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	<channel>
		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/pandemics/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
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	<url>https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/05/16160320/cropped-mongabay_icon-32x32.png</url>
	<title>News on Pandemics</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/pandemics/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>We must prevent the next pandemic, not build perfect conditions for it (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/we-must-prevent-the-next-pandemic-not-build-perfect-conditions-for-it-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/we-must-prevent-the-next-pandemic-not-build-perfect-conditions-for-it-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Jun 2026 18:54:25 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Chris Walzer]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/15183056/kathas_fotos-forest-5481035-e1781548832209-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321244</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Commentary, Coronavirus, Deforestation, Diseases, Environment, Health, Pandemics, Wildlife, and Zoonotic Diseases]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In recent weeks, two outbreaks captured international attention: a hantavirus cluster linked to a cruise ship and an escalating outbreak of Bundibugyo ebolavirus in Central and Eastern Africa. How the world reacted to these outbreaks tells us more about inequity than about epidemiology. The Andes hantavirus outbreak aboard a luxury cruise ship generated extensive evacuation [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In recent weeks, two outbreaks captured international attention: a hantavirus cluster linked to a cruise ship and an escalating outbreak of Bundibugyo ebolavirus in Central and Eastern Africa. How the world reacted to these outbreaks tells us more about inequity than about epidemiology. The Andes hantavirus outbreak aboard a luxury cruise ship generated extensive evacuation footage and widespread public anxiety. The numbers involved were small, and public health authorities clearly emphasized that the broader risk was very low. Meanwhile, the Bundibugyo virus disease (BVD) outbreak, involving a rapidly increasing number of cases and deaths, spreading across fragile border regions, and unfolding without an approved vaccine, or therapeutics, still struggles to command comparable global urgency despite its coverage in the news. This disparity reflects an uncomfortable and common truth: some outbreaks become global emergencies only when wealthy travelers, tourists, or Western borders appear threatened. Others remain regional tragedies, normalized by poverty, and neglect. However, both outbreaks point to the same deeper reality. These events are not isolated biological accidents, but predictable consequences of the ecological, economic, and political systems we have built. In partnership with local governments across Central Africa, WCS set up an early warning system for Ebola, working with traditional hunters, forest communities, and rangers to raise awareness and promote best practices in zoonotic risk reduction, and to monitor wildlife health through sampling and a carcass monitoring, as in this case where a worker surveys a gorilla. Image courtesy of A. Ondzie / WCS. Global health has largely focused&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/we-must-prevent-the-next-pandemic-not-build-perfect-conditions-for-it-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/we-must-prevent-the-next-pandemic-not-build-perfect-conditions-for-it-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321244</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Evidence linking bats to Ebola inconclusive, scientist says. &#8216;Solution is not fear&#8217;</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/evidence-linking-bats-to-ebola-inconclusive-scientist-says-solution-is-not-fear/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/evidence-linking-bats-to-ebola-inconclusive-scientist-says-solution-is-not-fear/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Jun 2026 11:43:14 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[David Akana]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/10113226/image1_Rousettus-aegyptiacus-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320904</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Bats, Conservation, Diseases, Ebola, Governance, Health, Pandemics, Planetary Health, Public Health, Rainforests, Science, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[As the Democratic Republic of Congo grapples with another Ebola outbreak, bats have once again come under scrutiny as a possible reservoir for the virus. But according to bat ecologist Paul Webala, there is no conclusive scientific evidence linking bats to Ebola and the natural reservoir remains unknown. The current Ebola outbreak is caused by [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[As the Democratic Republic of Congo grapples with another Ebola outbreak, bats have once again come under scrutiny as a possible reservoir for the virus. But according to bat ecologist Paul Webala, there is no conclusive scientific evidence linking bats to Ebola and the natural reservoir remains unknown. The current Ebola outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo strain, a variant for which there are currently no approved vaccines or treatments, according to the World Health Organization. In this interview with Mongabay, Webala discusses why bats are often misunderstood, details the important ecological services they provide, and explains why habitat destruction may pose a greater risk for zoonotic diseases that spill over between animals and humans than bats themselves. Webala is a wildlife biologist at Maasai Mara University in Kenya who has studied bats for more than two decades. Rousettus aegyptiacus, commonly known as the Egyptian fruit bat, a widespread species found across much of Africa. Photo courtesy of Paul Webala. Mongabay: Many people immediately think of bats whenever there is an Ebola outbreak. Are bats unfairly stigmatized? Paul Webala: Bats are the second-largest group of mammals after rodents. Roughly 25% of all mammal species are bats. They play extremely important roles in ecosystems and are an integral part of biodiversity. Remove them, and entire ecological systems could begin to collapse. Unfortunately, bats are associated with many myths and misconceptions. Some communities associate them with death, evil spirits or bad omens. Because of these long-standing beliefs, bats have often been persecuted.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/evidence-linking-bats-to-ebola-inconclusive-scientist-says-solution-is-not-fear/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/evidence-linking-bats-to-ebola-inconclusive-scientist-says-solution-is-not-fear/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320904</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>When nature becomes a security risk</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/when-nature-becomes-a-security-risk/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/when-nature-becomes-a-security-risk/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Feb 2026 14:58:27 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/12/12231629/GP1T2OKD-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313602</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Britain, Europe, and United Kingdom]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conflict, Environment, Food, food security, Forests, Green, Human Migration, Pandemics, Water, and Water Scarcity]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Britain’s national security thinking has traditionally been shaped by familiar concerns: hostile states, terrorism, energy supply, and, more recently, cyber threats. A new assessment from the U.K. government adds a different category to that list. Global biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse, it argues, now pose a direct and growing risk to national security, with implications [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Britain’s national security thinking has traditionally been shaped by familiar concerns: hostile states, terrorism, energy supply, and, more recently, cyber threats. A new assessment from the U.K. government adds a different category to that list. Global biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse, it argues, now pose a direct and growing risk to national security, with implications that extend well beyond conservation policy and into food supply, economic stability, migration, and conflict. The assessment is explicit about its framing. This is not a scientific review, nor an environmental strategy. It is an intelligence-style analysis, designed to support national security planning under conditions of uncertainty. It draws on scientific literature, expert judgment, and probabilistic reasoning, applying the same tools used to assess geopolitical or military risk. Its core judgment is delivered with high confidence: global ecosystem degradation already threatens U.K. prosperity and security, and without major intervention, those risks are likely to intensify through mid-century and beyond. Deforestation for palm oil production in Malaysian Borneo. At the heart of the argument is the idea of cascading risk. Ecosystems underpin food production, water availability, climate regulation, and disease control. When they degrade, the effects rarely remain local. Crop failures in one region can ripple through global markets. Water scarcity can destabilize fragile states. Disease outbreaks can spread rapidly through interconnected societies. The assessment emphasizes that biodiversity loss should be understood not as an isolated environmental problem, but as a multiplier of existing social, economic, and political stresses. The report identifies several pathways through which&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/when-nature-becomes-a-security-risk/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/when-nature-becomes-a-security-risk/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313602</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Why WHO’s pandemic prevention draft agreement takes a nature-centric, One Health approach (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/why-whos-pandemic-prevention-draft-agreement-takes-a-nature-centric-one-health-approach-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/why-whos-pandemic-prevention-draft-agreement-takes-a-nature-centric-one-health-approach-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 May 2025 17:56:46 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Chris WalzerChristine FranklinSusan Lieberman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/11/16123624/amazon_201024-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=299023</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Atlantic Forest]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Commentary, Conservation, COVID-19, Diseases, Environment, Governance, Health, One Health, Pandemics, Planetary Health, Wildlife, and Zoonotic Diseases]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[At 4 a.m. CET on April 16, 2025, in Geneva, after years of negotiation and a final day of intense deliberation, the World Health Organization&#8217;s Intergovernmental Negotiating Body reached consensus on a Draft Pandemic Agreement. This historic agreement lays the groundwork for how the world will prevent, prepare for, and respond to future pandemics. More [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[At 4 a.m. CET on April 16, 2025, in Geneva, after years of negotiation and a final day of intense deliberation, the World Health Organization&#8217;s Intergovernmental Negotiating Body reached consensus on a Draft Pandemic Agreement. This historic agreement lays the groundwork for how the world will prevent, prepare for, and respond to future pandemics. More than just a document, the agreement represents a global commitment to multilateralism and collaboration across borders and disciplines. It acknowledges a long-standing elemental truth: that human health is interdependent and deeply intertwined with the health of animals and our shared environment. Building on decades of global health engagement — from the pioneering 2004 Manhattan Principles to the 2019 Berlin Principles on One Health, and our influential international policy work through the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) — we have had the privilege, over the past three years, to represent the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in the pandemic agreement negotiations. From the earliest drafts, when One Health was unfamiliar to many delegates and prevention was little more than an afterthought, we have consistently championed a transformative vision that commits to actions to prevent pandemics at the source — those interfaces in nature where viral pathogens first make outside contact. We’ve championed a holistic One Health approach rather than merely responding once it&#8217;s too late. Today, that vision is embedded in a legally binding agreement. Pandemic detection and prevention team at work. Image&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/why-whos-pandemic-prevention-draft-agreement-takes-a-nature-centric-one-health-approach-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/why-whos-pandemic-prevention-draft-agreement-takes-a-nature-centric-one-health-approach-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-299023</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Declining biodiversity and emerging diseases are entwined, more study needed</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/declining-biodiversity-and-emerging-diseases-are-entwined-more-study-needed/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/declining-biodiversity-and-emerging-diseases-are-entwined-more-study-needed/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Feb 2025 16:38:54 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ruth Kamnitzer]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/02/12075729/2-flying-fox--768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=294253</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Birds, Climate Change, Conservation, Consumption, Deforestation, Development, Diseases, Economics, Endangered Species, Environment, Global Environmental Crisis, Health, Land Use Change, Medicine, Overconsumption, Pandemics, Planetary Health, Public Health, Tropical Deforestation, Wildlife, Wildlife consumption, and Zoonotic Diseases]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Five years ago, the COVID-19 pandemic served as a wake-up call. Since then, health experts worldwide have sat on tenterhooks, hyperaware that pathogens can jump from animals to humans at any moment, bringing the next disruptive global health crisis that kills millions. But COVID-19 didn’t happen in a vacuum. Researchers have long warned that human [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Five years ago, the COVID-19 pandemic served as a wake-up call. Since then, health experts worldwide have sat on tenterhooks, hyperaware that pathogens can jump from animals to humans at any moment, bringing the next disruptive global health crisis that kills millions. But COVID-19 didn’t happen in a vacuum. Researchers have long warned that human activities make pandemics far more probable and more frequent. “We know that spillovers from non-human animals are more common,” says Daniel Becker, assistant professor of biology at the University of Oklahoma. “We know that biodiversity loss is increasing. We know that the climate is getting warmer and harder to predict, and that these things are all happening at the same time. So we’ve … entered what we call this polycrisis,” where many problems intersect and influence each other in complex ways. In a recent review study published in Nature Reviews Biodiversity, Becker and co-authors explore connections between emerging infectious disease and biodiversity loss, identify data gaps, and suggest ways forward to better monitor and prepare for emerging diseases. Doctors and nurses from the U.K.’s National Health Service practice using full protective equipment — replicating difficult working conditions in Africa’s Ebola treatment centers — prior to leaving for Sierra Leone to combat an outbreak in 2014. Ebola is caused by a group of viruses endemic to sub-Saharan Africa. Fruit bats are thought to be a reservoir of the virus, which then spread via contact with infected animals or people. Image by Simon Davis/DFID via Wikimedia Commons&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/declining-biodiversity-and-emerging-diseases-are-entwined-more-study-needed/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/declining-biodiversity-and-emerging-diseases-are-entwined-more-study-needed/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-294253</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Cornell receives $35m gift for research at nexus of wildlife and health</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/cornell-receives-35m-gift-for-research-at-nexus-of-wildlife-and-health/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/cornell-receives-35m-gift-for-research-at-nexus-of-wildlife-and-health/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Feb 2024 13:57:48 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carolyn Cowan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Carolyncowan]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/02/09133733/Elephants_RAB-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=278734</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Asia, Atlantic Forest, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Diseases, Endangered Species, Environment, Funding, Health, Livestock, Mammals, Pandemics, philanthropy, Planetary Health, Public Health, Research, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Zoonotic Diseases]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[If there’s one field of research that speaks to humanity’s relationship with the natural world, it’s the interface between wildlife and health. Human alteration of the planet through deforestation, climate change, our globalized food system, and the legal and illegal wildlife trade has brought people, livestock and wildlife into unprecedented proximity, risking disease emergence and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[If there’s one field of research that speaks to humanity’s relationship with the natural world, it’s the interface between wildlife and health. Human alteration of the planet through deforestation, climate change, our globalized food system, and the legal and illegal wildlife trade has brought people, livestock and wildlife into unprecedented proximity, risking disease emergence and transmission that not only imperils human populations, but can also hasten the demise of threatened wildlife species. The scope of study at this vital nexus received a big boost recently when Cornell University’s College of Veterinary Medicine announced a gift of $35 million to support the Cornell Wildlife Health Center, a program founded in 2020 to address wildlife conservation challenges through a multidisciplinary approach centered around the One Health principle. One Health recognizes that human health, animal health and the health of the planet are inextricably linked. With the well-being of each component crucial to the health of all, environmental stewardship underpins the approach. “So many conservation challenges are, in fact, One Health challenges,” Steven Osofsky, a professor of wildlife health and health policy at Cornell University’s College of Veterinary Medicine, told Mongabay in an email. The new fund, announced Jan. 30, represents the largest ever donation to the program, which has been renamed to the Cornell K. Lisa Yang Center for Wildlife Health in recognition of the scale of commitment to planetary health from the donor, K. Lisa Yang, who is also a member of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology Administrative Board and on&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/cornell-receives-35m-gift-for-research-at-nexus-of-wildlife-and-health/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-278734</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘Healthy humans without a healthy planet is a logical fallacy’: Interview with Dr. Sakib Burza</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/healthy-humans-without-a-healthy-planet-is-a-logical-fallacy-interview-with-dr-sakib-burza/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/healthy-humans-without-a-healthy-planet-is-a-logical-fallacy-interview-with-dr-sakib-burza/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Feb 2024 16:49:25 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sonam Lama Hyolmo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/02/06131431/ladakh-people-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=278601</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Community-based Conservation, Deforestation, Diseases, Economics, Environment, Global Warming, Governance, Habitat Loss, Health, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Interviews, Medicine, Pandemics, Planetary Health, Public Health, Rainforests, Supply Chain, Sustainability, Sustainable Development, Sustainable Forest Management, and Traditional People]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Dr. Sakib Burza says his fondest memories are climbing the majestic pine trees in the Kashmir Valley where he spent most of his childhood with his family. On a normal day, he would go trekking up the hills into the mountains above the tree line, watching over the forest canopy below. “I&#8217;ve always been attached [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Dr. Sakib Burza says his fondest memories are climbing the majestic pine trees in the Kashmir Valley where he spent most of his childhood with his family. On a normal day, he would go trekking up the hills into the mountains above the tree line, watching over the forest canopy below. “I&#8217;ve always been attached to nature and I wanted to study medicine,” Burza says. “So it was a question of trying to see both happening, a position where I can bring nature and human health together into one.” Although his father wanted him to excel in engineering, Burza decided to go into the medical field, inspired by his father’s own path in medicine. Growing up in Indian Kashmir, he was conscious of the unmet medical needs of people in rural areas, which also helped put him on the professional pursuit to practice medicine in materially impoverished communities. Burza went on to earn a doctorate in medicine and a master’s degree in public health in developing countries, before practicing as a physician who now directs medical and emergency response at Health In Harmony (HIH), an organization working at the intersection of human and planetary health. HIH’s stated aim is to reverse tropical deforestation and improve the health of forests, and ultimately people, by listening to and supporting the solutions of Indigenous peoples and local communities. Working for rainforest Indigenous communities in Southeast Asia and Africa while being based in the U.K., Burza says he still finds time every year to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/healthy-humans-without-a-healthy-planet-is-a-logical-fallacy-interview-with-dr-sakib-burza/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/healthy-humans-without-a-healthy-planet-is-a-logical-fallacy-interview-with-dr-sakib-burza/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-278601</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>SE Asia’s COVID legacy is less wildlife trade, but more hunting, study finds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/se-asias-covid-legacy-is-less-wildlife-trade-but-more-hunting-study-finds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/se-asias-covid-legacy-is-less-wildlife-trade-but-more-hunting-study-finds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Mar 2023 16:00:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Spoorthy Raman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Food systems]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/03/07142445/pangolin-asia-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=266206</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Illegal Wildlife Trade]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Cambodia, Laos, Southeast Asia, and Vietnam]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Conservation, COVID-19, Crime, Environment, Environmental Law, Food, Hunting, Pandemics, Poaching, Protected Areas, Wildlife, Wildlife consumption, Wildlife Trade, Wildlife Trafficking, and Zoonotic Diseases]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The COVID-19 pandemic, which began spreading in a seafood and poultry market in Wuhan, China, shone a spotlight on zoonotic diseases and the risks that markets selling wild meat can pose to human health. Following the outbreak, some countries like China temporarily closed down wet markets, while others like Vietnam banned the wildlife trade outright. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The COVID-19 pandemic, which began spreading in a seafood and poultry market in Wuhan, China, shone a spotlight on zoonotic diseases and the risks that markets selling wild meat can pose to human health. Following the outbreak, some countries like China temporarily closed down wet markets, while others like Vietnam banned the wildlife trade outright. A WWF survey found that the overall consumption of wildlife dropped by 30% in Southeast Asia and the U.S. On the surface, the pandemic may seem to have deterred people from consumption and trade of wildlife due to restrictions and awareness about zoonoses. However, a new study published in the journal Conservation Science and Practice reveals a more complex picture. The study, part of a bigger livelihood survey of hunting communities in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, interviewed hunters living near protected areas to understand how COVID-19 has impacted their livelihoods. The survey found that the wildlife trade declined during the pandemic, but hunting and forest visits in protected areas increased to make up for lost jobs and to supplement income. “The study aims to get a more holistic picture of hunting and trying to put conservation into practice, so we could intervene positively to reduce hunting and also ensure these communities are stable,” says lead author Elizabeth Davis, a researcher at the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance. A muntjac. Many communities hunt incidentally, killing wild animals like deer, mongoose, squirrels, rabbits, bush pigs or muntjacs when they encounter them in the forest, or setting traps&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/se-asias-covid-legacy-is-less-wildlife-trade-but-more-hunting-study-finds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/se-asias-covid-legacy-is-less-wildlife-trade-but-more-hunting-study-finds/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-266206</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Ebola-like African primate viruses ‘poised for spillover’ to humans, study finds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/ebola-like-african-primate-viruses-poised-for-spillover-to-humans-study-finds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/ebola-like-african-primate-viruses-poised-for-spillover-to-humans-study-finds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Dec 2022 06:00:37 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mactilda Mbenywe]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Karen Coates]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/12/19081359/Banner_macaques_India-temple-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=263783</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Y. Eva Tan Conservation Reporting Fellowship]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Atlantic Forest and Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Conservation, Coronavirus, Diseases, Environment, Fellows, Health, Mammals, Pandemics, Primates, Wildlife, and Zoonotic Diseases]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A family of viruses that can cause fatal Ebola-like symptoms that is also a critical threat to macaque populations is now “poised for spillover” to humans, a new report reveals. The study, published in September in the journal Cell, reveals that the animal virus has found ways to access human cells, multiply and evade parts [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A family of viruses that can cause fatal Ebola-like symptoms that is also a critical threat to macaque populations is now “poised for spillover” to humans, a new report reveals. The study, published in September in the journal Cell, reveals that the animal virus has found ways to access human cells, multiply and evade parts of the immune system that defend people against sickness. Scientists note that this is “pretty rare.” The research team behind the study is watching the virus closely while calling for vigilance, evoking parallels to HIV, which they say arose from simian viruses in African primates. So far, no human infections of the new viruses have been reported, and the severity of effects from these new viruses remains unknown if they were to infect humans. According to the study, captive Asian macaques (of the Macaca genus) infected with these viruses can develop fever, facial edema, dehydration, depression and coagulation defects indicated by round spots that appear on the skin as a result of bleeding. Further, there are thousands of viruses circulating in animals globally, and more animal viruses are thought to be jumping to humans, causing severe harm to people’s immune systems. These include Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) in 2012, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS) in 2003 and SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) in the current pandemic. “COVID is just the latest in a long string of spillover events from animals to humans, some of which have erupted into global catastrophes,” Sara Sawyer, professor&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/ebola-like-african-primate-viruses-poised-for-spillover-to-humans-study-finds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/ebola-like-african-primate-viruses-poised-for-spillover-to-humans-study-finds/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-263783</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In temperate Nepal, climate change paves way for tropical dengue fever</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/in-temperate-nepal-climate-change-paves-way-for-tropical-dengue-fever/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/in-temperate-nepal-climate-change-paves-way-for-tropical-dengue-fever/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Oct 2022 13:12:05 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/10/31123215/4684039424_5b60c90924_k-1-1-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=261970</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Climate Change, Diseases, Drinking Water, Global Environmental Crisis, Health, Mosquitoes, Pandemics, Planetary Health, Public Health, Temperatures, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — Hindus in Nepal marked Tihar this past week, the festival of lights that takes place at the same time as the better-known holy day of Deepavali. But for Richa Sharma, a 38-year-old resident of Kathmandu, there was no celebrating; she was bedridden for the past week. The combination of high fever, body aches [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — Hindus in Nepal marked Tihar this past week, the festival of lights that takes place at the same time as the better-known holy day of Deepavali. But for Richa Sharma, a 38-year-old resident of Kathmandu, there was no celebrating; she was bedridden for the past week. The combination of high fever, body aches and burning eyes left her hardly able to speak, she told Mongabay, “let alone sleep.” As of Oct. 21, Sharma was one of the 43,685 people (and counting) in Nepal who have been diagnosed with dengue fever, transmitted by mosquitoes and also known as breakbone disease, because of the muscle spasms and joint pains that it induces. Nearly three-fifths, or 25,182, of the cases have been reported in the Kathmandu Valley; 52 people have already died due to the disease. “Dengue is everywhere in Kathmandu,” said Rajendra Pokhrel, another city resident. “It’s like COVID-19. Everyone knows at least two, three friends or family members who have been infected by the disease.” Nepal is experiencing its worst dengue outbreak in history, according to the World Health Organization. The last large-scale outbreak of the disease was reported in 2019, when 17,992 cases were recorded nationwide, according to figures from the government’s Epidemiology and Disease Control Division. In 2021, there were just 540 cases. For epidemiologists, policymakers, and affected residents, the outbreak has raised a key question: Why is Nepal, a country at the foot of the Himalayas, currently in the grip of what’s long been considered a&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/in-temperate-nepal-climate-change-paves-way-for-tropical-dengue-fever/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/in-temperate-nepal-climate-change-paves-way-for-tropical-dengue-fever/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-261970</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Tale of two pandemics as mining thrived while communities faced restrictions</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/tale-of-two-pandemics-as-miners-thrived-while-communities-faced-restrictions/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/tale-of-two-pandemics-as-miners-thrived-while-communities-faced-restrictions/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 May 2022 17:36:46 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sandra Cuffe]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/05/24173014/50804490727_bd9f1f6411_k-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=256295</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation, Land rights and extractives, and Latin America]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Guatemala, Latin America, Mexico, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Mining, Pandemics, and Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[CASILLAS, Guatemala — Evelin Cante got involved in the protest camp right from the start. Her village isn’t far from the Escobal silver mine in southern Guatemala, and she was worried about its impacts on the environment and local homes, especially from the detonations at the mine site. Indigenous Xinka communities and other area residents [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[CASILLAS, Guatemala — Evelin Cante got involved in the protest camp right from the start. Her village isn’t far from the Escobal silver mine in southern Guatemala, and she was worried about its impacts on the environment and local homes, especially from the detonations at the mine site. Indigenous Xinka communities and other area residents were never consulted about the mine, and in 2017 they set up a roadside encampment to block entry to trucks carrying mine supplies and equipment. &#8220;I have been supporting the resistance here since it began,&#8221; Cante told Mongabay by the encampment next to the town of Casillas, 60 kilometers (37 miles) southeast of Guatemala City. &#8220;I have children and I do not want to leave them without water.&#8221; A month to the day after the encampment began, the country&#8217;s Supreme Court suspended the mine&#8217;s license pending consultation with the affected Xinka population. Five years later, a pre-consultation process is still underway and so are the encampment actions to enforce the suspension. Paola Coronado (right) listens to a Xinka leader speak in Guatemala City after a May 2022 gathering of communities affected by Pan American Silver. Image courtesy of Sandra Cuffe. But the COVID-19 pandemic presented challenges for mine-affected communities. Health concerns and restrictions limited community actions, while violence against local leaders involved in the resistance movement continued — and not just in Guatemala. Across Latin America, the pandemic has generated new pressures and restrictions on communities, while mining industry activity, deregulation efforts and violence have&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/tale-of-two-pandemics-as-miners-thrived-while-communities-faced-restrictions/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/tale-of-two-pandemics-as-miners-thrived-while-communities-faced-restrictions/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-256295</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Wage-related abuses in fishing industry exacerbated by pandemic response</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/wage-related-abuses-in-fishing-industry-exacerbated-by-pandemic-response/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/wage-related-abuses-in-fishing-industry-exacerbated-by-pandemic-response/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 May 2022 17:04:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Annelise Giseburt]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/05/12161446/Thailand-fisherman-migrant-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=255786</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, East Asia, Pacific Ocean, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[COVID-19, Crime, Diseases, Economics, Environment, Environmental Law, Finance, Fish, Fisheries, Food Industry, Forced labor, Governance, Human Migration, Human Rights, Law, Oceans, Pandemics, Politics, Saltwater Fish, and Social Conflict]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Lower incomes and loss of employment were among the most urgent issues faced by fishing and seafood-processing workers in Asia and the Pacific during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to an April 2022 brief by the International Labour Organization (ILO). In some countries, employment and hours worked fell by 10-15% in the first months of the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Lower incomes and loss of employment were among the most urgent issues faced by fishing and seafood-processing workers in Asia and the Pacific during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to an April 2022 brief by the International Labour Organization (ILO). In some countries, employment and hours worked fell by 10-15% in the first months of the pandemic, leaving many of the already vulnerable workers and their families without financial support. The brief, authored by Cornell University researchers for the ILO’s Ship to Shore Rights South-East Asia project, examined how workers were impacted by the pandemic in the fishing and seafood-processing industries of Japan, South Korea, Thailand and Taiwan, which employ an estimated 125,000 migrant workers from Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar, the Philippines and Vietnam. The brief analyzed workers’ experiences during the period from March 2020 to March 2021 based on recent literature, trade and employment data, and interviews, although the authors acknowledged that Thailand, South Korea and Taiwan were oversampled due to a greater availability of information. Although some sections of the fishing and seafood-processing industry experienced growth during the pandemic, such as seafood for pet food, the researchers found that such growth did not translate into increased wages for workers. The proliferation of wage-related abuses was exacerbated by the pandemic — but not created by it. Reports by the Environmental Justice Foundation on the distant-water fishing fleets of China, Taiwan and South Korea have found that more than 90% of workers had experienced or witnessed withholding of wages in all three&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/wage-related-abuses-in-fishing-industry-exacerbated-by-pandemic-response/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/wage-related-abuses-in-fishing-industry-exacerbated-by-pandemic-response/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-255786</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘A risky business’: Online illegal wildlife trade continues to soar in Myanmar</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/04/a-risky-business-online-illegal-wildlife-trade-continues-to-soar-in-myanmar/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/04/a-risky-business-online-illegal-wildlife-trade-continues-to-soar-in-myanmar/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Apr 2022 05:25:51 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carolyn Cowan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hayat Indriyatno]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/04/04043001/Pangolin_RhettAButler-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=254414</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Atlantic Forest, Myanmar, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, COVID-19, Crime, Critically Endangered Species, Diseases, Elephants, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Hunting, Illegal Trade, Ivory, Law, Law Enforcement, Pandemics, Pangolins, Poaching, Social Media, Technology, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Traditional Medicine, Wildlife, Wildlife consumption, Wildlife Trade, Wildlife Trafficking, and Zoonotic Diseases]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Amid lockdowns, travel restrictions and wet market closures to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, wildlife traders shifted their business online. A trade once dominated by face-to-face interactions now sees sellers and buyers chat via social media, conduct mobile banking transactions, and deliver live animals or their parts by courier — often without fear of legal repercussions. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Amid lockdowns, travel restrictions and wet market closures to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, wildlife traders shifted their business online. A trade once dominated by face-to-face interactions now sees sellers and buyers chat via social media, conduct mobile banking transactions, and deliver live animals or their parts by courier — often without fear of legal repercussions. New research from WWF shows that this trend has taken root in Myanmar. The report, based on monitoring in the Southeast Asian country during 2021, shows that trade in protected wild animals and their body parts via Facebook is escalating. Beyond the impact of the trade on the country’s biodiversity, the report highlights the risks to public health from the trade of several high-risk species, namely civets and pangolins, that are considered to be potential vectors in passing zoonotic, or animal-borne, diseases to humans. It also lays out the mechanisms that facilitate the trade and presents possible ways to curb it. An Asiatic black bear (Ursus thibetanus) advertised for sale in a Facebook post in Myanmar during 2021. Image © WWF Asia-Pacific “With Asia’s track record as a breeding ground for many recent zoonotic diseases, this sharp uptick in online trade of wildlife in Myanmar is extremely concerning,” said Shaun Martin, WWF regional lead on illegal wildlife trade cybercrime and report co-author. Martin added that despite widespread knowledge of the biodiversity crisis and the lessons learned over the past few years about the virus spillover risk inherent in the wildlife trade, evidence shows that animals&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/04/a-risky-business-online-illegal-wildlife-trade-continues-to-soar-in-myanmar/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/04/a-risky-business-online-illegal-wildlife-trade-continues-to-soar-in-myanmar/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-254414</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Call for COVID rules that reduced infections in gorilla parks to remain</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/02/call-for-covid-rules-that-reduced-infections-in-gorilla-parks-to-remain/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/02/call-for-covid-rules-that-reduced-infections-in-gorilla-parks-to-remain/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Feb 2022 13:55:15 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ryan Truscott]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/02/24132418/Rwanda-Mountain-Gorillas-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=253064</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Atlantic Forest, Democratic Republic Of Congo, Rwanda, and Uganda]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Welfare, Animals, Apes, Biodiversity, Charismatic Animals, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Diseases, Endangered Species, Environment, Gorillas, Great Apes, Health, Mammals, Pandemics, Protected Areas, Solutions, Tourism, Wildlife, and Zoonotic Diseases]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Stricter measures implemented to protect endangered mountain gorillas from COVID-19 should be made permanent long after the pandemic has passed, conservationists say, citing a significant drop in respiratory infections among human-habituated gorillas in one major park in Rwanda. Respiratory infections recorded among mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei) in Volcanoes National Park (VNP) dropped from an [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Stricter measures implemented to protect endangered mountain gorillas from COVID-19 should be made permanent long after the pandemic has passed, conservationists say, citing a significant drop in respiratory infections among human-habituated gorillas in one major park in Rwanda. Respiratory infections recorded among mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei) in Volcanoes National Park (VNP) dropped from an average of 5.4 outbreaks among family groups per year between January 2015 and February 2020, to just 1.6 per year after the start of the pandemic in March 2020, according to veterinarians from Gorilla Doctors. The group works to protect the two subspecies of eastern gorillas — mountain gorillas and eastern lowland gorillas (Gorilla beringei graueri) — in Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The drop correlates with the decline in the number of tourists visiting the park, and stricter guidelines for viewing gorillas. VNP was shut in March 2020 as COVID-19 spread around the globe. When it reopened three months later, tourists had to wear face masks and maintain a distance of at least 10 meters (33 feet) from the gorillas, an increase from 7 m (23 ft) before the pandemic. Wearing a mask was previously not mandatory for tourists visiting the park. When Volcanoes National Park reopened three months after a lockdown, tourists had to wear face masks and maintain a distance of at least 10 meters (33 feet) from the gorillas. Image by Peter Prokosch/GRID-Arendal via Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0). “As the Omicron viral variant surges and tourism returns, we consider&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/02/call-for-covid-rules-that-reduced-infections-in-gorilla-parks-to-remain/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/02/call-for-covid-rules-that-reduced-infections-in-gorilla-parks-to-remain/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-253064</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Preventing the next pandemic is vastly cheaper than reacting to it: Study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/02/preventing-the-next-pandemic-is-vastly-cheaper-than-reacting-to-it-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/02/preventing-the-next-pandemic-is-vastly-cheaper-than-reacting-to-it-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Feb 2022 19:06:17 +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/20/2022/02/04182043/Banner-image-768x456.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=252348</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Covering the Commons and Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Atlantic Forest and Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Deforestation, Diseases, Environment, Environmental Law, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Health, Illegal Trade, International Trade, Pandemics, Planetary Health, Politics, Public Health, Research, Science, Trade, Tropical Deforestation, Tropical Forests, Wildlife, Wildlife consumption, Wildlife Trade, Wildlife Trafficking, and Zoonotic Diseases]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Humanity’s response to pandemics to date is similar to our climate change response: mitigation rather than prevention. A new study says preemption could save trillions of dollars and millions of lives; but preparation is grossly underfunded.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[As the novel COVID-19 coronavirus swept the planet in early 2020, researchers scrambled to find effective treatments and vaccines. Within a year, there was a clarion call from heads of state, the World Health Organization (WHO) and other agencies to create an international “pandemic preparedness and response” treaty. WHO noted that COVID-19 offered “a stark and painful reminder that nobody is safe until everyone is safe” from zoonotic disease outbreaks. While these actions are extremely important, a new study in the journal Science Advances emphasizes the critical, largely overlooked need to prevent disease outbreaks before they occur. The average yearly cost in human lives and lost productivity can be in the trillions. These researchers show, in hard numbers, that boosting surveillance and curbing high risk human activities, such as the destruction of tropical forests, will save many lives and vast sums of money. “We are grossly underestimating the economic harms [of pandemics], and prevention is far cheaper than a cure,” says lead author Aaron Bernstein, a pediatrician at Boston Children’s Hospital and a researcher at Harvard University’s Center for Climate, Health and the Global Environment. A simulated COVID-19 patient in the ICU room at a central Java hospital, Indonesia. While the world’s healthcare workers have responded to the pandemic with great courage and global pharmaceutical companies have responded with lightning-fast vaccine development, none of that might have been necessary had preemeptive strategies been in place to detect and stop the disease before it spread. Image by Mufid Majnun at unsplash.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/02/preventing-the-next-pandemic-is-vastly-cheaper-than-reacting-to-it-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/02/preventing-the-next-pandemic-is-vastly-cheaper-than-reacting-to-it-study/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-252348</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Lockdown underscores Uganda’s overreliance on tourism to fund conservation</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/lockdown-underscores-ugandas-overreliance-on-tourism-to-fund-conservation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/lockdown-underscores-ugandas-overreliance-on-tourism-to-fund-conservation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Dec 2021 11:01:53 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Nangayi Guyson]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/12/21105049/Adult-Black-gorilla-Photo-by-Jo-Anne-McArthur_-UnboundProject-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=250858</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Great Apes]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Atlantic Forest, East Africa, and Uganda]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Apes, Charismatic Animals, Conservation, Conservation Finance, COVID-19, Critically Endangered Species, Diseases, Ecotourism, Endangered Species, Environment, Forests, Gorillas, Great Apes, Health, Mammals, Pandemics, Planetary Health, Protected Areas, Tourism, Tropical Forests, Wildlife, and Zoonotic Diseases]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KAMPALA, Uganda — Tour guide Patrick Kataama relied heavily on income from leading gorilla-trekking tours in Uganda&#8217;s national parks. These tours were abruptly shut down in late March 2020, after the first COVID-19 cases were reported in Uganda and the country was placed under lockdown. “This came as a shock to me,&#8221; Kataama tells Mongabay. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KAMPALA, Uganda — Tour guide Patrick Kataama relied heavily on income from leading gorilla-trekking tours in Uganda&#8217;s national parks. These tours were abruptly shut down in late March 2020, after the first COVID-19 cases were reported in Uganda and the country was placed under lockdown. “This came as a shock to me,&#8221; Kataama tells Mongabay. “I had just confirmed three tours to Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and Mgahinga Gorilla National Park when I learned that Uganda was closing national parks. This meant that my income had been halted.” The Uganda Wildlife Authority closed all the country&#8217;s parks on March 26 to protect wildlife, employees and visitors. The authority said it would put measures in place to safeguard and conserve the country&#8217;s wildlife resources. “During the period when tourism was prohibited, the primary goal was to keep the gorillas habituated [to human presence]. As a result, we&#8217;re keeping track of all of those gorilla groupings,” Nelson Guma, chief warden at Bwindi National Park Service, tells Mongabay. Like humans, Bwindi&#8217;s mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei) are susceptible to COVID-19. UWA&#8217;s trackers were trained to wear masks, wash their hands thoroughly with soap or alcohol-based sanitizer, and maintain a safe distance from the apes to prevent the spread of infection from humans to wildlife. A mother and baby gorilla. Image courtesy of Ryoma Otsuka. Nature-based tourism Uganda has seen a tremendous increase in overall tourist numbers over the last two decades. In 2001, the country welcomed 205,000 visitors; in 2018, that number had&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/lockdown-underscores-ugandas-overreliance-on-tourism-to-fund-conservation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/lockdown-underscores-ugandas-overreliance-on-tourism-to-fund-conservation/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-250858</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Uganda’s ‘Dr. Gladys’ honored by U.N. for work linking conservation and health</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/ugandas-dr-gladys-honored-by-u-n-for-work-linking-conservation-and-health/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/ugandas-dr-gladys-honored-by-u-n-for-work-linking-conservation-and-health/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Dec 2021 10:19:17 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Malavika Vyawahare]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavikavyawahare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/12/13100354/GladysKalemaZikusoka_Photo-by-Jo-Anne-McArthur-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=250495</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Atlantic Forest, East Africa, and Uganda]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Apes, Charismatic Animals, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Conservation leadership, Conservation Solutions, Critically Endangered Species, Diseases, Endangered Species, Environment, Forests, Funding, Gender, Gorillas, Governance, Great Apes, Health, Mammals, NGOs, Pandemics, Planetary Health, Protected Areas, Solutions, Tropical Forests, Wildlife, Women In Science, and Zoonotic Diseases]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Years before the obsession with wild-borne pathogens latching onto humans gripped the world, Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka was already dealing with disease spillovers. Except, she worried about humans infecting gorillas in her native Uganda. “Disease transmission goes in both directions,” says Kalema-Zikusoka, a trained wildlife veterinarian. It demonstrates, albeit narrowly, an idea gaining currency in the COVID-19 [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Years before the obsession with wild-borne pathogens latching onto humans gripped the world, Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka was already dealing with disease spillovers. Except, she worried about humans infecting gorillas in her native Uganda. “Disease transmission goes in both directions,” says Kalema-Zikusoka, a trained wildlife veterinarian. It demonstrates, albeit narrowly, an idea gaining currency in the COVID-19 era: “One Health,” the worldview that human health and the health of the natural world are inextricably linked. The United Nations on Dec. 7 hailed Kalema-Zikusoka as a “champion of the Earth” for putting the principle into practice in East Africa, where the human imprint on gorilla habitat is growing. Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park, where Kalema-Zikusoka mostly works, is home to one of only two remaining populations of mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei). All four gorilla subspecies (scientists are still debating if it should be five) are at risk of dying out. The seeds for the NGO Conservation Through Public Health (CTPH), which Kalema-Zikusoka co-founded in 2003, were sown during her early years in Bwindi. In 1996, she helped trace a scabies outbreak among mountain gorillas to people living around the park who themselves had little access to health facilities. CTPH’s efforts over the years have earned Kalema-Zikusoka many accolades — from being awarded the prestigious Ashoka Fellowship in 2006 to becoming a National Geographic Explorer in 2018. She is one of four women recognized as Earth champions this year. Tal Harris, a media consultant for the U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP), which administers the prize,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/ugandas-dr-gladys-honored-by-u-n-for-work-linking-conservation-and-health/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-250495</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Illegal mangrove logging surges in Indonesia&#8217;s Batam amid economic hardship</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/illegal-mangrove-logging-surges-in-indonesia-amid-economic-hardship/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/illegal-mangrove-logging-surges-in-indonesia-amid-economic-hardship/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Dec 2021 15:27:31 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Yogi Eka Sahputra]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Basten Gokkon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/12/10080822/Ribuan-kayu-bakau-di-amankan-polisi-yang-akan-di-Seludupakan-ke-Singapura-foto-Polda-Kepri-1200x661-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=250442</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Riau Islands, Southeast Asia, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, COVID-19, Crime, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Landscape Restoration, Mangroves, Pandemics, and Tropical Deforestation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BATAM, Indonesia — Indonesian officials in Sumatra’s Riau Islands province have reported a 280% increase in seizures of mangrove wood from would-be smugglers this year, attributing the surge in illegal logging to economic hardship among local fishers. Provincial police said they had confiscated 21,186 mangrove logs so far in 2021, up from 7,647 logs in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BATAM, Indonesia — Indonesian officials in Sumatra’s Riau Islands province have reported a 280% increase in seizures of mangrove wood from would-be smugglers this year, attributing the surge in illegal logging to economic hardship among local fishers. Provincial police said they had confiscated 21,186 mangrove logs so far in 2021, up from 7,647 logs in all of 2020. They said much of this mangrove wood came from the main island of Batam, with the logs destined for nearby Malaysia and Singapore. Police estimated the illegal sale of the logs would have deprived the state of 234 million rupiah ($16,300) in revenue. Logging of mangroves is illegal in Indonesia and punishable by up to five years in prison and 2.5 billion rupiah ($174,000) in fines. Mangrove wood seized from would-be smugglers in the Riau Islands. Image courtesy of the Riau Islands Police. A resident who asked not to be identified said a growing number of fishermen had turned to cutting and selling mangrove trees to earn a living because of declining fish catches. Customs officials said the economic hardship wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic has also compounded the problem. Hendrik, a coordinator of Akar Bhumi, a Batam-based NGO focusing on mangrove rehabilitation, said the illegal logging of mangroves was contributing to environmental damage across the Riau Islands, a small archipelago between the eastern edge of Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula. “Fish and shrimps lay their eggs between the mangroves, and if they’re cut down, then there won’t be a place for&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/illegal-mangrove-logging-surges-in-indonesia-amid-economic-hardship/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/illegal-mangrove-logging-surges-in-indonesia-amid-economic-hardship/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-250442</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Wildlife trade hub Vietnam is also hub of impunity for traffickers, report says</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/11/wildlife-trade-hub-vietnam-is-also-hub-of-impunity-for-traffickers-report-says/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/11/wildlife-trade-hub-vietnam-is-also-hub-of-impunity-for-traffickers-report-says/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Nov 2021 18:23:10 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sheryl Lee Tian Tong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sheryl Lee Tian Tong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/04/09060020/cambodia_160441-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=249917</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[China, Democratic Republic Of Congo, Nigeria, South Africa, and Vietnam]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Business, Conservation, Crime, Critically Endangered Species, Elephants, Endangered Species, Environment, Governance, Ivory, Law Enforcement, Organized Crime, Pandemics, Pangolins, Poaching, Rhinos, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Only 14% of wildlife seizures made in Vietnam in the past decade have resulted in convictions, according to a new report that highlights the weak enforcement in the country and lack of coordination between its agencies in following up on investigations. The report, published by the U.K.-based Environmental Investigation Agency, revealed that of at least [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Only 14% of wildlife seizures made in Vietnam in the past decade have resulted in convictions, according to a new report that highlights the weak enforcement in the country and lack of coordination between its agencies in following up on investigations. The report, published by the U.K.-based Environmental Investigation Agency, revealed that of at least 120 seizures of rhino horns, pangolin scales and elephant ivory made in Vietnam since 2010, only 17 cases led to convictions, or just one in every seven cases. Half of the shipments originated from African countries, underscoring Vietnam’s status as an import hub for illegal wildlife products from the continent, it added. Although pandemic restrictions dampened trafficking activity last year, transnational wildlife crime networks continued operating, “taking advantage of the disruption and quickly adapting to global developments,” the researchers wrote. Ivory items on sale in Vietnam, which is a major import hub for illegal wildlife products from Africa. Image courtesy of TRAFFIC. The illegal wildlife trade is a key contributor to global biodiversity decline, reducing wild populations while fueling local extinctions. With pandemic-related restrictions now easing, the worry is that the cross-border wildlife trade will come roaring back. After lockdown measures were lifted in South Africa, the number of rhinos lost to poaching surged by 50% in the first six months of this year compared with 2020. In Nigeria, three major seizures since January, one of which was destined for Vietnam, have netted 19 metric tons of ivory and pangolin scales. Vietnamese wildlife crime networks&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/11/wildlife-trade-hub-vietnam-is-also-hub-of-impunity-for-traffickers-report-says/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-249917</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesia slashes 2021 mangrove restoration target, vows to make up in 2022</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/11/indonesia-slashes-2021-mangrove-restoration-target-vows-to-make-up-in-2022/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/11/indonesia-slashes-2021-mangrove-restoration-target-vows-to-make-up-in-2022/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Nov 2021 14:04:27 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/11/17135504/WhatsApp-Image-2021-10-19-at-2.14.20-PM-1536x1139-1-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=249582</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Aquaculture, Climate, Climate Change, Conservation, COVID-19, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Ecosystems, Environment, Forests, Landscape Restoration, Mangroves, Pandemics, Politics, Rehabilitation, and Restoration]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BALI — Indonesia has revised down its 2021 target for rehabilitating mangroves in light of &#8220;technical hurdles&#8221; brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic and other factors, according to the nation’s mangrove restoration agency. The new target is 33,000 hectares (81,500 acres), down from 83,000 hectares (205,000 acres), according to Hartono Prawiraatmadja, the head of the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BALI — Indonesia has revised down its 2021 target for rehabilitating mangroves in light of &#8220;technical hurdles&#8221; brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic and other factors, according to the nation’s mangrove restoration agency. The new target is 33,000 hectares (81,500 acres), down from 83,000 hectares (205,000 acres), according to Hartono Prawiraatmadja, the head of the Peatland and Mangrove Restoration Agency. The larger plan to rehabilitate 630,000 hectares  (1.55 million acres) by 2024 remains unchanged, he said. In 2022, &#8220;the technical hurdles that we encountered in 2021 will no longer be there,&#8221; Hartono told journalists during a virtual press conference in October. Indonesia is home to more than a quarter of the world’s mangroves — gnarled trees and shrubs that grow in sheltered, tropical coasts, where they buffer coastal communities against storm surges, tsunamis and sea-level rise, and bolster local livelihoods. Mangroves also serve as carbon sinks, storing up to four times as much carbon as other tropical forests, research shows. But the archipelago country has lost 40% of its mangroves in three decades as people harvest the trees for timber and clear them to make way for fish and shrimp farms, the Center on International Forestry Research (CIFOR) said in 2018. A mangrove ecosystem that feeds into Bali&#8217;s Benoa Bay. Image by Anton Muhajir/Mongabay-Indonesia. Last year, President Joko Widodo’s administration announced the nation would rehabilitate mangroves spanning an area four times the size of London by 2024. The president sought to promote the program through recent visits to rehabilitation sites&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/11/indonesia-slashes-2021-mangrove-restoration-target-vows-to-make-up-in-2022/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-249582</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘To change policies, insert yourself in them’: Q&#038;A with biologist Liliana Dávalos</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/10/to-change-policies-insert-yourself-in-them-qa-with-biologist-liliana-davalos/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/10/to-change-policies-insert-yourself-in-them-qa-with-biologist-liliana-davalos/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Oct 2021 09:15:21 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Nicolás Bustamante Hernández]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Genevieve Belmaker]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/10/29050635/Liliana-Davalos-In-the-Dominican-Republic-capturing-bats-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=248747</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Atlantic Forest, Colombia, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Bats, Conservation, Coronavirus, Diseases, Environment, Gender, Health, Interviews, Pandemics, Planetary Health, Rainforests, Research, Tropical Forests, Wildlife, Women In Science, and Zoonotic Diseases]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Liliana Dávalos had only been studying geology for a few days at the National University of Colombia in 1991 when the program director told the whole class that women were there to find a husband instead of pursuing a career in science. Dávalos had entered the university, the most important public academic institution in Colombia, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Liliana Dávalos had only been studying geology for a few days at the National University of Colombia in 1991 when the program director told the whole class that women were there to find a husband instead of pursuing a career in science. Dávalos had entered the university, the most important public academic institution in Colombia, after obtaining the highest score in the admission exam to the School of Sciences. She intended to become a paleontologist. But she didn’t last long there. Instead, she moved to Cali, near her hometown of Palmira, to study biology at the University of Valle in the second semester. Her decision, she says, was not motivated by the teacher&#8217;s comments. Instead, she says, she did it because the geology program at the national university was more focused on oil extraction than basic research. Now, 30 years later, Dávalos is the director of her own laboratory at the Department of Ecology and Evolution at Stony Brook University in New York. From the Dávalos Lab, she leads a team that conducts &#8220;research on extinction and deep-time survival, vertebrate genetics and genomics, and deforestation,&#8221; according to their website. Dávalos has focused on studying the evolution of bats, their genomes and, more recently, the relationship of these flying mammals with pathogens such as coronaviruses. Based on her doctoral degree work, she has published a mathematical model showing that human-caused extinctions have stolen 8 million years’ worth of evolution from bats. She also studies the relationship between armed conflict, drug trafficking&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/10/to-change-policies-insert-yourself-in-them-qa-with-biologist-liliana-davalos/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-248747</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘The images are confronting’: Q&#038;A with animal photojournalist Jo-Anne McArthur</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/10/the-images-are-confronting-qa-with-animal-photojournalist-jo-anne-mcarthur/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/10/the-images-are-confronting-qa-with-animal-photojournalist-jo-anne-mcarthur/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Oct 2021 18:26:54 +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/20/2021/10/20145931/WAM8023-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=248373</guid>

					
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Animal Intelligence, Animal Rights, Animal Welfare, Animals, Baby Animals, Charismatic Animals, Conservation, COVID-19, Crime, Environment, Pandemics, Photos, Pollution, Wildlife, Wildlife consumption, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[On the title page of Hidden: Animals in the Anthropocene is a black-and-white portrait of a lamb. The little animal, probably only a few weeks old, stands alone on the stained concrete floor of a slaughterhouse at a live animal market in China. The lamb gazes forward, its chin lifted, almost like it’s trying to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[On the title page of Hidden: Animals in the Anthropocene is a black-and-white portrait of a lamb. The little animal, probably only a few weeks old, stands alone on the stained concrete floor of a slaughterhouse at a live animal market in China. The lamb gazes forward, its chin lifted, almost like it’s trying to catch the eye of the photographer. Shortly after the image was taken, the young lamb was likely killed for its meat. In the pages that follow, there are photos of battery hens standing on the dead bodies of their companions in crammed cages in Spain; the heads of slaughtered dogs tossed into a bowl at a market in Cambodia; piles of fish gasping for air after being caught by an industrial trawler off the coast of France. Some of the most confronting pictures are those that show animals in blood-smeared slaughterhouses, wide-eyed as they watch people kill their companions shortly before their turn arrives. “There&#8217;s a lot of wildlife photography out there and photography of companion animals, but [not of] these hidden animals,” Jo-Anne McArthur, co-editor of the book, told Mongabay in an interview. “We’re just like, ‘Oh, well, they&#8217;re for our consumption. They’re not worthy of any attention. That&#8217;s different.’ But it’s not different.” McArthur, an award-winning photographer who has spent more than 20 years photographing the human-animal relationship, and who was once diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder due to the intensity of her work, says the photographs in Hidden follow in the tradition&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/10/the-images-are-confronting-qa-with-animal-photojournalist-jo-anne-mcarthur/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/10/the-images-are-confronting-qa-with-animal-photojournalist-jo-anne-mcarthur/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-248373</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In harm’s way: Our actions put people and wildlife at risk of disease</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/10/in-harms-way-our-actions-put-people-and-wildlife-at-risk-of-disease/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/10/in-harms-way-our-actions-put-people-and-wildlife-at-risk-of-disease/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Oct 2021 03:46:00 +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/20/2021/10/20100453/0-A-female-Amur-tiger-Panthera-tigris-altaica-with-a-cub-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=248356</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Atlantic Forest and Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Diseases, Endangered Species, Environment, Green, Health, Illegal Trade, Insects, International Trade, Livestock, Mammals, Mosquitoes, Pandemics, Public Health, Research, Science, Solutions, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, Wildlife Trafficking, and Zoonotic Diseases]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Altering Earth’s natural systems not only spreads disease to humans. Ecosystem disruption increasingly puts wild animals at risk of devastating pandemics and threatens endangered species’ survival.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A gaunt, staggering tigress named Galia alerted researchers in the Russian Far East that something was very wrong. She, and soon other wild Amur tigers (Panthera tigris altaica), wandered through villages and stumbled across roads, dazed, hungry, and boldly unafraid of humans — extremely abnormal behavior for this secretive, wary cat. When tiger expert Dale Miquelle investigated, he linked these mysterious neurological problems to symptoms of canine distemper, a global and highly contagious virus, that the tigers likely acquired by preying on infected feral dogs or viral hosts: martens or wolves. Galia and others died. A female Amur tiger, also known as a Siberian tiger, (Panthera tigris altaica). The species is vulnerable to canine distemper. Leipzig Zoo. Image by Appaloosa via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0). The COVID-19 pandemic has reminded us that many pathogens are zoonotic, jumping from one species to another. Today, global attention focuses on those that originate in wildlife and mutate to infect humans, livestock and our beloved pets. But many pathogens also leap in the other direction, with humans or domestic animals spreading disease to wildlife, says Steve Osofsky, director of the Cornell Wildlife Health Center in Ithaca, New York. Few people realize that simply bringing humans, cows, pigs, chickens or dogs into — or adjacent to — a wild area can hasten the demise of endangered species. Canine distemper offers just one jarring example: It has substantially increased the odds that the last 500 Amur tigers could disappear forever in the next 50 years. “There’s a surprisingly&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/10/in-harms-way-our-actions-put-people-and-wildlife-at-risk-of-disease/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/10/in-harms-way-our-actions-put-people-and-wildlife-at-risk-of-disease/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-248356</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Biosurveillance of markets and legal wildlife trade needed to curb pandemic risk: Experts</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/10/biosurveillance-of-markets-and-legal-wildlife-trade-needed-to-curb-pandemic-risk-experts/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/10/biosurveillance-of-markets-and-legal-wildlife-trade-needed-to-curb-pandemic-risk-experts/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Oct 2021 09:30:41 +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/20/2021/10/13143112/banner-Baby_monkey_in_cage_Jatinegara_Market-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=248150</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Atlantic Forest, China, and Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Bats, Bushmeat, Conservation, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Deforestation, Diseases, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Green, Health, International Trade, Law Enforcement, Mammals, Pandemics, Planetary Health, Public Health, Rainforests, Research, Science, Surveillance, Trade, Tropical Forests, Wildlife, Wildlife consumption, Wildlife Trade, Wildlife Trafficking, and Zoonotic Diseases]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Medical, public health, and conservation experts are calling for greater pathogen surveillance and regulation of the legal wildlife trade in order to quickly identify pathogens and prevent the next pandemic.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Before the coronavirus pandemic shut down Wuhan’s wildlife markets in 2020, it was common to see dozens of species and hundreds of wild animals crammed into cages, stacked one on top of the other. A walk through the Huanan Wholesale Seafood Market revealed king rat snakes (Elaphe carinata), bamboo rats (Rhizomys sinensis), Amur hedgehogs (Erinaceus amurensis), raccoon dogs (Nyctereutes procyonoides) and hog badgers (Arctonyx albogularis) peering out from wire and glass cages. Marmots (Marmota himalayana), sold for food, commanded more than $25 per kilogram ($11 per pound). Hedgehogs cost just $2 per kilo (90 cents a pound). All held the possibility of being a vector for zoonotic disease. Between May 2017 and November 2019 — the point at which the SARS-CoV-2 virus is presumed to have spilled over into humans from an unknown animal host — more than 47,000 individual animals, including 31 protected species, were sold in Wuhan’s markets. Multiply that by the uncounted wildlife markets across Asia, Africa, Latin America and elsewhere, and the scale of risk to humanity becomes clear. But although almost 90% of the 180 recognized RNA viruses that can harm humans are zoonotic in origin, meaning they come from a nonhuman animal, disease surveillance of the world&#8217;s wildlife markets and trade is largely absent, according to experts. There is no internationally recognized standard for managing the legal wildlife trade based on disease risk, and no global pathogen screening measures are currently in place for wildlife or products consumed as food or transported around the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/10/biosurveillance-of-markets-and-legal-wildlife-trade-needed-to-curb-pandemic-risk-experts/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/10/biosurveillance-of-markets-and-legal-wildlife-trade-needed-to-curb-pandemic-risk-experts/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-248150</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>When North America locked down, birds filled the gap left by people</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/when-north-america-locked-down-birds-filled-the-gap-left-by-people/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/when-north-america-locked-down-birds-filled-the-gap-left-by-people/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Sep 2021 18:50:36 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Malavika Vyawahare]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavikavyawahare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/09/28183118/preview16-768x507.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=247637</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Canada, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Birding, Birds, COVID-19, Infrastructure, Migration, Pandemics, Population, Raptors, Research, and Roads]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[An analysis of bird sightings in Canada and the U.S. showed that many North American species, from mighty eagles to diminutive hummingbirds, gained ground during COVID-19 lockdowns as humans sheltered in place. “Bald eagles changed their use of the entire North American continent,” said Nicola Koper, professor of conservation biology at the University of Manitoba [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[An analysis of bird sightings in Canada and the U.S. showed that many North American species, from mighty eagles to diminutive hummingbirds, gained ground during COVID-19 lockdowns as humans sheltered in place. “Bald eagles changed their use of the entire North American continent,” said Nicola Koper, professor of conservation biology at the University of Manitoba and a co-author of a recent paper in the journal Science Advances. These iconic eagles, Haliaeetus leucocephalus, homed in on counties where traffic was at its lowest ebb due to strict lockdowns. “Hummingbirds more than tripled in abundance near airports,” Koper said. Of the 82 species considered, the distribution of 66 changed during pandemic-related shutdowns. The general trend was of growing abundance in areas where human activity was muted. “It shows how sensitive they are to changes in human behavior,” Koper said, “even small alterations in how humans move in their environment impacts birds.” A ruby-throated hummingbird (Archilochus colubris). Image courtesy of Shenandoah National Park/Flickr. The researchers gathered more than 4 million records from the eBird database, a platform that relies on contributions from volunteers, a flock that includes amateur bird enthusiasts and professional birders. Since the forum has been around for a while, the scientists could compare species abundance from May to June 2020 to the same period in previous years. &#8220;This is an amazing study. The team leveraged large data sets collected by the community-science program eBird, to investigate how birds across North America responded to lockdowns in early 2020,&#8221; said Christian Rutz,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/when-north-america-locked-down-birds-filled-the-gap-left-by-people/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/when-north-america-locked-down-birds-filled-the-gap-left-by-people/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-247637</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Domestic bushmeat consumption an “urgent” threat to migratory mammals, U.N. says</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/domestic-bushmeat-consumption-an-urgent-threat-to-migratory-mammals-u-n-says/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/domestic-bushmeat-consumption-an-urgent-threat-to-migratory-mammals-u-n-says/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Sep 2021 11:52:58 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carolyn Cowan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Carolyncowan]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/09/20112808/WM_04-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=247314</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Amazon, Asia, Latin America, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Bushmeat, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Food, food security, Global Environmental Crisis, Gorillas, Human-wildlife Conflict, Mammals, Pandemics, Primates, Wildlife, Wildlife consumption, Wildlife Trade, and Zoonotic Diseases]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Every October, at least 10 million straw-colored fruit bats (Eidolon helvum) arrive in Kasanka National Park in Zambia from the rainforests of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Besides its spectacular 2,000-kilometer (1,200-mile) migration, the species has the dubious honor of being Africa’s most hunted bat. Hundreds of thousands are taken every year for human consumption. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Every October, at least 10 million straw-colored fruit bats (Eidolon helvum) arrive in Kasanka National Park in Zambia from the rainforests of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Besides its spectacular 2,000-kilometer (1,200-mile) migration, the species has the dubious honor of being Africa’s most hunted bat. Hundreds of thousands are taken every year for human consumption. And it’s not alone in its plight. According to a recent U.N. report, many migratory mammals are in grave danger from harvesting for wild meat consumption. And of those species that are taken for their meat, the vast majority are consumed at a subsistence level or traded within national borders, rather than internationally. Capture and consumption of migratory mammals also significantly increases the risk of zoonotic disease transmission to humans, the findings say. Researchers examined the impacts of wild meat taking, trade and consumption on 105 wild mammal species protected under the U.N. Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS), including ungulates, primates, carnivores, elephants and bats. Their findings show that 70% of mammal species protected under the CMS are used for wild meat consumption, which is the key motivation behind both legal and illegal hunting. Other motivations included cultural practices, medicinal use, trophy hunting and human-wildlife conflict. Experts say the findings have far-reaching implications for national and international efforts to protect threatened species. “This report indicates for the first time a clear and urgent need to focus on domestic use of protected migratory species of wild animals, across their range,”&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/domestic-bushmeat-consumption-an-urgent-threat-to-migratory-mammals-u-n-says/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-247314</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Fashions to die for: The fur trade’s role in spreading zoonotic disease</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/fashions-to-die-for-the-fur-trades-role-in-spreading-zoonotic-disease/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/fashions-to-die-for-the-fur-trades-role-in-spreading-zoonotic-disease/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Sep 2021 12:37:48 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jenny Gonzales]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/09/15102313/5a-A-red-fox-at-a-fur-farm-in-Quebec-which-has-since-been-closed-down.-2014.-Credit-Jo-Anne-McArthur-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=247145</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Industry and People]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Welfare, Animals, Business, Charismatic Animals, Conservation, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Diseases, Environment, Environmental Law, Fashion industry, Industry, International Trade, Mammals, Pandemics, Poaching, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, Wildlife Trafficking, and Zoonotic Diseases]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[During the pandemic, demand for furs by Chinese, U.S. and EU fashion consumers has set off few alarms, but COVID-19 outbreaks on EU and U.S. mink farms raised questions over the fur trade’s role in spreading zoonotic disease.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the complex universe of COVID-19 and other zoonotic diseases (those that can jump from animals to humans and back), key questions remain largely unaddressed, including what role fur farming for the fashion industry plays in the spread of highly transmissible zoonotic diseases, and how the industry should be managed to minimize risk. Zoonoses are defined as any diseases or infections naturally transmissible from vertebrate animals to humans. Zoonotic diseases have become an urgent contemporary concern due to vast and rapid global deforestation, especially in the tropics, which increases the risk of human contact with animals that host unknown viruses. Also an important factor in their spread is the legal and illegal wildlife trade, as well as farmed animal systems developed by the livestock, fur and food industries that gather many thousands of animals together — including wildlife species such as mink — in confined environments until slaughter. Up to 75% of all new or emerging infectious diseases are zoonotic in origin, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. COVID-19 (caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus) and two other coronavirus diseases, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), are just a few of the many zoonotic diseases to emerge in the last 20 years. SARS, which emerged in 2002 in China and killed 774 people worldwide, was likely transmitted from horseshoe bats via an intermediary host, the Asian palm civet, which were bred on factory-style farms and widely sold in Asian markets for food. Raccoon dogs, raised for both&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/fashions-to-die-for-the-fur-trades-role-in-spreading-zoonotic-disease/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/fashions-to-die-for-the-fur-trades-role-in-spreading-zoonotic-disease/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-247145</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Study fails to find link between increased deforestation and COVID lockdowns</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/study-fails-to-find-link-between-increased-deforestation-and-covid-crisis/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/study-fails-to-find-link-between-increased-deforestation-and-covid-crisis/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Sep 2021 17:09:28 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[James Fair]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/09/14164105/forest-6226224_1920-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=247135</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Global Forests]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Deforestation, Environment, Forest Loss, Forests, Illegal Logging, Logging, Pandemics, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Tropical Deforestation, Tropical Forests, and Zoonotic Diseases]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[When the COVID-19 pandemic first struck, and national governments responded with lockdowns of varying degrees, conservationists warned it would lead to a surge in illegal logging in tropical countries. They argued that with fewer eyes and ears on the ground for monitoring, combined with a ready supply of short-term labor in the form of unemployed [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[When the COVID-19 pandemic first struck, and national governments responded with lockdowns of varying degrees, conservationists warned it would lead to a surge in illegal logging in tropical countries. They argued that with fewer eyes and ears on the ground for monitoring, combined with a ready supply of short-term labor in the form of unemployed people migrating from cities back to their home villages, the world’s rainforests were bound to take a hit. Indeed, environmental campaigners interviewed by Mongabay in June 2020, just a few months into the pandemic, said their organizations had already detected signs of increased illegal activity. But according to new research in Forest Policy and Economics, different forces acting on the global macroeconomics have largely balanced each other out, so that increases in deforestation in one part of the world have been offset by decreases elsewhere. Global Forest Watch (GFW) found that tropical forest tree cover dropped by 12.2 million hectares (30.5 million acres) in 2020, a 12% increase over levels in 2019, according to the new paper. That’s an area nearly the size of Greece. But the researchers write that the analysis should focus on a “three-year moving data average, which with the large 2016-18 declines was still dropping in 2020.” This is because rates of loss in 2020 were still considerably below those in 2016 or 2017, so the three-year average of 2018-2020 is much lower than the two previous periods (2016-2018 and 2017-2019). Trends in the three largest tropical forest countries — Brazil,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/study-fails-to-find-link-between-increased-deforestation-and-covid-crisis/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-247135</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Borneo’s bearded pigs and traditional hunters adapted to oil palms. Then came swine fever</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/borneos-bearded-pigs-and-traditional-hunters-adapted-to-oil-palms-then-came-swine-fever/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/borneos-bearded-pigs-and-traditional-hunters-adapted-to-oil-palms-then-came-swine-fever/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Sep 2021 13:46:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sheryl Lee Tian Tong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sheryl Lee Tian Tong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/09/08132013/Pan310250_Image_0-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=246901</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Atlantic Forest, Borneo, Malaysia, and Sabah]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Animals, Biodiversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, Business, Cities, Conservation, Culture, Deforestation, Development, Diseases, Ecology, Ecosystems, Environment, Environmental Policy, Forest Fragmentation, Forest Loss, Forests, Governance, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Hunting, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Mammals, Palm Oil, Pandemics, Plantations, Primary Forests, Rainforests, Saving Rainforests, Solutions, Threats To Rainforests, Traditional People, Transmigration, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[It’s easier to spot the bristly, gray-brown hide of a Bornean bearded pig (Sus barbatus) ambling through orderly rows of oil palm trees, than amid a dense tropical forest. But modern-day pig hunting in plantations brings its own challenges. The animals are more skittish. They are sensitive to the sound of gunshots and the smell [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[It’s easier to spot the bristly, gray-brown hide of a Bornean bearded pig (Sus barbatus) ambling through orderly rows of oil palm trees, than amid a dense tropical forest. But modern-day pig hunting in plantations brings its own challenges. The animals are more skittish. They are sensitive to the sound of gunshots and the smell of gunpowder. Once aware of a human presence, they bolt. It wasn’t always this way. Indigenous Kadazandusun-Murut (KDM) hunters, who have for centuries tracked wild pigs through the forests of Sabah, Malaysia, reported that their prey never used to be so fearful of humans. In the past, pigs that encountered hunters “wouldn’t run,” but “only looked.” Today’s pigs, however, are smarter: quicker to flee and harder to catch. “Now the pig has got a high school certificate,” hunters told researchers, in a new study published August in People and Nature. The study, which investigates how KDM bearded pig hunting practices have changed in recent decades with oil palm expansion and urbanization, found it wasn’t just the pigs’ behavior that was different: hunting patterns had adapted in response, too. A bearded pig peering through the forest. Photo by Jessica Suarez. Previously, hunters mainly headed to forests or mangroves to hunt pigs in traditional ways: with dogs and a spear, on foot with a gun, or using snares. But as industrial and smallholder oil palm plantations steadily replace forests, pigs and hunters are increasingly altering their behavior and practices to fit this new landscape. According to hunters,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/borneos-bearded-pigs-and-traditional-hunters-adapted-to-oil-palms-then-came-swine-fever/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/borneos-bearded-pigs-and-traditional-hunters-adapted-to-oil-palms-then-came-swine-fever/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-246901</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Conservation after coronavirus: We need to diversify and innovate (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/after-coronavirus-conservation-needs-diversification-and-innovation-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/after-coronavirus-conservation-needs-diversification-and-innovation-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Sep 2021 11:14:28 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Frederic LaunayJonathan Ayers]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Nandithachandraprakash]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/09/02110622/Lioness-in-Kafue-national-park-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=246672</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa and Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Commentary, Conservation, Conservation Philosophy, Conservation Solutions, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Ecotourism, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Innovation, Lions, Pandemics, Poaching, Poverty, Protected Areas, Solutions, Sustainability, transforming conservation, Wildlife, and Wildlife Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The loss of the Mukambi River Pride lioness last June was sobering proof that the shock wave of COVID-19 had reached the heart and wildlife of Zambia’s Kafue National Park. All that remained of this once magnificent animal was her skin, pock-marked from spears and large rocks that had been hurled at her body, lying [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[The loss of the Mukambi River Pride lioness last June was sobering proof that the shock wave of COVID-19 had reached the heart and wildlife of Zambia’s Kafue National Park. All that remained of this once magnificent animal was her skin, pock-marked from spears and large rocks that had been hurled at her body, lying next to the poacher’s snare that had wrapped around her paw, and the GPS collar that had unveiled so much about her pride’s contribution to Kafue. Before setting fire to the scene, the poachers took almost every part of her body, presumably to sell through the illegal wildlife trade. Collared for over two years, the Mukambi lioness was a star of the Zambian Carnivore Programme’s scientific monitoring program and a critical breeding member of her pride. Shortly after, another Kafue lioness was snared, just days after being GPS-collared. Both were poached in ‘Intensive Protection Zones,’ where vigorous antipoaching efforts had all but eradicated lion snarings in 2019. As COVID creeped in, however, sweeps of the park boundary recovered 136 snares from May to August 2020, compared to just 25 collected over the same period in 2019. Bushmeat seizures soared from nearly 100 pounds in 2019 to over 3,300 pounds in 2020. Far from an outlier, many formerly secure wildlife homes around the globe have followed suit. Lionesses in Kafue National Park. Image by Mosi Lager via Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0). When the lockdown began, the lucrative tap of international tourism upon which protected areas, the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/after-coronavirus-conservation-needs-diversification-and-innovation-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-246672</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Studies debunk ‘nature is healing’ narrative from 2020 lockdowns</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/studies-debunk-nature-is-healing-narrative-from-2020-lockdowns/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/studies-debunk-nature-is-healing-narrative-from-2020-lockdowns/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Sep 2021 16:18:49 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jansen Baier]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/09/01060848/wildlife-in-the-city-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=246565</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Air Pollution, Animal Behavior, Animals, Cities, Conservation, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Environment, Fellows, Pandemics, Pollution, Research, Waste, Water Pollution, Wildlife, and Zoonotic Diseases]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[When the world went on lockdown, nature got a reprieve, or so it seemed. Dolphins swam in the Hudson River, Los Angeles’ famed smog dissipated, and wild animals were reportedly reclaiming cities. The narrative presented in the media was clear: the COVID-19 lockdowns last year allowed nature and the environment a temporary reprieve. But how [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[When the world went on lockdown, nature got a reprieve, or so it seemed. Dolphins swam in the Hudson River, Los Angeles’ famed smog dissipated, and wild animals were reportedly reclaiming cities. The narrative presented in the media was clear: the COVID-19 lockdowns last year allowed nature and the environment a temporary reprieve. But how much did lockdown really impact air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions? And did animals actually move back into cities? A year later, researchers around the world are examining data from the lockdowns and publishing their findings. Did the natural world really make a brief comeback during lockdown? The answer is complicated. “The pandemic is bad. It’s causing a lot of troubles for humankind,” said Phil Yang, a geospatial scientist and professor of geographic information science at George Mason University. “But on the other side, this experiment is helping us to be able to observe how human activities have been impacting the earth, the environment and climate change.” Screengrab from a viral video of a civet cat roaming the streets of Kerala, India, in March 2020 during the lockdowns. Air pollution and lockdowns For his part, Yang looked at air quality in California before COVID-19 and during lockdowns, publishing his results in the journal Science of the Total Environment. He and his multidisciplinary team at George Mason University studied concentrations of nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide (both of which are indirect greenhouse gases) and particulate matter, during the initial California COVID-19 lockdown that lasted nearly three months,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/studies-debunk-nature-is-healing-narrative-from-2020-lockdowns/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-246565</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Not just for humans — scientists turn to vaccines to save endangered species</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/08/not-just-for-humans-scientists-turn-to-vaccines-to-save-endangered-species/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/08/not-just-for-humans-scientists-turn-to-vaccines-to-save-endangered-species/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Aug 2021 15:16:46 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gloria Dickie]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/08/19134408/koala-bear-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=246156</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Atlantic Forest and Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, COVID-19, Diseases, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Health, Medicine, Pandemics, Planetary Health, Research, Wildlife, and Zoonotic Diseases]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For more than a year, the world has closely followed the development, approval and deployment of various coronavirus vaccines that could bring an end to the global pandemic, debating every side effect and hurdle. But vaccines aren’t only used to spare humans from the ravages of disease; increasingly, they’re being used to conserve wild species [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For more than a year, the world has closely followed the development, approval and deployment of various coronavirus vaccines that could bring an end to the global pandemic, debating every side effect and hurdle. But vaccines aren’t only used to spare humans from the ravages of disease; increasingly, they’re being used to conserve wild species threatened with extinction. Humans vaccinate wildlife for a number of reasons, but most hinge on human health and the protection of livestock. Raccoons are vaccinated for rabies, white-tailed deer for tuberculosis, and wild boar for swine fever. But such immunization campaigns aren’t designed to save wildlife — they’re designed to save us. That’s starting to change. Today, with environmental threats mounting, there is growing acceptance of the need to vaccinate wild animals to help save them from extinction. In 2015, the Wildlife Conservation Society along with several academic institutions convened the first “Vaccines for Conservation” international meeting in New York City to push for vaccinating threatened carnivores against canine distemper. But that’s just one among many initiatives under consideration by conservationists. A livestock vaccination campaign in Madhya Pradesh near Kanha Tiger Reserve. Image by Gloria Dickie. In the United States, scientists have developed an oral vaccine for prairie dogs, hidden in peanut-butter-flavored bait, to prevent plague, caused by the Yersinia pestis bacterium. Prairie dogs are the key prey species of endangered black-footed ferrets (Mustela nigripes). Researchers are also racing to develop a vaccine for white-nose syndrome, caused by the Pseudogymnoascus destructans fungus, in hibernating bats.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/08/not-just-for-humans-scientists-turn-to-vaccines-to-save-endangered-species/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-246156</doi>				</item>
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