure, Land Conflict, Politics, Protected Areas, Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This year, six environmental activists will receive the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize in a virtual ceremony. Known as the “Green Nobel Prize,” this award is given annually to grassroots environmental heroes from each of the world’s inhabited continents. This year’s winners include an Indigenous Mayan beekeeper who led a coalition to ban genetically modified soy [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This year, six environmental activists will receive the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize in a virtual ceremony. Known as the “Green Nobel Prize,” this award is given annually to grassroots environmental heroes from each of the world’s inhabited continents. This year’s winners include an Indigenous Mayan beekeeper who led a coalition to ban genetically modified soy in seven Mexican states, a French activist who pressured France’s three largest banks to stop financing coal, a woman who harnessed youth activism to enact a ban on single-use plastics in The Bahamas, an Indigenous Waorani woman who organized legal action preventing oil extraction in a huge expanse of Amazon rainforest, an Indigenous Karen organizer who spearheaded the formation of the world’s first peace park in an active conflict zone, and an activist who prevented the construction of what would have been the first coal-fired power plant in Ghana. “These six environmental champions reflect the powerful impact that one person can have on many,” John Goldman, president of the Goldman Environmental Foundation, said in a statement. “Even in the face of the unending onslaught and destruction upon our natural world, there are countless individuals and communities fighting every day to protect our planet. These are six of those environmental heroes, and they deserve the honor and recognition the Prize offers them — for taking a stand, risking their lives and livelihoods, and inspiring us with real, lasting environmental progress.” The prize ceremony, typically held in April each year was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/11/meet-the-2020-goldman-environmental-prize-winners/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/11/meet-the-2020-goldman-environmental-prize-winners/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-237219</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>France falls short in ending deforestation linked to imported soy</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/11/france-falls-short-in-ending-deforestation-linked-to-imported-soy/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/11/france-falls-short-in-ending-deforestation-linked-to-imported-soy/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Nov 2020 11:58:07 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/11/20082905/Ronodonopolis_colheita_soja_Roosevelt_Pinheiro_28mar09-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=237025</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Global Forests]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Cerrado, France, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Conservation, Deforestation, Dry Forests, Environment, Forestry, Forests, Industrial Agriculture, Politics, Rainforests, Soy, Supply Chain, Traditional People, Tropical Forests, and Zero Deforestation Commitments]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Eight French supermarket chains will now require that their suppliers obtain soybeans that were not grown on deforested land, according to the Washington, D.C.-based environmental NGO Mighty Earth. The announcement said the retailers’ contracts will now bar soy coming from deforested parts of the Cerrado, a mix of savanna and dry forests covering 2 million [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Eight French supermarket chains will now require that their suppliers obtain soybeans that were not grown on deforested land, according to the Washington, D.C.-based environmental NGO Mighty Earth. The announcement said the retailers’ contracts will now bar soy coming from deforested parts of the Cerrado, a mix of savanna and dry forests covering 2 million square kilometers (772,000 square miles) in Brazil. Clearing of land to grow crops like soy has led to the disappearance of half the Cerrado’s natural forests and grasslands. “French supermarkets are finally listening to their customers’ concerns and leading an industry-wide effort to clean up the entire French soy supply chain,” Etelle Higonnet, a senior campaign director with Mighty Earth, said in a Nov. 18 statement. A map showing the extent of the Cerrado biome in Brazil. Image by Terpsichores via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0). Companies such as Carrefour, France’s second-largest grocery chain, had previously laid out plans to reduce the connection between the products it sells and deforestation by 2020, according to its website. The companies Auchan, Casino, E. Leclerc, Lidl, Metro, Mousquetaires and Système U joined Carrefour in signing on to the agreement to change their contracts with suppliers. The agreement is missing key players such as agribusiness corporations such as Cargill and Bunge, as well as soy supply chain companies like COFCO and Louis Dreyfus, Higonnet said. She called on French firms to stop doing business with them if they don’t agree to require deforestation-free soy by Jan. 1, 2021. The&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/11/france-falls-short-in-ending-deforestation-linked-to-imported-soy/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/11/france-falls-short-in-ending-deforestation-linked-to-imported-soy/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-237025</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Better wines among the pines: Agroforestry can climate-proof grapes, French researchers show</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/06/better-wines-among-the-pines-agroforestry-can-climate-proof-grapes-french-researchers-show/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/06/better-wines-among-the-pines-agroforestry-can-climate-proof-grapes-french-researchers-show/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Jun 2020 12:34:58 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/06/04120106/wine-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=230904</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Global Agroforestry]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Europe, European Union, France, and Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Agriculture, Agroforestry, Climate Change, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Research, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[MONTPELLIER, France — As the world warms due to climate change, winemakers are struggling to maintain the quality of their product. But in the home of wine, agroforestry researchers are showing that growing “vines among the pines” can help growers adapt. Higher average temperatures speed up the ripening of grapes, which leads to lower acidity [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[MONTPELLIER, France — As the world warms due to climate change, winemakers are struggling to maintain the quality of their product. But in the home of wine, agroforestry researchers are showing that growing “vines among the pines” can help growers adapt. Higher average temperatures speed up the ripening of grapes, which leads to lower acidity and increased sugars in the fruit, yielding higher alcohol levels in wine and altering other compounds in grapes that affect aroma and flavor. “Wines are becoming fuller-bodied, more alcoholic, and riper in flavor,” as one Italian grower told Bloomberg in late 2019, and this is a problem for winemakers who want to market particular wines with established characteristics. As the climate warms, this is becoming increasingly difficult and the best growing regions for many kinds of grapes are shifting northward toward the U.K., Germany and Sweden, in Europe’s case, and toward the Pacific Northwest from California in the U.S. Growers typically can’t move their vineyards, though, so some are opting to grow new grape varieties that are more tolerant to heat or drought. Wine grapes grown in an alley cropping agroforestry system at the Restinclières research farm in southern France. Image by Erik Hoffner/Mongabay. A study that recently made headlines worldwide suggested the growing of such varieties of grapes to ensure the future of wine. But this requires winemakers to learn how to grow new kinds of grapes, and to therefore produce different styles of wine. In southern France, though, where ripening time is now&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/06/better-wines-among-the-pines-agroforestry-can-climate-proof-grapes-french-researchers-show/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/06/better-wines-among-the-pines-agroforestry-can-climate-proof-grapes-french-researchers-show/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-230904</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Spiny lobsters raise an undersea racket that can be heard miles away</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/05/spiny-lobsters-raise-an-undersea-racket-that-can-be-heard-miles-away/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/05/spiny-lobsters-raise-an-undersea-racket-that-can-be-heard-miles-away/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 May 2020 09:52:10 +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/20/2020/05/23222507/Lobster2-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=230624</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[France]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Acoustic, Animal Behavior, Animals, Bioacoustics, Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Environment, Fishing, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Oceans, Over-hunting, Research, Wildlife, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[European spiny lobsters create quite the rumble. By rubbing an antenna across its face, a spiny lobster can create a sound that might, under the right underwater conditions, be detectable up to 3 kilometers (1.9 miles) away.The sound, known as an antennal rasp, occurs when an extension of a lobster’s antennae moves across a rough [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[European spiny lobsters create quite the rumble. By rubbing an antenna across its face, a spiny lobster can create a sound that might, under the right underwater conditions, be detectable up to 3 kilometers (1.9 miles) away.The sound, known as an antennal rasp, occurs when an extension of a lobster’s antennae moves across a rough patch under its eye. Lobsters likely make this sound for communication or to scare away predators. In a recently published study in Scientific Reports, researchers asked, how far does the sound of a rasp travel? And can these sounds be used in a non-invasive way to monitor lobster populations? Defensive behavior of two spiny lobsters. Photo by Erwan AMICE/CNRS Spiny lobsters (Palinurus elephas) are found in the Eastern Atlantic Ocean and in the Mediterranean Sea. Intensive fishing of lobsters for food in the 1960s and 1970s made spiny lobsters scarce in European waters and even led to local extinctions off southwest Britain. Though populations have rebounded, there remains a need to monitor and manage lobster populations from overharvesting. Using hydrophones (underwater microphones that record sound from all directions), researchers recorded 1,560 antennal rasps from 24 individual lobsters in the Bay of Saint Anne du Portzic, France. They placed hydrophones at distances of 10, 20, 50 and 100 meters (33 to 330 feet) away from each lobster. The largest lobsters (with a carapace, or body shell, 13.5 centimeters long, or about 5 inches) made sounds detectable at 100 m distance; in general, the larger the lobster, the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/05/spiny-lobsters-raise-an-undersea-racket-that-can-be-heard-miles-away/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/05/spiny-lobsters-raise-an-undersea-racket-that-can-be-heard-miles-away/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
					<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/05/23222844/Audio-1.mp3" length="85307" type="audio/mpeg" />
<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/05/23223011/Audio-2.mp3" length="77997" type="audio/mpeg" />
<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/05/23223032/Audio-3.mp3" length="66861" type="audio/mpeg" />
					<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-230624</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>What one of the world’s most active volcanoes tells us about missing trees</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/04/what-one-of-the-worlds-most-active-volcanoes-tells-us-about-missing-trees/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/04/what-one-of-the-worlds-most-active-volcanoes-tells-us-about-missing-trees/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Apr 2020 04:36:01 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Malavika Vyawahare]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavikavyawahare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/04/10075215/2020-april-eruption-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=228865</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, France, and Indian Ocean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Bats, Biodiversity, Extinction, Trees, Tropical Forests, Turtles And Tortoises, and Volcanoes]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[LA RÉUNION —Giant tortoises and flying foxes once roamed La Réunion, a volcanic island off the eastern coast of Africa. Then humans arrived and decided to stay. Within 150 years of their appearance, large fruit-eating animals like the giant tortoises (Cylindraspis indica) and flying foxes (Pteropus niger), a type of bat, were wiped off the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[LA RÉUNION —Giant tortoises and flying foxes once roamed La Réunion, a volcanic island off the eastern coast of Africa. Then humans arrived and decided to stay. Within 150 years of their appearance, large fruit-eating animals like the giant tortoises (Cylindraspis indica) and flying foxes (Pteropus niger), a type of bat, were wiped off the face of La Réunion. This speck of land in the western Indian Ocean, an overseas department of France, was one of the last corners of the planet to be colonized by humans. It is also home to the Piton de la Fournaise, one of the most active volcanoes in the world. It was recently in the throes of another eruption, having erupted almost 240 times since 1650. The scars from these eruptions are now helping scientists uncover the lasting effects of permanent human settlement on life on the island, including the loss of large-fruited trees like Sideroxylon borbonicum, known locally as bois de fer de Bourbon, and Labourdonnaisia calophylloides, or bois de natte à petites feuilles. The fates of flora and fauna are linked. Animals and birds are important to plants; they help to disperse seeds, transporting them near and far. Which seeds and how far they get scattered depend on the kind of creatures that get their paws or beaks on the seeds. The largest fruit eater inhabiting the island today is the Réunion bulbul (Hypsipetes borbonicus), a bird a thousand times smaller than the now extinct giant tortoise. The bulbul can’t feed on&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/04/what-one-of-the-worlds-most-active-volcanoes-tells-us-about-missing-trees/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/04/what-one-of-the-worlds-most-active-volcanoes-tells-us-about-missing-trees/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-228865</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Europe&#8217;s &#8216;ruthless&#8217; animal attractions: Q &#038; A with filmmaker Aaron Gekoski</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/12/europes-ruthless-animal-attractions-q-a-with-filmmaker-aaron-gekoski/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/12/europes-ruthless-animal-attractions-q-a-with-filmmaker-aaron-gekoski/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Dec 2019 21:05:45 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/12/17193141/Wolf-on-stool-being-yanked-Medieval-Festival-Aitawak-France_blurred-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=225445</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Czech Republic, Europe, European Union, France, Germany, and Spain]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Welfare, Animals, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Zoos]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Wildlife photographer and filmmaker Aaron Gekoski recently traveled across Europe with fellow filmmaker Will Foster-Grundy, where the pair documented large animal attractions for tourists in Germany, Spain, France and the Czech Republic, for the Ruthless Tourism campaign of the organization Four Paws. The footage obtained by the pair shows elephants, tigers, wolves and bears performing tricks for [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Wildlife photographer and filmmaker Aaron Gekoski recently traveled across Europe with fellow filmmaker Will Foster-Grundy, where the pair documented large animal attractions for tourists in Germany, Spain, France and the Czech Republic, for the Ruthless Tourism campaign of the organization Four Paws. The footage obtained by the pair shows elephants, tigers, wolves and bears performing tricks for tourists and living in cramped, inhumane conditions. While organizations like European Association of Zoos and Aquaria member institutions are required to provide professional and humane treatment to captive animals, there are many animal-oriented attractions in Europe that do not. Mongabay interviewed Gekoski via email about what they found. Bear in makeshift enclosure, Medieval Festival Aitawak, France. Image by Aaron Gekoski/Four Paws. Mongabay: Asia&#8217;s wildlife tourism industry is often discussed here at Mongabay and elsewhere in the mainstream media, like otter cafes and such, but you point out that similarly troubling attractions featuring large animals in Europe go largely unreported. What have you seen in your travels around the continent? Whilst Asia is widely viewed as the epicenter of cruel wildlife tourism, it is happening all over the world, and in places we don’t necessarily associate with having poor animal rights records. People in the West are often guilty of pointing fingers, yet there is abuse happening right on our doorstep. This was the reason Will Foster-Grundy and I were approached by the NGO to highlight that you can, for example, go elephant riding in Germany, see wolves and bears performing in medieval festivals in France, visit circuses with lions&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/12/europes-ruthless-animal-attractions-q-a-with-filmmaker-aaron-gekoski/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/12/europes-ruthless-animal-attractions-q-a-with-filmmaker-aaron-gekoski/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-225445</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>These rare pigs can dig it. With a tool, that is. And moonwalk too</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/10/these-rare-pigs-can-dig-it-with-a-tool-that-is-and-moonwalk-too/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/10/these-rare-pigs-can-dig-it-with-a-tool-that-is-and-moonwalk-too/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Oct 2019 08:34:35 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Leilani]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/10/18083016/1024px-Planckendael_zoo_Visayan_warty_pig_06-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=223582</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Europe, France, Philippines, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animals, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Research, Videos, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
											<grant>
							<![CDATA[4127-1 SEA-ENV-SIDA]]>
						</grant>
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[PARIS — Priscilla grabs a piece of tree bark and uses it to dig the dirt in front of her. It’s classic tool use, the kind of thing primates are known to do, and it wouldn’t be remarkable, except that Priscilla is a female Visayan warty pig (Sus cebifrons), an endemic and critically endangered species [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[PARIS — Priscilla grabs a piece of tree bark and uses it to dig the dirt in front of her. It’s classic tool use, the kind of thing primates are known to do, and it wouldn’t be remarkable, except that Priscilla is a female Visayan warty pig (Sus cebifrons), an endemic and critically endangered species in the Philippines famous for the Mohawk-like tuft of hair on its head and back. Now it’s got a new claim to fame: a penchant for using tools, according to a recent study. The study by Meredith Root-Bernstein, Trupthi Narayan, Lucile Cornier and Aude Bourgeois stems from a video they shot and that went viral of Priscilla and her family digging a nest with a tree branch, a behavior not commonly observed and recorded among pigs. The video was taken at the Ménagerie at the Jardin des Plantes in Paris, which holds several types of endangered species. “What is so exciting about pigs using tools? Pigs have long been maligned in many cultures and used as symbols of dirt, sloth, and avarice,” Root-Bernstein wrote in an email to Mongabay. “Even animal behavior researchers are not too interested in pigs despite recognizing their intelligence.” The study, published in the journal Mammalian Biology last month, details how a family of Visayan warty pigs uses tools during the nest-building process, after Root-Bernstein “observed that the same piece of bark originally used as a digging tool remained visible [but] … the piece of bark was observed at different positions&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/10/these-rare-pigs-can-dig-it-with-a-tool-that-is-and-moonwalk-too/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/10/these-rare-pigs-can-dig-it-with-a-tool-that-is-and-moonwalk-too/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-223582</doi>				</item>
			</channel>
</rss>