Newsletter 2018-01-25

FEATURED

The ups and downs of marine protected areas: Examining the evidence by Shreya Dasgupta [01/25/2018]

– To find out if marine protected areas achieve their environmental and socioeconomic goals, we read 42 scientific studies and talked to seven experts.
– Overall, marine protected areas do appear to help marine animals recover within their boundaries. But a lot more rigorous research is needed.
– The effects of marine protected areas on socioeconomic outcomes and fisheries are less clear.
– This is part of a special Mongabay series on “Conservation Effectiveness.”


Maduro seeks sell off of Venezuela natural resources to escape debt – analysis by Bram Ebus [01/25/2018]

– With Venezuela’s hyperinflation rate soaring to an estimated 2,700 percent in 2017, corruption and looting rife, and food and medicine in short supply nationwide, President Nicolás Maduro is desperate to find solutions to the country’s deepening economic crisis.
– Many of the president’s solutions, including the Arco Minero and the Petro cryptocurrency, could end up selling off Venezuela’s mineral wealth while devastating indigenous territories and the environment, including the Venezuelan Amazon.
– The Arco Minero, announced by Maduro in 2016, would open 112,000 square kilometers, more than 12 percent of the country, to mining. And while Maduro has invited transnational companies to do the work, most mining that is currently being done is controlled by corrupt elements of the military and organized armed gangs.
– In December, Maduro announced the Petro cryptocurrency, another scheme likely meant to help ease Venezuela’s debt. The new virtual currency would either be backed by the country’s untapped oil wealth or mineral wealth, including gold, coltan and diamonds. The fear is that none of these policies will prevent Venezuela from becoming a failed state.


Luxury British yacht makers vow to examine supply chains by Sophie Cohen [01/23/2018]

– Highly durable and aesthetically beautiful Burmese teak is prized for boat decking, particularly in luxury yachts, but natural teak from Myanmar is often exported illegally.
– According to a recent alert from Britain’s Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), many British-made luxury yachts contain decking from illegally-sourced Burmese teak despite EU regulations in place to prevent its sale and export.
– Luxury yacht companies interviewed at the London Boat Show stress that although they plan on investigating their supply chains, they maintain that their Burmese teak decking is legally and ethically-sourced.


NEWS

Rhino poaching in South Africa dipped slightly last year, but ‘crisis continues unabated,’ conservationists say by Mongabay.com [01/25/2018]

– South African Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs Edna Molewa announced in a press briefing today that 1,028 rhinos were illegally killed in the country in 2017.
– In Kruger National Park, which has typically been the epicenter of rhino poaching in South Africa, 504 illegal killings were recorded last year, Molewa reported. That’s a 24 percent reduction over 2016 — but these gains were offset by poaching in other regions, particularly KwaZulu Natal province.
– While the rhino poaching rate in South Africa has slowly decreased every year since peaking in 2014 with 1,215 animals lost, conservationists were not encouraged by the slightly lower number of rhinos killed last year.


Data fusion opens new horizons for remote imaging of landscapes by Sue Palminteri [01/25/2018]

– Scientists use remotely sensed data from satellites to map and analyze habitat extent, vegetation health, land use change, and plant species distributions at various scales.
– Open-source data sets, analysis tools, and powerful computers now allow scientists to combine different sources of satellite-based data.
– A new paper details how combining multispectral and radar data enables more refined analyses over broader scales than either can alone.


Maduro seeks sell off of Venezuela natural resources to escape debt – analysis by Bram Ebus [01/25/2018]

– With Venezuela’s hyperinflation rate soaring to an estimated 2,700 percent in 2017, corruption and looting rife, and food and medicine in short supply nationwide, President Nicolás Maduro is desperate to find solutions to the country’s deepening economic crisis.
– Many of the president’s solutions, including the Arco Minero and the Petro cryptocurrency, could end up selling off Venezuela’s mineral wealth while devastating indigenous territories and the environment, including the Venezuelan Amazon.
– The Arco Minero, announced by Maduro in 2016, would open 112,000 square kilometers, more than 12 percent of the country, to mining. And while Maduro has invited transnational companies to do the work, most mining that is currently being done is controlled by corrupt elements of the military and organized armed gangs.
– In December, Maduro announced the Petro cryptocurrency, another scheme likely meant to help ease Venezuela’s debt. The new virtual currency would either be backed by the country’s untapped oil wealth or mineral wealth, including gold, coltan and diamonds. The fear is that none of these policies will prevent Venezuela from becoming a failed state.


Biofuel boost threatens even greater deforestation in Indonesia, Malaysia: Study by Hans Nicholas Jong [01/25/2018]

– A new report projects the global demand for palm oil-based biofuel by 2030 will be six times higher than today if existing and proposed policies in Indonesia, China and the aviation industry hold.
– That surge in demand could result in the clearing of 45,000 square kilometers (17,374 square miles) of forest in Indonesia and Malaysia, the world’s biggest palm oil producers, and the release of an additional 7 billion tons of CO2 emissions a year — higher than current annual emissions by the U.S.
– That impact could be tempered to some degree by the European Union, which plans to phase out all use of palm oil in its biofuel over the next three years, citing environmental concerns.


Indonesia buckles to protests against seine fishing ban by Basten Gokkon [01/25/2018]

– The Indonesian government has exempted fishermen operating off the north coast of Java from complying with a ban on the use of a particular type of dragnet known locally as cantrang.
– As part of the program, the government is offering financial aid to fishermen to buy new equipment that reduces bycatch and poses less of a risk of damaging seabed ecosystems.
– The government’s concession to the group of north Java fishermen falls in line with its own target of boosting fish catches to nearly 10 million tons this year.


Stranger than fiction? New spiders found in Brazil named after creatures from popular fantasy stories by Mongabay.com [01/24/2018]

– Seven recently discovered spiders all belong to the genus Ochyrocera and were found in the iron caves of Floresta Nacional de Carajás in the northern Brazilian state of Pará.
– While all seven species can live and breed without sunlight, they’re not necessarily consigned to the deepest depths of the underworld. The same cannot be said for some of the new spiders’ namesakes, however.
– Researchers with the Sao Paulo, Brazil-based Instituto Butantan have named the seven new spiders in honor of characters from fantasy works like The Lord of the Rings and the Harry Potter series.


Smallest wild cat in the Americas faces big problems — but hope exists by Niki Rust [01/24/2018]

– The güiña (Leopardus guigna) is the smallest wild cat species in the Americas. It lives in the temperate rainforests of Chile and western Argentina. The species is listed as Vulnerable by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), with habitat loss and illegal killing considered the major causes of its decline.
– Scientists from institutions around the world interviewed residents and surveyed güiña habitat using camera traps and remote-sensed imagery to model the drivers of local extinction in the Chilean portion of the species’ range.
– They found the biggest threat to the güiña in Chile is agricultural land subdivision, which is causing habitat fragmentation. However, the study also revealed that the güiña appears to be able to tolerate a fair amount of habitat loss.
– But as agricultural land is subdivided, understory forest — important habitat for the güiña — is being cleared. The researchers write it’s important to build spatial plans for this species at the landscape scale and incentivize farmers to manage their lands in a güiña-friendly way.


More than half of Europe’s forests lost over 6,000 years by Mongabay.com [01/24/2018]

– In a report published in Scientific Reports, an international group of scientists researched Europe’s forest loss using pollen analysis.
– Increased demand for agricultural land and wood fuel were found to be the leading causes for deforestation.
– Six millenia ago, more than two-thirds of central and northern Europe was covered by forest, and today only one-third is covered by forest.


Indonesia to strengthen environmental impact assessments through process review by Basten Gokkon [01/24/2018]

– Indonesia’s Environment and Forestry Ministry wants to reform the structure of conducting environmental impact assessments, which are required to approve any development project that could cause harm to the environment.
– These assessments, known as an AMDAL, have routinely come under scrutiny in the wake of land conflicts and disputes.
– Environmental activists have welcomed the push for a review as long as it results in a more efficient and stringent process for developers to obtain an AMDAL.


No more elephants? Poaching crisis takes its toll in the Central African Republic by Alexandra Popescu [01/24/2018]

– An aerial survey last year found that elephants might be locally extinct in northern Central African Republic.
– The survey also showed that the poaching crisis had taken a considerable toll on many other large mammals, including giraffe, African buffalo and the giant eland.
– A park in eastern CAR shows that threats to wildlife can be tackled, but security is required first and foremost.


Indonesia hints rhino sperm transfer to Malaysia may finally happen this year by Basten Gokkon [01/24/2018]

– Indonesia has signaled it may send a much-needed sample of Sumatran rhino sperm to Malaysia for use in a captive-breeding program seen as the last means of saving the critically endangered species.
– If it goes to plan, the program would boost the genetic diversity of the species, of which only 30 to 100 individuals are believed to remain in the wild.
– The Sumatran rhino population has been decimated by poaching and habitat loss, but the biggest threat facing the species today is the small and fragmented nature of their populations, with an increased risk of inbreeding.


Luxury British yacht makers vow to examine supply chains by Sophie Cohen [01/23/2018]

– Highly durable and aesthetically beautiful Burmese teak is prized for boat decking, particularly in luxury yachts, but natural teak from Myanmar is often exported illegally.
– According to a recent alert from Britain’s Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), many British-made luxury yachts contain decking from illegally-sourced Burmese teak despite EU regulations in place to prevent its sale and export.
– Luxury yacht companies interviewed at the London Boat Show stress that although they plan on investigating their supply chains, they maintain that their Burmese teak decking is legally and ethically-sourced.


Muskox and other Arctic mammals are feeling the heat of climate change by Gloria Dickie [01/23/2018]

– Past studies have looked at Arctic climate change impacts on wildlife primarily among marine animals and with polar bears, but there is little data on most terrestrial mammals.
– Now, As part of a broader attempt to develop an ecological baseline for Arctic wildlife, researchers have focused on muskoxen, the least studied mammal in North America.
– According to a new study, increasingly common extreme weather events – such as rain-on-snow and extremely dry winter conditions occurring in Russia and Alaska during muskox gestation – result in smaller head size among muskox young. Smaller animals generally have poor survivorship rates.
– Scientists say that, with the Arctic warming twice as fast as the world average, new studies are urgently needed on cold climate mammals including muskoxen, reindeer and caribou, to determine how rapidly escalating climate change up North is impacting wildlife, habitats and ecosystems.


After exporting baby elephants, Zimbabwe pledges to turn over new leaf on conservation by Jeremy Hance [01/23/2018]

– On December 23, Zimbabwe officials quietly loaded thirty-five elephants between the ages of three and five onto planes that would fly them thousands of miles to safari parks in China. The elephants had been taken from the wild and their families in Hwange National Park.
– Zimbabwe airlifted the elephants to their new homes just a month after a stunning bloodless coup in the country led to the ouster of Robert Mugabe, who oppressively ruled Zimbabwe for 37 years, and the installation of Emmerson Mnangagwa, a former First Vice President and ally of Mugabe’s.
– For years, Zimbabwe conservation policies have largely depended on exploitation, often via trophy hunting and selling animals abroad. But change may be in the air.


Audio: David Suzuki on why indigenous knowledge is critical for human survival by Mike Gaworecki [01/23/2018]

– On today’s episode of the Mongabay Newscast we feature a conversation with iconic Canadian scientist, author, television presenter, and activist David Suzuki.
– Mongabay interviewed Suzuki last year about the Blue Dot Movement, which aims to enshrine the right to a healthy environment in the Canadian Constitution, and we thought now, at the start of 2018, would be a great time to check in with him about what progress has been made.
– Suzuki also discusses the environmental issues he thinks are most pressing as we forge ahead into the new year and his plans to convene a gathering of First Nations keepers of traditional ecological knowledge with Western scientists.


Legal recognition in the works for communities occupying Indonesia’s conservation areas by Hans Nicholas Jong [01/23/2018]

– The Indonesian government plans to formally recognize the occupation and use of land inside conservation areas, including national parks, by local and indigenous communities.
– The program will grant these communities access to clearly defined areas within these conservation zones, in exchange for managing these areas responsibly and sustainably, and not expanding their encroachment.
– However, the program could clash with a 2017 presidential regulation that emphasizes resettlement as a solution to human encroachment in conservation areas.


Friend, not foe: Review highlights benefits of predators and scavengers by Mongabay.com [01/23/2018]

– Predators are typically better known for harassing pets and livestock or being the source of disease than they are for the valuable — and often less visible — services they provide.
– A review published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution catalogs benefits provided by predators to humans documented in the scientific literature.
– Authors of the review highlighted instances that ranged from the potential for mountain lions to cut down deer-vehicle collisions, bats that save corn farmers at least $1 billion annually, and vultures that clear away tons of organic waste.


New app hopes to reduce wildlife deaths on India’s roads, railway lines by Shreya Dasgupta [01/23/2018]

– Roadkills, a newly launched Android app, lets users in India record information on deaths of animals — both domestic and wild — on roads or railway lines, and upload geotagged photos.
– Such roadkill data can be useful for both researchers and people planning infrastructure projects across the country, conservationists say.
– The app data can help identify what sections of roads and railway lines animals use the most, for instance, which could in turn help guide measures that would reduce or prevent wildlife deaths.
– Warning: Some photos may be disturbing or graphic.


Pope’s message to Amazonia inspires hope, but will it bring action? by Justin Catanoso [01/22/2018]

– On 19 January, Pope Francis spoke to a crowd of thousands, including many indigenous people, in Puerto Maldonado, Peru, the capital of Madre de Dios state in the Amazon, a region that has seen significant deforestation (62,500 hectares between 2012 and 2016), and significant violence due to illegal mining.
– Latin American analysts, while excited about the pope’s visit, and appreciative of his spotlighting of illegal mining in Madre de Dios and other environmental problems across Amazonia, expressed doubt that the papal visit will have much impact in the long run.
– The pope singled out large corporations in his address: “[G]reat business interests… want to lay hands on [the Amazon’s] petroleum, gas, lumber, gold and other forms of agro-industrial monocultivation,” he said. “We have to break with the historical paradigm that views Amazonia as an inexhaustible source of supplies for other countries without concern for its inhabitants.”
– The pope invited a top-down and bottom-up response by Catholics to the Amazon crisis, calling on indigenous people “to shape the culture of local churches in Amazonia,” and announcing next year’s first-ever Synod for Amazonia – a gathering of global bishops who will put papal doctrine such as Laudato Si, his landmark 2015 papal encyclical, into action.


Crowdsourcing the fight against poaching, with the help of remote cameras by Sue Palminteri [01/22/2018]

– A U.S. non-profit and a cadre of volunteers have teamed up with reserves in South Africa and Indonesia to combat wildlife poaching through a series of connected camera traps.
– The group’s monitoring system, wpsWatch, can transmit visual, infrared, and thermal camera images as well as data from radar, motion detectors, and other field devices.
– The volunteers monitor image feeds while rangers sleep and have become an effective part of the team, which has detected roughly 180 intrusions into the reserves, including rhino and bushmeat poachers.


Mesoamerican Reef gets improving bill of health by Mongabay.com [01/22/2018]

– The Healthy Reefs Initiative released its report card on the state of the Mesoamerican Reef. In the last decade, the grade has risen from poor to fair.
– The Mesoamerican Reef runs along about 1,000 kilometers of the coastlines of Mexico, Honduras, Belize and Guatemala.
– Fish populations have grown, as have the coral that make up the reef.
– But scientists were concerned to see an increase in macroalgae on the reef, which results from runoff and improperly treated sewage effluent.


Thai police bust leading wildlife trafficker by Mongabay.com [01/22/2018]

– Thai police have arrested Boonchai Bach, the alleged kingpin behind one of the world’s biggest and most notorious wildlife trafficking syndicates.
– Bach and his family operation have been the target of authorities and anti-trafficking groups for more than a decade for moving vast quantities of rhino horns and elephant tusks to markets in China, Vietnam and Laos, via their hub in Thailand.
– One of the family’s main customers remains at large, however. Vixay Keosavang, said to be the most prominent wildlife dealer in Southeast Asia, is beyond the reach of Thai authorities, in Laos.


To Counter Wildlife Trafficking, Local Enforcement, Not En-Route Interdiction, Is Key (commentary) by Vanda Felbab-Brown [01/19/2018]

The global poaching crisis has induced large segments of the conservation community to call for far tougher law enforcement. Many look to policing lessons from decades of counter-narcotics efforts for solutions. Boosting enforcement of wildlife regulations is overdue, as they have long been accorded the least priority by many enforcement authorities and corruption has further […]

In other news: Environmental stories from around the web, January 19, 2018 by Mongabay.com [01/19/2018]

– There are many important conservation and environmental stories Mongabay isn’t able to cover.
– Here’s a digest of some of the significant developments from the week.
– If you think we’ve missed something, feel free to add it in the comments.


Outrage and conspiracy claims as Indonesia, Malaysia react to EU ban on palm oil in biofuels by Hans Nicholas Jong [01/19/2018]

– Indonesian and Malaysian ministers have derided as unfair and misguided the European Parliament’s vote to approve the phase-out of palm oil from biofuels by 2021.
– The vote Wednesday, over concerns about the environmental and social impacts of the palm oil industry, still needs to be ratified by the European Commission and member governments.
– Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur have filed official notes of protest, claiming a protectionist conspiracy to promote other vegetable oil producers, but activists say the EU’s concerns, including about deforestation, are valid and the ban justified.


Decapitated orangutan found near palm plantations shot 17 times, autopsy finds by Basten Gokkon [01/19/2018]

– Indonesian authorities have found 17 air gun pellets in the headless body of an orangutan found floating in a river in Borneo’s Central Kalimantan province earlier this week.
– The body was found in an area close to five plantations, whose operators the government plans to question about the killing of the protected species.
– Orangutans are often killed in human-animal conflicts, and wildlife activists have slammed the authorities for not doing enough to prosecute such cases.
– Warning: Some photos may be disturbing or graphic.


Pope set to visit site of deforestation, indigenous struggle in Peru by Mongabay.com [01/19/2018]

– Pope Francis plans to visit Puerto Maldonado in the Peruvian region of Madre de Dios Friday morning on his trip to South America.
– He will speak with indigenous communities in a coliseum.
– Madre de Dios had the second-highest rate of deforestation in the Peruvian Amazon in 2017, with 208 square kilometers (80 square miles) of forest cover loss as a result of farming, logging and mining.


Facebook being used for illegal reptile trade in the Philippines by Mongabay.com [01/19/2018]

– Researchers from TRAFFIC, who monitored 90 Facebook groups over a three-month period in 2016, recorded 2,245 live reptile advertisements representing more than 5,000 individual animals from 115 taxa.
– Most advertisements were for the ball python and the Burmese python, and also included critically endangered species such as the Philippine crocodile and the Philippine forest turtle.
– At least 80 percent of the documented online traders on Facebook were selling reptiles illegally, the report concluded.


PREVIOUS FEATURES

Venezuela’s Mining Arc boom sweeps up Indigenous people and cultures by Bram Ebus [01/15/2018]

Peru declares a huge new national park in the Amazon by Yvette Sierra Praeli [01/12/2018]

Trump threatens NASA climate satellite missions as Congress stalls by Giovanni Ortolani [01/12/2018]

Natural World Heritage Sites in trouble, especially in the Tropics by Claire Asher [01/11/2018]

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