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	<channel>
		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/japan/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Fri, 07 Aug 2026 16:16:11 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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	<title>Japan environmental news</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/japan/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>In coastal Japan, one project is planting forests to stand against tsunamis</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/in-coastal-japan-one-project-is-planting-forests-to-stand-against-tsunamis/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/in-coastal-japan-one-project-is-planting-forests-to-stand-against-tsunamis/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Aug 2026 06:23:38 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jonathan Vit]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/31170238/tsunami-forests-7-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=325096</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, East Asia, and Japan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Culture, Disasters, Environment, Indigenous Peoples, Landscape Restoration, Reforestation, Solutions, Storms, Traditional Knowledge, and Traditional People]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[MINAMISOMA, Japan — Kazuo Monma stepped out onto the small stage and looked at the large crowd with a sense of relief. The weather report had called for rain all weekend, and the mayor of Minamisoma, a coastal city in Japan’s Fukushima prefecture, worried that few would show for what had become an annual event for [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[MINAMISOMA, Japan — Kazuo Monma stepped out onto the small stage and looked at the large crowd with a sense of relief. The weather report had called for rain all weekend, and the mayor of Minamisoma, a coastal city in Japan’s Fukushima prefecture, worried that few would show for what had become an annual event for volunteers from across the Tohoku region. Instead, Monma stood in front of more than 1,000 people. The assembled crowd, some from as far away as Kanagawa prefecture, more than 300 kilometers (about 200 miles) to the south, were there to plant more than 12,000 trees along the steep dunes that line Minamisoma’s sandy beaches. “I really do think we should be proud of this moment,” Monma said to the crowd. “This is a place where thousands of people have kept this up for so long.” Minamisoma, like more than a dozen other coastal communities across Japan, is the site of an innovative experiment in disaster resilience. While seawalls have become the dominant way of mitigating the impacts of tsunamis and typhoons, one organization is touting a mix of seawalls and a wall of trees — following a specific species and planting choice — could do a better job at protecting at-risk communities. Fifteen years ago, in March 2011, the northeastern Tohoku region was the site of one of the 21st century’s worst natural disasters. A magnitude 9 earthquake struck 72 km (45 mi) off the coast of Miyagi prefecture. What followed was a tsunami of monumental scale, a devastating&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/in-coastal-japan-one-project-is-planting-forests-to-stand-against-tsunamis/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/in-coastal-japan-one-project-is-planting-forests-to-stand-against-tsunamis/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-325096</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>NPFC adopts illegal fishing measures — but no Emperor Seamount protections</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/npfc-adopts-illegal-fishing-measures-but-no-emperor-seamount-protections/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/npfc-adopts-illegal-fishing-measures-but-no-emperor-seamount-protections/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Apr 2026 14:50:54 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Francesco De Augustinis]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Autumn Spanne]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/24120605/Hendrika-Jacoba-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318105</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global, Japan, and Pacific Ocean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Food, Food Industry, Governance, Illegal Fishing, Marine Conservation, Oceans, Overfishing, Politics, and Saltwater Fish]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The North Pacific Fisheries Commission (NPFC) approved a series of measures aimed at combating illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing and improving stock assessments during its latest annual meeting in Osaka, Japan, April 14-17. However, several NGOs viewed the meeting as a step backward for fish stock management, calling out the commission’s failure to add [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The North Pacific Fisheries Commission (NPFC) approved a series of measures aimed at combating illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing and improving stock assessments during its latest annual meeting in Osaka, Japan, April 14-17. However, several NGOs viewed the meeting as a step backward for fish stock management, calling out the commission’s failure to add protections for several vulnerable species and to halt bottom fishing in the Emperor Seamount Chain. The NPFC protects marine ecosystems and non-tuna fish stocks in the high seas of the North Pacific Ocean and is one of four regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs) in the Pacific. Its 10th annual meeting gathered the nine members — Canada, China, the European Union, Japan, South Korea, Russia, Taiwan, the United States and Vanuatu — along with 11 observer groups and Panama as a cooperating noncontracting party. “It was a hard but a good week,” Gerald Leape, principal officer with the U.S.-based Pew Charitable Trusts’ international fisheries project, told Mongabay minutes after the closure of the meeting. Japanese sardines (Sardinops melanostictus). Image by Totti via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). Combating IUU fishing NPFC members agreed to adopt a shared system of minimum standards for port inspection, a move that targets IUU fishing. The decision brings the commission in line with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization’s Port State Measures Agreement (PSMA), a binding international agreement marking its 10th anniversary this year. With the approval of this measure, commission members committed to implementing more stringent inspection standards and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/npfc-adopts-illegal-fishing-measures-but-no-emperor-seamount-protections/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/npfc-adopts-illegal-fishing-measures-but-no-emperor-seamount-protections/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-318105</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A chimpanzee’s rhythmic drumming with floorboards hints at origins of instruments</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/a-chimpanzees-rhythmic-drumming-with-floorboards-hints-at-origins-of-instruments/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/a-chimpanzees-rhythmic-drumming-with-floorboards-hints-at-origins-of-instruments/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Apr 2026 03:59:01 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/16035215/Screenshot-2026-04-15-at-10.45.40-PM-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317617</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Japan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animal Intelligence, Animals, Apes, Biodiversity, Charismatic Animals, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Mammals, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Drumming and singing at the same time is impressive, whether you’re Karen Carpenter, Ringo Starr or a chimpanzee. Japanese researchers report that Ayumu, a 26-year-old male chimpanzee and alpha of his group at Kyoto University&#8217;s Institute for the Evolutionary Origins of Human Behavior (EHUB), has been spontaneously tearing floorboards from a walkway, fashioning them into [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Drumming and singing at the same time is impressive, whether you’re Karen Carpenter, Ringo Starr or a chimpanzee. Japanese researchers report that Ayumu, a 26-year-old male chimpanzee and alpha of his group at Kyoto University&#8217;s Institute for the Evolutionary Origins of Human Behavior (EHUB), has been spontaneously tearing floorboards from a walkway, fashioning them into instruments and performing extended drumming displays while vocalizing. &#8220;I was surprised,&#8221; primatologist Yuko Hattori told Mongabay. &#8220;Chimpanzee drumming-like behavior has been reported before, for example when they throw stones or hit old tree trunks. However, behavior like this — using a stick in a way that closely resembled playing a drum — has not been reported before.&#8221; Over two years beginning in February 2023, Hattori and her team recorded 89 of Ayumu’s spontaneous performances across 37 days. Their study, published in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, found that Ayumu&#8217;s drumming was rhythmically structured, not random, and bore a striking resemblance to the vocal calls chimpanzees use to communicate across long distances. Wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) are known to drum on the buttress roots of trees, producing low-frequency booms that can be heard more than a kilometer away. A 2025 study in Current Biology analyzed more than 370 drumming bouts across 11 wild chimpanzee communities and found that this percussion is rhythmic and varies by subspecies. Western chimpanzees drum with evenly spaced beats, while eastern chimpanzees alternate between shorter and longer intervals. Ayumu didn&#8217;t just drum, he pried loose floorboards from his&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/a-chimpanzees-rhythmic-drumming-with-floorboards-hints-at-origins-of-instruments/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/a-chimpanzees-rhythmic-drumming-with-floorboards-hints-at-origins-of-instruments/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317617</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Pacific fisheries summit gives a boost to albacore &#038; seabirds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/pacific-fisheries-summit-gives-a-boost-to-albacore-seabirds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/pacific-fisheries-summit-gives-a-boost-to-albacore-seabirds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Dec 2025 19:56:32 +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/20/2025/12/16193919/BANNER-2-a.-AP24050529396021-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311477</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[China, Cook Islands, Japan, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Pacific Ocean, Polynesia, South Korea, and Taiwan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Governance, Oceans, Overfishing, Politics, and Saltwater Fish]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Much of the world’s albacore tuna catch, which usually ends up in a can, comes from the southwestern Pacific Ocean, where fishery managers just passed a new set of conservation rules. The parties to the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC), a multilateral body that sets fishing rules for an area that covers nearly [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Much of the world’s albacore tuna catch, which usually ends up in a can, comes from the southwestern Pacific Ocean, where fishery managers just passed a new set of conservation rules. The parties to the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC), a multilateral body that sets fishing rules for an area that covers nearly 20% of the planet, adopted a harvest strategy for South Pacific albacore at their annual meeting, held Dec. 1-5 in Manila, the Philippines. Harvest strategies set near-automatic scientifically advised catch limits or other control measures in response to fluctuating fish stock levels; they’re considered a best practice in fisheries management because they reduce commercial or political influence. South Pacific albacore is one of two albacore (Thunnus alalunga) stocks in the WCPFC; the other is North Pacific albacore, which isn’t fished as much. “This is a great move for the WCPFC,” Dave Gershman, a senior officer for international fisheries at The Pew Charitable Trusts, a U.S.-based think tank, told Mongabay after attending the meeting. “This is a critical step to ensure the sustainability and stability of the top Pacific albacore fisheries.” Gershman noted that the harvest strategy was a “long time in the making” and had been “discussed for many, many years.” The parties discussed, but didn’t adopt, new rules on transshipment, or the ship-to-ship transfer of fish and other goods at sea, a practice that’s been linked to illegal and unsustainable fishing and other illicit activity. Glen Joseph, director of the fishing ministry of the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/pacific-fisheries-summit-gives-a-boost-to-albacore-seabirds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/pacific-fisheries-summit-gives-a-boost-to-albacore-seabirds/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311477</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>First documented case of plant smelling like an ant to attract pollinators</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/japanese-plant-smells-like-dying-ant-to-lure-pollinators/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/japanese-plant-smells-like-dying-ant-to-lure-pollinators/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Oct 2025 20:48:15 +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/20/2025/10/30204257/Ant-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308605</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia and Japan]]>
						</locations>
					
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In a greenhouse in Tokyo, researcher Ko Mochizuki noticed something unusual. Flies were swarming around the delicate flowers of an obscure plant species. The blooms, however, weren&#8217;t offering nectar or bright colors to attract these insects. Instead, they were releasing a chemical signal that smelled like something the flies craved: the scent of an injured [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In a greenhouse in Tokyo, researcher Ko Mochizuki noticed something unusual. Flies were swarming around the delicate flowers of an obscure plant species. The blooms, however, weren&#8217;t offering nectar or bright colors to attract these insects. Instead, they were releasing a chemical signal that smelled like something the flies craved: the scent of an injured ant about to become a meal. For the first time, scientists have documented a plant that mimics the smell of ants under attack to trick pollinators into visiting its flowers. The plant, Vincetoxicum nakaianum, a flowering dogbane species native to Japan, has evolved an ingenious deception strategy. &#8220;I was working on another research project,&#8221; Mochizuki, of the University of Tokyo, said in a statement, &#8220;and originally collected this species only as a &#8216;reference&#8217; for comparison. By chance, I noticed chloropid flies gathering around its flowers in the nursery in the Koishikawa Botanical Gardens, and immediately realized that the flowers might be imitating dead insects.&#8221; The idea came from a lucky combination of events. Mochizuki had taken an intensive training course in 2019 that taught him how to identify the specific fly species visiting the flowers. He had also read research papers on insect-pollinated plants. These experiences came together when he saw the flies gathering on the V. nakaianum flowers. To test his idea, Mochizuki watched which insects visited the flowers and compared the chemical smell of the flowers with the smell given off by different insects. The analysis showed that the flowers&#8217; odor matched most&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/japanese-plant-smells-like-dying-ant-to-lure-pollinators/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-308605</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Countries shorten tuna fishing closure at Pacific summit with few conservation ‘wins’</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/countries-shorten-tuna-fishing-closure-at-pacific-summit-with-few-conservation-wins/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/countries-shorten-tuna-fishing-closure-at-pacific-summit-with-few-conservation-wins/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Sep 2025 17:39:29 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Edward Carver]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/12143715/2-1-scaled-e1757689001461-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305851</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[China, Japan, Pacific Ocean, Panama, South Korea, and Taiwan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Governance, Oceans, Overfishing, Politics, and Saltwater Fish]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[2024 was a record year for tropical tuna catch in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, thanks to a big increase in skipjack (Katsuwonus pelamis) catch, and stocks are considered healthy. So when the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC), a multilateral body that manages tuna and other fish stocks in this region, held its annual meeting Sept. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[2024 was a record year for tropical tuna catch in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, thanks to a big increase in skipjack (Katsuwonus pelamis) catch, and stocks are considered healthy. So when the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC), a multilateral body that manages tuna and other fish stocks in this region, held its annual meeting Sept. 1-5 in Panama, some coastal Latin American countries pushed for more time to fish. The bid was successful: Commission members agreed to shorten an annual fishing closure from 72 days to 64 days. The outcome was a compromise between a U.S. proposal to maintain the 72-day closure and proposals by Latin American countries to lower it, one by as much as 17 days per year, to 55. The 64-day closure, which will go into effect in 2026, is in keeping with recommendations from the IATTC’s scientific committee. “They followed the scientific advice, which is important,” Pablo Guerrero, director of marine conservation at WWF Ecuador, told Mongabay. However, negotiations over the closure and general commission budget matters dominated the meeting, leaving insufficient time for some key conservation proposals, attendees said. “It was a meeting with little to report in terms of big wins for conservation,” said Guerrero, who attended the meeting. The members did agree to move toward adoption, in 2026, of a long-term harvest strategy for bigeye tuna (Thunnus obesus), though an NGO representative said the process should have been completed this year. The member countries didn’t adopt proposals to increase monitoring of longline tuna&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/countries-shorten-tuna-fishing-closure-at-pacific-summit-with-few-conservation-wins/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305851</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Sustainable biomass certification scheme is flawed, degrades forests, report finds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/sustainable-biomass-certification-scheme-is-flawed-degrades-forests-report-finds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/sustainable-biomass-certification-scheme-is-flawed-degrades-forests-report-finds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Aug 2025 15:58:05 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Annelise Giseburt]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/10/29131303/Drax-is-the-largest-consumer-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=304702</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Bioenergy and Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Canada, Europe, Global, Indonesia, Japan, North America, South Korea, Southeast Asia, United Kingdom, United States, and Vietnam]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Bioenergy, Biofuels, carbon, Certification, Climate, Climate Change, Conservation, Environment, forest degradation, Forest Destruction, Forests, Governance, Politics, Renewable Energy, Sustainability, and Sustainable Forest Management]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Sustainable Biomass Program (SBP) is a leading global biomass certification scheme offering assurances to end users (especially nations in the EU and Asia) that biomass (especially wood pellets for energy) is “sourced both legally and sustainably.” But a recent report by a group of environmental NGOs alleges SBP is approving biomass fuel projects linked [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Sustainable Biomass Program (SBP) is a leading global biomass certification scheme offering assurances to end users (especially nations in the EU and Asia) that biomass (especially wood pellets for energy) is “sourced both legally and sustainably.” But a recent report by a group of environmental NGOs alleges SBP is approving biomass fuel projects linked to forest destruction. While SBP-certified biomass meets minimum legal requirements, it often falls short of genuine sustainability, according to the July 2025 report written by Canada-based forest certification and governance expert Richard Robertson. The analysis was commissioned by five nonprofits: Solutions for Our Climate (SFOC), the Global Environmental Forum (GEF), Mighty Earth, Biofuelwatch, and the Environmental Paper Network (EPN). The booming biomass-for-energy industry touts wood pellets and chips as a winning climate solution. But the report notes that this assertion is based on a faulty carbon accounting loophole that counts significant smokestack emissions from biomass as zero. Numerous studies have shown that biomass burning is more carbon-intensive than coal per unit of energy produced. Billions of dollars in green energy subsidies have been paid out by European and Asian nations to the biomass industry, spurring demand for woody biomass and putting pressure on carbon-rich forests in the United States, Canada, Vietnam, South Korea, Europe, Indonesia and elsewhere. Many end-user nations have put their trust in SBP for sustainability certification. But years of criticism from forest advocates and climate experts have led major importers, such as the U.K. and Japan, to tighten sustainability requirements for subsidized&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/sustainable-biomass-certification-scheme-is-flawed-degrades-forests-report-finds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/sustainable-biomass-certification-scheme-is-flawed-degrades-forests-report-finds/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-304702</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Carbon capture projects promise a climate fix — and a fossil fuel lifeline</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/carbon-capture-projects-promise-a-climate-fix-and-a-fossil-fuel-lifeline/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/carbon-capture-projects-promise-a-climate-fix-and-a-fossil-fuel-lifeline/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Jun 2025 15:22:04 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Nithin Coca]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/06/04113435/GP0SU3HU3-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=300175</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Southeast Asia, and Thailand]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Business, carbon, Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Sequestration, Climate, Climate Change, climate finance, Conservation, Energy, Energy Efficiency, Environment, Environmental Law, Fossil Fuels, Governance, Industry, Natural Gas, Oil, and Politics]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Kasawari gas field, off the coast of Malaysian Borneo, was discovered in 2011 and has been seen as a lifeline for the country’s energy dreams. Malaysia has long depended on oil and gas exports for economic expansion and government revenue, and this new field promised to allow state-owned oil company Petronas and its partners [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Kasawari gas field, off the coast of Malaysian Borneo, was discovered in 2011 and has been seen as a lifeline for the country’s energy dreams. Malaysia has long depended on oil and gas exports for economic expansion and government revenue, and this new field promised to allow state-owned oil company Petronas and its partners to continue fossil gas and petroleum production. But this time, Malaysia is seeking to harness the discovery for more than just oil and gas. The government and Petronas have announced plans to make the Kasawari field the world’s largest offshore carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) project, storing CO2 from around the world as soon as 2028. The plan is to build a fixed offshore platform 200 kilometers (120 miles) from the coast, where compressed CO2 will be reinjected into a depleted reservoir via a 138-km (86-mi) subsea pipeline. It’s part of an ambitious plan to make CCS central to Malaysia’s energy transition, after its inclusion in the National Energy Transition Roadmap, and the March passage of a Carbon Capture, Utilisation, and Storage (“CCUS”) Bill, which sets guidelines for CO2 storage and transport. The Kasawari CCS project is one of several proposed and planned across Southeast Asia, including in Indonesia and Thailand. Proponents argue that, due to the young age of the region’s existing coal and gas-fired power plants and expected growth in energy demand, renewables like wind and solar won’t be enough to meet climate and regional net-zero targets. “There is intensive discussion among Government&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/carbon-capture-projects-promise-a-climate-fix-and-a-fossil-fuel-lifeline/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/carbon-capture-projects-promise-a-climate-fix-and-a-fossil-fuel-lifeline/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-300175</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>DNA probe links Japan’s otter-themed cafes to poaching hotspots in Thailand</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/dna-probe-links-japans-otter-themed-cafes-to-poaching-hotspots-in-thailand/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/dna-probe-links-japans-otter-themed-cafes-to-poaching-hotspots-in-thailand/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 May 2025 04:00:56 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carolyn Cowan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/05/23110434/Small-clawed-otter_RAB-e1747998306214-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=299550</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Japan, Southeast Asia, and Thailand]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Coastal Ecosystems, Conservation, DNA, Environment, Genetics, Law Enforcement, Mammals, Pet Trade, Poaching, Research, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, Wildlife Trafficking, and Zoos]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A glut of social media videos featuring captive Asian small-clawed otters in the mid-2000s led to what wildlife trade experts term “the pet otter boom.” Demand for the species exploded, placing pressure on wild populations already contending with widespread loss of their wetland habitats. Amid an emerging trend for otter-themed exotic animal cafes in some [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A glut of social media videos featuring captive Asian small-clawed otters in the mid-2000s led to what wildlife trade experts term “the pet otter boom.” Demand for the species exploded, placing pressure on wild populations already contending with widespread loss of their wetland habitats. Amid an emerging trend for otter-themed exotic animal cafes in some of the world’s largest cities, experts worry the demand for live otters will intensify. Researchers from France, Japan and Thailand recently used DNA tests to investigate the geographic origins of Asian small-clawed otters (Aonyx cinereus) held in exotic animal cafes in Japan. Their study, published in Conservation Science and Practice, links many of them with wild populations in well-known otter poaching hotspots in southern Thailand. “Actually, there’s a lot more Thai otters in Japan than we previously thought,” said study co-author Worata Klinsawat, a conservation biologist at King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi in Thailand. “Otters are now one of the top three mammals that people want to keep as exotic pets.” The species, which ranges from South Asia across Southeast Asia, has been listed under Appendix I of CITES, the global wildlife trade convention, since 2019, which means the commercial trade in wild specimens is prohibited. It’s also protected by national laws within many countries in its range, including Thailand. However, it lacks legal protection in Indonesia and Vietnam, leaving loopholes that traffickers exploit to sell wild-caught animals. Consequently, many captive otters in destination countries like Japan have ambiguous origins. Asian small-clawed otters are&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/dna-probe-links-japans-otter-themed-cafes-to-poaching-hotspots-in-thailand/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/dna-probe-links-japans-otter-themed-cafes-to-poaching-hotspots-in-thailand/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-299550</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>World’s top seafood firms lobby against ocean conservation measures: Report</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/worlds-top-seafood-firms-lobby-against-ocean-conservation-measures-report/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/worlds-top-seafood-firms-lobby-against-ocean-conservation-measures-report/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 May 2025 17:27:36 +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/20/2025/05/08163125/OceanImageBank_NicolasJob_5-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=298837</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[China, Europe, Japan, and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Aquaculture, Conservation, Environment, Environmental Policy, Fish, Fisheries, Oceans, and Politics]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The world’s biggest seafood companies might seem to have a vested interest in healthy marine ecosystems and plentiful fish stocks. Many claim a commitment to biodiversity in their public messaging. Yet a new report shows they mostly lobby against environmental protections. InfluenceMap, a U.K.-based NGO, released the report on April 10. It assesses the biodiversity-related [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The world’s biggest seafood companies might seem to have a vested interest in healthy marine ecosystems and plentiful fish stocks. Many claim a commitment to biodiversity in their public messaging. Yet a new report shows they mostly lobby against environmental protections. InfluenceMap, a U.K.-based NGO, released the report on April 10. It assesses the biodiversity-related lobbying efforts of a list of the 30 most influential seafood companies in the world and 12 of the main industry associations they’re members of. Most of the companies are based in North America, Europe and Japan. All but one of the 30 companies engages in lobbying that’s either partially or fully “misaligned” with international biodiversity goals agreed to in a 2022 U.N. treaty, the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, the report says. Likewise, all but two of the industry associations predominantly lobby governments to obstruct progress toward those goals, it says. “Overwhelmingly the engagement that we found was pretty negative and targeting a number of different policy types that have an impact on marine biodiversity,” Rebecca Vaughan, director of methodologies and program development at InfluenceMap and co-author of the report, told Mongabay. “These companies are also members of industry associations that have been overwhelmingly lobbying to weaken and delay policy,” she added. Industry associations told Mongabay that they support science-based policy and that the report is flawed. A table shows InfluenceMap’s ratings of industry associations’ marine biodiversity-related lobbying efforts. Image courtesy of InfluenceMap. The report is one of the first assessments of the global seafood&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/worlds-top-seafood-firms-lobby-against-ocean-conservation-measures-report/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/worlds-top-seafood-firms-lobby-against-ocean-conservation-measures-report/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-298837</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘Substantial’ transshipment reforms adopted at North Pacific fisheries summit</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/substantial-transshipment-reforms-adopted-at-north-pacific-fisheries-summit/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/substantial-transshipment-reforms-adopted-at-north-pacific-fisheries-summit/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Mar 2025 16:57:04 +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/20/2025/03/31155248/GP0STU67M_Medium-res-with-credit-line-1200px-1.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=296774</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[China, Japan, Pacific Ocean, Russia, and South Korea]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Deep Sea, Environment, Environmental Policy, Fish, Fisheries, Global Environmental Crisis, Marine Conservation, Oceans, and Politics]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Fishing vessels can often work long periods at sea without coming to port, thanks to the practice of transshipment, in which catches are transferred at sea to carrier ships called reefers. But the practice can also obscure the origins of catch and is often associated with illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. Transshipment, though criticized [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Fishing vessels can often work long periods at sea without coming to port, thanks to the practice of transshipment, in which catches are transferred at sea to carrier ships called reefers. But the practice can also obscure the origins of catch and is often associated with illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. Transshipment, though criticized by many conservationists, is common worldwide, and the North Pacific Ocean is no exception. For species managed by the North Pacific Fisheries Commission (NPFC), a multilateral body that manages most non-tuna fisheries in the region&#8217;s international waters, about 85% of the catch is transshipped. Those transshipments will soon be more strictly regulated. At the NPFC’s annual meeting held March 24-27 in Osaka, Japan, the management body’s nine members established a transshipment observer program for the first time. It will require an independent fisheries monitor on board all active reefers in the NPFC’s vast regulatory area. The parties also passed a set of other amendments to transshipment rules, tightening reporting requirements. Conservationists hailed the moves. Shuhei Uematsu, a manager at WWF Japan who attended the meeting, told Mongabay that the new observer system was “a major step forward in preventing IUU fishing.” The NPFC parties — Canada, China, the European Union, Japan, South Korea, Russia, Taiwan, the United States, and Vanuatu — also adopted a number of other rules at the meeting, including on bottom fishing, transparency in the compliance process, and the management of chub mackerel (Scomber japonicus) and Pacific saury (Cololabis saira). The regulatory area&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/substantial-transshipment-reforms-adopted-at-north-pacific-fisheries-summit/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/substantial-transshipment-reforms-adopted-at-north-pacific-fisheries-summit/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-296774</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>South Korea slashes forest biomass energy subsidies in major policy reform</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/south-korea-slashes-forest-biomass-energy-subsidies-in-major-policy-reform/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/south-korea-slashes-forest-biomass-energy-subsidies-in-major-policy-reform/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Dec 2024 15:12:22 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Annelise Giseburt]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/05/11142502/1.-Hadong-coal-power-plant-biomass-co-fired-courtesy-of-Solutions-for-Our-Climate-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=292113</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Circular economy and Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, East Asia, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Bioenergy, Climate, Climate Change, Coal, Conservation, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Energy, Environment, Forests, Governance, Logging, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Renewable Energy, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Deforestation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In a major policy shift, South Korea announced Dec. 18 that it will end renewable energy subsidies for new biomass projects, as well as for state-owned coal and biomass cofired power plants starting in January 2025. The nation’s ministries also committed to phased reductions of subsidies supporting existing power plants using imported forest biomass fuel. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In a major policy shift, South Korea announced Dec. 18 that it will end renewable energy subsidies for new biomass projects, as well as for state-owned coal and biomass cofired power plants starting in January 2025. The nation’s ministries also committed to phased reductions of subsidies supporting existing power plants using imported forest biomass fuel. The abrupt change is “the largest [biomass] policy rollback of its kind in Asia,” according to South Korean environmental nonprofit Solutions for Our Climate (SFOC), and also among the largest policy shifts away from forest biomass subsidies by any nation worldwide. South Korea is currently Asia’s second-largest user of forest biomass for energy, importing 3.9 million metric tons of wood pellets as of April 2024. Scientists and forest advocates have long asserted that burning forest biomass to generate electricity isn’t carbon neutral, but creates more carbon emissions than coal per unit of energy produced, while the manufacture of wood pellets, a type of biomass fuel, causes deforestation and negatively impacts forest biodiversity. Although South Korea will continue to subsidize biomass fuel sourced domestically, advocates say they hope that reducing support for imported biomass will help alleviate pressure on forests threatened by Asia’s growing biomass market — particularly tropical forests in Southeast Asia. Tanks used to store biomass fuel at a biomass power plant in Okinawa prefecture, Japan. Advocates say they hope Japan will take similar steps as South Korea to wind down existing biomass subsidies. Image by Annelise Giseburt. ‘A step in the right direction’&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/south-korea-slashes-forest-biomass-energy-subsidies-in-major-policy-reform/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/south-korea-slashes-forest-biomass-energy-subsidies-in-major-policy-reform/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-292113</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesian forests put at risk by South Korean and Japanese biomass subsidies</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/indonesian-forests-put-at-risk-by-south-korean-and-japanese-biomass-subsidies/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/indonesian-forests-put-at-risk-by-south-korean-and-japanese-biomass-subsidies/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Dec 2024 15:22:25 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Annelise Giseburt]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/12124920/INFIS_0481_0526-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=291498</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Circular economy, Global Forests, Indonesian Forests, and Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, East Asia, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Bioenergy, Climate Change, Coal, Conservation, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Energy, Environment, Forests, Global Warming, Globalization, Governance, Greenwashing, International Trade, Logging, Plantations, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Renewable Energy, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Biomass energy subsidies in South Korea and Japan are threatening Southeast Asia’s tropical forests, warns a new report by environmental NGOs. Of particular concern is the nascent but rapidly growing woody biomass industry in Indonesia, where rainforests are already being cleared to make wood pellets to be burned for electricity. The report, published in October [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Biomass energy subsidies in South Korea and Japan are threatening Southeast Asia’s tropical forests, warns a new report by environmental NGOs. Of particular concern is the nascent but rapidly growing woody biomass industry in Indonesia, where rainforests are already being cleared to make wood pellets to be burned for electricity. The report, published in October by Earth Insight, Auriga Nusantara, Forest Watch Indonesia, Solutions for Our Climate (SFOC), Trend Asia, and Mighty Earth, notes that South Korea received around 62% and Japan 38% of Indonesian wood pellet exports over 2021-2023. During that same period, Indonesian wood biomass export volumes grew by orders of magnitude, rising from a trickle of just over 100 metric tons annually to more than 1,000 times that. However, Indonesia’s biomass production isn’t only for export. Thanks to the support of Japanese businesses and government institutions, Indonesia has begun burning wood pellets alongside coal in many of its own power plants, a practice known as cofiring, in order to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions (at least on paper). Plans to further expand in-country biomass use are in the works. Meanwhile, deforestation for biomass projects has already arisen in the country’s Kalimantan, Sulawesi and Papua regions. Ipu Angit, a Dayak Punan from Indonesia&#8217;s North Kalimantan province, is struggling to protect the forest he calls home from a company that wants to clear it to make way for a wood pellet plantation. Image by Nanang Sujana for Mongabay. The forest in Ipu Angit&#8217;s village, Laban Nyarit, could be demolished&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/indonesian-forests-put-at-risk-by-south-korean-and-japanese-biomass-subsidies/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-291498</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Biomass power grows in Japan despite new understanding of climate risks</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/biomass-power-grows-in-japan-despite-new-understanding-of-climate-risks/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/biomass-power-grows-in-japan-despite-new-understanding-of-climate-risks/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Jul 2024 20:55:37 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Annelise Giseburt]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/07/29162909/logs-wood-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=285289</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Circular economy]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, California, Canada, East Asia, Japan, and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Bioenergy, carbon, Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Footprint, Carbon Sequestration, Climate, Climate Change, Climate Science, Conservation, Controversial, Emission Reduction, Energy, Energy Efficiency, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Forest Carbon, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Globalization, Green, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Impact Of Climate Change, International Trade, Law, Mitigation, Plantations, Politics, Pollution, Research, and Temperate Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Japan is at a crossroads in its controversial use of burning forest biomass to make electricity. While the government and private sector’s understanding of the fuel’s harmful environmental and climate impacts is growing, biomass power plants long in the pipeline continue to come online, requiring ever-greater volumes of imported wood pellets from primary forests in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Japan is at a crossroads in its controversial use of burning forest biomass to make electricity. While the government and private sector’s understanding of the fuel’s harmful environmental and climate impacts is growing, biomass power plants long in the pipeline continue to come online, requiring ever-greater volumes of imported wood pellets from primary forests in Canada or plantations in Vietnam. Biomass importers and users in Japan are being forced to reevaluate their supply chains after U.S. wood pellet producer Enviva declared bankruptcy in March and prominent ecologists visiting Japan from Canada warned of the pellets’ environmental risks. In addition, new biomass policies from Japan’s biggest banks emphasize the importance of sustainable sourcing, which forest advocates say they hope will encourage biomass users to improve their practices. But ultimately, forest advocates argue that, no matter which supply chain biomass users choose, burning wood to generate electricity is fundamentally untenable, as it puts significant amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere despite the global need to drastically reduce emissions. In 2022, burning biomass accounted for roughly 6% of Japan’s total CO2 emissions, according to a Japanese climate expert. Still, under international carbon accounting rules, Japan is able to count biomass emissions as zero because trees sequester CO2 throughout their lives. Many experts say this is a misguided policy. Using forest biomass for electricity generation took off in Japan in 2012, when the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry introduced a feed-in tariff (FIT) with 20-year fixed rates to support renewable energy projects. “Before the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/biomass-power-grows-in-japan-despite-new-understanding-of-climate-risks/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/biomass-power-grows-in-japan-despite-new-understanding-of-climate-risks/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-285289</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Messengers of the gods: Nara’s ‘sacred’ deer at a conservation crossroads</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/messengers-of-the-gods-naras-sacred-deer-at-a-conservation-crossroads/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/messengers-of-the-gods-naras-sacred-deer-at-a-conservation-crossroads/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 May 2024 14:38:04 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Annelise Giseburt]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/05/22135818/1-Deer-at-Kasugayama.-Image-by-Annelise-Giseburt-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=282385</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, East Asia, and Japan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Ecosystem Engineers, Ecosystems, Environment, Genetics, Habitat, Mammals, Overpopulation, Religions, Research, Tourism, Traditional People, Ungulates, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Japan’s Shinto religion often conserved natural lands as sacred sites, banning logging and protecting animals. But in Nara, community conflicts with deer have raised questions over how far such protections should extend.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Nara, a city in central Japan and an ancient national capital from 710 to 784 C.E., is today perhaps best known for its “sacred” deer. According to legend, Takemikazuchi-no-mikoto, a deity in the Shinto pantheon, was carried by a sacred deer to Nara’s Kasuga Taisha Shrine upon its founding in 768, more than 1200 years ago, “for the prosperity of the nation and happiness of the people.” Ever since, deer living near the shrine have been protected, more or less, as “messengers of the gods.” These days, roughly 1,300 sacred deer mingle freely with tourists in the 660-hectare (1,630-acre) Nara Park, a public space that includes Kasuga Taisha Shrine, Buddhist temples and a protected forest. The grounds, shrine and temples draw roughly 13 million visitors annually. As tourists snap photos, the animals eagerly wait to be hand-fed “deer crackers” purchased from park vendors. Deer living near the shrine have been protected, more or less, as “messengers of the gods” for more than 1200 year ago. Image by Alfonso Jimenez via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0). In recent years, Japanese researchers have used genetic analysis to determine whether Nara’s deer are truly unique. They found that the population’s long history of protection has isolated their gene pool, making them genetically distinct, though not a separate species, from the deer in surrounding areas. However, the strong protection measures have been called into question in recent decades as the Nara deer have been caught up in conservation and community controversy. Across Japan, populations of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/messengers-of-the-gods-naras-sacred-deer-at-a-conservation-crossroads/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/messengers-of-the-gods-naras-sacred-deer-at-a-conservation-crossroads/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-282385</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>No protection from bottom trawling for seamount chain in northern Pacific</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/no-protection-from-bottom-trawling-for-seamount-chain-in-northern-pacific/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/no-protection-from-bottom-trawling-for-seamount-chain-in-northern-pacific/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Apr 2024 18:56:58 +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/20/2024/04/22184225/D-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=281244</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Oceans]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Japan, Pacific Ocean, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Deep Sea, Ecosystems, Environment, Environmental Policy, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Food, Food Industry, Global Environmental Crisis, Industry, Law, Marine, Marine Conservation, Oceans, Overfishing, Politics, and Saltwater Fish]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Emperor Seamount Chain is a massive and richly biodiverse set of underwater mountains stretching about 3,000 kilometers (1,900 miles) south from the Aleutian Islands in the northwest Pacific. From the 1960s until the 1980s, bottom trawlers plied the area aggressively, decimating deep-sea coral communities and fish stocks, and removing biomass to a degree not [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Emperor Seamount Chain is a massive and richly biodiverse set of underwater mountains stretching about 3,000 kilometers (1,900 miles) south from the Aleutian Islands in the northwest Pacific. From the 1960s until the 1980s, bottom trawlers plied the area aggressively, decimating deep-sea coral communities and fish stocks, and removing biomass to a degree not observed on any other seamounts in the world. Fishing has decreased greatly since then, but one Japanese trawler has remained active on the seamounts in recent years — and, to conservationists’ disappointment, that trawling is set to continue. Last week, a proposal to pause the trawling failed to reach a vote at a meeting of the North Pacific Fisheries Commission (NPFC), an intergovernmental body that manages fisheries in the North Pacific Ocean, held April 15-18 in Osaka, Japan. The U.S. and Canada put forth the proposal, which called for a pause in trawling on the entire Emperor Seamount Chain and part of the nearby Northwestern Hawaiian Ridge seamounts, pending further research. The NPFC did pass a separate, Japan-sponsored proposal to regulate fishing of the Pacific saury (Cololabis saira), a small, short-lived silvery fish whose stock is severely depleted. Map showing the Emperor Seamount Chain in the northwest Pacific Ocean. Image courtesy of Pew Charitable Trusts. Efforts to protect the seamounts The trawling pause on the Emperor Seamount Chain died during discussions before being brought to a vote because Japan didn’t support it, due to its industry’s interests, Matthew Gianni, co-founder of the Deep Sea Conservation&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/no-protection-from-bottom-trawling-for-seamount-chain-in-northern-pacific/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/no-protection-from-bottom-trawling-for-seamount-chain-in-northern-pacific/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-281244</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In highly urbanized Japan, city farmers are key to achieving organic goal</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/in-highly-urbanized-japan-city-farmers-are-key-to-achieving-organic-goal/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/in-highly-urbanized-japan-city-farmers-are-key-to-achieving-organic-goal/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Apr 2024 14:53:14 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Annelise Giseburt]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[agroecology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Food systems]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/04/10134637/bee-in-tokyo-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=280786</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Agroecology]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, East Asia, and Japan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroecology, Cities, Climate Change, Ecology, Environment, Farming, Food, Food Industry, food security, Subsistence Agriculture, Sustainability, Sustainable Development, and urban ecology]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[TOKYO — The train to the farm rose from Tokyo’s labyrinthine subway network, revealing a hodgepodge of gray and tan buildings stretched on either side. The world’s largest metropolitan area, better known for crushing rush hours and gleaming lights, seemed an unlikely place for anyone to be growing organic vegetables. But only a few minutes’ [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[TOKYO — The train to the farm rose from Tokyo’s labyrinthine subway network, revealing a hodgepodge of gray and tan buildings stretched on either side. The world’s largest metropolitan area, better known for crushing rush hours and gleaming lights, seemed an unlikely place for anyone to be growing organic vegetables. But only a few minutes’ walk from the station, past apartment buildings and convenience stores, the Hasune Farm was buzzing with life (especially its beehives). The owners and volunteers moved between a produce stand-slash-workspace and rows of late-winter produce. When the people weren’t looking, brown-eared bulbuls (Hypsipetes amaurotis) darted into the field to find a morsel. Behind the workspace stood rainwater tanks and a nursery for seedlings. Between the rows of vegetables, grasses and groundcovers grew alongside their edible counterparts. The Hasune Farm is one glimpse of a possible future for urban agriculture in Japan. The Japanese government aims to convert at least 25% of all farmland to organic by 2050, a significant jump from just 0.5% in 2020. (Globally, 1.6% of farmland was organic as of 2021.) The pockets of agriculture in Tokyo are key examples of how Japan could achieve its goal. In recent years, Tokyo farmers, community members and administrators have been working to make such farmland a valuable part of the urban environment through promoting agroecology, such as low-carbon, circular food economies and biodiversity. That said, Tokyo’s farmland has been steadily shrinking due to low profitability and a history of strict taxes. In 2021, farmland comprised 2.9％&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/in-highly-urbanized-japan-city-farmers-are-key-to-achieving-organic-goal/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/in-highly-urbanized-japan-city-farmers-are-key-to-achieving-organic-goal/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-280786</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Japan prepares to mine its deep seabed by decade’s end</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/japan-prepares-to-mine-its-deep-seabed-by-decades-end/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/japan-prepares-to-mine-its-deep-seabed-by-decades-end/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Mar 2024 15:28:34 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Annelise Giseburt]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/03/20103500/Mining-equipment-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=280072</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Oceans]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, East Asia, and Japan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Deep Sea, Deep Sea Mining, Ecosystems, Global Environmental Crisis, Marine, Marine Conservation, Mining, Oceans, Renewable Energy, and Technology]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[TOKYO — Japan is actively exploring pathways to mine the deep sea of its exclusive economic zone (EEZ), in an effort to lessen reliance on imported mineral resources needed for advanced and green technologies. Aiming to be ready to mine by the late 2020s, Japan — one among just a handful of nations actively pursuing [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[TOKYO — Japan is actively exploring pathways to mine the deep sea of its exclusive economic zone (EEZ), in an effort to lessen reliance on imported mineral resources needed for advanced and green technologies. Aiming to be ready to mine by the late 2020s, Japan — one among just a handful of nations actively pursuing deep-sea mining within their own waters — could be among the first nations to exploit the deep sea. The country has completed multiple small-scale mining tests that it claims are world firsts, and it positions itself as a global leader in the “sustainable development” of deep-sea mining. Critics warn that mining could harm deep-sea ecosystems, including by directly destroying habitat and by releasing plumes of fine particles that currents carry away to smother neighboring habitats. More than 20 countries have called for either a ban, moratorium or precautionary pause on deep-sea mining, and more than 800 marine scientists and other experts have signed a statement calling for a pause. Well aware of such concerns, the Japanese government is gathering data on deep-sea ecosystems and developing technologies to monitor and minimize mining’s environmental impacts. Its small-scale tests to date have shown lingering impacts to fauna in and near the test sites. “We should only be mining if we can establish a robust system that properly takes environmental impacts into account,” Yoshihito Doi, a member of the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy, part of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), told Mongabay. At the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/japan-prepares-to-mine-its-deep-seabed-by-decades-end/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/japan-prepares-to-mine-its-deep-seabed-by-decades-end/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-280072</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>[Photos] New book is a stunning glimpse of Asia’s wildlife and landscapes</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/photos-new-book-is-a-stunning-glimpse-of-asias-wildlife-and-landscapes/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/photos-new-book-is-a-stunning-glimpse-of-asias-wildlife-and-landscapes/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Jan 2024 01:33:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carolyn Cowan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/01/11115406/Banner_06-e1705023375499-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=277554</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, China, India, Japan, Malaysia, Nepal, South Asia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Books, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Forests, Interviews, Islands, Mammals, Megafauna, Mountains, Photos, Protected Areas, Wildlife, and Wildlife Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For the past two decades, wildlife photographer and writer Bjorn Olesen and travel writer Fanny Lai have published books aimed at raising awareness of conservation in Asia. Beginning in 2012, the husband-and-wife team have spotlighted efforts to save the giant panda; showcased the spectrum of wildlife in Borneo; and provided rare insights in Asia’s forests [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For the past two decades, wildlife photographer and writer Bjorn Olesen and travel writer Fanny Lai have published books aimed at raising awareness of conservation in Asia. Beginning in 2012, the husband-and-wife team have spotlighted efforts to save the giant panda; showcased the spectrum of wildlife in Borneo; and provided rare insights in Asia’s forests in support of nature conservation organizations. Now, their fourth photo book, Asia&#8217;s Greatest Wildlife Sanctuaries, gives a glimpse of what’s at stake in Asia’s forests, wetlands, islands and mountains, taking the reader to 27 of the region’s most spectacular protected areas across 14 countries. All royalties from the book will go to support BirdLife International in its conservation work in Asia. Throughout the book, intimate images of wildlife and habitats by Olesen and two dozen contributing photographers create an accompaniment to the stories of government, NGO and community efforts that led to some of Asia’s most notable conservation successes. From exquisite birds-of-paradise in Indonesia’s Papua region, to critically endangered ibises confined to tiny pockets of remaining habitat in northern Cambodia, the book is a wonderful portrayal of the region’s birdlife. Other animals, such as snow leopards, red pandas, rhinos, elephants and a plethora of primates, are also warmly depicted. Cover of Asia’s Greatest Wildlife Sanctuaries, written by Bjorn Olesen and Fanny Lai. Narrowing down the wildlife reserves to feature in the book was perhaps the toughest challenge of all, Olesen told Mongabay. The selection “encapsulates our travels, spanning more than 20 years of wildlife sojourns&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/photos-new-book-is-a-stunning-glimpse-of-asias-wildlife-and-landscapes/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-277554</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Photos: Top species discoveries from 2023</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/photos-top-species-discoveries-from-2023/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/photos-top-species-discoveries-from-2023/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Dec 2023 15:36:55 +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/20/2023/12/27150956/chameleon-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=277110</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Atlantic Forest, Australia, Brunei, Ecuador, Global, India, Japan, Madagascar, Pacific Ocean, Panama, Peru, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, and Thailand]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Birding, Botany, Charismatic Animals, Climate Change, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Cryptic Species, Culture, Deforestation, DNA, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Endangered Species Act, Environment, Flowers, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Herps, Insects, Islands, Lizards, Mammals, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, New Discovery, Oceans, Oil Drilling, Plants, Rainforests, Reptiles, Research, Saving Species From Extinction, Snakes, Solutions, Species Discovery, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Scientists named hundreds of new to science species this year, including an electric blue tarantula, two pygmy squids, a silent frog, and some thumb-sized chameleons. These newly uncovered creatures give us just a glimpse into the immense biodiversity yet to be found across the planet. “I think most people believe that we know most species [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Scientists named hundreds of new to science species this year, including an electric blue tarantula, two pygmy squids, a silent frog, and some thumb-sized chameleons. These newly uncovered creatures give us just a glimpse into the immense biodiversity yet to be found across the planet. “I think most people believe that we know most species on Earth … but in the best-case scenario, we know 20% of Earth’s species,” Mario Moura, a professor at the Federal University of Paraíba in Brazil, told Mongabay in a March 2021 interview. Experts estimate only 10-20% of Earth&#8217;s species have been documented by Western science. This year, researchers at the California Academy of Sciences described 153 new plant, animal and fungi species. Since 2020 alone, researchers have classified 100,000 new plant and fungus species. However, at this pace, researchers say documenting all life could take centuries, and many species may go extinct before they’re even named. More than a million plant and animal species are threatened with extinction, suggests the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). Many new species of plants, fungi, and animals are assessed as vulnerable or critically endangered with extinction as soon as they’re found. “There is something immensely unethical and troubling about humans driving species extinct without ever even having appreciated their existence and given them consideration,” Walter Jetz, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Yale University, told Mongabay, It’s important to note that although a species may be newly described by science, Indigenous people&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/photos-top-species-discoveries-from-2023/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/photos-top-species-discoveries-from-2023/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-277110</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Long-term wildlife impacts at Chornobyl, Fukushima may yield ‘a new ecology’</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/long-term-wildlife-impacts-at-chornobyl-fukushima-may-yield-a-new-ecology/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/long-term-wildlife-impacts-at-chornobyl-fukushima-may-yield-a-new-ecology/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Dec 2023 15:40:47 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Annelise Giseburt]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/12/21135055/imgonline-com-ua-FrameBlurred-cSk9aVPm5g1k-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=276907</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Covering the Commons and Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, East Asia, Eastern Europe, Europe, Japan, and Ukraine]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation, Animal Behavior, Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Climate Change, Conservation, Disasters, Diseases, Ecology, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Health, Mammals, Nuclear Power, Planetary Health, Pollution, Research, Restoration, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The world’s two worst nuclear accidents, in Ukraine and Japan, along with the human exclusion zones around them, are informing scientists about radiation effects, and how ecosystems evolve with less pressure from people.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Note to readers: “Chornobyl” is the Ukrainian spelling of “Chernobyl,” which is the Russian version, a spelling change requested by the Ukrainian government following its independence from the USSR. Mongabay has chosen to use the Ukrainian spelling throughout this story. Wolves lope through the Chornobyl nuclear power plant exclusion zone in the 2019 documentary Our Planet, as naturalist and TV presenter David Attenborough reminds viewers: “Hunters like these would only return if their prey and the surrounding forest is also thriving. “No unprotected human being can stay here for long without lethal risk,” he then explained, “But in driving us out, the radiation has created space for wildlife to return.” Attenborough is not the first to claim that nature can thrive in nuclear exclusion zones; indeed, the Our Planet script drew from scientific literature. However, there’s no consensus among the scientific community on this question, with researchers continuing to investigate and debate the ongoing effects of radioactive contamination on the environment in Chornobyl, Ukraine, and in Fukushima, Japan — the sites of the world’s two worst nuclear power plant accidents to date. Although individual-level radiation impacts on numerous animal and plant species have been widely observed and acknowledged, some researchers have found evidence of population-level, or even ecosystem-level impacts, while others haven’t. Study design, including target species, sample size, and method of estimating radiation dose, potentially colors these findings. Others argue that the body of research on nuclear exclusion zone organisms and ecosystems point in sum to neither a restoration,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/long-term-wildlife-impacts-at-chornobyl-fukushima-may-yield-a-new-ecology/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-276907</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Japanese butterfly conservation takes flight when integrated with human communities</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/japanese-butterflies-take-flight-by-integrating-human-communities-in-their-conservation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/japanese-butterflies-take-flight-by-integrating-human-communities-in-their-conservation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Dec 2023 16:10:42 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Keona Blanks]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/12/08153551/miyamashijimi-10-e1702049869423-768x397.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=276457</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, East Asia, and Japan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Animals, Biodiversity, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Culture, Ecosystems, Environment, Global Environmental Crisis, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Insects, Landscape Restoration, Reintroductions, Research, Restoration, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[IIJIMA, Japan – Since the last ice age, a butterfly species called the Reverdin’s blue (Plebejus argyrognomon, known as miyamashijimi in Japanese), has survived in the nation’s grasslands maintained by human agricultural activities. But as the country’s population ages and leaves the countryside, letting the seminatural grasslands change to forests, the butterfly is now endangered. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[IIJIMA, Japan – Since the last ice age, a butterfly species called the Reverdin’s blue (Plebejus argyrognomon, known as miyamashijimi in Japanese), has survived in the nation’s grasslands maintained by human agricultural activities. But as the country’s population ages and leaves the countryside, letting the seminatural grasslands change to forests, the butterfly is now endangered. For the past five years, a small agrarian town called Iijima in Nagano prefecture has partnered with researchers from the University of Tokyo to bring the butterfly back from the brink. The key to their efforts lies in a traditional Japanese landscape called satoyama, a mosaic of various ecosystems such as rice paddies, grasslands, woodlands and human activities integrating communities with the natural world. Through these landscapes, humans have historically maintained a reciprocal relationship with native plants and animals over generations – the miyamashijimi among them. Male and female miyamashijimi. Image courtesy of Todai University. “In order to conserve species adapted to human-managed landscapes like the satoyama, we need to strike a balance between overuse and underuse,” said Tadashi Miyashita, a professor at the University of Tokyo (Todai) who initiated the partnership with Iijima. “For so long, humans have been concerned with overuse of the environment, but underuse is also a problem.” Since the fossil fuel revolution, satoyama landscapes have become increasingly abandoned and underused in Japan as imports of food and energy from abroad decreased local demand, threatening biological diversity on a national scale. Similar trends echo throughout the northern Mediterranean, particularly in Spain,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/japanese-butterflies-take-flight-by-integrating-human-communities-in-their-conservation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-276457</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Climate refugees? As the sea warms, corals thrive in Japan’s cool waters</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/climate-refugees-as-the-sea-warms-corals-thrive-in-japans-cool-waters/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/climate-refugees-as-the-sea-warms-corals-thrive-in-japans-cool-waters/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Oct 2023 20:33:10 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Annelise Giseburt]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/10/25150021/Mezaki_coral-spawning-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=274644</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Oceans]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, East Asia, and Japan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Climate, Climate Change, Coral Bleaching, Coral Reefs, Deep Sea, Ecosystems, Global Environmental Crisis, Invasive Species, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Mongabay Data Studio, Ocean Warming, Oceans, Research, and Temperatures]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[TATEYAMA, Japan — The late summer heat was no concern for University of Tokyo professor Nina Yasuda and her student research team, who descended on Tateyama, an aging resort town on the southeastern tip of Tokyo Bay, armed with snorkels, flippers, GPS devices and tools for DNA analysis one early September day. Their objective was [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[TATEYAMA, Japan — The late summer heat was no concern for University of Tokyo professor Nina Yasuda and her student research team, who descended on Tateyama, an aging resort town on the southeastern tip of Tokyo Bay, armed with snorkels, flippers, GPS devices and tools for DNA analysis one early September day. Their objective was under the waves: Tateyama’s growing coral communities. Across Japan, from Tateyama in the east to the Ryukyu Archipelago in the south, coral researchers like Yasuda are watching with fascination as the country’s coastal seas transform due to climate change. The threat climate change poses to tropical and subtropical coral reefs — those located within 30° of the equator, which are estimated to support one-quarter of all marine life — is well documented and widely understood. Approximately 14% of the world’s reefs have been lost since 2009, largely due to rising sea temperatures that cause corals to expel the symbiotic algae living in their tissue, a phenomenon known as bleaching. Bleached coral. Approximately 14% of the world’s reefs have been lost since 2009, largely due to rising sea temperatures that cause corals to expel the symbiotic algae living in their tissue, a phenomenon known as bleaching. Image by Takuma Mezaki. As this biodiversity crisis unfolds, the idea that tropical and subtropical corals could take refuge in cooler, temperate seas has offered cause for hope. That idea seemed to fit into a larger, global phenomenon of “tropicalization,” in which species associated with the tropics are becoming more&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/climate-refugees-as-the-sea-warms-corals-thrive-in-japans-cool-waters/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-274644</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Up in the air: Study finds microplastics in high-altitude cloud water</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/up-in-the-air-study-finds-microplastics-in-high-altitude-cloud-water/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/up-in-the-air-study-finds-microplastics-in-high-altitude-cloud-water/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Oct 2023 16:04:12 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Claire Alberts]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/10/05150853/mountain-clouds-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=273983</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global and Japan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Air Pollution, Environment, Global Environmental Crisis, Microplastics, Plastic, Pollution, Research, Waste, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The more we learn about plastic, the more we find it everywhere. Research has shown that tiny microplastic particles litter the world’s oceans and rivers, from the Arctic and Antarctic. Microplastics are in the soils where fruits and vegetables grow. They’re found in the internal organs of wildlife. Scientists have even detected plastic in human [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The more we learn about plastic, the more we find it everywhere. Research has shown that tiny microplastic particles litter the world’s oceans and rivers, from the Arctic and Antarctic. Microplastics are in the soils where fruits and vegetables grow. They’re found in the internal organs of wildlife. Scientists have even detected plastic in human blood, brains and placentas. A growing body of research has also shown that microplastics — particles less than 5 millimeters, or about 0.2 inches, in size — are being blown up into the atmosphere by wind and sea spray, then falling from the sky in rain. So it would only make sense that plastic is also present in clouds. Which is exactly what a new study in Environmental Chemistry Letters has found. Researchers collected cloud water samples from high-altitude mountains in Japan — including the summit of Mount Fuji — and discovered small airborne particles from nine different types of plastics. This finding led the scientists to suggest that high-altitude microplastics could influence cloud formation and therefore, alter the climate. However, they did not investigate these possibilities in the current study. The scientists collected the cloud water samples using fine wire devices and then used imaging techniques to analyze the samples. They detected microplastics in the cloud water ranging in diameter from 7.1 to 94.6 micrometers — sizes hardly or even impossibly perceptible to the naked eye. Nine different types of plastic were detected, including, among others, polyethylene, polypropylene and polyethylene terephthalate — common forms&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/up-in-the-air-study-finds-microplastics-in-high-altitude-cloud-water/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/up-in-the-air-study-finds-microplastics-in-high-altitude-cloud-water/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-273983</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>When “cute” is cruel: Social media videos stoke loris pet trade, study says</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/06/when-cute-is-cruel-social-media-videos-stoke-loris-pet-trade-study-says/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/06/when-cute-is-cruel-social-media-videos-stoke-loris-pet-trade-study-says/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Jun 2023 05:04:20 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carolyn Cowan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/06/27044132/Lorises-LFP-Banner-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=270216</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Japan, Southeast Asia, and Thailand]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Welfare, Animals, Biodiversity, Crime, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Environment, Hunting, Illegal Trade, Mammals, Pet Trade, Pets, Poaching, Primates, Slow Loris, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[When we think of iconic animals, we tend to imagine them in the wild — African elephants marching across grasslands, tigers prowling through forests, or humpback whales breaching through ocean waves. But new research suggests that when it comes to lorises, things are different. Many people likely think of the wide-eyed, pint-sized primates native to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[When we think of iconic animals, we tend to imagine them in the wild — African elephants marching across grasslands, tigers prowling through forests, or humpback whales breaching through ocean waves. But new research suggests that when it comes to lorises, things are different. Many people likely think of the wide-eyed, pint-sized primates native to the forests of South and Southeast Asia as domestic pets rather than wild animals. This was the conclusion of a study in which researchers scrutinized the top 100 most-viewed and liked loris videos on three major social media platforms — TikTok, YouTube and Giphy. The researchers found that the vast majority of clips showed lorises in captive settings, often in contact with people and displaying signs of stress or poor health, whereas clips of wild lorises behaving naturally in their forest home were largely ignored. “Almost any platform you look on, if you search for slow loris, you just see these decontextualized pets. You see very few wild animals,” Anna Nekaris, professor of primate conservation at Oxford Brookes University and co-author of the findings, told Mongabay. A Bengal slow loris (Nycticebus bengalensis) photographed in Thailand at night in its natural forest habitat. Image by Tanaporn Choopanya. Many of the clips that had garnered more than 1 million views and thousands of likes typically showed lorises in captive conditions that the researchers deemed as failing to meet internationally accepted animal welfare guidelines. In contrast, the team identified only two videos of wild lorises in a forest&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/06/when-cute-is-cruel-social-media-videos-stoke-loris-pet-trade-study-says/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-270216</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Spamming streams with hatchery salmon can disrupt ecosystems, study finds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/spamming-streams-with-hatchery-salmon-can-disrupt-ecosystems-study-finds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/spamming-streams-with-hatchery-salmon-can-disrupt-ecosystems-study-finds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 May 2023 18:24:44 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ruth Kamnitzer]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Elizabethalberts]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Food systems]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/05/09123304/Coho-Spawning-on-the-Salmon-River-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=268386</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Canada, Japan, North America, United States, and Washington]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Aquaculture, Coastal Ecosystems, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Environmental Law, Fellows, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Food, Food Industry, food security, Freshwater, Freshwater Fish, Governance, Marine, Marine Conservation, Oceans, Research, Rivers, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Every year, 22 million sockeye salmon begin life some 420 kilometers, or about 260 miles, inland from the Alaskan coast, in plastic bins. They’re at the Gulkana hatchery, the largest sockeye salmon hatchery in the world — but just one of countless hatcheries around the globe that release native fish into rivers, lakes and oceans [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Every year, 22 million sockeye salmon begin life some 420 kilometers, or about 260 miles, inland from the Alaskan coast, in plastic bins. They’re at the Gulkana hatchery, the largest sockeye salmon hatchery in the world — but just one of countless hatcheries around the globe that release native fish into rivers, lakes and oceans to augment wild stocks. Fish hatcheries, like the species they breed, come in many shapes and sizes. Some, like the Gulkana facility in the U.S., pump out millions of fish each year to support commercial fisheries. Others, like the Nechako White Sturgeon Conservation Centre hatchery in Canada, focus on conservation by rebuilding and maintaining genetic diversity in threatened populations. Some hatcheries use eggs and milt (sperm) from wild fish; others use hatchery fish as parents. But no matter what the species of fish or the purpose of the hatchery program, the released fish enter the ecosystem en masse and interact with an existing community. Pacific salmon are economically and culturally important species for nations across the northern Pacific Ocean, and hatchery programs positioned to boost commercial fisheries have increased dramatically over the last 150 years. Since the early 1990s, approximately 5 billion hatchery salmon have been released every year, primarily by the United States, Japan and Russia. Chum (Oncorhynchus keta) and pink (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha) salmon are by far the most common hatchery salmon species, but others are also bred and released from hatcheries. For example, in Japan, masu salmon (Oncorhynchus masou masou) are a highly&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/spamming-streams-with-hatchery-salmon-can-disrupt-ecosystems-study-finds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-268386</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Saving forests to protect coastal ecosystems: Japan sets historic example</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/04/saving-forests-to-protect-coastal-ecosystems-japan-sets-historic-example/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/04/saving-forests-to-protect-coastal-ecosystems-japan-sets-historic-example/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Apr 2023 00:36:03 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Annelise Giseburt]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/04/26140700/Japan-saving-forests-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=267896</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Conservation Potential]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, East Asia, and Japan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Aquaculture, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Coastal Ecosystems, Community Development, Community Forests, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Philosophy, Conservation Solutions, Deforestation, Ecosystem Services, Ecosystems, Environment, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Food, Forestry, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Happy-upbeat Environmental, In-situ Conservation, Marine, Oceans, Reforestation, Restoration, Saltwater Fish, Solutions, and Trees]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Reliant on its fisheries, Japan has long known the importance of maintaining healthy forest watersheds so as to protect coastal fisheries. It’s a lesson other nations could benefit from as the global environmental crisis worsens.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KESENNUMA CITY, Japan — Forests cloak steep slopes descending from the tree-covered peak of Oshima Island, while oyster farms dot the deep blue waters of the strait below. On a far shore, houses cluster below the wooded slopes of more steep hills. This verdant view makes it easy to fathom how this area sparked a nationwide movement to conserve forests as a way to protect estuary fisheries. Still, Kesennuma is far from the only place in Japan where people appreciate and cultivate healthy forests to contribute to healthy coastal waters. The island nation — with its more than 30,000 kilometers (nearly 19,000 miles) of coastline, nearly 100 major river systems, and two-thirds of its land covered in trees — has long inspired various actors to protect onshore watersheds as a way to preserve water quality in the bays and estuaries they feed into. The government, for example, designates certain woodlands as “protection forests” based on the ecosystem services they provide. Among the 17 categories of protection forest, “fish forests” specifically highlight the relationship between forests and coastal seas. The view from Oshima Island in Kesennuma, Miyagi prefecture. Image by Annelise Giseburt for Mongabay. Japan’s commercial fishers, too, have played a leading role in raising awareness of watershed importance. Beginning in the late 1980s, fishers in Kesennuma and other locales began planting trees with the goal of safeguarding their marine livelihoods. Today, Japanese researchers are finding evidence of the benefits forests provide for marine life, confirming the local knowledge fishers have&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/04/saving-forests-to-protect-coastal-ecosystems-japan-sets-historic-example/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-267896</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>At the United Nations, Indigenous Ryukyuans say it’s time for U.S. military to leave Okinawa</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/04/at-the-united-nations-indigenous-ryukyuans-say-its-time-for-u-s-military-to-leave-okinawa/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/04/at-the-united-nations-indigenous-ryukyuans-say-its-time-for-u-s-military-to-leave-okinawa/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Apr 2023 19:28:48 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Joseph Lee]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/04/21191303/Screen-Shot-2023-04-21-at-3.06.59-PM-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=267755</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, East Asia, and Japan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conflict, Conservation, Culture, Ecosystems, Environment, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Marine Mammals, Military, and Politics]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This story is published as part of the Global Indigenous Affairs Desk, an Indigenous-led collaboration between Grist, High Country News, ICT, Mongabay, and Native News Online. NEW YORK — In April 2020, a barbecue held at Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Okinawa, a small Japanese island just east of Taiwan, accidentally triggered the release [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This story is published as part of the Global Indigenous Affairs Desk, an Indigenous-led collaboration between Grist, High Country News, ICT, Mongabay, and Native News Online. NEW YORK — In April 2020, a barbecue held at Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Okinawa, a small Japanese island just east of Taiwan, accidentally triggered the release of 60,000 gallons of firefighting foam. There was no fire, but much of the foam spread throughout the nearby residential area, sliding through streets and floating into a stream. The foam contained per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, also known as “forever chemicals.” Used in a wide variety of consumer products, PFAS have been found in air, water, and the blood streams of humans and animals across the world and can impact health causing low birth weights, cancer, and liver damage. More than 15 percent of Okinawa is occupied by American and Japanese military bases. In 2022, water tests conducted by the government of Okinawa revealed PFAS levels up to 42 times higher than Japan’s national water standards with contamination found in drinking and bathing water for roughly 450,000 people, about a third of the island’s population. Local residents, many of whom are Indigenous Ryukyu Uchinaanchus, say the latest firefighting foam incident was another example of the harm caused by U.S. military installations on their land. “What happened shows that they don&#8217;t care,” said Masaki Tomochi, who is Ryukyu Uchinaanchu and a professor at Okinawa International University. “They don&#8217;t care about us.” The United States&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/04/at-the-united-nations-indigenous-ryukyuans-say-its-time-for-u-s-military-to-leave-okinawa/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/04/at-the-united-nations-indigenous-ryukyuans-say-its-time-for-u-s-military-to-leave-okinawa/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-267755</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Japan, EU &#038; UK biomass emissions standards fall short and are full of loopholes, critics say</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/japan-eu-uk-biomass-emissions-standards-fall-short-full-of-loopholes-critics/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/japan-eu-uk-biomass-emissions-standards-fall-short-full-of-loopholes-critics/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Mar 2023 21:26:39 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Annelise Giseburt]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/03/14142941/2-A-wood-pellet-mill-in-North-Carolina-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=266462</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Covering Climate Now, Covering the Commons, and Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[European Union, Global, Japan, United Kingdom, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Air Pollution, Bioenergy, Business, Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Emissions, Climate Change, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Energy, Energy Efficiency, Environment, Environmental Law, Forests, Governance, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Industry, Logging, Politics, and Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[As biomass burning to make energy surges, nations are setting standards that fail to count carbon emissions at power plant smokestacks, worsening climate change even as those same countries dub biomass “carbon neutral.”]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Starting this April, Japan will implement a new life cycle greenhouse gas emission standard for biomass power plants supported by its feed-in tariff subsidy for renewable energy. Designed to ensure that forest biomass usage actually reduces carbon emissions compared with fossil fuels, Japan’s new standard is similar to those already implemented by fellow forest biomass users like the United Kingdom and European Union. However, forest advocates warn that all three standards contain major loopholes and therefore aren’t doing enough to reduce emissions: They do not apply to biomass plants approved before a certain date, nor do they count the largest source of forest biomass emissions: the CO2 released when wood is burned. Although biomass power plant smokestack emissions are counted as zero under international carbon accounting rules, scientists have shown that forest biomass releases more carbon per unit of energy than that produced by coal. The “life cycle” greenhouse gas standards should more accurately be called “partial life cycle” standards, say forest advocates. In Japan, for example, wood pellets imported from Canada — Japan’s second-largest wood pellet supplier — release just 60 grams of CO2 equivalent per megajoule (g CO2/MJe) from production, harvesting and shipping, but almost 450 g CO2/MJe across their whole life cycle, according to a document prepared by the Japanese nonprofit Biomass Industrial Society Network that was shared with Mongabay. The vast majority of emissions come when the wood pellets are burned. Despite this fact, nations continue counting biomass as a carbon neutral fuel. A biomass plant&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/japan-eu-uk-biomass-emissions-standards-fall-short-full-of-loopholes-critics/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-266462</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Reef ruckus: Fish fights erupt after mass coral bleaching, study finds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/reef-ruckus-fish-fights-erupt-after-mass-coral-bleaching-study-finds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/reef-ruckus-fish-fights-erupt-after-mass-coral-bleaching-study-finds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Mar 2023 15:53:17 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carolyn Cowan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/03/02091044/butterfly-fish-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=266044</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indonesian Fisheries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Christmas Island, Indonesia, Japan, Philippines, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Animal Behavior, Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Coral Bleaching, Coral Reefs, Ecosystems, Environment, Fish, Fisheries, Marine, Marine Animals, Ocean Warming, Oceans, and Research]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[As mass coral bleaching events grow in frequency and intensity, scientists are finding out more about how corals, which make up the physical foundation of reefs, respond during times of heat stress. But what is less well known is how mass bleaching events affect other components of reef ecosystems, such as their amazingly colorful array [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[As mass coral bleaching events grow in frequency and intensity, scientists are finding out more about how corals, which make up the physical foundation of reefs, respond during times of heat stress. But what is less well known is how mass bleaching events affect other components of reef ecosystems, such as their amazingly colorful array of reef fish species. When a team of scientists studying reef fish behavior in the shallow waters of the Indo-Pacific during 2016 were shocked by the onset of one of the worst-ever global bleaching events — a phenomenon caused by elevated sea temperatures — they quickly decided to view the tragedy as an opportunity to learn more about their subjects. Their study, published recently in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, suggests that coral die-off due to mass bleaching events is disrupting conflict avoidance behaviors in reef fish. Fish living on newly degraded reefs are finding it harder to make the appropriate behavioral responses to competitors, say the researchers. As a result, they get into more fights and chases, expending their valuable, limited energy reserves and risking their long-term survival. “By recognising a competitor, individual fish can make decisions about whether to escalate, or retreat from, a contest — conserving valuable energy and avoiding injuries,” Sally Keith, a senior marine biologist at Lancaster University in the U.K. and lead author of the study, said in a statement. “These rules of engagement evolved for a particular playing field, but that field is changing.” A melon butterflyfish&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/reef-ruckus-fish-fights-erupt-after-mass-coral-bleaching-study-finds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/reef-ruckus-fish-fights-erupt-after-mass-coral-bleaching-study-finds/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-266044</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Top 15 species discoveries from 2022 (Photos)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/top-15-species-discoveries-from-2022-photos/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/top-15-species-discoveries-from-2022-photos/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Dec 2022 17:52:19 +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/20/2022/03/11184718/FISHCirrhilabrus-finifenmaa_4%C2%A9-Yi-Kai-Tea-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=264198</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Amazon, Atlantic Forest, Brazil, Cameroon, Central America, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Global, Guinea, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Japan, Latin America, Madagascar, Maldives, Pacific Ocean, Panama, Peru, South America, Southeast Asia, and Thailand]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Birding, Botany, Charismatic Animals, Climate Change, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Cryptic Species, Culture, Deforestation, DNA, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Endangered Species Act, Environment, Flowers, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Herps, Insects, Islands, Lizards, Mammals, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, New Discovery, Oceans, Oil Drilling, Owls, Plants, Rainforests, Reptiles, Research, Saving Species From Extinction, Shipping, Snakes, Solutions, Species Discovery, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A resplendent rainbow fish, a frog that looks like chocolate, a Thai tarantula,  an anemone that rides on a back of a hermit crab, and the world&#8217;s largest waterlily are among the new species named by science in 2022. In this well-trodden world, finding a new species is a glimpse of the uncharted riches of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A resplendent rainbow fish, a frog that looks like chocolate, a Thai tarantula,  an anemone that rides on a back of a hermit crab, and the world&#8217;s largest waterlily are among the new species named by science in 2022. In this well-trodden world, finding a new species is a glimpse of the uncharted riches of biodiversity still hidden around the globe. Scientists estimate that only 10% of all the species on the planet have been described. Even among the most well-known group of animals, mammals, scientists think we have only found 80% of species. Most of these hidden species are likely bats, rodents, shrews, moles, and hedgehogs. “Based on our analysis, a conservative estimate would be that there are hundreds of species of mammals worldwide that have yet to be identified,” Bryan Carstens, a professor at The Ohio State University, told Mongabay. This year, researchers at the California Academy of Sciences named 146 new species, including “44 lizards, 30 ants, 14 sea slugs, 14 flowering plants, 13 sea stars, seven fishes, four beetles, four sharks, three moths, three worms, two scorpions, two spiders, two lichens, one toad, one clam, one aphid, and one sea biscuit.” Around 2,000 new species of plants and fungi are found each year, according to Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (RBG Kew). These are potential sources of food, medicines, and other solutions. Unfortunately, many new species of plants, fungi, and animals are assessed as Vulnerable or Critically Endangered with extinction. “There is something immensely unethical and troubling&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/top-15-species-discoveries-from-2022-photos/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/top-15-species-discoveries-from-2022-photos/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-264198</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Japan’s example: Can forest planting reduce climate disaster risk?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/japans-example-can-forest-planting-reduce-climate-disaster-risk/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/japans-example-can-forest-planting-reduce-climate-disaster-risk/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Dec 2022 15:42:04 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Annelise Giseburt]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/12/15144210/19-New-saplings-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=263679</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Covering the Commons and Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, East Asia, and Japan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Afforestation, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Science, Conservation, Degraded Lands, Disasters, Ecosystems, Environment, Erosion, Extreme Weather, Flooding, forest degradation, Forestry, Forests, Impact Of Climate Change, Landscape Restoration, Monocultures, Plantations, Reforestation, Restoration, and Trees]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The answer is, it depends. A multitude of conditions must be analyzed, and forests properly managed long-term, if they’re to curb climate change-intensified flooding, landslides, and even stand up to a tsunami.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Japan is well-known for its natural disasters, from earthquakes and tsunamis (think Fukushima), to typhoons. With most of the country’s weather disasters now being exacerbated by the climate crisis, torrential rains and the resulting flooding and landslides have become some of Japan’s most frequent and destructive disasters in the past decade. Instances of torrential rain — at least 50 millimeters (2 inches) in one hour — have increased by 40% over the past 30-odd years, according to government statistics. With roughly 80% of Japan’s landmass covered in mountains and hills, these disasters menace populated areas nestled at their feet. In 2018, for example, flash floods and landslides triggered by record rains in western Japan resulted in more than 200 fatalities and were a major factor in Germanwatch, an NGO, naming Japan as the country sustaining the most damage from extreme weather events that year. Japan is also 66% forested — which hints at a potential way of curbing future landslide damages. As the climate crisis intensifies, organizations and individuals around the world have turned to forests as a means of lessening the impacts of climate disaster: a nature-based solution that can work if applied scientifically. The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization notes that restoring damaged forest ecosystems and increasing forest cover “can play a crucial role in the mitigation of … disasters, the frequency of which could increase in the face of climate change.” A deep-seated landslide in Nara prefecture. Deep-seated landslides, which are becoming more common as Japan experiences&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/japans-example-can-forest-planting-reduce-climate-disaster-risk/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-263679</doi>				</item>
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