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	<channel>
		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/spain/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Thu, 30 Jul 2026 04:47:43 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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	<title>Spain environmental news</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/spain/</link>
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				<item>
					<title> Seeking swordfish, catching dolphins and whales: EU pushes to rein in driftnets</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/seeking-swordfish-catching-dolphins-and-whales-eu-pushes-to-rein-in-driftnets/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/seeking-swordfish-catching-dolphins-and-whales-eu-pushes-to-rein-in-driftnets/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Jul 2026 20:24:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Victoria Schneider]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Autumn Spanne]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/08160916/a.-BANNER-GP0156K-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=322913</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, European Union, Mediterranean Sea, Morocco, and Spain]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Bycatch, Cetaceans, Dolphins, Elasmobranchs, Fisheries, Fishing, Food, Illegal Fishing, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Marine Mammals, Oceans, Sharks, Tuna, and Whales]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Driftnets, vertically hanging nets that drift with ocean currents and can stretch for kilometers, are used to catch large pelagic species such as swordfish and tuna. However, they have long drawn criticism from conservationists as they also capture and kill sharks, turtles, dolphins and other marine wildlife. For decades, debate has raged about use of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Driftnets, vertically hanging nets that drift with ocean currents and can stretch for kilometers, are used to catch large pelagic species such as swordfish and tuna. However, they have long drawn criticism from conservationists as they also capture and kill sharks, turtles, dolphins and other marine wildlife. For decades, debate has raged about use of the large nets. It’s a particularly contentious issue in the Mediterranean Sea, an important migration corridor that faces considerable pressure from overfishing, pollution and climate change. Now, international efforts to tighten legislation on driftnets in the Mediterranean have gained new momentum as member states of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) consider a proposal aimed at closing loopholes in existing rules. ICCAT is the world’s largest regional fisheries management organization, managing the stocks of highly migratory species, including tuna, swordfish (Xiphias gladius) and some shark species across the Atlantic Ocean and adjacent seas. At ICCAT’s technical meetings held in Brussels in June, the European Union presented a proposal (see IMM_09_ENG.docx in link) that seeks to strengthen current driftnet rules. Fishers haul an illegal driftnet in international waters west of Marettimo Island, near Sicily. Image © Gavin Parsons/Greenpeace. The EU proposal would establish clearer definitions for driftnets, prohibit their possession on vessels that target certain species, and extend restrictions beyond the Mediterranean to parts of the Atlantic Ocean. “The EU has the clear ambition to push for the adoption of this measure at this year’s annual meeting of ICCAT (in November),” an&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/seeking-swordfish-catching-dolphins-and-whales-eu-pushes-to-rein-in-driftnets/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/seeking-swordfish-catching-dolphins-and-whales-eu-pushes-to-rein-in-driftnets/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-322913</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>France to send its last captive orcas to marine park, not sanctuary</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/france-to-send-its-last-captive-orcas-to-marine-park-not-sanctuary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/france-to-send-its-last-captive-orcas-to-marine-park-not-sanctuary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Jun 2026 18:23:41 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Spoorthy Raman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Autumn Spanne]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/03141906/Orques-du-Marineland-dAntibes-en-representation-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320536</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Europe, European Union, France, and Spain]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Welfare, Animals, Biodiversity, Captive Breeding, Conservation, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Mammals, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Marine Mammals, Oceans, Wildlife, and Zoos]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The French government recently announced it has greenlit a plan to send its last captive cetaceans — two orcas and 12 dolphins — to zoos and entertainment parks in Spain. These cetaceans live in the Marineland Antibes park on the French Riviera, which closed in 2025. In 2021, France passed a law banning the breeding [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The French government recently announced it has greenlit a plan to send its last captive cetaceans — two orcas and 12 dolphins — to zoos and entertainment parks in Spain. These cetaceans live in the Marineland Antibes park on the French Riviera, which closed in 2025. In 2021, France passed a law banning the breeding and keeping of cetaceans in captivity for entertainment shows, which will come into effect on Dec. 2, 2026. The orcas and dolphins at Marineland were the primary draw for visitors. The two orcas (Orcinus orca), Wikie, aged 25, and her son, Keijo, aged 12, were born at Marineland Antibes on the French Riviera and spent all their lives in concrete tanks and performing in display shows. They will now be moved to Loro Parque, a zoo and entertainment park in Tenerife on the Canary Islands. The dolphins will be split up between two parks in Valencia and Málaga on the Spanish mainland, with plans for some of them to return to France&#8217;s Beauval Zoo, when it’s ready to have them, according to reporting by Le Monde. A court-appointed expert team found in February 2026 that the concrete tanks in which the orcas lived at Marineland Antibes were in advanced structural decline, and if the mammals weren’t moved soon, they would have to be euthanized. “Faced with this emergency, we are acting to avert the worst,” Mathieu Lefèvre, France’s minister delegate for ecological transition, said in a statement, explaining the rationale for the decision. “Loro Parque&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/france-to-send-its-last-captive-orcas-to-marine-park-not-sanctuary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/france-to-send-its-last-captive-orcas-to-marine-park-not-sanctuary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320536</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>From caws to code: AI helps decrypt animal communication</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/from-caws-to-code-ai-helps-decrypt-animal-communication/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/from-caws-to-code-ai-helps-decrypt-animal-communication/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 May 2026 03:59:35 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhishyant Kidangoor]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhishyantkidangoor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/14030403/Banner-Image-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=319392</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Europe and Spain]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animals, Artificial Intelligence, Birds, Conservation, data, Environment, Marine, Marine Animals, Research, Technology, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[What are carrion crows saying to each other? Answering that question has been Vittorio Baglione and Daniela Canestrari’s mission for decades. Carrion crows (Corvus corone) are especially interesting because they engage in cooperative breeding, where entire families, not just the mother and father, are involved in raising chicks and protecting nests. That requires intricate and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[What are carrion crows saying to each other? Answering that question has been Vittorio Baglione and Daniela Canestrari’s mission for decades. Carrion crows (Corvus corone) are especially interesting because they engage in cooperative breeding, where entire families, not just the mother and father, are involved in raising chicks and protecting nests. That requires intricate and nuanced communication between individuals. “They have a very complex society, and they do very complex things together,” Baglione, a professor at the University of León in Spain, told Mongabay in a video interview. “It’s really coordinated behavior and we have answered why they do it, but we want to know how they coordinate and exchange information.” The duo have deployed audio recorders and biologgers in northern Spain to decode crow calls and monitor corresponding behavioral patterns. But as the data piled up, they came across a massive hurdle. “Each microphone lasted for six to seven days,” Canestrari, also a professor at the same university, told Mongabay in a video interview. “We realized we actually have too much data to analyze.” Since 2024, the scientists have collaborated with the Earth Species Project (ESP). A team at the U.S.-based nonprofit has helped them develop artificial intelligence models to categorize crow calls and start building a data set of different call types. Scientists in Spain have collaborated with Earth Species Project to categorize a vast dataset of crow calls that they gathered over the years. Image courtesy of Vittorio Baglione and Daniela Canestrari. How different animals communicate with&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/from-caws-to-code-ai-helps-decrypt-animal-communication/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/from-caws-to-code-ai-helps-decrypt-animal-communication/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-319392</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The European wildcat hovers between recovery and local extinction</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/the-european-wildcat-hovers-between-recovery-and-local-extinction/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/the-european-wildcat-hovers-between-recovery-and-local-extinction/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 May 2026 13:12:52 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/07014556/Image_1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318902</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Czech Republic, Europe, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Scotland, Spain, and Turkey]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Cats, Climate, Climate Change, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Diseases, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Forests, Funding, Genetics, Habitat Loss, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Human-wildlife Conflict, Hunting, Mammals, Parasites, Population, Reintroductions, Saving Species From Extinction, Small Cats, Solutions, Species recovery, Wildlife, and Zoos]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A quiet comeback story is unfolding for the European wildcat in the Czech Republic’s Lusatian Mountains. Conservationists tracking this elusive species there have spotted a male and female, named Jonáš and Tonka, the first to be found in the region in nearly a century. This small cat species lives in forests across Europe. It’s doing [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A quiet comeback story is unfolding for the European wildcat in the Czech Republic’s Lusatian Mountains. Conservationists tracking this elusive species there have spotted a male and female, named Jonáš and Tonka, the first to be found in the region in nearly a century. This small cat species lives in forests across Europe. It’s doing relatively well in some places and is imperiled in others, like the Czech Republic, where it’s critically endangered. The European wildcat (Felis silvestris), which is around the size of a large housecat, was wiped out because of disappearing habitat — and persecution. They were considered vermin and killed because they preyed on poultry and they were hunted for sport. More recently, they’re sometimes hybridizing, breeding with domestic cats. Numbers are spotty across parts of their range, so overall population numbers and trends, whether they’re rebounding or declining, is currently unknown. That’s a challenge shared by many of the world’s 30-plus small wildcat species that are often overlooked by research and funding. But they are hanging on in the Czech Republic. Earlier this year, Tonka gave birth to at least three kittens, offering hope that a slow wildcat recovery may be underway. Conservationists set up “hair traps,” wooden posts smeared with a lure that attracts the wildcats, then analyzed DNA from fur they left behind when they rubbed on them to mark their territory, as cats do. Genetically confirmed records of wildcat births are “exceedingly rare” in the country, said Kristýna Chroboková, field coordinator with the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/the-european-wildcat-hovers-between-recovery-and-local-extinction/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/the-european-wildcat-hovers-between-recovery-and-local-extinction/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-318902</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The rise of CC35 and the business behind its climate deals</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/carbon-and-charisma-how-climate-network-cc35-tricked-its-way-to-the-limelight/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/carbon-and-charisma-how-climate-network-cc35-tricked-its-way-to-the-limelight/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Dec 2025 22:32:40 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gloria Pallares]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/03/26194650/Landscape-1-Parque-Nacional-El-Impenetrable-Matias-Rebak-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311902</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Latin America, South America, and Spain]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Carbon Credits, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Market, Carbon Offsets, Climate Change, climate finance, Conservation, Corporate Social Responsibility, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Forest Carbon, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Indigenous Peoples, Law Enforcement, Mongabay investigation, and Politics]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This investigation was produced with support from the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ). Isabel Alarcón contributed reporting from Ecuador. BARCELONA — Covering more than 65 million hectares (160 million acres) across Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay, the Gran Chaco is South America’s second-largest forest after the Amazon Rainforest. Over the last decades, the dry forest [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This investigation was produced with support from the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ). Isabel Alarcón contributed reporting from Ecuador. BARCELONA — Covering more than 65 million hectares (160 million acres) across Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay, the Gran Chaco is South America’s second-largest forest after the Amazon Rainforest. Over the last decades, the dry forest ecosystem that fosters thousands of plant and animal species and 9 million people has lost about a quarter of its area to agriculture. In 2024, the Gran Chaco was especially threatened in Argentina’s Santiago del Estero province, where it lost 54,000 hectares (133,000 acres) of forest. A few years earlier, the province’s forest ecosystem was the object of an announcement at COP26 in Glasgow, U.K. On Nov. 2, 2021, Global Carbon Parks Inc., a Miami-based startup, announced a $200-million carbon contract with the province of Santiago del Estero that, according to several sources, would support nature conservation and decarbonization in the region. The startup aimed to trade in carbon credits from subnational protected areas. The announcement of the public-private arrangement was hosted by Capital Cities 35 (CC35), a climate alliance of mayors across the Americas that aims to build capacity to tackle climate change, implement the Paris Agreement and the U.N.’s 2030 Agenda. But findings from a Mongabay investigation suggest that the secretary-general of CC35, Argentinian Sebastián Navarro, used his position at CC35 in ways that benefited private carbon businesses like Global Carbon Parks, which he controlled through majority stakeholder Ethic International, Inc, a holding company&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/carbon-and-charisma-how-climate-network-cc35-tricked-its-way-to-the-limelight/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/carbon-and-charisma-how-climate-network-cc35-tricked-its-way-to-the-limelight/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311902</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Rewilding project aims to restore resilience to fire-prone Spain via wildlife</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/rewilding-project-aims-to-restore-resilience-to-fire-prone-spain-via-wildlife/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/rewilding-project-aims-to-restore-resilience-to-fire-prone-spain-via-wildlife/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Aug 2025 16:06:57 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/01143044/spain-Horse_2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=304948</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Europe and Spain]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Ecology, Economics, Ecotourism, Environment, Fires, Livestock, Mammals, Rewilding, Species, Tourism, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Some 30,000 years ago, Stone Age people decorated a cave, today known as Cueva de los Casares, in central Spain with pictures of mating humans (most famously), geometric shapes, and animals. The most popular carved animal is the wild horse. Cueva de los Casares sports at least two dozen images of wild horses. Eventually, these [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Some 30,000 years ago, Stone Age people decorated a cave, today known as Cueva de los Casares, in central Spain with pictures of mating humans (most famously), geometric shapes, and animals. The most popular carved animal is the wild horse. Cueva de los Casares sports at least two dozen images of wild horses. Eventually, these Pleistocene-epoch horses vanished — likely slaughtered for food or domesticated. But some 10,000 years later, wild horses have again returned to central Spain — this time to help with out-of-control fires and bring economic opportunity to a struggling region. In 2023, Rewilding Spain, apart of Rewilding Europe&#8217;s network, brought in the first 16 Przewalski’s horses (Equus ferus przewalskii) from France to the highlands of Spain’s Guadalajara province, one of the least populated parts of the country. Once extinct in the wild, Przewalski’s horse is the last fully wild horse in the world, genetically distinct from all domesticated horses. Originally from Mongolia, they’ve been rewilded to a number of countries in Europe. “It was an amazing feeling … to bring these animals here,” says Pablo Schapira, team leader with Rewilding Spain. Before returning to his home country, Schapira spent a dozen years in Africa working with the NGO African Parks, including on species reintroductions. He says doing reintroductions in his home country “was amazing because I didn&#8217;t think it was possible.” Today, the project has 35 Przewalski’s horses. And it’s not the only species brought back by Rewilding Spain. The team also brought in Taurus cattle.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/rewilding-project-aims-to-restore-resilience-to-fire-prone-spain-via-wildlife/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-304948</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Droughts are a ‘slow-moving global catastrophe,’ report finds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/droughts-are-a-slow-moving-global-catastrophe-report-finds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/droughts-are-a-slow-moving-global-catastrophe-report-finds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Jul 2025 20:09:43 +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/20/2025/04/24145637/drought-in-bangladesh-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=301995</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Amazon, Global, and Spain]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Conservation, Drought, Environment, Governance, Green, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[&#8220;Drought is a silent killer. It creeps in, drains resources and devastates lives in slow motion,” said Ibrahim Thiaw, executive secretary of the U.N. Convention to Combat Desertification. “Its scars run deep.&#8221; A comprehensive new report released this week documents what experts call some of the most widespread and damaging droughts in recorded history, affecting [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[&#8220;Drought is a silent killer. It creeps in, drains resources and devastates lives in slow motion,” said Ibrahim Thiaw, executive secretary of the U.N. Convention to Combat Desertification. “Its scars run deep.&#8221; A comprehensive new report released this week documents what experts call some of the most widespread and damaging droughts in recorded history, affecting millions of people across Africa, the Mediterranean, Latin America and Southeast Asia between 2023 and 2025. The report prepared by the U.S. National Drought Mitigation Center (NDMC) and the U.N. Convention to Combat Desertification describes how severe droughts have led to poverty, hunger, energy insecurity and ecosystem collapse worldwide. The report draws on more than 250 peer-reviewed studies, official data sources and news reports across more than a dozen countries and regions. Lake Tefé was completely dry in October of 2023 during the extreme Amazon drought. Image courtesy of Miguel Monteiro. “This is not a dry spell,” Mark Svoboda, report co-author and NDMC director said in a statement. &#8220;This is a slow-moving global catastrophe, the worst I&#8217;ve ever seen. This report underscores the need for systematic monitoring of how drought affects lives, livelihoods, and the health of the ecosystems that we all depend on.&#8221; More than 90 million people across Eastern and Southern Africa face acute food insecurity or need food assistance, according to the report. In Somalia alone, the government estimated 43,000 people may have died in 2022 due to drought. As of early 2025, 4.4 million Somalis, a quarter of the population, face&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/droughts-are-a-slow-moving-global-catastrophe-report-finds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/droughts-are-a-slow-moving-global-catastrophe-report-finds/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-301995</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Two coasts, one struggle for octopus fishers battling overfishing and warming waters</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/two-coasts-one-struggle-for-octopus-fishers-battling-overfishing-and-warming-waters/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/two-coasts-one-struggle-for-octopus-fishers-battling-overfishing-and-warming-waters/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Jun 2025 17:08:41 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Davide ManciniPaola Margu]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/06/30132606/P-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=301650</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Atlantic Ocean, Europe, Latin America, Mexico, North America, and Spain]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Bycatch, Climate Change, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Illegal Fishing, Marine, Marine Animals, Ocean Warming, Oceans, Overfishing, Sustainability, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[ASTURIAS, Spain, and YUCATÁN, Mexico — On a mild February morning, Isaac Blanco quickly places half a sardine into each cage as his brother, Julio, steers their boat along the Asturian coast in northern Spain. This is the beginning of the season for pulpo — Octopus vulgaris — the most commercially sought-after cephalopod in this [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[ASTURIAS, Spain, and YUCATÁN, Mexico — On a mild February morning, Isaac Blanco quickly places half a sardine into each cage as his brother, Julio, steers their boat along the Asturian coast in northern Spain. This is the beginning of the season for pulpo — Octopus vulgaris — the most commercially sought-after cephalopod in this region, and part of the local fishing tradition. The fishing villages along this stretch of the Asturian coast have long been a model of sustainable fisheries. In 2016, a fishery of 33 artisanal boats called Arpesos became the first in the world to earn an eco-certification from the U.K.-based Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) for octopus fishing. These fishers employ a technique that’s widespread on the Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts of Europe and Africa. A selective fish trap called a nasa in Spanish consists of a plastic-steel cage with fish bait inside. Once an octopus enters the cage, it can’t easily exit, and when fishers pull the trap back on board, they can throw any octopus smaller than the legal size back into the sea alive. The same goes for unintended bycatch, like sea stars, crabs or small fish. The technique has existed since ancient times, but nowadays it’s becoming less common, with fishers often using bottom trawlers instead to catch octopus. Julio told Mongabay that prior to attaining MSC certification, they struggled to earn enough because cheaper imports entering Spain kept prices low. A combination of overfishing, climate change effects and generational turnover has caused&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/two-coasts-one-struggle-for-octopus-fishers-battling-overfishing-and-warming-waters/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/two-coasts-one-struggle-for-octopus-fishers-battling-overfishing-and-warming-waters/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-301650</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>After controversy, Plant-for-the-Planet focuses on the trees</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/after-controversy-plant-for-the-planet-focuses-on-the-trees/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/after-controversy-plant-for-the-planet-focuses-on-the-trees/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Jun 2025 16:50:51 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/06/13065918/54569783250_24e8f68a07_o-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=300730</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Europe, Ghana, Latin America, Mexico, North America, Spain, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Agroforestry, Animals, Climate Change, Conservation, Controversial, data, Ecosystems, Environment, Forests, Reforestation, Restoration, Trees, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[CONSTITUCIÓN, Mexico — At an empty outpost deep in a forest in Mexico, biologists were checking whether the windows had been broken or the furniture stolen, or if any animals had made a home inside. The outpost had been built in 2015 for a tree-planting and forest restoration project, but it was paused in 2023. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[CONSTITUCIÓN, Mexico — At an empty outpost deep in a forest in Mexico, biologists were checking whether the windows had been broken or the furniture stolen, or if any animals had made a home inside. The outpost had been built in 2015 for a tree-planting and forest restoration project, but it was paused in 2023. The land had been degraded by decades of farming; massive flooding every few years made restoration work too difficult and expensive for Plant-for-the-Planet, the organization that had purchased it. Researchers with Plant-for-the-Planet know they’ve fallen victim to overambition before, attempting to restore complex ecosystems they didn’t fully understand, and often with a very tight budget. At this idle site, they still hoped to get some support through a government wildlife program. But until that happened, the outpost would remain empty. “For it to make sense to restore a forest, we really need to be thinking in terms of decades and centuries,” Anna Gee, the group’s forest restoration and conservation project manager, told Mongabay. “How do you create a forest that’s going to be able to sustain itself and self-perpetuate into the future and isn’t just going to get cut down again in 20 years?” Reforestation is hard. For decades, it’s been touted as a catch-all solution to climate change and biodiversity loss, with corporations buying up carbon offsets and governments launching tree-planting campaigns, despite many of the trees dying before they reach maturity. In some instances, programs prioritize the number of trees planted over how&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/after-controversy-plant-for-the-planet-focuses-on-the-trees/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/after-controversy-plant-for-the-planet-focuses-on-the-trees/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-300730</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A tale of two cities: What drove 2024’s Valencia and Porto Alegre floods?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/a-tale-of-two-cities-what-drove-2024s-valencia-and-porto-alegre-floods/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/a-tale-of-two-cities-what-drove-2024s-valencia-and-porto-alegre-floods/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Mar 2025 22:32:47 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gerry McGovernSue Branford]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/03/12124136/6-The-army-joined-rescue-efforts-in-the-worst-flash-floods-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=295673</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Global, and Spain]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Carbon Emissions, Climate, Climate Change, Climate Justice, Conservation, Deforestation, Disasters, Drought, Environment, Environmental Law, Extreme Weather, Flooding, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Impact Of Climate Change, Politics, Social Justice, Storms, Temperatures, Water, and Weather]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Neither Porto Alegre, Brazil, nor Valencia, Spain, are in the news this week. But they have been before, and almost certainly will be again, as bouts of extreme drought, followed by deluge, become more frequent and fierce. The media cameras are gone from 2024’s inundations, but in Valencia 100,000 wrecked cars remain to be disposed [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Neither Porto Alegre, Brazil, nor Valencia, Spain, are in the news this week. But they have been before, and almost certainly will be again, as bouts of extreme drought, followed by deluge, become more frequent and fierce. The media cameras are gone from 2024’s inundations, but in Valencia 100,000 wrecked cars remain to be disposed of, and in both cities there’s a visceral trauma felt each time rain starts falling. And there’s the daily grind, as residents pick up the pieces in communities where year by year extreme weather makes it harder to live. The people ask why it’s happening, and scientists try to provide answers. Perhaps surprisingly, researchers are finding similar patterns of causation in these cities on two widely separated continents — patterns serving as a warning to the world. What residents know in their very bones is that repeated massive flooding sweeps away historical and cultural diversity, homes, livelihoods, financial and family well-being. When last year waves of torrential rain fell on both communities — Porto Alegre in the south of Brazil and Valencia on the Mediterranean coast of eastern Spain — they ended up looking much the same, drowned in mud and misery. When the water receded, many causes were pointed to involving dynamic Earth systems, though causation and solutions are proving more complex and daunting than expected. Aftermath of the 2024 flood in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Image by CarolSiBa via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0). Twin deluges Porto Alegre was the first hit in 2024.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/a-tale-of-two-cities-what-drove-2024s-valencia-and-porto-alegre-floods/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/a-tale-of-two-cities-what-drove-2024s-valencia-and-porto-alegre-floods/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-295673</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘Silent killing machines’: How water canals threaten wildlife across the globe</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/silent-killing-machines-how-water-canals-threaten-wildlife-across-the-globe/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/silent-killing-machines-how-water-canals-threaten-wildlife-across-the-globe/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Feb 2025 14:59:58 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aldem Bourscheit]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Xavier Bartaburu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/02/20174743/Massacre-Invisivel_oeco_15-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=294785</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and Spain]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Canals, Conservation, Crime, Human-wildlife Conflict, Water, Water Scarcity, Wildlife, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Deadly drownings of animals in water canals for irrigation and other purposes have been observed in various countries. The dry and semiarid regions of the planet are even more vulnerable to these losses, but there are alternatives to protect wildlife. Scientists like Diego Gallego-García came across wildlife drowned to death in and around an irrigation [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Deadly drownings of animals in water canals for irrigation and other purposes have been observed in various countries. The dry and semiarid regions of the planet are even more vulnerable to these losses, but there are alternatives to protect wildlife. Scientists like Diego Gallego-García came across wildlife drowned to death in and around an irrigation and water supply canal while researching birds in northern Argentina. The losses recorded were striking. More than 200 animals from 35 species died in six months, according to a study in the journal Biological Conservation authored by Gallego-García and José Sarasola, both from Argentina’s National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET) and the National University of La Pampa. The drownings occurred in the Canal de la Patria, whose steep concrete walls cut through 250 kilometers (155 miles) of the Gran Chaco region. This is the most biodiverse continuous forest system in South America after the Amazon Rainforest. The Canal de la Patria, an irrigation canal in northern Argentina. Image courtesy of the Center for the Study and Conservation of Birds of Prey in Argentina (Cecara). The victims represent a range of species, including threatened ones, such as 38 giant anteaters (Myrmecophaga tridactyla), a large ant and termite eater typical of South American savannas. The study also recorded that the number of animal deaths declined over the months analyzed, but this signals something even more serious. &#8220;We may be witnessing a defaunation [rapid extinction of wildlife] process along the canal. This is very serious for&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/silent-killing-machines-how-water-canals-threaten-wildlife-across-the-globe/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-294785</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Getting rewilding right with the reintroduction of small wildcats</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/getting-rewilding-right-with-the-reintroduction-of-small-wildcats/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/getting-rewilding-right-with-the-reintroduction-of-small-wildcats/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Feb 2025 17:05:21 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/02/18095213/11-An-ocelot-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=294574</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Argentina, Brazil, Global, Portugal, Scotland, Spain, and Taiwan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Carnivores, Cats, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Extinction, Habitat, Mammals, Predators, Reintroductions, Restoration, Rewilding, Small Cats, Top Predators, Wildlife, and Zoonotic Diseases]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For the briefest moment earlier this year, the Eurasian lynx — extinct in the U.K. for thousands of years — returned to the wild in Scotland. But this release wasn’t scientifically planned. Rather, it was an illegal act that drew condemnation from authorities and conservationists alike. Though the four lynx were swiftly captured; one died [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For the briefest moment earlier this year, the Eurasian lynx — extinct in the U.K. for thousands of years — returned to the wild in Scotland. But this release wasn’t scientifically planned. Rather, it was an illegal act that drew condemnation from authorities and conservationists alike. Though the four lynx were swiftly captured; one died shortly after. Following the illegal release, Scottish First Minister John Swinney ruled out a legal reintroduction of lynx (Lynx lynx), or other large carnivores, under his government. “Acting illegally and without consultation is extremely damaging to the cause of conservation and well-planned releases,” says Helen Senn, head of conservation and science programs at the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland. “I think [the illegal release] will really undermine the trust of stakeholders like farmers and landowners [involved] in the process that conservationists go through … to get releases approved.” Senn is part of a legal rewilding project that aims to restore the Scottish wildcat (Felis silvestris), also affectionately dubbed the “Highland tiger” by the Scottish people, even though it’s not much bigger than a house cat. This project is supported and funded by the Scottish government so will be unaffected by Swinney’s recent statement barring large carnivore reintroductions. The Scottish wildcat — a subpopulation of the European wildcat that arrived on what is today the island of Britain at the end of the last ice age 9,000 years ago, and which has remained isolated from mainland populations — was declared “functionally extinct” in 2018 largely due&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/getting-rewilding-right-with-the-reintroduction-of-small-wildcats/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-294574</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In northern Spain, climate change is killing shellfish — and women’s livelihoods</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/in-northern-spain-climate-change-is-killing-shellfish-and-womens-livelihoods/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/in-northern-spain-climate-change-is-killing-shellfish-and-womens-livelihoods/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Jun 2024 18:36:01 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Naomi MiharaNatalie Donback]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/06/29155610/Mariscadoras-in-Cambados-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=283923</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Oceans]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Atlantic Ocean, Europe, European Union, and Spain]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Climate, Climate Change, Ecosystems, Food, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Invertebrates, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Molluscs, Ocean Warming, and Oceans]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Reporting for this story was supported by Journalismfund Europe under the Earth Investigations Programme. GALICIA, Spain — The first sleepy rays of morning light are starting to illuminate the beach of Cambados, a small Atlantic-facing town in the Spanish region of Galicia that’s famous for its shellfish and Albariño wine. It’s a rainy morning in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Reporting for this story was supported by Journalismfund Europe under the Earth Investigations Programme. GALICIA, Spain — The first sleepy rays of morning light are starting to illuminate the beach of Cambados, a small Atlantic-facing town in the Spanish region of Galicia that’s famous for its shellfish and Albariño wine. It’s a rainy morning in March and the mariscadoras — women shellfish pickers — are wading straight into the ocean armed with buckets and rubber boots for another day of work. But the clams and cockles their livelihood depends on are increasingly hard to come by. Extreme weather events made more frequent and intense by climate change, including heat waves and torrential rain, threaten various marine species in the region, and with them, the tradition that has been passed down through generations of women. “Either the shellfish adapt, or they die, and us too,” says Patricia Piñeiro between wind gusts and rain as she searches for clams big enough to harvest. “They’re just too small,” she says, showing the measuring device from the local fishing authorities set to 4 centimeters (1.5 inches), which means she must return most of the clams she finds to the ocean. A mariscadora examines a haul off Cambados in Galicia, northwestern Spain, on 7 Mar., 2024. Many of the clams were below the legal size and had to be returned to the sea. Image by Naomi Mihara for Mongabay. A mariscadora checks to see whether a clam is big enough to keep. Image by Naomi&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/in-northern-spain-climate-change-is-killing-shellfish-and-womens-livelihoods/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-283923</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Meet the 2024 Goldman Environmental Prize Winners</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/meet-the-2024-goldman-environmental-prize-winners/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/meet-the-2024-goldman-environmental-prize-winners/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Apr 2024 07:31:23 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/04/28233624/Screenshot-2024-04-28-at-4.35.38-PM-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=281464</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Amazon, Australia, Brazil, European Union, Global, India, South Africa, South America, Spain, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Energy, Environment, Forests, Governance, Green, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Hydroelectric Power, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Politics, Protected Areas, Rivers, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Seven grassroots environmental activists were awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize on April 29. Known as the “Green Nobel Prize,” the Goldman Prize honors activists from the six continental regions. This year’s winners include two Indigenous activists who stopped destructive seismic testing for oil and gas off the Eastern Cape in Africa, an activist who protected a forest [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Seven grassroots environmental activists were awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize on April 29. Known as the “Green Nobel Prize,” the Goldman Prize honors activists from the six continental regions. This year’s winners include two Indigenous activists who stopped destructive seismic testing for oil and gas off the Eastern Cape in Africa, an activist who protected a forest in India from coal mining, an organizer who changed California’s transportation regulations, a journalist who exposed links between beef and deforestation in Brazil, an activist who blocked development of a coal mine in Australia, a professor of philosophy of law who led a campaign that resulted in legal rights to an ecosystem in Spain. “There is no shortage of those who are doing the hard work, selflessly. These seven leaders refused to be complacent amidst adversity, or to be cowed by powerful corporations and governments,” John Goldman, president of the Goldman Environmental Foundation, said in a statement. “Alone, their achievements across the world are impressive. Together, they are a collective force—and a growing global movement—that is breathtaking and full of hope.” The winners will be honored in a ceremony in San Francisco on April 29, at 5:30 p.m. PDT, hosted by Outdoor Afro founder Rue Mapp, with musical guest Jazz Mafia, and will be livestreamed on the Goldman Prize’s YouTube channel. A second ceremony will take place in Washington, D.C., on May 1, hosted by science educator Danni Washington. Here are the winners of the 2024 Goldman Environmental Prize: Nonhle Mbuthuma, and Sinegugu Zukulu, South Africa 2024 Goldman Prize&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/meet-the-2024-goldman-environmental-prize-winners/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/meet-the-2024-goldman-environmental-prize-winners/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-281464</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesia and Spain sign agreement to protect migrant fishing workers</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/indonesia-spain-fishing-agreement-migrant-workers-protection/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/indonesia-spain-fishing-agreement-migrant-workers-protection/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Feb 2024 12:55:46 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Basten Gokkon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Basten Gokkon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/06/14023539/79c0c995-gp0stqo6l_web_size_with_credit_line-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=278533</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indonesian Fisheries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Europe, Indonesia, Southeast Asia, and Spain]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Crime, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Forced labor, Governance, Human Rights, Illegal Fishing, Law Enforcement, Oceans, Poaching, Politics, Trade, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Indonesia and Spain have signed an agreement on accrediting Indonesian migrant deckhands, as part of efforts to beef up protection against modern slavery aboard fishing vessels. Under the mutual recognition agreement, Spain will validate competency documents issued by Indonesian authorities for Indonesians seeking to work on board Spanish fishing vessels. “With the MRA [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Indonesia and Spain have signed an agreement on accrediting Indonesian migrant deckhands, as part of efforts to beef up protection against modern slavery aboard fishing vessels. Under the mutual recognition agreement, Spain will validate competency documents issued by Indonesian authorities for Indonesians seeking to work on board Spanish fishing vessels. “With the MRA between Indonesia and Spain, more detailed information is needed regarding what administrative requirements are needed for migrant workers if they are going to work in Spain, so that they get guarantees and protection according to the law,” I Nyoman Radiarta, the Indonesian fisheries ministry’s head of research and development, said in a statement issued Feb. 1. Officials from the Indonesian and Spanish governments have signed an agreement that will see Spanish regulators recognize competency certification issued by Indonesia for Indonesian fishing vessel workers. Image courtesy of the Indonesian Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries. According to the fisheries ministry, some 1,000 Indonesians worked aboard Spanish fishing boats in 2021, earning on average about 1,000 euros ($1,075) per month. Indonesians heading overseas to work on foreign fishing vessels must obtain a certificate as required by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) under the 1995 Convention of Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Fishing Vessel Personnel (STCW-F), which Indonesia ratified in 2019. STCW-F prescribes international guidelines for the protection of crews working aboard domestic and foreign boats, and the IMO is scheduled in 2024 to evaluate Indonesia’s efforts to implement the agreement. Indonesia, one of the world’s&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/indonesia-spain-fishing-agreement-migrant-workers-protection/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/indonesia-spain-fishing-agreement-migrant-workers-protection/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-278533</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Spain sanctions fishing vessels for illegally ‘going dark’ near Argentine waters</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/spain-sanctions-fishing-vessels-for-illegally-going-dark-near-argentine-waters/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/spain-sanctions-fishing-vessels-for-illegally-going-dark-near-argentine-waters/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Jan 2024 11:31:15 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Claire Alberts]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Food systems]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/01/11143020/Bottom-Trawler-Ivan-Nores-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=277542</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Oceans]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Argentina, Europe, European Union, South America, and Spain]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Crime, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Fish, Fisheries, Food, Food Industry, Governance, Illegal Fishing, Illegal Trade, International Trade, Law, Law Enforcement, Marine, Marine Conservation, Mongabay Data Studio, Oceans, Overfishing, Politics, Saltwater Fish, and Squid]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In December, the Spanish government issued sanctions against 25 Spanish-flagged vessels that fished near the border of Argentina’s territorial waters between 2018 and 2021. The sanctions were for repeatedly turning off their satellite tracking devices that EU and Spanish laws require to be switched on to indicate a vessel’s location. Some experts have celebrated these [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In December, the Spanish government issued sanctions against 25 Spanish-flagged vessels that fished near the border of Argentina’s territorial waters between 2018 and 2021. The sanctions were for repeatedly turning off their satellite tracking devices that EU and Spanish laws require to be switched on to indicate a vessel’s location. Some experts have celebrated these sanctions as essential in curbing illegal fishing practices on the high seas. Not only do laws prohibit vessels from turning off their automatic identification systems, or AIS, but experts say ships that that go “dark” often do so when partaking in illicit behavior, such as crossing into a nation’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) without authorization. The sanctions resulted in fines of up to 60,000 euros ($65,000), but they haven’t stopped the vessels from fishing. Currently, at least five of the penalized Spanish vessels, all trawlers, are fishing off the Argentine coast, and experts expect more to arrive in the coming weeks. That said, since the issuance of the sanctions, none of the sanctioned vessels fishing in this area have turned off their AIS devices. Milko Schvartzman, a marine conservation expert at the Argentinian NGO Environmental Policies Circle, said that even if the sanctioned vessels continue to obey the law by keeping their trackers on, fishing activity off the coast of Argentina is an “environmental time bomb” due to a lack of regulation as well as the sheer number of vessels congregating in this area. He said Spain usually has a fleet of up to 50&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/spain-sanctions-fishing-vessels-for-illegally-going-dark-near-argentine-waters/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/spain-sanctions-fishing-vessels-for-illegally-going-dark-near-argentine-waters/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-277542</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Battling desertification: Bringing soil back to life in semiarid Spain</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/battling-desertification-bringing-soil-back-to-life-in-semiarid-spain/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/battling-desertification-bringing-soil-back-to-life-in-semiarid-spain/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Oct 2023 18:53:38 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jaime VelázquezXaume Olleros]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/10/11100759/3.-BANNER-As-it-protects-the-soil-with-green-covers-regenerative-agriculture-helped-Santiaga-Sanchez-farm-to-better-withstand-drought-and-runoffs-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=274179</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Agroecology and Regenerative landscapes]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Europe, European Union, and Spain]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Agriculture, Agrochemicals, Agroecology, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Community Development, Crops, Degraded Lands, Desertification, Drought, Extreme Weather, Farming, Fertilizers, Food, Food Industry, food security, Impact Of Climate Change, and Soil Carbon]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Meet the rural farmers in southeastern Spain fighting the encroaching Sahara Desert through regenerative agriculture and landscape restoration.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[LOS VÉLEZ, Spain — Much has been reported about the Sahara Desert’s inexorable shift southward into Africa’s semiarid Sahel, and of dogged efforts by local villagers to grow a Great Green Wall as a buffer against encroaching sands. But little has been written about the Sahara’s northward advance into Spain. Farmers here, though, are deeply aware of the swift changes coming to their orchards, crops and pastures, as these agricultural lands turn dryer and dryer. In 2023, these farmers endured both a record parching drought and dangerously destructive downpours — both likely intensified by global warming. In Almería, in southeasternmost Spain, rural residents continue grappling with the consequences of human-driven desertification, marked by dwindling rainfall due to a changing climate, punctuated by disastrous deluges, shrinking forests, and severe soil degradation. The lasting effects of torrential rain. Runoff washed away all the soil here, until the erosion reached down to the bedrock. Image by Xaume Olleros for Mongabay. This year, Spain suffered its worst drought in almost a century. The Los Vélez region in Almería, with average precipitation of just 400 millimeters (15.7 inches) annually, didn&#8217;t receive a single drop of rain for more than 150 days. Then, in May, more than 200 mm (7.9 in) fell in a single week. This drought-deluge cycle did serious harm to soils. In the first half of 2023, scorching sun dried up the soil, then torrential rains washed away its nutrient-rich organic matter, turning once-productive croplands into barren sand. Today, struggling groves of almond&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/battling-desertification-bringing-soil-back-to-life-in-semiarid-spain/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/battling-desertification-bringing-soil-back-to-life-in-semiarid-spain/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-274179</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Can Spain keep the rising sea from washing away a critical delta?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/can-spain-keep-the-rising-sea-from-washing-away-a-critical-delta/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/can-spain-keep-the-rising-sea-from-washing-away-a-critical-delta/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Jul 2023 17:30:40 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Nathan Siegel]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/06/25034450/flamingos-in-ebro-delta-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=270099</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Oceans]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Europe, European Union, and Spain]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Agriculture, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Coastal Ecosystems, Degraded Lands, Ecosystems, Environment, Fisheries, Food, food security, Freshwater, Governance, Habitat Degradation, Impact Of Climate Change, Ocean Warming, Oceans, Politics, Rivers, Saltwater Fish, Sea Levels, and Wetlands]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[EBRO DELTA, Spain — Perched on an oyster and mussel farming platform in the middle of Fangar Bay, Vacile Cotirlet works with the assured movements that come with two decades of experience. Cotirlet secures small cylinders covered with oyster spat onto a long rope. He’ll drop several such ropes off the wooden lattices that make [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[EBRO DELTA, Spain — Perched on an oyster and mussel farming platform in the middle of Fangar Bay, Vacile Cotirlet works with the assured movements that come with two decades of experience. Cotirlet secures small cylinders covered with oyster spat onto a long rope. He’ll drop several such ropes off the wooden lattices that make up the farm so the spat can grow to marketable size in the bay’s shallow waters. “There used to be everything here: eels, crabs, sea snails,” he tells Mongabay. “But now there’s none of that.” The reason for this biodiversity loss in Spain’s Ebro Delta, the third largest in the Mediterranean? Scientists point the finger primarily at climate change and upstream management of the Ebro River. Last year, water temperatures in the delta reached 87 degrees Fahrenheit, high even for a tropical sea, let alone a temperate one like the Mediterranean. The result was 100% mortality of mussel spat and a loss of 385,000 pounds of ready-for-market mussels, Gerardo Bonet, director of the Federation of Mollusc Producers of the Ebro Delta, tells Mongabay. Mussel growers in the delta had to replace their losses worth hundreds of thousands of euros by buying from growers in Italy and Greece so they had something to sell to their own customers, Bonet says. Climate change is also affecting another of the delta’s main industries. Rice farms, which produce the area’s most important crop, are being pinched between storms that break the sand barrier protecting low-lying fields from the open&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/can-spain-keep-the-rising-sea-from-washing-away-a-critical-delta/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/can-spain-keep-the-rising-sea-from-washing-away-a-critical-delta/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-270099</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Vulture carrion potential boon and threat for endangered Iberian lynx: Studies</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/04/vulture-carrion-potential-boon-and-threat-for-endangered-iberian-lynx-studies/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/04/vulture-carrion-potential-boon-and-threat-for-endangered-iberian-lynx-studies/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Apr 2023 15:52:29 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/04/04090451/Lynx-pardinus-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=267197</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Atlantic Forest, Europe, European Union, and Spain]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Cats, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environment, Mammals, Predators, Research, Scavengers, Small Cats, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Thought to mostly feed on rabbits, researchers accidentally observed Iberian lynx feeding on carrion, a potential food source but also posing a disease risk to the Iberian lynx, which recently saw its numbers rebound.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[During a study last year in Spain to assess scavenging by vultures, researchers made a surprising and unexpected find. A small number of Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus), among the world’s most endangered feline species, readily feasted on the carcasses. According to the study authors, this is one of the first documented instances of such behavior, which could have both positive and negative conservation implications. Researchers found that 12 out of 17 lynx present in the study area fed on carcasses, including two adults and a youngster who feasted at the same time. They also recorded some of the wild cats scent-marking some of the remains and, in some instances, trying to hide, or “cache,” their bounty. The researchers published the findings in the journal Biological Conservation. On the one hand, the scientists believe this could be a “potential important resource” for the recovering species in areas where their natural prey, the endangered European wild rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus), is seriously depleted because of disease. But the behavior also has caused concern among conservationists, as carcasses can be vectors for disease or for contamination due to lead bullets or poison found in hunted animals. “We thought this scavenging could be a problem for the lynx,” Jorge Tobajas, lead author of the paper with the University of Córdoba and Institute for Game and Wildlife Management, told Mongabay in an interview. “Maybe there is this overlooked effect of the scavenging behavior because until now the lynx was thought of as a specialist predator in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/04/vulture-carrion-potential-boon-and-threat-for-endangered-iberian-lynx-studies/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/04/vulture-carrion-potential-boon-and-threat-for-endangered-iberian-lynx-studies/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-267197</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Shark-fishing gear banned across much of Pacific in conservation &#8216;win&#8217;</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/shark-fishing-gear-outlawed-across-much-of-pacific-in-win-for-conservationists/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/shark-fishing-gear-outlawed-across-much-of-pacific-in-win-for-conservationists/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Dec 2022 16:37:10 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Food systems]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/12/08130037/Shark-in-shallow-water-with-remoras-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=263367</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Illegal Wildlife Trade and Oceans]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[China, Global, Japan, Pacific Ocean, Spain, Taiwan, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Conservation, Elasmobranchs, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Food, Food Industry, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Illegal Trade, Industry, Law, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Oceans, Overfishing, Saltwater Fish, shark finning, Sharks, Wildlife, and Wildlife Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[DA NANG, Vietnam — Industrial-scale fishers will no longer be able to use two types of shark-fishing gear in the western and central Pacific Ocean after the international body in charge of tuna fisheries there agreed to ban the devices. The measure, adopted last week at the annual meeting of the Western and Central Pacific [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[DA NANG, Vietnam — Industrial-scale fishers will no longer be able to use two types of shark-fishing gear in the western and central Pacific Ocean after the international body in charge of tuna fisheries there agreed to ban the devices. The measure, adopted last week at the annual meeting of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC), is seen as a major and potentially precedent-setting win for conservationists who say urgent action is needed to stave off extinction for many shark populations. Shark numbers in the open ocean have plunged by an estimated 71% in the past half-century, with humans thought to kill 100 million of the animals each year. “The science was on our side,” Kelly Kryc, the head of the U.S. delegation to the WCPFC, which co-proposed the measure with Canada, said in an interview after the meeting concluded. “By taking these steps, the conservation gains are quantifiable and measurable for vulnerable shark populations like oceanic whitetip and silky sharks.” The first type of banned gear, shark lines, helps longline fishing vessels hook the ocean predators as opposed to other kinds of fish. The second type, wire leaders, increases the likelihood of retaining a shark once it’s caught on the line. The animals’ sharp teeth can easily bite through a nylon or monofilament leader (a short segment of line attaching a hook to the main fishing line) as opposed to a leader reinforced with wire. While the two devices were already outlawed in some countries’ territorial waters,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/shark-fishing-gear-outlawed-across-much-of-pacific-in-win-for-conservationists/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-263367</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>As shark numbers plummet, nations seek ban on devastatingly effective gear</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/11/as-shark-numbers-plummet-nations-seek-ban-on-devastatingly-effective-gear/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/11/as-shark-numbers-plummet-nations-seek-ban-on-devastatingly-effective-gear/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Nov 2022 09:48:29 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/11/01154352/Tommy-Trenchard-wire-leader-photo-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=262960</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Oceans]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[China, Global, Japan, Pacific Ocean, Spain, and Taiwan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Endangered Species, Environment, Fish, Fishing, Governance, Illegal Fishing, Oceans, Overfishing, shark finning, Sharks, Tuna, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Famed undersea explorer Jacques Cousteau had a favorite shark: the oceanic whitetip, or Carcharhinus longimanus. He said they were the most dangerous of all sharks, more so than the great white (Carcharodon carcharias). Some researchers believe the species used to be one of the world’s most abundant vertebrates longer than 6 feet (1.8 meters). Today, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Famed undersea explorer Jacques Cousteau had a favorite shark: the oceanic whitetip, or Carcharhinus longimanus. He said they were the most dangerous of all sharks, more so than the great white (Carcharodon carcharias). Some researchers believe the species used to be one of the world’s most abundant vertebrates longer than 6 feet (1.8 meters). Today, however, the animal is one step away from extinction, pushed to the brink by overfishing. While sharks are often pulled up accidentally by boats hunting other fish, especially tuna, many vessels target them intentionally, hoping to harvest their fins, meat, and, sometimes, their teeth and internal organs. Such vessels often make use of special tools known as wire leaders and shark lines, whose use is minimally regulated by the multilateral bodies that govern international fishing grounds. Now, those devices may finally face a reckoning. In a bid to save the oceanic whitetip, the U.S. and Canada have asked the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC), which governs tuna fisheries in those waters, to prohibit the use of wire leaders and shark lines. The WCPFC could vote on the proposal at its annual meeting, to be held next week in Da Nang, Vietnam. An oceanic whitetip shark. Image by Michael Aston/Flickr. A wire leader raises the likelihood of keeping what gets hooked on the line; a shark line increases the chance of hooking a shark in the first place. The WCPFC currently allows boats to use one or the other, but not both simultaneously. Advocates for&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/11/as-shark-numbers-plummet-nations-seek-ban-on-devastatingly-effective-gear/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/11/as-shark-numbers-plummet-nations-seek-ban-on-devastatingly-effective-gear/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-262960</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Seagrass joins other marine life in accumulating sunscreen compounds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/04/seagrass-joins-other-marine-life-in-accumulating-sunscreen-compounds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/04/seagrass-joins-other-marine-life-in-accumulating-sunscreen-compounds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Apr 2022 18:00:53 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/04/04164609/Mallorca-in-Spains-Balearic-Islands-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=254471</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Oceans]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Europe, Mediterranean Sea, and Spain]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Chemicals, Coastal Ecosystems, Conservation, Coral Reefs, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Fish, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Oceans, Pollution, Research, and Seagrass]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Sharing sunscreen with family and friends is part and parcel of any trip to the seaside. Now, researchers have discovered that the seagrass Posidonia oceanica also partakes, accumulating ultraviolet filters contained in such products and cosmetics. This discovery is raising concerns about the potential effect on important seagrass ecosystems, though the full ramifications remain unclear. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Sharing sunscreen with family and friends is part and parcel of any trip to the seaside. Now, researchers have discovered that the seagrass Posidonia oceanica also partakes, accumulating ultraviolet filters contained in such products and cosmetics. This discovery is raising concerns about the potential effect on important seagrass ecosystems, though the full ramifications remain unclear. Researchers sampled the rhizomes of P. oceanica at three different sites on the Mediterranean island of Mallorca: at the port of the capital Palma, near the port of Alcudia, and at Ses Salines, a “pristine” site with fewer tourists than the others. In all samples, the researchers found varying mixtures and concentrations of the sunscreen components oxybenzone, avobenzone, 4-methylbenzylidene camphor, benzophenone-4, and methyl parabens. P. oceanica accumulated benzophenone-4 and methyl parabens at the highest levels, at 129 and 512 parts per billion dry weight, respectively. The rhizomes, a part of the stem, were between 10 and 22 years old, indicating to Silvia Díaz-Cruz, associate professor at the Spanish Council for Scientific Research in Barcelona and a co-author of the study, that these components persist in the environment and that continuous exposure enabled the concentrations to reach such levels. Díaz-Cruz said she was concerned by the findings, published in March in the journal Marine Pollution Bulletin. In recent years, research has shown that UV filters can accumulate in a variety of aquatic species, such as dolphins, sea turtles, fish and mussels, and can cause harm, including birth defects and reduced fertility. Coral reefs, already threatened by&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/04/seagrass-joins-other-marine-life-in-accumulating-sunscreen-compounds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/04/seagrass-joins-other-marine-life-in-accumulating-sunscreen-compounds/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-254471</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Spanish farmers fight forest fires with agroforestry (and many sheep)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/07/spanish-farmers-fight-forest-fires-with-agroforestry-and-many-sheep/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/07/spanish-farmers-fight-forest-fires-with-agroforestry-and-many-sheep/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Jul 2021 12:33:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Monica Pelliccia]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/07/28232641/19_Silvopastoral-Walnut-sheep-Bosques-Naturales-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=245307</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Agroecology and Global Agroforestry]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Europe, European Union, and Spain]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Agriculture, Agroecology, Agroforestry, Climate Change, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Fires, Forests, Mitigation, Nature-based climate solutions, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[GALICIA, Spain — The forest fire stopped just before arriving at Nieves Fernández Vidueira&#8217;s farm, but it burned all day in the area surrounding Quintela do Pando in Galicia, northwestern Spain. &#8220;I will never forget the terror that I felt,&#8221; Fernández said. &#8220;When we woke up we couldn&#8217;t even breathe, everything was covered with smoke, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[GALICIA, Spain — The forest fire stopped just before arriving at Nieves Fernández Vidueira&#8217;s farm, but it burned all day in the area surrounding Quintela do Pando in Galicia, northwestern Spain. &#8220;I will never forget the terror that I felt,&#8221; Fernández said. &#8220;When we woke up we couldn&#8217;t even breathe, everything was covered with smoke, it seemed like night, chunks of scorched bark fell from the sky.” Fernández, 59, is a shepherd and poet who says she will always remember Oct. 16, 2017, when all the neighbors went to the nearby village of Fradelo to help the firefighters. “The trees made a terrible noise and fell to the charred ground. I saw rabbits and roe deer escaping from the fire, people cried all around. Right now, I still cry when I remember it.” During that time, Galicia experienced an unusual heat wave, as happened in other parts of the Iberian Peninsula. “Many hectares were destroyed during a day of flames and the fire stopped at an area of chestnut trees grazed by sheep, surrounding my field. Livestock are a fundamental part of forest fire prevention, by eating the grass in the undergrowth, and highly combustible lichens on the trees,&#8221; Fernández said. That day, she composed a poem to express feelings of sadness and impotence after seeing the woods transformed into a dark desert. Nieves Fernández Vidueira among her 400 sheep grazing in the agroforestry system. Image by Monica Pelliccia for Mongabay. Writing poetry under the centenary chestnut trees Fernández became&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/07/spanish-farmers-fight-forest-fires-with-agroforestry-and-many-sheep/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/07/spanish-farmers-fight-forest-fires-with-agroforestry-and-many-sheep/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-245307</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Billions in fishing subsidies finance social, ecological harm, report finds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/07/billions-in-fishing-subsidies-finance-social-ecological-harm-report-finds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/07/billions-in-fishing-subsidies-finance-social-ecological-harm-report-finds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Jul 2021 14:37:13 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Claire Alberts]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Elizabethalberts]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/07/07115014/GP0STQO6M_High_res-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=244578</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[China, Indonesia, Japan, Norway, Russia, South Korea, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Developing Countries, Ecosystems, Environment, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Global Environmental Crisis, Illegal Fishing, Marine, Marine Conservation, Oceans, Overexploitation, Overfishing, Subsidies, and Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A new report shows that the world’s top fishing nations are using subsidies worth billions of dollars to exploit the high seas and the waters of other nations, including some of the world’s least-developed countries. Published by researchers at the University of British Columbia and supported by the NGO Oceana, the report takes a shrewd [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A new report shows that the world’s top fishing nations are using subsidies worth billions of dollars to exploit the high seas and the waters of other nations, including some of the world’s least-developed countries. Published by researchers at the University of British Columbia and supported by the NGO Oceana, the report takes a shrewd look at “harmful fishing subsidies,” payments made by governments that allow fishing fleets to operate beyond their normal capacity. The researchers found that 10 countries — China, Japan, South Korea, Russia, the U.S.A., Thailand, Taiwan, Spain, Indonesia and Norway — spent more than $15.3 billion on harmful fishing subsidies in 2018, which has likely contributed to a number of social, economic and ecological issues. About 60% ($9.2 billion) of these harmful fishing subsidies used by these 10 nations were spent on domestic fishing, while 35% ($5.4 billion) was spent on traveling long distances to fish in the waters of 116 other nations. The remaining 5% ($800 million) was spent on fishing in the high seas, which are parts of the ocean beyond any nation’s jurisdiction. China was found to be the top provider of harmful fishing subsidies, worth about $5.9 billion, followed by Japan at $2.1 billion and the European Union at $2 billion. Kathryn Matthews, chief scientist at Oceana, says the report shows the scale and magnitude of harmful fishing subsidies, which can transfer the risk of overfishing from one place to another. “It was reasonably well understood by the community that works on this&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/07/billions-in-fishing-subsidies-finance-social-ecological-harm-report-finds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/07/billions-in-fishing-subsidies-finance-social-ecological-harm-report-finds/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-244578</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Conservation actions see Iberian lynx claw back from brink of extinction</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/03/conservation-actions-see-iberian-lynx-claw-back-from-brink-of-extinction/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/03/conservation-actions-see-iberian-lynx-claw-back-from-brink-of-extinction/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Mar 2021 05:40:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Johan Augustin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hayat Indriyatno]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/03/12184321/Iberian_Lynx_endrino03-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=240452</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Europe, Mediterranean Sea, Portugal, and Spain]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Captive Breeding, Cats, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Endangered Species, Forest Fragmentation, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Human-wildlife Conflict, Hunting, Reintroductions, Rewilding, Roadkill, Saving Species From Extinction, Solutions, Wildlife, and Wildlife Corridors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[It’s midday in summer, the mercury climbing above 40° Celsius (104° Fahrenheit), and nature guide Nuno Roxo is leading us on a hike in Guadiana Valley National Park in Portugal. The high grass and herbs, battered by the strong sun, have not seen any rain for several months. We continue down a narrow trail, used [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[It’s midday in summer, the mercury climbing above 40° Celsius (104° Fahrenheit), and nature guide Nuno Roxo is leading us on a hike in Guadiana Valley National Park in Portugal. The high grass and herbs, battered by the strong sun, have not seen any rain for several months. We continue down a narrow trail, used by wildlife such as boars and deer. Rabbits bolt off into the bushes. The scenario looks promising for the return of the region’s top predator, for which rabbits are the favorite prey: the Iberian lynx. Nuno says that in his many years of guiding, he’s only caught a glimpse of the elusive cats once, quickly whizzing by. The best chance to see them, he says, is by the sheep pens, where the lynx lie in ambush — but not for the sheep. “The lynx catch the foxes that come to kill the sheep, so the landowners appreciate having lynx on their property,” Nuno says. Iberian lynx in Spain. Image by Frank Vassen via Flickr (CC BY 2.0). It wasn’t always so. Half a century ago, the Iberian Peninsula, comprising Spain and Portugal, was home to thousands of Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus). The species is about half the size of the more common Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) found in cooler climates further north, but shared the same bad reputation for preying on livestock. That made it a favorite target of farmers, who saw it as vermin, as well as hunters who sought out its pelt and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/03/conservation-actions-see-iberian-lynx-claw-back-from-brink-of-extinction/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/03/conservation-actions-see-iberian-lynx-claw-back-from-brink-of-extinction/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-240452</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>This Mediterranean seagrass filters plastic waste — but it’s also under threat</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/02/this-mediterranean-seagrass-filters-plastic-waste-but-its-also-under-threat/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/02/this-mediterranean-seagrass-filters-plastic-waste-but-its-also-under-threat/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Feb 2021 04:44:17 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Basten Gokkon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Basten Gokkon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/02/03062449/Egagropiles-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=239215</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Oceans]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Europe, Mediterranean Sea, and Spain]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Coastal Ecosystems, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Marine, Marine Conservation, Microplastics, Oceans, Plastic, Research, Science, and Seagrass]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Underwater meadows of a seagrass endemic to the Mediterranean appear to trap some plastic debris that would otherwise drift out into the open ocean and pollute the bottom of the sea, a recent study has found. The seagrass Posidonia oceanica forms lush, extensive meadows in the Mediterranean’s temperate waters at depths down to 40 meters [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Underwater meadows of a seagrass endemic to the Mediterranean appear to trap some plastic debris that would otherwise drift out into the open ocean and pollute the bottom of the sea, a recent study has found. The seagrass Posidonia oceanica forms lush, extensive meadows in the Mediterranean’s temperate waters at depths down to 40 meters (130 feet). When sampling clusters of these plants from different beaches on the Spanish island of Mallorca in 2018 and 2019, researchers from the University of Barcelona found that they formed natural bundles of fiber. These are known as “Neptune balls” — and they can catch items of plastic waste. Seagrass meadow of the coast of Mallorca Island, Spain. Image by Jordi Regas. An illustration of how seagrass can trap plastic debris. Image courtesy of Sanchez-Vidal et al. (2021). Thanks to its long, ribbon-like leaves, P. oceanica may trap nearly 900 million pieces of plastic debris each year, and all without human intervention, the researchers wrote in a study published Jan. 14 in the journal Scientific Reports. They found plastic debris in half of the loose seagrass samples, at up to 600 plastic pieces per kilogram of leaves. In addition, 17% of the Neptune balls contained plastic, but at a much higher density — nearly 1,500 pieces per kilogram of seaball. “We knew that seaballs were trapping plastics but what we didn&#8217;t expect were such high concentrations per kilogram of natural fibers,” lead author Anna Sanchez-Vidal, a marine biologist at the University of Barcelona, told&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/02/this-mediterranean-seagrass-filters-plastic-waste-but-its-also-under-threat/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/02/this-mediterranean-seagrass-filters-plastic-waste-but-its-also-under-threat/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-239215</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Polly share a cracker: Study finds grey parrots are good Samaritans</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/01/polly-share-a-cracker-study-finds-grey-parrots-are-good-samaritans/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/01/polly-share-a-cracker-study-finds-grey-parrots-are-good-samaritans/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Jan 2020 11:04:22 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Malavika Vyawahare]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavikavyawahare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/01/09100009/This-image-shows-an-African-grey-parrot-Lizzy-at-Loro-Parque-in-Tenerife-CREDIT-Anette-Mertens-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=226120</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa and Spain]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Intelligence, Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Charismatic Animals, Endangered Species, Mammals, Parrots, Pets, Research, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[It looked like a game of parrot poker, but the token exchange counter set up by European researchers at a Spanish zoo was an experiment to determine if African grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus) are inclined to be good Samaritans. Like humans, the parrots, which are famous for their ability to mimic human speech, are intrinsically motivated [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[It looked like a game of parrot poker, but the token exchange counter set up by European researchers at a Spanish zoo was an experiment to determine if African grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus) are inclined to be good Samaritans. Like humans, the parrots, which are famous for their ability to mimic human speech, are intrinsically motivated to help one another, the study published Jan. 9 in Current Biology found. The experiment was limited to eight African greys, but it is likely to spark more research because, until now, this kind of helping behavior has not been seen in birds. Mammals like humans and great apes are known to help each other like this. The authors say their research shows that this kind of altruism has evolved in birds independently from mammals. The two classes shared an ancestor more than 300 million years ago, but according to one line of thinking, being faced with similar social and ecological pressures led to the emergence of the same cognitive abilities in the two groups. African grey parrots Nikki and Jack exchanging tokens with one another. Image by Anastasia Krasheninnikova. The corvid family of birds that includes crows and ravens, like parrots, are known as “feathered apes” because they have a large brain size relative to their bodies and are known to display intelligent behavior. However, crows are not known to share. “In 2015, a study by Austrian researchers tested ravens’ abilities to help one another and found that they acted rather selfish,” said Désirée&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/01/polly-share-a-cracker-study-finds-grey-parrots-are-good-samaritans/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/01/polly-share-a-cracker-study-finds-grey-parrots-are-good-samaritans/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-226120</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Europe&#8217;s &#8216;ruthless&#8217; animal attractions: Q &#038; A with filmmaker Aaron Gekoski</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/12/europes-ruthless-animal-attractions-q-a-with-filmmaker-aaron-gekoski/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/12/europes-ruthless-animal-attractions-q-a-with-filmmaker-aaron-gekoski/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Dec 2019 21:05:45 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/12/17193141/Wolf-on-stool-being-yanked-Medieval-Festival-Aitawak-France_blurred-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=225445</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Czech Republic, Europe, European Union, France, Germany, and Spain]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Welfare, Animals, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Zoos]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Wildlife photographer and filmmaker Aaron Gekoski recently traveled across Europe with fellow filmmaker Will Foster-Grundy, where the pair documented large animal attractions for tourists in Germany, Spain, France and the Czech Republic, for the Ruthless Tourism campaign of the organization Four Paws. The footage obtained by the pair shows elephants, tigers, wolves and bears performing tricks for [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Wildlife photographer and filmmaker Aaron Gekoski recently traveled across Europe with fellow filmmaker Will Foster-Grundy, where the pair documented large animal attractions for tourists in Germany, Spain, France and the Czech Republic, for the Ruthless Tourism campaign of the organization Four Paws. The footage obtained by the pair shows elephants, tigers, wolves and bears performing tricks for tourists and living in cramped, inhumane conditions. While organizations like European Association of Zoos and Aquaria member institutions are required to provide professional and humane treatment to captive animals, there are many animal-oriented attractions in Europe that do not. Mongabay interviewed Gekoski via email about what they found. Bear in makeshift enclosure, Medieval Festival Aitawak, France. Image by Aaron Gekoski/Four Paws. Mongabay: Asia&#8217;s wildlife tourism industry is often discussed here at Mongabay and elsewhere in the mainstream media, like otter cafes and such, but you point out that similarly troubling attractions featuring large animals in Europe go largely unreported. What have you seen in your travels around the continent? Whilst Asia is widely viewed as the epicenter of cruel wildlife tourism, it is happening all over the world, and in places we don’t necessarily associate with having poor animal rights records. People in the West are often guilty of pointing fingers, yet there is abuse happening right on our doorstep. This was the reason Will Foster-Grundy and I were approached by the NGO to highlight that you can, for example, go elephant riding in Germany, see wolves and bears performing in medieval festivals in France, visit circuses with lions&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/12/europes-ruthless-animal-attractions-q-a-with-filmmaker-aaron-gekoski/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/12/europes-ruthless-animal-attractions-q-a-with-filmmaker-aaron-gekoski/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-225445</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Hopes dim as COP25 delegates dicker over Article 6 and world burns: critics</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/12/hopes-dim-as-cop25-delegates-dicker-over-article-6-and-world-burns-critics/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/12/hopes-dim-as-cop25-delegates-dicker-over-article-6-and-world-burns-critics/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Dec 2019 15:29:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Justin Catanoso]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/12/09140832/BANNER-COP-768x456.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=225226</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global and Spain]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, carbon, Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Footprint, Carbon Market, Carbon Offsets, Carbon Sequestration, Climate, Climate Change, Climate Science, Conservation, Controversial, Emission Reduction, Energy, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Forest Carbon, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Law, Mitigation, Monitoring, Politics, Pollution, and Research]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Negotiators drafting Paris Agreement Article 6 rules appear to be assuring loopholes to up carbon emissions, turn forests into plantations, and failing to protect human rights.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Delegates have set a low bar at the COP25 climate summit, putting the world&#8217;s future at risk, according to critics. Image by Justin Catanoso. MADRID, Spain – Climate sensation Greta Thunberg drew 500,000 people to a boisterous rally in central Madrid on Friday evening, near the end of the first week of negotiations at the 25th United Nations climate summit (COP25). “We are getting bigger and bigger, and our voices are being heard more and more,” Thunberg told the crowd. “But of course that does not translate into political action. I sincerely hope that world leaders, the people in power, grasp the urgency of the climate crisis because right now, it doesn’t seem like they are.” Inside the cavernous halls of COP25, the Conference of the Parties, delegates from UN member nations large and small appeared deaf to the rising global clamor for action — thus far shirking their responsibilities to lead in the kind of transformational change in energy production and land use that scientists warn is required immediately to slow the calamitous pace of global warming. Instead, many delegates appear to be clinging to vested interests and outdated policy positions and definitions that haven’t kept pace with the science, while ignoring the urgency of a slew of alarming studies and reports — including one warning of a potentially catastrophic cascade of looming climate tipping points that could shatter ecosystem balance around the globe. In fact, evidence indicates that many delegations are promoting policy choices that actually undermine climate&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/12/hopes-dim-as-cop25-delegates-dicker-over-article-6-and-world-burns-critics/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/12/hopes-dim-as-cop25-delegates-dicker-over-article-6-and-world-burns-critics/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-225226</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>COP25 may put climate at greater risk by failing to address forests</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/12/cop25-may-put-climate-at-greater-risk-by-failing-to-address-forests/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/12/cop25-may-put-climate-at-greater-risk-by-failing-to-address-forests/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Dec 2019 10:45:16 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Justin Catanoso]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/12/02100642/BANNER-3-USE-768x450.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=224919</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Global Forests]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Britain, European Union, Global, and Spain]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Bioenergy, carbon, Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Footprint, Carbon Market, Carbon Offsets, Carbon Sequestration, Clean Energy, Climate, Climate Change, Climate Science, Conservation, Controversial, Emission Reduction, Energy, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Forest Carbon, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Law, Mitigation, Monitoring, Politics, Pollution, and Research]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Madrid negotiators plan to create rules for a global carbon market, but a failure so far to include forest incentives, and a silence on a biomass carbon accounting loophole could hinder progress.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Flags of welcome. Madrid, Spain is host to the 25th annual United Nations Climate Summit (COP25) from December 2-13. The event draws more than 20,000 participants from 196 nations. Madrid had just one month to prepare for the summit after the earlier host, Santiago, Chile, backed out in November because of civil unrest. The event had originally been scheduled for Brazil. Image courtesy of the UNFCCC. Never have the stakes been higher, nor perhaps planetary politics or nature more unsettled, as participants gather for the annual United Nations Climate Summit. Indicative of a global sense of urgency, the European parliament just last week declared a “climate and environmental emergency,” urging EU countries to commit to net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Yet as delegations representing 196 nations gather today for two weeks in Madrid, Spain, for COP25, the Conference of the Parties, observers expect not breakthrough initiatives or pledges of deep new carbon cuts. Rather, negotiators have set a narrow agenda with modest outcome expectations a year prior to the agreed official 2020 implementation of the Paris Agreement. “This COP is a stepping stone in what has to happen next year,” explained David Waskow, the World Resource Institute’s international climate initiative director, during a teleconference with journalists. “This is a can-do moment at this COP to rally around the multilateral agreements and show we can achieve those ambitious commitments we need by next year.” But “Wait until next year,” along with the inaction that statement implies, could be the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/12/cop25-may-put-climate-at-greater-risk-by-failing-to-address-forests/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/12/cop25-may-put-climate-at-greater-risk-by-failing-to-address-forests/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-224919</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Government subsidies serving to prop up destructive high-seas fishing: study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/06/government-subsidies-serving-to-prop-up-destructive-high-seas-fishing-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/06/government-subsidies-serving-to-prop-up-destructive-high-seas-fishing-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Jun 2018 00:49:48 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Basten Gokkon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Basten Gokkon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2017/08/21112804/2-mfa-768x437.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=207287</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indonesian Fisheries and Oceans]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Argentina, Atlantic Ocean, China, Japan, Pacific Ocean, Peru, South Korea, Spain, and Taiwan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Economics, Ecosystems, Environment, Environmental Policy, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Global Environmental Crisis, Illegal Fishing, Marine, Marine Conservation, Oceans, Overfishing, Saltwater Fish, Subsidies, and Sustainability]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
											<grant>
							<![CDATA[2016-64535, CBO2017]]>
						</grant>
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Much of the fishing that takes place in international waters would be unprofitable without the billions of dollars in subsidies pumped in by governments to sustain the ecologically destructive industry, a recent study has found. International waters, or the high seas, are not governed by any one international body or agency, and account for nearly [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Much of the fishing that takes place in international waters would be unprofitable without the billions of dollars in subsidies pumped in by governments to sustain the ecologically destructive industry, a recent study has found. International waters, or the high seas, are not governed by any one international body or agency, and account for nearly two-thirds of the ocean’s surface. There is currently no comprehensive management structure in place to protect the marine life that relies on them. Researchers poring over information for fishing in these zones in 2014, the most recent year for which complete datasets are available, concluded that 54 percent of high-seas fishing would be in the red if not for governments covering some of the industry’s costs. In their study published June 6 in the journal Science Advances, the researchers noted that labor exploitation and underreported catches could also explain how some operators could afford to keep fishing in the high seas, where species like tuna are often overfished, and migratory sharks — 44 percent of which are threatened species — are often killed as bycatch. “While our analysis is for a single year, the slight increase in high seas catch and revenue, coupled with the high and constant price of fuel between 2010-2014, suggest that our estimate of profits is likely to be representative of, or slightly higher than, the average state during the first half of this decade,” the researchers wrote. Heat map of global fishing activity in 2016. Image courtesy of Global Fishing&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/06/government-subsidies-serving-to-prop-up-destructive-high-seas-fishing-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/06/government-subsidies-serving-to-prop-up-destructive-high-seas-fishing-study/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-207287</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Spanish enviros threatened by government and economically stressed citizens</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2016/04/spanish-enviros-threatened-government-economically-stressed-citizens/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2016/04/spanish-enviros-threatened-government-economically-stressed-citizens/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Apr 2016 17:40:51 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Santiago Sáez Moreno]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2016/04/01215153/SSaezMoreno_SpanishGag_8-440x330.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=185755</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Endangered Environmentalists]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Europe and Spain]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Crime, Economics, Endangered Environmentalists, Environment, Governance, Human Rights, Politics, and Social Justice]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Isla Mayor is a village of about 6,000 in the Spanish province of Seville. It stands just a few miles away from Doñana National Park and Natural Reserve, one of the most biodiverse areas in Europe, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. Nestled in the wetlands that constitute the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Isla Mayor is a village of about 6,000 in the Spanish province of Seville. It stands just a few miles away from Doñana National Park and Natural Reserve, one of the most biodiverse areas in Europe, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. Nestled in the wetlands that constitute the park’s most recognizable landscape, Isla Mayor has traditionally survived by commercializing fish and crustaceans present in the surrounding habitat. On March 18, the Spanish Supreme Court banned all commercial activities related to the crayfish species Procambarus clarkii. The news was received with dismay in Isla Mayor. According to the town’s mayor, around 400 families make a living by fishing and processing the “red crab,” as the species is known locally. “This is an absolute disaster,” Valentín Murillo, president of the county’s Association of Crab Businesses, told online newspaper eldiario.es. Murillo declared that 70 percent of Isla Mayor’s economy depends on the red crab. Procambarus clarkii, the invasive crayfish at the center of an environmental battle in Isla Mayor, Spain. Photo by Mike Murphy/Wikimedia Commons. The backlash was immediately directed toward Ecologistas en Acción and SEO Birdlife, the two environmental groups that had been campaigning to include P. clarkii on the list of invasive pests. The ensuing Supreme Court ruling meant authorities must come up with a strategy to eradicate the species, not continue its commercialization. Isla Mayor’s mayor blamed the groups for the loss of local livelihoods in the public media, and the village officially&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2016/04/spanish-enviros-threatened-government-economically-stressed-citizens/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-185755</doi>				</item>
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