Newsletter 2022-06-23

FEATURED

Beyond boundaries: Earth’s water cycle is being bent to breaking point by Petro Kotzé — June 21, 2022

– The hydrological cycle is a fundamental natural process for keeping Earth’s operating system intact. Humanity and civilization are intimately dependent on the water cycle, but we have manipulated it vastly and destructively, to suit our needs.
– We don’t yet know the full global implications of human modifications to the water cycle. We do know such changes could lead to huge shifts in Earth systems, threatening life as it exists. Researchers are asking where and how they can measure change to determine if the water cycle is being pushed to the breaking point.
– Recent research has indicated that modifications to aspects of the water cycle are now causing Earth system destabilization at a scale that modern civilization might not have ever faced. That is already playing out in extreme weather events and long-term slow-onset climate alterations, with repercussions we don’t yet understand.
– There are no easy or simple solutions. To increase our chances of remaining in a “safe living space,” we need to reverse damage to the global hydrological cycle with large-scale interventions, including reductions in water use, and reversals of deforestation, land degradation, soil erosion, air pollution and climate change.

Helping empower the next generation of environmental journalists at Nature’s frontline by Rhett A. Butler — June 21, 2022

– Mongabay is establishing a fellowship program for young and aspiring journalists from the world’s biodiversity hotspots.
– The Y. Eva Tan Conservation Reporting Fellowship Program will provide opportunities for journalists from tropical countries to report on critical environmental issues, gaining valuable training, experience, and credibility that will help them advance their careers in journalism and communications.
– We purposefully do not have any educational prerequisites to apply for the program. We believe that anyone has the potential to become a journalist and access to education should not be a barrier to opportunity.
– It is our hope that the fellowship will empower the next generation of environmental journalists to tell stories from Nature’s frontline.

Giant stingray caught in Cambodia is world’s largest freshwater fish by Carolyn Cowan — June 21, 2022

– The largest freshwater fish ever recorded was captured last week in Cambodia’s stretch of the Mekong River: a giant freshwater stingray measuring 4 meters (13 feet) from snout to tail and weighing 300 kilograms (661 pounds).
– The discovery occurred in a stretch of the Mekong known for its diversity of freshwater habitats that support crucial fish-spawning grounds and migration corridors and provide refuges for other mega fish species and threatened species, such as Irrawaddy dolphins and giant softshell turtles.
– Local fishers collaborating with researchers to document the area’s underwater life alerted a monitoring team who measured the ray, fitted it with an acoustic tag to learn more about its behavior, and facilitated its release back into the wild.
– Experts say the find emphasizes what’s at stake in the Mekong, a river that’s facing a slew of development threats, including major hydropower dams that have altered the river’s natural flow. “It is a signal to us to protect our rivers and lakes,” they say.

First gharial hatchlings spotted in nearly two decades in Nepal’s Karnali River by Abhaya Raj Joshi — June 20, 2022

– Twenty-eight gharial hatchlings have been spotted in a tributary of Nepal’s Karnali River, the first sign of successful nesting in this waterway in at least 16 years.
– The discovery by villagers living near Bardiya National Park came on June 15, two days before World Crocodile Day, and indicates the critically endangered species is on the road to recovery.
– Nepal is home to about 200 breeding gharials, and since 1978 has carried out conservation and breeding programs for the species.

Indonesia’s Sangihe islanders score legal victory over mining company by Hans Nicholas Jong — June 20, 2022

– Residents of Sangihe Island in Indonesia have won a lawsuit against a Canadian-backed company planning to mine gold on their island.
– In its ruling, the court in the city of Manado declared the environmental permit issued to miner PT Tambang Mas Sangihe (TMS) and ordered the local government to revoke it.
– The judges found that the permit was issued without following the proper procedures, and that the environmental impact analysis was inadequate.
– The victory comes a month after another court, in Jakarta, rejected a separate lawsuit by the villagers seeking to have TMS’s mining contract revoked; the court said the case was outside its jurisdiction.

The war on journalists and environmental defenders in the Amazon continues (commentary) by Karla Mendes — June 16, 2022

– Journalists in Brazil and around the world are devastated about the tragic end of a 10-day search for British journalist Dom Phillips and Indigenous advocate Bruno Pereira in the Amazon rainforest near the Brazil-Peru border in northern Amazonas state. Bodies believed to be theirs were found on June 15 after a huge outcry against the federal government’s inaction following their disappearance. Indigenous patrols bravely conducted their own search while the government did little.
– The murders of Dom and Bruno are emblematic of the plight of journalists across Latin America as violence against both journalists and activists in the region escalates. It also raises an alarm for the need to protect reporters as we report on environmental crime from Nature’s frontline.
– But these crimes will not stop us: Exposing wrongdoing across Brazil’s critical biomes — from the Mata Atlantica to the Cerrado to the Amazon — is more necessary than ever now. At the same time, demanding justice for the murder of Bruno and Dom became a fight for all of us.
– This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

Deaths of Phillips and Pereira shine light on a region of the Amazon beset by violence by Sue Branford — June 16, 2022

– Brazilian police reported on June 15 that they had found the bodies believed to be those of Brazilian Indigenous defender Bruno Pereira and British journalist Dom Phillips deep in the western Amazon.
– The bodies were found not far from where the pair disappeared on June 5, in the Vale do Javari region, considered the most violent region of Brazil, where criminal groups vie to seize land occupied by Indigenous and traditional communities.
– Similar conflicts occur all over the Amazon, with some land grabbers admitting that they will, if necessary, use violent methods to achieve their goals.
– The Brazilian Senate has launched an investigation into the disappearance of Pereira and Phillips, but observers say it’s unlikely to deliver the far-reaching change required to tackle the violence.

NEWS

Building a farmer-friendly future: Q&A with CROWDE’s Yohanes Sugihtonugroho by Sachi Kondo — June 23, 2022
– Yohanes Sugihtonugroho founded the digital platform CROWDE in 2018 as a way to connect farmers in Indonesia with investors.
– Agriculture plays a major role in Indonesia’s economy, but farmers remain among the least empowered groups in society, Yohanes says, subjected to unfair trading practices by a system controlled by predatory middlemen.
– CROWDE provides farmers, especially younger ones, with access to capital, financial advice, and education in harvesting, pest control and market access.
– CROWDE says it has distributed more than $3.5 million to more than 20,000 farmers, ranchers and fishers across the country, helping boost their income by as much as 150%.

Study: Marine governance in Indonesia pursues exploitation over sustainability by Basten Gokkon — June 23, 2022
– Marine spatial planning in Indonesia over the past 300 years has historically and systematically supported profit-oriented activities at the cost of the ocean ecosystem and coastal communities, a recent paper says.
– Researchers found that little had changed despite decades of attempts to reform marine governance to support more sustainable uses of sea resources in Indonesia.
– They also found that coastal communities, traditional and small-scale fishers had lost much of their control and influence over marine areas, while ruling elites at the national level gradually gained more of it.
– The fisheries sector has long been important to the food security of Indonesia, with most of the country’s more than 270 million inhabitants living in coastal areas.

For Brazil communities along a mining railway, impacts outweigh any benefits by Maurício Angelo / Observatório da Mineração — June 23, 2022
– In Brazil’s Maranhão the state, which has the lowest household income in Brazil, communities face the impacts of a railroad built and operated around the clock by mining company Vale.
– The Carajás Railroad runs 892 kilometers (554 miles) from the world’s largest open-pit iron ore mine to the port of Ponta da Madeira on Brazil’s Atlantic coast, contributing to Vale’s record $24 billion profit in 2021.
– Residents living near the railroad report a long history of health problems, structural damage to their houses, people hit by trains, deaths, and lack of dialogue with the company.
– With their grievances going ignored and their freedom of movement curtailed, these impoverished communities say they don’t see the benefits from the mining money.

Indonesian palm oil audit a chance to clean up ‘very dirty’ industry by Hans Nicholas Jong — June 23, 2022
– The Indonesian government plans to audit all palm oil companies operating in the country, in a bid to tackle an ongoing shortage and high prices of cooking oil.
– Experts attribute the crisis to the fact that the country’s palm oil industry is dominated by a small number of big companies.
– These companies have large concessions, in excess of the limit imposed by the government, allowing them to wield outsized power to dictate prices, policies and supplies.
– Analysts say the audit should address this land ownership issue, as well as other problems that plague the industry, such as lack of clear data and transparency.

Dig, dump, repeat, then watch the forest grow: Q&A with mangrove restorer Keila Vazquez by Caitlin Cooper — June 23, 2022
– Las Chelemeras is a group of 18 women in the Mexican port town of Chelem who, since 2010, have worked to restore and protect their local mangrove forests on the northern coast of the Yucatán Peninsula.
– To date, they have contributed to the reforestation of approximately 50 hectares (124 acres) of mangroves, accounting for half of Chelem’s forest cover.
– “We have learned that our work is not only a job or a paycheck, but a collaboration with the environment, and that gives us satisfaction,” says Keila Vazquez, a founding member of the group.
– In an interview with Mongabay, Vazquez talks about her work with Las Chelemeras, the challenges ahead for her community, and how the reforestation of their environment has impacted younger generations.

Study shines light, and raises alarm, over online trade of West African birds by Elizabeth Claire Alberts — June 23, 2022
– Researchers conducted a study on the online trade of West African wild birds in an effort to fill knowledge gaps about the trafficking of species from this part of the world.
– The study found that 83 species of wild birds from West Africa were being traded online, including three species protected under the highly prohibitive CITES Appendix I, and that many potential buyers originated from South Asia and the Middle East.
– In general, very little is known about wild birds in West Africa, so it’s difficult to assess whether the trade in certain species is sustainable, the researchers say.
– The authors have also raised concerns about the spread of disease upon viewing images of multiple species of birds confined together in small enclosures.

Climate change puts Bangladeshi farmers’ reliance on rice varieties to the test by Abu Siddique — June 23, 2022
– Bangladeshi farmers overwhelmingly cultivate rice using the BRRI-28 and BRRI-29 varieties developed by the government, despite the availability of more than 100 alternative varieties, some of them better suited to changing climatic patterns.
– Yields are declining for these two popular varieties as arable land becomes more saline, dry, or submerged due to extreme weather phenomena.
– Scientists behind the range of varieties blame the low popularity of the climate-resistant varieties on the failure by government agencies to produce and promote them to farmers.
– But officials refute this, saying they cater to what the farmers demand, which is the two dominant varieties.

To win island-wide conservation, Indonesia’s Talaud bear cuscus needs to win hearts by Sean Mowbray — June 22, 2022
– The Talaud bear cuscus is a secretive species believed to inhabit only four islands in Indonesia.
– Listed as critically endangered, the animal has been driven to the brink of extinction by overhunting and habitat loss.
– Conservationists are working with local youths, traditional and religious leaders, and community members on Salibabu Island to change the perception of the species.

In Costa Rica, unlicensed fishers and regulators unite over a common enemy by Alfredo Torres and Linus Unah — June 22, 2022
– Artisanal fishers on Costa Rica’s southern Caribbean coast have been operating in a legal gray area since 2005, when the government ordered a freeze on fishing licenses pending a study on fishing sustainability.
– Now, however, they’ve come back into favor, thanks to their efforts to tackle the explosive growth of an invasive species: the red lionfish.
– The lionfish has no natural predators in these waters, and its proliferation threatens commercially important species such as snapper, lobster and shrimp.
– Today, fishers’ associations are working with regulators on joint efforts to fight back the lionfish tide and compile fisheries data, in exchange for licenses.

Kenyan hunter-gatherers forced to farm now face increased evictions from their forest by Kang-Chun Cheng — June 22, 2022
– The Indigenous Sengwer people in Kenya’s Embobut Forest have gone through a drastic change in livelihood, from hunting-gathering to herding and commercial farming in the forest, leading to tensions with forestry officials.
– The Kenya Forest Service (KFS) says the practices are key drivers in the loss of 13,782 hectares (34,056 acres) of forest cover in the past 37 years, and has tightened its monitoring of the forest, leading to mass evictions and fines for those who choose to stay.
– The Embobut Forest is part of the Sengwer’s ancestral lands and was turned into a protected area in the 20th century, leading to a settlement ban; British colonial officials also forced hunting peoples to become farmers, giving the Sengwer little alternatives for land and livelihood, locals say.
– Other tribal groups and pastoralists are drawn to the forest by droughts elsewhere and commercial possibilities as the demand for meat grows.

Nickel, Tesla and two decades of environmental activism: Q&A with leader Raphaël Mapou by Nick Rodway — June 22, 2022
– Nickel mining in New Caledonia, a French overseas territory in the south Pacific, is receiving international attention after the electrical vehicle giant Tesla recently invested in its largest mine, Goro.
– The mine has been plagued by environmental and social issues for the last decade. It is related to five chemical spills and Indigenous Kanak struggles for sovereignty over its resources.
– Raphaël Mapou is a Kanak leader who established the environmental organization Rhéébù Nùù in 2002 as a means to address concerns about the effects of mining at Goro.
– In an interview with Mongabay, Mapou talks about the legacy of Rhéébù Nùù and if a change of ownership at Goro, combined with Tesla’s investment, can deliver positive outcomes for surrounding communities.

All eyes on Tesla as it invests in a troubled nickel mine by Nick Rodway — June 22, 2022
– American manufacturing giant Tesla invested in New Caledonia’s Goro mine in 2021, raising local expectations that international scrutiny and the mine’s new owners could help the plant overcome past environmental mismanagement issues and social woes.
– Since 2010, there have been five recorded acid leaks at the Goro mine into nearby bays and reefs. The mine is also related to Indigenous Kanak struggles for sovereignty over its resources and violent protests in 2020.
– The mine was bought by Prony Resources, whose shares are largely owned by New Caledonian stakeholders, including local communities. Kanaks now see themselves as stakeholders and watchdogs in the mine’s production.
– Local organizations and researchers plan to keep a close eye on the environmental impacts of mining in New Caledonia, especially as Prony Resources proposes a new waste management process and China lays out its interests in the region.

Book Review: ‘Slaves for Peanuts’ gets to the troubling roots of a beloved snack by Malavika Vyawahare — June 22, 2022
– Journalist Jori Lewis’s “Slaves for Peanuts: A Story of Conquest, Liberation, and a Crop That Changed History,” tells the stories of “people that history forgets and the present avoids.”
– The book sheds light on how the commercial trade in peanuts in Senegal was driven by European expansion and drew on unfree labor.
– The mutilation of Senegal’s lands resulting from peanut commerce foreshadows the damage that commercial monocultures continue to inflict today.
– “Slaves for Peanuts” is published by The New Press, a nonprofit, and available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and bookshop.org.

Winter sanctuary in Nepal proves a killing field for yellow-breasted buntings by Abhaya Raj Joshi — June 22, 2022
– Tens of thousands of yellow-breasted buntings are being killed and eaten in Nepal every winter, according to an ornithologist.
– The critically endangered species is already severely threatened in its range countries, where it’s also consumed as a delicacy, and now runs the same risks along its migratory route.
– The popularity of the bird’s meat stems from a myth that it warms the body in winter and has an aphrodisiac effect.
– Conservationists have called for a wide-scale community-based awareness campaign to dispel the myths related to the bird.

Mining company destroys Indigenous cemetery during expansion in Honduras by Maxwell Radwin — June 21, 2022
– Indigenous residents living near the San Andres mine in western Honduras were devastated to learn that a centuries-old cemetery was dug up in the middle of the night, making it nearly impossible for some families to find their loved ones.
– The mass exhumations come after nearly a decade of community-level and legal battles between the Maya Chortí and Minerales de Occidente (Minosa), a subsidiary of Toronto-listed mining company Aura Minerals.
– The controversy highlights the fact that the national government hasn’t yet upheld its promise to close open-pit mining concessions.

EU’s anti-deforestation bill leaves out critical ecosystems, study shows by Sarah Sax — June 21, 2022
– New regulation proposed by the European Commission aims to reduce the import of commodities that cause deforestation and forest degradation abroad.
– But according to a report commissioned by the EU Greens parliament members, the narrow definition of forest and deforestation in the revised legislation would not protect ecosystems in South America where EU demand for commodities such as soy and beef create high deforestation risk.
– Soy production is not only destroying native vegetation, but also threatens the livelihoods of hundreds of Indigenous peoples and traditional communities in the Cerrado and Chaco biomes, made of grasslands, savannas and dry forests stretching down the center of South America.
– Broadening the definition of forest to include other types of wooded land, or adopting a definition based on native vegetation rather than forest, would protect much more of the Cerrado and the Chaco, and be much more effective at tackling deforestation, the report says.

In São Paulo, Indigenous Guarani unite over their reclaimed farming tradition by Patricia Moll — June 21, 2022
– At the southern end of the São Paulo city limits, a Guarani Indigenous community has reclaimed degraded land once used for eucalyptus monoculture.
– After collecting seeds from communities in other states and countries, the Guarani have more than 200 varieties of native plants, free of any genetic modification.
– The crops include nine types of corn, 15 types of sweet potato, four types of peanut, as well as fruits native to the Atlantic Rainforest.
– Guarani society is built around agriculture, and the recovery of these ancient planting traditions is bringing the community together in a way that wasn’t possible before.

A tale of successes and new challenges in Senegal: Q&A with ICCA coordinator Salatou Sambou by Valisoa Rasolofomboahangy — June 21, 2022
– The Kawawana conserved area (ICCA) was created by a group of Indigenous Jola fishers in Casamance. After almost ten years, they have succeeded in restoring an area where biodiversity had all but disappeared.
– Now that biodiversity and resources have recovered, life in the village has become more secure. The model’s success has also encouraged young people to return and to renew their commitment to its conservation.
– But the ICCA has also come up against many challenges, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, state indifference to poachers and climate change, since Mongabay’s last reporting in 2018.
– Mongabay interviewed Salatou Sambou, ICCA coordinator involved in the Kawawana conserved area, about the recent successes and challenges the ICCA is facing.

Smart Parks, the Dutch technologists tackling poaching with technology by Jim Tan — June 20, 2022
– Smart Parks is a Netherlands-based organization deploying high tech and an R&D-focused approach to finding technological solutions to conservation problems.
– The organization is best-known for using LoRa (long range) wireless technology to create networks of connected sensors and devices within conservation areas.
– These are designed to help anti-poaching teams through access to real-time data such as animal locations, vehicle movements, and fence voltages, among other parameters.
– Working primarily in Africa, Smart Parks’ next phase of development is to add more sensors to tracking collars to collect additional data such as animal sounds and movement data, and then use machine learning to gain additional insights for research.

‘The return of land to Indigenous people is key’: Q&A with Shinnecock Kelp Farm’s Tela Troge by Claudia Geib — June 20, 2022
– A group of women of the Shinnecock Nation manage the first Indigenous-owned kelp farm on the United States’ East Coast, and are ready to harvest this year’s first batch.
– The people of the Shinnecock Nation have lived on Shinnecock Bay, on the east end of Long Island, New York, since the end of the last Ice Age. But overdevelopment on unceded tribal land is leading to nitrogen pollution, which is killing marine life.
– The Shinnecock Kelp Farm is farming sugar kelp (Saccharina latissima) in hopes that it will absorb some of the water’s excess nitrogen.
– Tela Troge, one of the six women running the Shinnecock Kelp Farm, met with Mongabay to talk about the future of this effort, and how farming kelp could help Shinnecock Nation regain sovereignty over waters they have tended for generations.

Miners, drug traffickers and loggers: Is Costa Rica’s Corcovado National Park on the verge of collapse? by Maxwell Radwin — June 20, 2022
– Extreme polarization about what’s going on in Costa Rica’s Corcovado National Park has led to accusations of corruption, negligence, media manipulation, fights for control of the area’s management, and who does and doesn’t receive funds from international donors.
– The park suffers from artisanal gold mining, hunting, logging and drug trafficking, but officials, scientists and NGOs have very different views on how badly these things are impacting the health of the park.
– Some researchers say the populations of species like the jaguar and white-lipped peccary are on the decline, while others are optimistic about population trends and believe the park is healthy.
– Dwindling staff and budget for basic resources like food and gasoline have made it difficult to adhere to the park’s protection plan, and there’s little consensus, even on very basic things, about what the future holds for the park.

WTO finally nets deal curbing fisheries subsidies, but tables key bits for later by Elizabeth Fitt — June 17, 2022
– Negotiators agreed on a deal to curb “harmful” government fisheries subsidies that are compromising fish populations and damaging the marine environment.
– The talks among the World Trade Organization’s 164 member states were scheduled for June 12–15, but overtime negotiations didn’t conclude until early June 17.
– The new agreement addresses certain harmful subsidies. But in the interest of reaching consensus, negotiators put off dealing with others where agreement proved elusive.
– Many observers are welcoming the agreement as “historic,” coming as it does two decades after talks began in 2001, even as others point out “major weakness.”

How unsustainable is Sweden’s forestry? Very. Q&A with Marcus Westberg and Staffan Widstrand by Erik Hoffner — June 17, 2022
– Sweden has a gigantic forest products industry, and its national forestry agency claims their operations to be the most sustainable in the world.
– However, the truth on the ground is that the industry relies heavily on clearcutting natural forests, many of which are quite old, and replanting those with monocultures of trees, some of which are non-native.
– “Only 3% of Sweden’s forestry doesn’t involve clear-cutting. That should be pretty shocking to anyone who hears it, given Sweden’s reputation as a leader of so-called green practices,” two top conservation photographers tell Mongabay in a wide-ranging interview.
– This is made possible in part by the Swedish forestry model, which allows companies to police their own practices toward ensuring good ecological and social outcomes, which most of the time don’t happen.

Consumer countries mull best approach to end deforestation abroad by John Cannon — June 17, 2022
– Major global consumers like the U.K., the U.S. and the EU are debating how best to reduce the amount of tropical deforestation resulting from the production of the commodities they import.
– Some experts argue that laws should restrict any products tinged with deforestation, while others say regulations should allow in imports that come from areas that were deforested legally in the countries in which they were produced.
– The debate involves questions around sovereignty, equality, and, ultimately, what strategy will best address the urgent need to stem the loss of some of the world’s most important repositories of carbon and biodiversity.

Indigenous knowledge settles question of a Bornean tree species: Study by Carolyn Cowan — June 17, 2022
– Awareness that much of the world’s biodiversity exists in lands and seas stewarded by Indigenous people and local communities has led scientists to reconsider the value of the knowledge systems that have achieved such successful results.
– But when it comes to species taxonomy, scientists often overlook the deep understanding of species relationships held within Indigenous knowledge systems.
– A new study from Malaysian Borneo found that two trees long recognized as distinct types by Indigenous Iban and Dusun communities, but classified as one species by Western taxonomists, are in fact genetically distinct species.
– The researchers recommend that scientists engage more often with IPLCs, especially in tropical biodiversity hotspots, and that Indigenous and local knowledge be recognized as complementary to modern science.

Scotland changes course to save its last native wildcats by James Fair — June 16, 2022
– The European wildcat has been put into an “intensive care” program of captive breeding and reintroduction in Scotland.
– Found only in a few small pockets in the north, it is the country’s only remaining native felid.
– But even the conservationists in charge of it accept that the program’s success is far from certain to save the “Highland tiger,” a species emblematic of Scotland’s wild landscapes.

With sea ice melting, glacial ice could be a lifeline for polar bears by Elizabeth Claire Alberts — June 16, 2022
– Scientists recently discovered a new subpopulation of polar bears living in southeast Greenland that is genetically and behaviorally distinct.
– While most polar bears depend upon sea ice for survival, the polar bears in Southeast Greenland use pieces of glacial ice as habitat and hunting platforms.
– Large numbers of polar bears are expected to decline as climate change accelerates, but small populations may persist in places like this, where the pace of melting is expected to be slower, experts say.

For Ecuador’s A’i Cofán leaders, Goldman Prize validates Indigenous struggle by Ana Cristina Alvarado and Diego Cazar Baquero — June 16, 2022
– Alexandra Narváez and Alex Lucitante, young leaders from the A’i Cofán community of Sinangoe in Ecaudor, led a movement to protect their people’s ancestral territory from gold mining.
– In recognition of their struggle, they were awarded the 2022 Goldman Environmental Prize, widely known as the “Green Nobel.”
– The A’i Cofán community of Sinangoe forced the Ecuadoran state to revoke 52 gold mining concessions that threatened their territory and were awarded without the prior consultation stipulated in the country’s Constitution.

Second Indonesian province moves to retake forests from palm oil companies by Hans Nicholas Jong — June 16, 2022
– The government of Indonesia’s Papua province has recommended that district officials revoke the permits of 35 of the 54 oil palm concessions operating there.
– These concessions cover a combined 522,397 hectares (1.29 million acres) of land, and are being targeted for revocation because of a range of administrative violations by the license holders.
– If revoked, the large swaths of forests still standing inside these concessions could be saved from being cleared and converted into plantations, and returned to Indigenous communities, activists say.
– The move by the Papua government mirrors a round of revocations ordered last year by the government of neighboring West Papua province, which has also successfully warded off lawsuits filed by affected companies.

PREVIOUS FEATURES

Sea restoration projects quilt a ‘mosaic of habitats’ with striking results by Elizabeth Claire Alberts [06/15/2022]
‘That’s a scam’: Indian firm’s REDD+ carbon deal in the DRC raises concern by John Cannon [06/14/2022]
Coal mining threatens Ethiopia’s ancient coffee forest by Kaleab Girma [06/14/2022]
Proposed copper and gold mine threatens the world’s ‘second Amazon’ in PNG by John Cannon [06/13/2022]
World is losing ‘magical’ tradition of human-animal mutualism, study warns by Ryan Truscott [06/13/2022]
Loggers close in on one of the world’s oldest biosphere reserves by Gloria Pallares [06/13/2022]
Ray care center: Indonesia’s Raja Ampat a key nursery for young reef mantas by Basten Gokkon [06/09/2022]
New near-real-time tool reveals Earth’s land cover in more detail than ever before by Carolyn Cowan [06/09/2022]

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