<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss version="2.0" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/" xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/" >

	<channel>
		<title>Conservation news</title>
		<atom:link href="https://news.mongabay.com/feed/?s=&#038;type=post&#038;location=russia" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/russia/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Sat, 12 Sep 2026 14:31:28 +0000</lastBuildDate>
		<language>en-US</language>
		<sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod>
		<sy:updateFrequency>1</sy:updateFrequency>
		<generator>https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0.4</generator>

<image>
	<url>https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/05/16160320/cropped-mongabay_icon-32x32.png</url>
	<title>Russia environmental news</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/russia/</link>
	<width>32</width>
	<height>32</height>
</image> 
				<item>
					<title>FSC to vote on new traceability rules amid fraud allegations</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/fsc-to-vote-on-new-traceability-rules-amid-fraud-allegations/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/fsc-to-vote-on-new-traceability-rules-amid-fraud-allegations/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Oct 2025 15:48:35 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Andy Lehren]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/25084446/indonesia-fsc-wood-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308306</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global and Russia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Certification, Conservation, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporations, Environment, Forests, Greenwashing, International Trade, Politics, Pulp And Paper, Sustainable Forest Management, and Timber]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The world’s largest green timber label will vote next week on whether to begin work on new traceability rules, amid renewed scrutiny and accusations over whether the body is doing enough to prevent fraud within its supply chains. The Bonn-based Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) bills itself as “the world’s most trusted mark for sustainable forestry.” [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The world’s largest green timber label will vote next week on whether to begin work on new traceability rules, amid renewed scrutiny and accusations over whether the body is doing enough to prevent fraud within its supply chains. The Bonn-based Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) bills itself as “the world’s most trusted mark for sustainable forestry.” Its tree-tick logo can be found on everything from furniture and snowboards to toilet paper and takeaway containers, an assurance the product was made with wood from forests the FSC has certified as responsibly managed. FSC certification appears on products worth tens of billions of dollars in sales each year. But forestry experts and whistleblowers have alleged for years that the FSC lacks a proper control system, allowing bad actors to fraudulently pass off timber that was illegally or unsustainably logged as FSC-certified. Phil Guillery, who was the FSC’s integrity director from 2011-21, said in early October that he believed “20-30% of claims in the system were false” during his tenure “and I haven’t seen anything to suggest the figure has dropped since.” The FSC issued a swift rebuttal to Guillery’s claims, calling them unsubstantiated and “based on outdated information that does not reflect the system today.” “Integrity is central to FSC’s mission, and we take any allegation of fraudulent behaviour seriously,” the FSC said. However, a senior FSC official currently with the organization told Mongabay this week that they believed the figure was actually an underestimate. “I’m actually amazed he said 20-30 percent —&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/fsc-to-vote-on-new-traceability-rules-amid-fraud-allegations/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/fsc-to-vote-on-new-traceability-rules-amid-fraud-allegations/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-308306</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Europe’s competition over Indigenous Sámi resources: Voices from the land (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/voices-from-the-land-europes-competition-over-indigenous-sami-resources-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/voices-from-the-land-europes-competition-over-indigenous-sami-resources-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Sep 2025 07:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Áslat Holmberg]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/03/31072953/Sami-Indigenous-people-tends-a-reindeer-in-Sweden-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=306285</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Voices from the Land]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Europe, Finland, Norway, Russia, and Sweden]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Commentary, Conflict, Critical Minerals, Energy, Environment, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Mining, and Natural Resources]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This series, Voices from the Land, brings together opinion pieces led and written by Indigenous peoples from around the world. Through these commentaries, we share our lived realities and reflections on urgent issues shaping our time — environmental destruction, our relationship with nature, and systemic injustice. We write from the heart of our communities, where [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This series, Voices from the Land, brings together opinion pieces led and written by Indigenous peoples from around the world. Through these commentaries, we share our lived realities and reflections on urgent issues shaping our time — environmental destruction, our relationship with nature, and systemic injustice. We write from the heart of our communities, where the impacts of these urgent crises are deeply felt, but also where solutions are rooted. Through this series, we speak from our territories, and ensure our truths are part of the global conversation. There is no “postcolonial” for Indigenous peoples. On the contrary, for centuries, the Sámi — the only recognized Indigenous people in the European Union — have been losing lands and waters to our neighbors. For us, colonialism lies in the structures that continue to dominate our lives while we live alongside the neighboring nations that have settled on our lands for good. One aspect of this coexistence: competition for the same resources and areas. In recent years, there have been several protest movements to protect Sámi territories, known as Sápmi in North Sámi, which were colonized by Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. In Riehpovuotna (also known as Repparfjord) on the Norwegian side of Sápmi, Sámi and environmental groups have opposed the Nussir copper mine, licensed to dump tailings into a national salmon fjord. As I write, in August 2025, activists and Sámi reindeer herders are on top of the mine site, inside the security zone, halting blasting operations. Last week, three Sámi&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/voices-from-the-land-europes-competition-over-indigenous-sami-resources-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/voices-from-the-land-europes-competition-over-indigenous-sami-resources-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306285</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘Substantial’ transshipment reforms adopted at North Pacific fisheries summit</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/substantial-transshipment-reforms-adopted-at-north-pacific-fisheries-summit/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/substantial-transshipment-reforms-adopted-at-north-pacific-fisheries-summit/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Mar 2025 16:57:04 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Edward Carver]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/03/31155248/GP0STU67M_Medium-res-with-credit-line-1200px-1.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=296774</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[China, Japan, Pacific Ocean, Russia, and South Korea]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Deep Sea, Environment, Environmental Policy, Fish, Fisheries, Global Environmental Crisis, Marine Conservation, Oceans, and Politics]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Fishing vessels can often work long periods at sea without coming to port, thanks to the practice of transshipment, in which catches are transferred at sea to carrier ships called reefers. But the practice can also obscure the origins of catch and is often associated with illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. Transshipment, though criticized [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Fishing vessels can often work long periods at sea without coming to port, thanks to the practice of transshipment, in which catches are transferred at sea to carrier ships called reefers. But the practice can also obscure the origins of catch and is often associated with illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. Transshipment, though criticized by many conservationists, is common worldwide, and the North Pacific Ocean is no exception. For species managed by the North Pacific Fisheries Commission (NPFC), a multilateral body that manages most non-tuna fisheries in the region&#8217;s international waters, about 85% of the catch is transshipped. Those transshipments will soon be more strictly regulated. At the NPFC’s annual meeting held March 24-27 in Osaka, Japan, the management body’s nine members established a transshipment observer program for the first time. It will require an independent fisheries monitor on board all active reefers in the NPFC’s vast regulatory area. The parties also passed a set of other amendments to transshipment rules, tightening reporting requirements. Conservationists hailed the moves. Shuhei Uematsu, a manager at WWF Japan who attended the meeting, told Mongabay that the new observer system was “a major step forward in preventing IUU fishing.” The NPFC parties — Canada, China, the European Union, Japan, South Korea, Russia, Taiwan, the United States, and Vanuatu — also adopted a number of other rules at the meeting, including on bottom fishing, transparency in the compliance process, and the management of chub mackerel (Scomber japonicus) and Pacific saury (Cololabis saira). The regulatory area&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/substantial-transshipment-reforms-adopted-at-north-pacific-fisheries-summit/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/substantial-transshipment-reforms-adopted-at-north-pacific-fisheries-summit/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-296774</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Regulation loopholes fuel illegal wildlife trade from Latin America to Europe</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/regulation-loopholes-fuel-illegal-wildlife-trade-from-latin-america-to-europe/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/regulation-loopholes-fuel-illegal-wildlife-trade-from-latin-america-to-europe/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Mar 2025 11:10:19 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Spoorthy Raman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/03/24110011/spiny-lizard-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=296330</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[European Union, Latin America, and Russia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Conservation, Crime, Endangered Species, Illegal Trade, Ivory, Law, Law Enforcement, Mammals, Regulations, Threatened species, trafficking, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Latin America, a biodiversity hotspot home to 40% of the world’s species, is witnessing an alarming decline in its wildlife. Illegal wildlife trafficking to wealthier parts of the world, such as North America and Europe, is one of the factors driving the decline. A recent report highlights the scale of wildlife smuggled illegally from Latin [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Latin America, a biodiversity hotspot home to 40% of the world’s species, is witnessing an alarming decline in its wildlife. Illegal wildlife trafficking to wealthier parts of the world, such as North America and Europe, is one of the factors driving the decline. A recent report highlights the scale of wildlife smuggled illegally from Latin America into Europe, including the EU and Russia, and discusses how traffickers abuse loopholes in existing EU wildlife trade regulations. Published by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), the report stems from a 2024 study that found staggering levels of illegal wildlife crimes in Spanish-speaking America. The report found 34 wildlife trafficking seizures in Europe involving almost 2,500 animals belonging to 69 species between 2017 and 2023. More than half of the seized individuals were amphibians (59%), followed by birds (29%) and reptiles (12%). More than 94% of all seized wildlife were live animals, suggesting the exotic pet trade is a key driver. “The EU is a major market, but it&#8217;s not only for illegal [trade], it&#8217;s legal and illegal, and the problem is, the illegal gets laundered through the legal system,” says Susan Lieberman, vice president of international policy at the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). “It&#8217;s not new, but the problem hasn&#8217;t gone away.” An iguana with its front legs tied being illegally shipped from Honduras. Image by David M. Hillis / ©&#xfe0f; IFAW. With the EU set to act on its 2022 revised action plan to end wildlife trafficking by strengthening regulations&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/regulation-loopholes-fuel-illegal-wildlife-trade-from-latin-america-to-europe/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/regulation-loopholes-fuel-illegal-wildlife-trade-from-latin-america-to-europe/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-296330</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Biden&#8217;s new sanctions on Russia should include timber exports (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/bidens-new-sanctions-on-russia-should-include-timber-exports-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/bidens-new-sanctions-on-russia-should-include-timber-exports-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Feb 2024 16:35:51 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Etelle HigonnetTara Ganesh]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/02/26183424/boreal-forest-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=279202</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Belarus, Europe, European Union, Russia, Ukraine, United Kingdom, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[boreal forests, Business, Commentary, Conflict, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Governance, Temperate Forests, Timber, timber trade, and Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Russia&#8217;s dictator Vladimir Putin has seemingly just had jailed opposition leader Aleksei Navalny assassinated. Navalny incarnated the best chance for democracy and human rights in Russia. He was a beacon of hope; a bright light in the darkness of corruption and violence that characterizes Putin&#8217;s Russia. His death is a tragedy that demands robust responses [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Russia&#8217;s dictator Vladimir Putin has seemingly just had jailed opposition leader Aleksei Navalny assassinated. Navalny incarnated the best chance for democracy and human rights in Russia. He was a beacon of hope; a bright light in the darkness of corruption and violence that characterizes Putin&#8217;s Russia. His death is a tragedy that demands robust responses from world leaders – especially from the E.U. and from U.S. President Joe Biden, who had long warned that Putin would face devastating consequences if Navalny were to die in prison. The new U.S. sanctions announced Friday, targeting hundreds of entities and individuals, are a sign that his administration will live up to its word – but they could go further in key areas. We propose a response that would simultaneously teach Putin a clear and painful lesson, and help save the planet from climate change. The U.S. should immediately bar Russian timber, pulp &amp; paper imports, as the E.U. and U.K. have already done. Amur tigers are among the creatures found in Russia&#8217;s taiga forest habitat. Image courtesy of WCS Russia &amp; Sikhote-Alin Reserve. Why is this crucial? Because timber represents more than half of all remaining U.S. imports of Russian goods, in terms of number of shipments. All of Russia’s forests are state-owned, with dues from logging flowing to it. Some forests are even under control of Russia’s military, which is also allowed to log and sell timber in its forests. Since the war began, U.S. Customs data show the nation has imported close to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/bidens-new-sanctions-on-russia-should-include-timber-exports-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/bidens-new-sanctions-on-russia-should-include-timber-exports-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-279202</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Freeze on Russian collaboration disrupts urgently needed permafrost data flow</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/freeze-on-russian-collaboration-disrupts-urgently-needed-permafrost-data-flow/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/freeze-on-russian-collaboration-disrupts-urgently-needed-permafrost-data-flow/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Feb 2024 16:37:23 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Devitt]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/02/20141748/polar-bear-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=279019</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Arctic, Arctic Ocean, and Russia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, carbon, Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Sequestration, Climate Change, Conservation, Emission Reduction, Environment, Extinction, Extreme Weather, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Impact Of Climate Change, Permafrost, Planetary Boundaries, Research, Soil Carbon, and Tipping points]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[It’s been two years since Russia invaded Ukraine and since the Arctic scientific community was cut off from its Russian colleagues. But permafrost melt is quickening and renewed data flow is needed to track Russian carbon emissions.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Warming temperatures in the Arctic are accelerating the thaw of carbon-rich permafrost and threatening to add massive amounts of carbon dioxide and methane to an atmosphere already overheating from the buildup of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. More than half that permafrost lies beneath remote Russian soil, where scientists have long worked in an international research community that freely shared its field stations, climate sensors and data sets to better understand the rapidly changing polar region’s planetary impacts. Researchers are especially eager to know when a dangerous tipping point may be reached that would trigger the release of vast amounts of greenhouse gases stored in frozen soils. But then came the Russian invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, and all that cooperation came to a halt, part of the fallout of Western sanctions on Russia. Since then, international researchers outside Russia have applied creative workarounds in order to continue their research, but problems remain. “If you haven&#8217;t seen or touched or smelled permafrost, it’s challenging to talk with people about it,” says Guido Grosse, a geologist at Germany’s Alfred Wegener Institute. In fact, people living on permafrost don’t always know it, as it can be hidden below the soil surface. To make permafrost more “real,” Grosse often brings permafrost samples to presentations for people to touch. Image courtesy of bradosav via Flickr (CC by 2.0). A frigid world grudgingly gives up its secrets Sometimes called the “global freezer,” permafrost is a surface and subterranean mix of soils, rock, sediment, organic&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/freeze-on-russian-collaboration-disrupts-urgently-needed-permafrost-data-flow/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/freeze-on-russian-collaboration-disrupts-urgently-needed-permafrost-data-flow/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-279019</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Nature-based recovery needed for Ukraine’s damaged protected areas (analysis)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/nature-based-recovery-needed-for-ukraines-damaged-protected-areas-analysis/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/nature-based-recovery-needed-for-ukraines-damaged-protected-areas-analysis/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Dec 2023 01:33:26 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hannah L. Timmins]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/05/05083544/A-car-burns-after-a-Russian-bombardment-in-Kharkiv-Ukraine-e1675105849389-768x448.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=276963</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Eastern Europe, Europe, European Union, Russia, and Ukraine]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Analysis, Conflict, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Habitat, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Landscape Restoration, Restoration, Rewilding, and War]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[As winter closes in, Ukraine is facing demoralizing news. Western support for the war is faltering, Ukrainian troops in the east are being pushed onto the back foot amid a Russian troop surge, and Kyiv is once again under attack from Russian drone strikes targeting energy infrastructure, the biggest such attacks since the invasion began. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[As winter closes in, Ukraine is facing demoralizing news. Western support for the war is faltering, Ukrainian troops in the east are being pushed onto the back foot amid a Russian troop surge, and Kyiv is once again under attack from Russian drone strikes targeting energy infrastructure, the biggest such attacks since the invasion began. US officials have estimated Ukraine&#8217;s human death toll at over 120,000, and the figure will continue to grow. But I, as a conservationist, am expecting additional losses that have gone largely unreported. A group of Ukrainian ecologists and myself have been monitoring the impacts to Ukraine’s nature caused by the invasion, we know that another winter of conflict will wreak yet more death and destruction on Ukraine’s precious ecosystems, among the most biodiverse on the European continent. In the course of our research — which has tracked the numerous assaults conducted in protected areas, through which the frontline has run — we have made many troubling discoveries. Aftermath of a forest fire caused by fighting in Sviati Hory National Nature Park. Image courtesy of Kateryna Polyanska/Environment People Law. Areas rich in biodiversity often disproportionately overlap with sites of armed conflict. The invasion of Ukraine has been no exception. Russian troops have utilized protected areas both in an attempt to access strategic Ukrainian settlements, but also as locations in which to conduct active warfare. We have compiled first and second-hand research and reports on the impacts for Ukraine’s forests, wetlands, aquatic ecosystems, seas, islands and Europe’s&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/nature-based-recovery-needed-for-ukraines-damaged-protected-areas-analysis/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/nature-based-recovery-needed-for-ukraines-damaged-protected-areas-analysis/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-276963</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Sámi rights must not be sacrificed for green energy goals of Europe (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/sami-rights-must-not-be-sacrificed-for-green-energy-goals-of-europe-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/sami-rights-must-not-be-sacrificed-for-green-energy-goals-of-europe-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Mar 2023 15:21:25 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Karin Nutti Pilflykt]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/03/31072953/Sami-Indigenous-people-tends-a-reindeer-in-Sweden-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=266596</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Europe, European Union, Finland, Norway, Russia, and Sweden]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Commentary, Energy, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Mining, and Renewable Energy]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Growing up in Gällivare/ Váhtjer, a Swedish village in Sápmi, north of the Arctic Circle, the threats facing Sámi people were a daily reality. We are Europe’s only Indigenous people, but colonialism means our territory, Sápmi, is split across four countries: Sweden, Finland, Norway and Russia. But across these national borders, the same pressures bear [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Growing up in Gällivare/ Váhtjer, a Swedish village in Sápmi, north of the Arctic Circle, the threats facing Sámi people were a daily reality. We are Europe’s only Indigenous people, but colonialism means our territory, Sápmi, is split across four countries: Sweden, Finland, Norway and Russia. But across these national borders, the same pressures bear down on us, from mining to forestry and wind farms. Fish drying outside a Sámi cabin. Image by Jan-Eerik Paadar / Sámediggi Saamelaiskäräjät (the Sámi Parliament) via Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0). For outsiders’ commercial gain, our land has been seized, our people displaced, and the reindeer herding that’s been the foundation of our lives for millennia, eroded. Adjacent to my village is Malmberget, a scene of deep mine iron ore extraction, and a little over 100 kilometers away is Kiruna, the world’s largest underground iron mine. Both are owned by Luossavaara-Kiirunavaara AB (LKAB), the 100% state-owned Swedish mining company. Kiruna is one of the nine out of 12 mines in the north of Sweden which are on Sámi land. These mines – as well as the infrastructure accompanying them – have caused pollution, devastated ecosystems, poisoned the lichen that our reindeer survive on, and  taken away our reindeer grazing areas. A Sámi herd of reindeer in Finland. Image by Sámediggi Saamelaiskäräjät (the Sámi parliament) via Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0). More mining Now a new danger has emerged. European Union policymakers want to secure the &#8216;critical raw materials&#8217; which its Member States need for the green energy&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/sami-rights-must-not-be-sacrificed-for-green-energy-goals-of-europe-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/sami-rights-must-not-be-sacrificed-for-green-energy-goals-of-europe-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-266596</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Ukrainian biologists fight to protect conservation legacy</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/amid-war-ukrainian-biologists-fight-to-protect-conservation-legacy/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/amid-war-ukrainian-biologists-fight-to-protect-conservation-legacy/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Feb 2023 18:37:14 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Marlowe Starling]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/02/21232206/Hamsters-in-Kyiv-Zoo-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=265823</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Eastern Europe, Europe, European Union, Russia, and Ukraine]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Birds, Conflict, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Environment, Habitat, Habitat Loss, Research, Rodents, Solutions, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Before Ukrainian biologist Mikhail Rusin can grab his shovel and venture afield, he first needs to ask locals if there are land mines nearby in one of the few areas he can access. Others are still occupied by Russian troops, where the endangered sandy blind mole-rats he studies live. But that’s only one of the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Before Ukrainian biologist Mikhail Rusin can grab his shovel and venture afield, he first needs to ask locals if there are land mines nearby in one of the few areas he can access. Others are still occupied by Russian troops, where the endangered sandy blind mole-rats he studies live. But that’s only one of the stresses of carrying out wildlife research in a war zone. In November 2022, Rusin, a mammologist with Kyiv Zoo who has studied at-risk species like the mole-rat (Spalax arenarius) and other rodents for more than 20 years, resumed his field research in newly reclaimed Ukrainian territory. Soon afterward, he encountered a chilling display of contempt: a tree with at least five hanged hamsters, one of which was a gray dwarf hamster (Cricetulus migratorius) – a species assessed as vulnerable by the country’s list of threatened species. It&#8217;s hard to say whether it was the work of retreating Russian soldiers or Ukrainian farmers fed up with rodents consuming their crops. Both Russians and Ukrainians, Rusin says, “are always in constant stress” on the frontlines. “They could do something that in normal life they would never do.” Mikhail Rusin crouches by a sandy blind mole-rat mound near Kardashynka, Ukraine, prior to Russia&#8217;s invasion. An endangered species endemic to southern Ukraine, the rodent lives almost entirely underground, making it vulnerable to Russian-built military trenches. Photo courtesy of V. Busel. The mole-rats are having a hard time coping, too. The rodents, which are roughly the size of guinea pigs, have extremely limited&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/amid-war-ukrainian-biologists-fight-to-protect-conservation-legacy/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/amid-war-ukrainian-biologists-fight-to-protect-conservation-legacy/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-265823</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Russian invasion hinders global biodiversity conservation, study shows</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/russian-invasion-hinders-global-biodiversity-conservation-study-shows/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/russian-invasion-hinders-global-biodiversity-conservation-study-shows/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Feb 2023 11:30:57 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/02/20103535/Photo1.Spoon-Billed.Sandpiper.Credit.Sayam_.Chowdhury-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=265741</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Eastern Europe, Europe, and Russia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Birds, Conflict, Conservation, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Habitat, Migration, Politics, War, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The red-breasted goose is a well-traveled bird. From their breeding grounds in Arctic Siberia, flocks typically migrate over northern Kazakhstan through the Russian Republic of Kalmykia and Rostov Oblast to balmier climes near the shores of the Black Sea in Bulgaria, Romania and Ukraine. Wandering individuals — vagrants, in the parlance of ornithologists — have [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The red-breasted goose is a well-traveled bird. From their breeding grounds in Arctic Siberia, flocks typically migrate over northern Kazakhstan through the Russian Republic of Kalmykia and Rostov Oblast to balmier climes near the shores of the Black Sea in Bulgaria, Romania and Ukraine. Wandering individuals — vagrants, in the parlance of ornithologists — have turned up as far afield as Ireland, India and Israel and Palestine, and they even grace ancient Egyptian frescos. Diminutive and snub-nosed, an adult red-breasted goose (Branta ruficollis) is striking, painted as if by a master decoy maker with swatches of white, dark black and the auburn it’s named for. Though legally protected throughout its range, its beauty makes it a sought-after prize for illegal hunters, and the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority, now lists the bird as vulnerable. But energy projects, fishing and climate change are also dragging down its numbers. For more than a decade, conservation organizations from around the region have worked across borders to codify protections for the red-breasted goose. “You cannot protect a migratory species without acting actively in all the range countries,” Nicky Petkov, a project manager at the nonprofit Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds, told Mongabay. “This is one of the flyway basics.” A flock of red-breasted geese (Branta ruficollis). For more than a decade, conservation organizations from around the region have worked across borders to codify protections for the red-breasted goose, which is a sought-after prize for illegal hunters. Image courtesy of Sonia Rozenfeld.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/russian-invasion-hinders-global-biodiversity-conservation-study-shows/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/russian-invasion-hinders-global-biodiversity-conservation-study-shows/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-265741</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The EU banned Russian wood pellet imports; South Korea took them all</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/the-eu-banned-russian-wood-pellet-imports-south-korea-took-them-all/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/the-eu-banned-russian-wood-pellet-imports-south-korea-took-them-all/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Jan 2023 22:27:44 +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/20/2023/01/24221907/30452172090_3fc11c6305_k-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=264936</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Covering the Commons]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[European Union, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, South Korea, Turkey, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Bioenergy, Business, carbon, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Sequestration, Climate, Climate Change, Climate Science, Conservation, Controversial, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Emission Reduction, Energy, Environment, Environmental Policy, Forest Carbon, Forest Loss, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Globalization, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Impact Of Climate Change, Logging, Mitigation, Nature-based climate solutions, Politics, Renewable Energy, Solutions, Timber, and Trees]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Last July, as the Ukraine war raged, the EU barred all Russian woody biomass imports; even as South Korea took in Russia’s supply. Illicit woody biomass may also still be flowing to the EU from Turkey, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Despite European countries becoming ever more reliant on woody biomass for energy generation, the European Union last July chose to ban the import of wood pellets from Russia during a fifth round of economic sanctions tied to the unprovoked war with Ukraine. As a result, South Korea — which is in the process of accelerating its energy transition from coal burning to wood pellets — found itself in a geopolitical quandary that also offered a domestic energy-making opportunity.  Not wanting to alienate either Russia or Western allies aligned with Ukraine, South Korea has reportedly opted to ignore the ongoing war and take advantage of the entire surplus of Russian wood pellets on the open market. Since late July 2022, South Korea has been the exclusive destination for Russian produced pellets, tripling its imports in November alone to 65,000 tons, according to a report in late December by LesProm, a European timber holding and wood-products conglomerate. Through November of last year, South Korea paid $69 million to Russia for 377,000 tons of wood pellets — double what it imported from Russia in 2021. Forest advocates in Asia, Europe and the United States are livid at South Korea’s actions, noting that Russian imports now make up 15% of South Korea’s total wood pellet supply. They also say that South Korea is paying little attention to third-party certification programs that would help ensure that wood pellet supplies are not contributing to net deforestation and biodiversity loss in Russia. “South Korea, taking advantage of market&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/the-eu-banned-russian-wood-pellet-imports-south-korea-took-them-all/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/the-eu-banned-russian-wood-pellet-imports-south-korea-took-them-all/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-264936</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Black Sea dolphin deaths prompt ecocide allegations against Russia</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/black-sea-dolphin-deaths-prompt-ecocide-allegations-against-russia/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/black-sea-dolphin-deaths-prompt-ecocide-allegations-against-russia/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Dec 2022 14:52:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Fitt]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/12/16130725/A-dead-dolphin-washed-up-in-Tuzlovsky-Limany-National-Park-in-Ukraine-27-July-2022-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=263760</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Eastern Europe, Europe, Russia, and Ukraine]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Crime, Dolphins, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Fish, Governance, Mammals, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Marine Mammals, Oceans, War, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[READER ADVISORY: This story contains images of dead cetaceans that some viewers may find disturbing. On May 9, Bogdan Bulete, regional head ranger at the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve in Romania, received what he thought was yet another routine call to check out a possible dolphin stranding near the town of Sulina. But when he [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[READER ADVISORY: This story contains images of dead cetaceans that some viewers may find disturbing. On May 9, Bogdan Bulete, regional head ranger at the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve in Romania, received what he thought was yet another routine call to check out a possible dolphin stranding near the town of Sulina. But when he reached the beach this time, the sight that met his eyes was “overwhelming,” he told Mongabay. Up to 30 dolphins lay dead on the sand. “Some of them looked burned, and all of them had marks of nets around their tail or their belly,” he said. Following an unprecedented number of reports of dead dolphins and porpoises on Black Sea beaches since Russia invaded Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Dec. 7 accused Russia of ecocide during COP15, the U.N. biodiversity summit in Montreal. His statement followed an announcement in July by the Odesa Regional Prosecutor’s Office that it would mount an inquiry into suing Russia for ecocide over the cetacean deaths. Mounting evidence is slowly painting a clearer picture of the mass mortality of Black Sea cetaceans. But estimates of the death toll vary and scientists diverge on whether research has progressed far enough to scientifically conclude the war’s effect. The situation highlights the difficulty, and the necessity, of conducting wartime science. A dead cetacean in Tuzlovsky Limany National Park in Ukraine, June 2. Image courtesy of Ivan Rusev. A few days before Zelenskyy’s accusation, researchers presented the first scientific analysis of changes in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/black-sea-dolphin-deaths-prompt-ecocide-allegations-against-russia/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/black-sea-dolphin-deaths-prompt-ecocide-allegations-against-russia/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-263760</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Bolivia looks to opaque methods, firms to build lithium powerhouse</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/bolivia-looks-to-opaque-methods-firms-to-build-lithium-powerhouse/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/bolivia-looks-to-opaque-methods-firms-to-build-lithium-powerhouse/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Dec 2022 16:34:27 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ian Morse]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Daniel]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/02/23172145/47617675391_6a13a7fa69_o-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=263491</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Bolivia, China, Germany, Russia, South America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Batteries, Climate, Climate Change, Conservation, Corporations, Environment, Lithium, Mining, and Protected Areas]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Bolivian government is set this month to choose companies that would turn the lithium in reservoirs below its salt flats into economic resources exported to the world market. Launched during a global commodities boom that emboldened the country, Bolivia’s lithium industry has struggled. The state lithium corporation, Yacimientos de Litio Bolivianos, or YLB, has [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Bolivian government is set this month to choose companies that would turn the lithium in reservoirs below its salt flats into economic resources exported to the world market. Launched during a global commodities boom that emboldened the country, Bolivia’s lithium industry has struggled. The state lithium corporation, Yacimientos de Litio Bolivianos, or YLB, has produced only a fraction of what was hoped. The solution, it thinks, is a series of new technologies designed by new companies. Six foreign firms – four from China, one from the U.S. and one from Russia – expect a decision from the Bolivian government about which will earn the opportunity to use new technologies, collectively called direct lithium extraction, or DLE, to speed up the country’s extraction of the world’s largest recorded reserves of lithium. With scant public information about neophyte technologies, the ecosystems supported by the salt flats, and the companies vying for the government tender, researchers and advocates are worried that YLB and officials are rushing into a billion-dollar development scheme that risks failure at the expense of communities and the environment. “I feel that Bolivia is somewhere down the line going to produce lithium on a commercial scale. Something I don’t know is whether this is something that is going to benefit the country,” says Juan Carlos Zuleta, a Bolivian lithium analyst and former head of YLB. Lithium is a metal predominantly incorporated into lithium-ion batteries, used in consumer electronics such as smartphones and, increasingly, in electric vehicles. Lithium demand is&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/bolivia-looks-to-opaque-methods-firms-to-build-lithium-powerhouse/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/bolivia-looks-to-opaque-methods-firms-to-build-lithium-powerhouse/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-263491</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Forest fires are getting worse, 20 years of data confirm</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/08/forest-fires-are-getting-worse-according-to-new-20-year-analysis/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/08/forest-fires-are-getting-worse-according-to-new-20-year-analysis/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Aug 2022 19:35:09 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/07/23110217/GP1SU5JA_PressMedia-768x432.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=259342</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Global, and Russia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, boreal forests, Carbon Emissions, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Fires, Forest Destruction, Forests, Green, Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Across Russia, Europe, Indonesia, the Amazon Basin, North America, Australia, and beyond, we have watched fires blaze across landscapes, causing immense damage to life and land. Now, a new analysis confirms what many have witnessed firsthand and in the news: forest fires are getting worse. Researchers at Global Forest Watch, an environmental monitoring platform developed [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Across Russia, Europe, Indonesia, the Amazon Basin, North America, Australia, and beyond, we have watched fires blaze across landscapes, causing immense damage to life and land. Now, a new analysis confirms what many have witnessed firsthand and in the news: forest fires are getting worse. Researchers at Global Forest Watch, an environmental monitoring platform developed by the World Resources Institute, reviewed 20 years of satellite data on tree cover loss to identify what they call stand-replacing fires, those that burn all or most of a forest’s living overstory trees. These may be caused by wildfires, fires escaped from agricultural burning, or fires set by humans. Tree cover loss from fire over the past 20 years is shown in pink. Time-lapse provided by World Resources Institute (WRI) via GFW. Compared to 2001, fires are now causing 3 million more hectares (7.4 million acres) of tree cover loss per year, amounting to an area larger than Belgium. In 2021, fires were responsible for more than one-third of all tree cover loss for the year, making it one of the worst years on record. Russia, Canada, the U.S., Brazil and Australia had the highest tree cover loss due to fire over the past 20 years. The GFW analysis of fire data from the Global Land Analysis &amp; Discovery (GLAD) lab at the University of Maryland was released Aug. 17 and built upon a study on forest loss due to fire from 2001 through 2019 published earlier this year. These analyses provide the most&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/08/forest-fires-are-getting-worse-according-to-new-20-year-analysis/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/08/forest-fires-are-getting-worse-according-to-new-20-year-analysis/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-259342</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Tigers may avoid extinction, but we must aim higher (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/07/tigers-may-avoid-extinction-but-we-must-aim-higher-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/07/tigers-may-avoid-extinction-but-we-must-aim-higher-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Jul 2022 10:15:47 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[John Goodrich]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/07/20183329/Panthera_JohnGoodrich_Russia_Tiger-e1658349623590-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=258409</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, China, Global, Malaysia, Russia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Cats, Commentary, Conservation, Endangered Species, Extinction, Human-wildlife Conflict, Illegal Trade, Mammals, Poaching, Tigers, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Having spent 27 years as a wild cat scientist, I have been fortunate to run my fingers through the coarse fur of a 170 kg tiger while wrapping a GPS collar around its neck. Even better luck, I’ve lived to tell the tale of a tiger mauling after an unsuccessful collaring expedition. Suffice it to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Having spent 27 years as a wild cat scientist, I have been fortunate to run my fingers through the coarse fur of a 170 kg tiger while wrapping a GPS collar around its neck. Even better luck, I’ve lived to tell the tale of a tiger mauling after an unsuccessful collaring expedition. Suffice it to say, I live and breathe tigers. But even I was extremely skeptical that the world could achieve the grandly ambitious goal set at the 2010 Global Tiger Summit of doubling tiger numbers, or reaching 6,000 individuals, by 2022. At the time, just 3,200 wild tigers remained. The Global Tiger Summit goal was almost facetious, and a 30-year trajectory was far more realistic. Due to recent successes, however, I’ve changed my tune. Just recently, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the world’s flora and fauna conservation authority, published a Red List Assessment for tigers, suggesting the species’ numbers have likely increased by 40%, from 3,200 in 2015 to 4,500 in 2022. I have genuinely not been this enthusiastic about the species’ future in decades. A Bengal tiger crossing a road in India. Image by Rohit Varma via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0). But before exclaiming “mission accomplished,” let’s put this victory into context. Data suggest there are more wild tigers, but this may be due to scientists doing a better job of counting them. Nevertheless, the take-home message is that global tiger numbers have not declined and have possibly increased since the last IUCN assessment&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/07/tigers-may-avoid-extinction-but-we-must-aim-higher-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/07/tigers-may-avoid-extinction-but-we-must-aim-higher-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-258409</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>2021 tropical forest loss figures put zero-deforestation goal by 2030 out of reach</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/04/2021-tropical-forest-loss-figures-put-zero-deforestation-goal-by-2030-out-of-reach/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/04/2021-tropical-forest-loss-figures-put-zero-deforestation-goal-by-2030-out-of-reach/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Apr 2022 11:27:31 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hayat Indriyatno]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/04/28152446/siberia_GP1SU5IY_PressMedia-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=255219</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Amazon, Asia, Bolivia, Brazil, Congo Basin, Democratic Republic Of Congo, Gabon, Indonesia, Latin America, Republic of Congo, Russia, Southeast Asia, and Tropics]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, boreal forests, Climate, Climate Change, data, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Extreme Weather, Fires, Forest Carbon, forest degradation, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forests, Palm Oil, Peatlands, Permafrost, Plantations, Primary Forests, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Saving Rainforests, Solutions, Threats To Rainforests, Tipping points, Tropical Deforestation, Tropical Forests, and Zero Deforestation Commitments]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Tropical forest loss remained consistently high in 2021 with no sign of slowing down, despite commitments by companies and governments to curb deforestation, according to new data from the University of Maryland. The data, available on the Global Forest Watch platform managed by the World Resources Institute (WRI), show that tropical countries lost [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Tropical forest loss remained consistently high in 2021 with no sign of slowing down, despite commitments by companies and governments to curb deforestation, according to new data from the University of Maryland. The data, available on the Global Forest Watch platform managed by the World Resources Institute (WRI), show that tropical countries lost 11.1 million hectares (27.5 million acres) of tree cover in 2021, an area the size of Cuba. Of this total tree loss, 3.75 million hectares (9.3 million acres) occurred in tropical primary forests, the world’s most biologically diverse ecosystems. This means the planet is not on its way to halting and reversing forest loss by 2030, as pledged by 141 countries during last year’s COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, experts say. A handful of countries, most notably Indonesia and Gabon, saw their rates of primary forest loss decline significantly in recent years. But this was offset by high deforestation rates in other tropical countries, such as Brazil and Bolivia. As a result, the tropics still lost 10 football pitches of primary forest per minute in 2021, in the process releasing 2.5 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases (GHG). That’s equivalent to the annual fossil fuel emissions from India. While the tropics lost 11% less primary forest in 2021 than in 2020, the figure was still almost the same as in 2019. This means that loss of primary tropical forests remains “stubbornly persistent throughout the years,” said Rod Taylor, the global director of WRI’s forests program.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/04/2021-tropical-forest-loss-figures-put-zero-deforestation-goal-by-2030-out-of-reach/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/04/2021-tropical-forest-loss-figures-put-zero-deforestation-goal-by-2030-out-of-reach/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-255219</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Contorted energy politics of the Ukraine crisis (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/04/contorted-energy-politics-of-the-ukraine-crisis-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/04/contorted-energy-politics-of-the-ukraine-crisis-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Apr 2022 21:48:07 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Nikolas Kozloff]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/04/27214017/Antofagasta_Chile_-23o55_68o39_170207-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=255213</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Eastern Europe, Europe, Russia, Ukraine, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Clean Energy, Commentary, Energy, Fossil Fuels, Green, Oil, Politics, Renewable Energy, Resource Conflict, and War]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[However horrific, the Ukraine crisis has the potential to finally nudge the world towards a long overdue clean energy future.  As one of the world’s top three suppliers of fossil fuels, Russia has contributed to the climate emergency, and the Kremlin has taken advantage of dirty profits to fund its war on Kyiv.  To its [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[However horrific, the Ukraine crisis has the potential to finally nudge the world towards a long overdue clean energy future.  As one of the world’s top three suppliers of fossil fuels, Russia has contributed to the climate emergency, and the Kremlin has taken advantage of dirty profits to fund its war on Kyiv.  To its credit, the Biden administration has banned Russian energy imports, and analysts believe the Ukraine crisis has the potential to “fast-track” renewable energy, while leading to a “tectonic shift” addressing climate change.  Unfortunately, however, the Biden administration seems to have calculated that pursuing short-term political gains must take priority. Moves to cut off Russian oil and gas have led to an increase in prices, and this has prompted the White House to tap reserves.  Moreover, to the dismay of environmentalists, the Biden administration has called for oil and gas production to be ramped up.  Somewhat jarringly, the same president who previously campaigned on reining in global warming has now decided to sacrifice climate goals in the name of keeping gas prices low, a reflection no doubt of impending congressional elections.  As the Biden administration retreats from a robust discussion of climate change &#8212; emphasizing instead the notion of “energy security” &#8212; and approves new oil and gas permits on federal land, fossil fuel executives have seized  the moment by pushing through new infrastructure projects. Cars in Bucha, Ukraine, after shelling on March 30, 2022, during the Russian invasion. Image by Oleksandr Ratushniak via Wikimedia Commons (CC&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/04/contorted-energy-politics-of-the-ukraine-crisis-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/04/contorted-energy-politics-of-the-ukraine-crisis-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-255213</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Tiger politics and tiger conservation: Where the stakeholders are going wrong (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/04/tiger-politics-and-tiger-conservation-where-the-stakeholders-are-going-wrong-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/04/tiger-politics-and-tiger-conservation-where-the-stakeholders-are-going-wrong-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Apr 2022 17:00:55 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Chris Slappendel]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Nandithachandraprakash]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/04/13165701/tigers-in-a-zoo-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=254758</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Global, and Russia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Biodiversity, Commentary, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Extinction, Mammals, NGOs, Politics, Protected Areas, Tigers, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Tiger conservation and politics seem two worlds apart, but they are not. In fact, politics is one of the main reasons tiger conservation has become so complicated.  On Sep. 5, 2022, the second Global Tiger Summit is slated to be held in Vladivostok, Russia. A desperately needed summit, as we can conclude that the 2010 [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Tiger conservation and politics seem two worlds apart, but they are not. In fact, politics is one of the main reasons tiger conservation has become so complicated.  On Sep. 5, 2022, the second Global Tiger Summit is slated to be held in Vladivostok, Russia. A desperately needed summit, as we can conclude that the 2010 St. Petersburg summit was nothing more than a worthwhile attempt with poor execution, save for exceptions like India, Nepal, and Bhutan. Parties involved claim to have &#8220;learned&#8221; from mistakes. But what&#8217;s to be learned from the past 12 years to prevent entering an era full of new disappointments? Can the world allow them to make new mistakes after a program where another three out of thirteen Tiger Range Countries (TRCs) lost all of their tigers? The 2010 St. Petersburg Tiger Summit In 2010, the heads of governments of 13 TRCs declared themselves custodians of the last remaining tigers in the world. They recognized the reality of the situation: plummeting numbers, a decline of habitat, the danger of wildlife crime, and increased human-tiger conflict. They also acknowledged that tigers are important indicators of a healthy ecosystem and that the loss of tigers will lead to a loss of biological diversity throughout the entire Asiatic region, together with all the benefits provided by these predators and their ecosystems. The countries recalled and endorsed former manifestos, recommendations and work plans about wildlife crime and tiger conservation.  They also welcomed the adoption of the National Tiger Recovery Program (GTRP).&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/04/tiger-politics-and-tiger-conservation-where-the-stakeholders-are-going-wrong-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/04/tiger-politics-and-tiger-conservation-where-the-stakeholders-are-going-wrong-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-254758</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The catfight within tiger conservation: Why all stakeholders need to start working together (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/the-catfight-within-tiger-conservation-why-all-stakeholders-need-to-start-working-together-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/the-catfight-within-tiger-conservation-why-all-stakeholders-need-to-start-working-together-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Dec 2021 12:22:22 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Chris Slappendel]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Nandithachandraprakash]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/12/03071029/tiger-ranthambore-india-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=250138</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia and Russia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Cats, Commentary, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, NGOs, Politics, Protected Areas, Tigers, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Why is cooperation within tiger conservation so hard to accomplish? Despite efforts for decades, tigers are threatened with extinction. Twelve years ago, when the Global Tiger Recovery Program (GTRP) started with much-needed renewed attention for this illustrious big cat, only 3,200 tigers were left in the wild. At the time, an apparently innocent joke was [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Why is cooperation within tiger conservation so hard to accomplish? Despite efforts for decades, tigers are threatened with extinction. Twelve years ago, when the Global Tiger Recovery Program (GTRP) started with much-needed renewed attention for this illustrious big cat, only 3,200 tigers were left in the wild. At the time, an apparently innocent joke was often made within the world of tiger conservation: there are more parties talking about tiger conservation than the number of tigers in the wild. But was it really an innocent joke? What people meant was that this new initiative to save tigers was meant to fail, because making hundreds of parties with divergent goals stop talking and cooperate by working together is hard to accomplish. In 2022, the GTRP ends, with disappointing results. Yes, the number of tigers has improved, but only because of three or four countries. In 2022 at least six out of the 13 tiger range countries (TRCs), and probably more, will report devastating news about their tigers. Looking into who is involved in tiger conservation, we can identify six stakeholder groups, based on their contributions: Intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), Governments, NGOs, Financiers, Forums, and Media. IGOs: Invisible and powerless, but necessary Because of the poor state of wildlife around the world, due to extensive hunting, poaching, habitat loss, and lack of prey, the United Nations (UN), an IGO, was awakened by the outcries of many NGOs in the ’60s and ’70s. In 1975, the UN finally came up with CITES, a multilateral&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/the-catfight-within-tiger-conservation-why-all-stakeholders-need-to-start-working-together-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/the-catfight-within-tiger-conservation-why-all-stakeholders-need-to-start-working-together-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-250138</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>COP26: Surging wood pellet industry threatens climate, say experts</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/11/surging-wood-pellet-industry-threatens-climate-say-experts/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/11/surging-wood-pellet-industry-threatens-climate-say-experts/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Nov 2021 15:41:52 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/11/09151345/BANNER-IMAGE-wood-pellets-768x445.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=249222</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Bioenergy]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Canada, European Union, Global, Japan, Malaysia, Russia, South Korea, United Kingdom, United States, and Vietnam]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Bioenergy, carbon, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Sequestration, Climate, Climate Change, Climate Science, Conservation, Controversial, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Emission Reduction, Energy, Energy Efficiency, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Forest Carbon, Forest Loss, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Globalization, Green, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Impact Of Climate Change, Law, Mitigation, Politics, Pollution, and Research]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Glasgow climate summit is failing to address the danger of burning forests to make energy — a practice classified as carbon neutral, though science shows that its emissions exceed that of coal per unit of energy produced.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Representatives from 192 nations continue meeting in Glasgow, Scotland, at COP26 this week in hopes of making deals to save humanity, cool the planet, and salvage their nations’ reputations. However, absent from the conference agenda are discussions of carbon accounting loopholes that scientists say are dangerously underreporting emissions and speeding climate change. An overlooked issue is forest biomass: burning wood to produce energy. Despite research proving otherwise, the practice continues to be called carbon neutral by nations and the forestry industry, allowing significant greenhouse gas emissions to go uncounted. That has caused some policy and advocacy groups to dub forest biomass burning “the green myth.” Under the 1992 Kyoto Protocol, harvesting forests to make wood pellets, which are then burned in converted coal-fired power plants, was classified as a renewable energy source. Under Kyoto rules, which were grandfathered into the Paris Agreement, cutting and burning trees for electric power is considered a carbon neutral energy source — as long as companies replant trees. Enviva, the world&#8217;s largest producer of forest biomass for energy, claims that it uses woody waste material to make wood pellets and not whole trees, but images from inside its Southampton plant in Virginia tell a different story. Whole tree logs in the thousands have been documented here and at other Enviva pellet plants. Image courtesy of the Dogwood Alliance. But more than a decade of research has shown that wood pellets cause more carbon pollution than coal per unit of energy produced. And while it’s true&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/11/surging-wood-pellet-industry-threatens-climate-say-experts/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/11/surging-wood-pellet-industry-threatens-climate-say-experts/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-249222</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Novel chemical entities: Are we sleepwalking through a planetary boundary?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/novel-entities-are-we-sleepwalking-through-a-planetary-boundary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/novel-entities-are-we-sleepwalking-through-a-planetary-boundary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Sep 2021 12:23:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Claire Asher]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/09/23114206/12-Chernobyl-reminder-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=247451</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Covering the Commons and Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Europe, European Union, Global, India, Russia, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Air Pollution, Chemicals, Disasters, Environment, Environmental Law, Ethics, Governance, Green, Herbicides, Microplastics, Natural Gas, Nuclear Power, Pesticides, Plastic, Poisoning, Politics, Pollution, Research, Toxicology, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Our pollution of the planet with heavy metals, plastics, industrial chemicals, pesticides and more is pushing Earth systems to the limit, and us closer to crossing a dangerous planetary boundary we don’t understand.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Hinkley, California, USA, 1952-1966: A Pacific Gas and Electric powerplant releases 1.4 billion liters (370 million gallons) of wastewater laced with carcinogenic chromium-6 into unlined ponds, polluting groundwater for the town’s 2,000 residents, leading to a successful $333 million class-action lawsuit (and an Academy Award-winning movie). Minamata, Japan, 1956: A Chisso chemical factory dumps wastewater contaminated with methylmercury into Minamata Bay. This extremely active and toxic form of mercury, which causes severe neurological damage in adults and developing fetuses, kills 600 people and leaves more than 3,000 with lifelong disabilities. Niagara Falls, New York, USA, 1978: The Hooker Chemical Company improperly disposes of 21,000 tons of hazardous and carcinogenic chemicals, including dioxin, into the Love Canal landfill. It resurfaces in surrounding homes, elevating the risk of miscarriages and birth defects, forcing hundreds of families to relocate. Bhopal, India, 1984: A leak at a Union Carbide India Limited pesticide plant releases 40 tons of deadly methylisocyanate (MIC) gas from a storage tank. More than 20,000 people are killed and hundreds of thousands injured. Over the years, survivors were twice as likely to die of cancer, lung disease or tuberculosis. Pripyat, Ukraine, USSR, 1986: The No. 4 reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant explodes, releasing more than 6 tons of radioactive material; 28 people die of acute radiation syndrome and thousands more suffer long-term effects. Lingering radiation creates a perpetual 2,600-square-kilometer (1,000-square-mile) human exclusion zone. Flint, Michigan, USA, 2014: The municipality pumps untreated, lead-contaminated river water into municipal tap water, exposing 100,000&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/novel-entities-are-we-sleepwalking-through-a-planetary-boundary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/novel-entities-are-we-sleepwalking-through-a-planetary-boundary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-247451</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Though nefarious, Russian hack of JBS should prompt environmental debate over meat “oligopoly” (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/08/though-nefarious-russian-hack-of-jbs-should-prompt-environmental-debate-over-meat-oligopoly/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/08/though-nefarious-russian-hack-of-jbs-should-prompt-environmental-debate-over-meat-oligopoly/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Aug 2021 16:24:27 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Nikolas Kozloff]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/08/25160217/colombia_6067_2021-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=246327</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Russia, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Agriculture, Beef, Business, Cattle, Commentary, Consumption, Environment, Food, Green, and Ranching]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the wake of a Russian hack on giant meatpacker JBS, U.S. policymakers have argued that we must shore up the nation’s cyber-defenses in order to protect the food supply from future attacks. Unfortunately, public discussion has missed the mark by focusing far too narrowly on mere supply chain issues: however nefarious, the JBS hack [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the wake of a Russian hack on giant meatpacker JBS, U.S. policymakers have argued that we must shore up the nation’s cyber-defenses in order to protect the food supply from future attacks. Unfortunately, public discussion has missed the mark by focusing far too narrowly on mere supply chain issues: however nefarious, the JBS hack exposes wider concerns ranging from food justice to animal rights to public health to the environment and climate change. It is highly ironic, and that is putting it mildly, that it has taken Russian cyber-crime to highlight such systemic and underlying problems, yet perhaps such high-profile incidents might succeed in prompting long-overdue debate. JBS is hardly a bit player: the behemoth is the largest cattle processing firm in the U.S., accounting for nearly a quarter of the market. The corporation is responsible for about a fifth of American pork capacity, and sells beef through major retailers such as Costco. A JBS subsidiary, meanwhile, holds a majority interest in the nation’s second largest poultry company. Growing from a purely Brazilian cattle company to the world’s largest meat supplier, JBS owns facilities in 20 countries and exports to more than 50.  The firm is Australia’s largest meat and food processor, and within the country the company markets beef, lamb and pork. Notoriously corrupt, JBS has been caught up in labor disputes within Brazil, and has been accused of violating human rights in the Amazon rainforest. Intersection of Climate Change, Animal Rights and Public Health Moreover, the company&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/08/though-nefarious-russian-hack-of-jbs-should-prompt-environmental-debate-over-meat-oligopoly/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/08/though-nefarious-russian-hack-of-jbs-should-prompt-environmental-debate-over-meat-oligopoly/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-246327</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘Laundering machine’: Furniture giant Ikea implicated in logging protected Siberian forests</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/07/laundering-machine-furniture-giant-ikea-implicated-in-logging-protected-siberian-forests/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/07/laundering-machine-furniture-giant-ikea-implicated-in-logging-protected-siberian-forests/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Jul 2021 14:23:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Daniel]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/07/16140451/wasteland2-1917x1011-1-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=244930</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Europe, European Union, Indonesia, North America, Russia, Southeast Asia, United Kingdom, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Ikea has allegedly been sourcing timber for its products from Russian companies engaged in illegal logging of pine trees in Russia’s protected Siberian boreal forests, a new investigation has revealed. In a year-long probe by London-based investigative group Earthsight, the Swedish flatpack furniture manufacturer was the most well-known of several Western firms found to have [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Ikea has allegedly been sourcing timber for its products from Russian companies engaged in illegal logging of pine trees in Russia’s protected Siberian boreal forests, a new investigation has revealed. In a year-long probe by London-based investigative group Earthsight, the Swedish flatpack furniture manufacturer was the most well-known of several Western firms found to have sourced lumber for its products from ExportLes Group, a collection of companies owned by Evgeny Bakurov, one of Russia’s wealthiest businessmen-politicians. Bakurov reportedly once boasted that an Ikea representative said the company chose to do business with him because he sent Ikea “logs faster than we can transfer the money.” “Earthsight estimates that shoppers have been purchasing an Ikea product containing the suspect Russian lumber somewhere on earth every two minutes,” the group said. Ikea said it had ended purchases from ExportLes in June after Earthsight shared its findings with the company, though it maintained the timber was “legally harvested” and said it had dropped Bakurov’s firm from its list of suppliers over unspecified “practices of concern”. Evgeny Bakurov&#8217;s forest estate in Irkutsk Oblast, Russia. Credit: Dirk Wright for Earthsight Russia’s boreal forests, also known as the taiga, include a majority of the world’s conifers and store about half of the northern hemisphere’s terrestrial carbon, so play a vital role in regulating climate change. The country is one of the world’s largest timber exporters, shipping almost a quarter of all lumber traded globally in 2019. ExportLes had justified its logging of the trees in a&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/07/laundering-machine-furniture-giant-ikea-implicated-in-logging-protected-siberian-forests/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/07/laundering-machine-furniture-giant-ikea-implicated-in-logging-protected-siberian-forests/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-244930</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Nine principles for the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/07/nine-principles-of-ecosystem-restoration-for-the-russian-tundra-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/07/nine-principles-of-ecosystem-restoration-for-the-russian-tundra-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Jul 2021 19:55:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Cara NelsonJim Hallett]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/02/27181101/Reindeer-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=244876</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Arctic, Global, and Russia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Commentary, Ecosystems, Indigenous Peoples, Landscape Restoration, Mitigation, and Restoration]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Naryan-Mar is a sea and river port town on the Arctic coast of Russia with a population of 22,000. It is a tundra ecosystem, with shallow peat soils. The local Nenets and Komi Indigenous people are reindeer herders, hunters and fishers that use the land for reindeer pasture. But oil drilling has severely degraded the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Naryan-Mar is a sea and river port town on the Arctic coast of Russia with a population of 22,000. It is a tundra ecosystem, with shallow peat soils. The local Nenets and Komi Indigenous people are reindeer herders, hunters and fishers that use the land for reindeer pasture. But oil drilling has severely degraded the land. And the building of roads and pipelines has led to the loss of vegetation and the organic soil layer, with sediments now running into the rivers. Permafrost thaw is increasing and with it, greenhouse gas emissions. Restoring this tundra ecosystem is essential: to mitigate climate change, to maintain ecological balance, and to protect the livelihoods of the local community and of the Indigenous peoples living on the land. Aerial view of tundra in Naryan-Mar, on Russia&#8217;s Arctic coast. Photo courtesy of Tatiana Minayeva. In 2015, a small group of passionate local scientists started a project to restore this remote area. The Society for Ecological Restoration (SER) recently hosted a virtual ‘field trip’ with the project organizers. Yulia Deniso, one of the self-described “tundra rescuers” is a project team member helping monitor ecosystem recovery. She described the group’s effort, “Our aim was not just to sow grass but to restore the real tundra.” But restoration in such fragile ecosystems is far from straightforward. Disturbed areas extend rapidly due to erosion, further reducing resilience. “Rain and wind wash away and spread the sand, and the roads and paths turn into deep gullies,” Yulia explained. “The disturbed&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/07/nine-principles-of-ecosystem-restoration-for-the-russian-tundra-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/07/nine-principles-of-ecosystem-restoration-for-the-russian-tundra-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-244876</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>Latest mass stranding raises concerns for endangered Caspian seals</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/05/latest-mass-stranding-raises-concerns-for-endangered-caspian-seals/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/05/latest-mass-stranding-raises-concerns-for-endangered-caspian-seals/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 May 2021 14:11:16 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Claire Alberts]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Elizabethalberts]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/05/12132825/42.-moulting-koms-bay-IMG_8284-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=242550</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Russia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Crime, Endangered Species, Environment, Fishing, Illegal Fishing, Mammals, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Mammals, Oceans, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[When Viktor Nikiforov heard about the dead Caspian seals along Russia’s Dagestan coast near the city of Makhachkala, he and a group of researchers went to have a look. On the first day, they found 30 seal bodies strewn across the sand. The next day, they discovered even more. “In three days, we found 170 [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[When Viktor Nikiforov heard about the dead Caspian seals along Russia’s Dagestan coast near the city of Makhachkala, he and a group of researchers went to have a look. On the first day, they found 30 seal bodies strewn across the sand. The next day, they discovered even more. “In three days, we found 170 animals,” Nikiforov, program coordinator for Russia’s Marine Mammals Research Center, told Mongabay in an interview. However, he said this number only accounted for the seals counted between May 4 and 6, and that the actual mortality rate was probably much higher. The researchers found two seals tangled in fishing nets and ropes, and about 11 others with their skins removed, Nikiforov said. One of the deceased Caspian seals found along Russia&#8217;s Dagestan coast in May 2021. Image courtesy of Viktor Nikiforov. “They take [the skins] because they use it to produce hats — local hats,” he said. This mass stranding has rung alarm bells for conservationists working to protect Caspian seals (Pusa caspica), a species listed as endangered by both the IUCN and Russia’s own conservation authority. Since the start of the 20th century, the species has declined by more than 90%, with only an estimated 68,000 mature individuals remaining. Simon Goodman, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Leeds who has been researching Caspian seals for the past 17 years, said fishing activities such as the illegal poaching of critically endangered sturgeon species are most likely to blame. Based on the prevalence of illegal fishing&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/05/latest-mass-stranding-raises-concerns-for-endangered-caspian-seals/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/05/latest-mass-stranding-raises-concerns-for-endangered-caspian-seals/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-242550</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Arctic biodiversity at risk as world overshoots climate planetary boundary</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/04/arctic-biodiversity-at-risk-as-world-overshoots-climate-planetary-boundary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/04/arctic-biodiversity-at-risk-as-world-overshoots-climate-planetary-boundary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Apr 2021 20:14:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gloria Dickie]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/04/29194152/banner-image-7-768x455.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=242147</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Covering the Commons and Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Alaska, Arctic, Arctic Ocean, Greenland, Russia, siberia, Tropics, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Bears, Biodiversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, Biology, Birds, Climate Change, Conservation, Ecology, Ecosystems, Environment, Extinction, Extreme Weather, Fish, Fisheries, Global Environmental Crisis, Green, Habitat, Marine, Marine Animals, Microorganisms, Polar Bears, Research, Species Discovery, Weather, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Polar phytoplankton, fish, seabirds and mammals are increasingly threatened by global warming, which is destabilizing Arctic ecosystems, even as southern species move northward — will the imbalanced biome collapse?]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Today, bowhead whales still transit the fringes of Arctic waters. Polar bears hunt blubbery ringed seals from rafts of ice. And ivory gulls ride gale force winds, plucking juvenile polar cod from the roiling sea. But for how much longer? Despite more than a century of scientific observation, the Central Arctic Ocean remains one of the least studied bodies of water in the world. Hostile weather, multiyear sea ice, total darkness part of the year, and remoteness hinder researchers endeavoring to better understand this region, its unique biodiversity, and dramatic shifts underway. What we do know is this: The Arctic is changing quickly as the poles warm. Sea ice cover, which has endured for millennia, is quickly disappearing, thinning and shrinking as the biome heats up at twice the rate of the rest of the world. In the absence of ice, southern species are moving north, sometimes making refugees and relics of long-term residents. We also know we can no longer afford for the Central Arctic Ocean to be a mystery. As the region heats up, the web of life that once tied together cold-loving species living in and near its enigmatic waters has begun to unravel, and may soon verge on collapse as the old guard fails to compete with, and gives way to, a new regime with largely unforeseeable consequences. Arctic sea ice breakup. The more the Arctic warms, the thinner the ice, and the more habitat changes. Image by Patrick Kelley / US Coast Guard. All of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/04/arctic-biodiversity-at-risk-as-world-overshoots-climate-planetary-boundary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/04/arctic-biodiversity-at-risk-as-world-overshoots-climate-planetary-boundary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-242147</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Global forest loss increased in 2020</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/03/global-forest-loss-increases-in-2020-but-pandemics-impact-unclear/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/03/global-forest-loss-increases-in-2020-but-pandemics-impact-unclear/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Mar 2021 04:01:10 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/03/30204426/kalbar_drone_190441_1210-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=241098</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Amazon, Asia, Borneo, Canada, Congo Basin, Global, Indonesia, Latin America, Malaysia, New Guinea, Russia, South America, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Fires, Forestry, Forests, Green, Impact Of Climate Change, Land Use Change, Old Growth Forests, Plantations, Primary Forests, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Redd, Remote Sensing, Satellite Imagery, Temperate Forests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[No one was sure exactly what near-term impact the global pandemic would have the world’s forests in 2020. Some expected lockdowns and economic shocks to dampen deforestation rates; others thought surging asset prices, government stimulus programs, diminished environmental law enforcement, and a sudden reversal of rural-to-urban migration would drive forest clearance higher. Data released today [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[No one was sure exactly what near-term impact the global pandemic would have the world’s forests in 2020. Some expected lockdowns and economic shocks to dampen deforestation rates; others thought surging asset prices, government stimulus programs, diminished environmental law enforcement, and a sudden reversal of rural-to-urban migration would drive forest clearance higher. Data released today by the University of Maryland provides the first comprehensive quantitative view of what happened in the world’s forests in 2020. The numbers indicate that forest loss remained persistently high in the immediate aftermath of the pandemic, but “does not show obvious, systemic shifts in forest loss as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic,” according to World Resource Institute (WRI), which has published the data on its Global Forest Watch platform. The policy response to the pandemic, however, is likely to have a larger impact on the fate of forests, says WRI’s Frances Seymour. “The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted lives and livelihoods around the world, and the global economy contracted by around 3.5% in 2020. Yet despite the economic downturn, the loss of primary tropical forests ticked up by 12% compared to 2019, continuing an upward trend,” wrote Seymour in a commentary responding to the data. “The more significant impacts of the pandemic on forests are likely yet to come.” “Unless they see alternatives, governments grappling with constrained fiscal resources and high levels of debt will be tempted to cut the budgets of environmental agencies and license new investment projects that could show up in forest loss&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/03/global-forest-loss-increases-in-2020-but-pandemics-impact-unclear/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/03/global-forest-loss-increases-in-2020-but-pandemics-impact-unclear/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-241098</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Vaccinations may be vital for saving Amur tigers from virus outbreaks (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/12/vaccinations-may-be-vital-for-saving-amur-tigers-from-virus-outbreaks-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/12/vaccinations-may-be-vital-for-saving-amur-tigers-from-virus-outbreaks-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Dec 2020 13:46:29 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Dale MiquelleMartin Gilbert]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Willie Shubert]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/12/23160606/Amur-tigers-share-their-taiga-forest-habitat-with-wild-carnivores-that-act-as-a-reservoir-of-canine-distemper-virus.-Credit-%C2%A9WCS-Russia-Sikhote-Alin-Reserve-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=238266</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia and Russia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Commentary, Conservation, COVID-19, Tigers, Wildlife, and Zoonotic Diseases]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[While the world focuses on the development of new vaccines against COVID-19, biologists are building the case for using vaccines for the conservation of wildlife. Our own research on the impact of canine distemper virus (CDV) in the Russian Far East concludes that vaccination of Amur tigers is a potentially important strategy to avoid extinction of small [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[While the world focuses on the development of new vaccines against COVID-19, biologists are building the case for using vaccines for the conservation of wildlife. Our own research on the impact of canine distemper virus (CDV) in the Russian Far East concludes that vaccination of Amur tigers is a potentially important strategy to avoid extinction of small populations. Historically, wildlife biologists paid little attention to the impact of diseases on wildlife populations. Pathogens and parasites were regarded as a natural part of the ecosystem, which had evolved to co-exist with their wildlife hosts. Large outbreaks were infrequent and it seemed that there was little that could be done to alter their outcome, so they were simply left to run their course. While that approach still holds today, the world and the threat posed by disease have changed. Once, large wildlife populations existed across vast landscapes in numbers of sufficient size to survive disease outbreaks. Today more species are relegated to small islands of habitat that support fewer individuals. In some cases, an outbreak could be the “straw that breaks the camel’s back,” driving these small populations to extinction locally. The tiger is a classic example of this predicament. Once widely distributed across Asia, tigers are now mostly confined to protected areas and surrounding buffer zones. Even in the tiger’s Indian heartland one study projected that even under favorable scenarios, the majority of protected areas will soon support an average of just 14 individuals. Samples collected from Amur tigers including Boris and Svetlaya enabled researchers to assess&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/12/vaccinations-may-be-vital-for-saving-amur-tigers-from-virus-outbreaks-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/12/vaccinations-may-be-vital-for-saving-amur-tigers-from-virus-outbreaks-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-238266</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Report: Illegal Russian lumber flooded Europe despite timber laws</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/12/report-illegal-russian-lumber-flooded-europe-despite-timber-laws/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/12/report-illegal-russian-lumber-flooded-europe-despite-timber-laws/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Dec 2020 12:58:15 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Daniel]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2016/09/01191055/Taiga_Landscape_in_Canada-507x330.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=237984</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Global Commodities]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[China, Europe, European Union, Japan, and Russia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[boreal forests, Corruption, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Governance, Illegal Logging, Logging, Timber, Timber Laws, and timber trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Timber linked to one of Russia’s largest illegal logging scandals has entered the E.U. despite rules meant to tackle the illicit trade, according to a new report. The report, titled Taiga King, by UK-based environmental group Earthsight alleges more than 100,000 tons of timber from Khabarovsk Krai in Russia’s far east made its way into [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Timber linked to one of Russia’s largest illegal logging scandals has entered the E.U. despite rules meant to tackle the illicit trade, according to a new report. The report, titled Taiga King, by UK-based environmental group Earthsight alleges more than 100,000 tons of timber from Khabarovsk Krai in Russia’s far east made its way into Europe via the BM Group, a conglomerate headed by Alexander Pudovkin, who was arrested last year and is being investigated along with two officials who are accused of abuse of office. According to prosecutors, Pudovkin admitted to paying bribes to the officials in return for government subsidies and access to timber concessions. He has denied wrongdoing and is due to stand trial. Prosecutors also allege Pudovkin was handed contracts without public tender and his company received state funding for a sawmill project that it never completed. The BM Group’s offices in Khabarovsk, near the Chinese border in Siberia, were raided by Russia’s domestic spy agency, the FSB, in March 2019. The FSB seized computer hardware and a safe in the raid and subsequently a criminal investigation was launched. The law enforcement action led to BM Group’s removal from Russia’s federal list of priority investment projects, which allow a select group of firms to sidestep public auctions for logging rights. “Pudovkin’s BM Group milked this lucrative status for all it was worth, setting up no fewer than five sawmill ventures between 2008 and 2017. Together, they handed over combined rights to cut more than two million&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/12/report-illegal-russian-lumber-flooded-europe-despite-timber-laws/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/12/report-illegal-russian-lumber-flooded-europe-despite-timber-laws/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-237984</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Why did the woolly rhino go extinct?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/11/why-did-the-woolly-rhino-go-extinct/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/11/why-did-the-woolly-rhino-go-extinct/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Nov 2020 11:57:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carolina Cuellar Colmenares]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/11/30120628/Woolly_rhino-Photo-Albert-Protopopov-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=237162</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Russia and siberia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Environment, Extinction, Green, Mammals, Paleontology, and Rhinos]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the arctic tundra of northeastern Siberia lies a graveyard of a now-extinct species of megafauna, the woolly rhinoceros, dating back 50,000 years. Now, a new genomic analysis of the remains of 14 of these fantastical furry yellow creatures shows that climate change was the likely culprit for their disappearance—not hunting by migrating humans, as [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the arctic tundra of northeastern Siberia lies a graveyard of a now-extinct species of megafauna, the woolly rhinoceros, dating back 50,000 years. Now, a new genomic analysis of the remains of 14 of these fantastical furry yellow creatures shows that climate change was the likely culprit for their disappearance—not hunting by migrating humans, as scientists had assumed. “We can say that climate probably did have a huge role in the extinction and decline of woolly rhinoceros,” said paleogeneticist Edana Lord of Stockholm University and the Swedish Museum of Natural History, lead author of the recent study in Current Biology. However, Lord and her colleagues cannot rule out human activity as a contributing factor in the rhinos’ final years. An almost whole woolly rhino found frozen by the Kolyma River in northeastern Siberia. Photo credit: Sergey Fedorov Woolly rhinos (Coelodonta antiquitatis), predecessors to the modern-day Sumatran rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis), roamed Siberia tens of thousands of years ago. Both the arrival of humans in their range and a climate warming period, known as the Bølling-Allerød interstadial, coincide with the disappearance of these ancient SUV-sized animals. Scientists obtained 14 specimens in the form of 12 bones, a mummified tissue biopsy, and a hair sample. By determining the full DNA sequence of one of these remains, and the maternal DNA sequence of all 14, researchers hoped to expose key parts of their history. They zeroed in on mitochondrial DNA—DNA passed through the mother—which revealed a diverse rhino family tree. However, if hunting or&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/11/why-did-the-woolly-rhino-go-extinct/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/11/why-did-the-woolly-rhino-go-extinct/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-237162</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Don’t cross this tiger mom: Close encounter in Russia’s Far East</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/09/dont-cross-this-tiger-mom-close-encounter-in-russias-far-east/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/09/dont-cross-this-tiger-mom-close-encounter-in-russias-far-east/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Sep 2020 11:42:42 +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/20/2020/09/29092033/IMG_8892-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=235275</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Russia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Bioacoustics, Camera Trapping, cameras, Charismatic Animals, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Endangered Species, Environment, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Remote Sensing, Technology, Tigers, Wildlife, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[On Sept. 15, Aleksandr Rybin was checking a camera trap in Russia’s Sikhote-Alin Biosphere Reserve when something red and long-tailed darted in the bushes in front of him. “A thought flashed in my head: cougar?” Rybin, a 45-year-old researcher at the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Russia, said in a statement. “No, what cougar can be [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[On Sept. 15, Aleksandr Rybin was checking a camera trap in Russia’s Sikhote-Alin Biosphere Reserve when something red and long-tailed darted in the bushes in front of him. “A thought flashed in my head: cougar?” Rybin, a 45-year-old researcher at the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Russia, said in a statement. “No, what cougar can be here; we&#8217;re in the Far East. It&#8217;s a tiger! I thought, convulsively grasping at the camera.” It wasn’t just one tiger, but two. An adult female Amur tiger, or Siberian tiger (Panthera tigris altaica), slinked down a path, while her cub bounded over to a puddle. A rare Amur tiger. Image by Aleksandr Rybin / WCS Russia. Thinking the tiger duo had disappeared into the woods, Rybin and his colleague got into their vehicle to drive away, only to encounter the tigress again on the road. “She looked at us menacingly and hissed in displeasure,” Rybin said. “Then I took these pictures. Like any mother, the tigress protected her child, and in order not to irritate the beast, we quickly left this place and drove on.” Rybin has been working for WCS Russia for the past 22 years, using camera traps to monitor Amur tiger and critically endangered Amur leopard (Panthera pardus orientalis) populations. But encounters like this are very rare, he said. “I have had not more than 10 encounters like this,” Rybin told Mongabay in an email. “I especially remember tiger cubs I met in the wild — it was really exciting. Amur&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/09/dont-cross-this-tiger-mom-close-encounter-in-russias-far-east/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/09/dont-cross-this-tiger-mom-close-encounter-in-russias-far-east/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-235275</doi>				</item>
			</channel>
</rss>