WORLD RAINFOREST

DR Congo: environmental activist faces 5 years in prison (Oct 28 2024)
- An environmental rights defender in the Democratic Republic of Congo is facing five years in prison in connection with his fight against illegal logging.
- Yahya Mirambo Bin Lubangi has campaigned against the illegal logging of threatened species of rosewood; now, one of those alleged loggers has accused him of issuing death threats and damaging property.
- The administrator of the district where illegal logging has taken place expressed surprise at the lawsuit.
- Mirambo did not appear in court as scheduled on Oct. 18 due to illness.

At COP16, the ocean needs action, not more promises (commentary) (Oct 28 2024)
- As delegates to COP16 debate conservation measures like 30×30 initiatives, a new op-ed by the environment director of Bloomberg Philanthropies, Antha Williams, and the founder of Pristine Seas, Dr. Enric Sala, says that protecting our ocean is more than a conservation measure — it’s a lifeline.
- Well-managed and highly protected marine areas (MPAs) help restore ecosystems, ensuring food security and livelihoods for the billions who depend on them, but a new analysis shows that only 8.3% of the world’s ocean is protected in this way, and that most MPAs are either protected weakly or in name only.
- “Ocean protection has never been more urgent. As leaders gather in Cali, they must ensure that ‘protecting our ocean’ means truly protecting it. The 30×30 target will only be meaningful if we protect areas effectively — not just on paper,” they argue.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily Mongabay.

Six months after its worst floods, Rio Grande do Sul works to bounce back (Oct 28 2024)
- A combination of wet El Niño weather and human-induced climate change were key drivers of the worst flooding event in Brazil’s Rio Grande do Sul state earlier this year.
- The flooding affected 90% of the state and displaced more than half a million people.
- Poor land management is also responsible for the region’s vulnerability to floods, as current agricultural practices in the highlands favor runoff and reduce the soil’s ability to soak up water, with lowlands particularly exposed to high waters.
- While some scientists are still deciphering the causes and behavior of the floodwaters, other experts are working to rehabilitate farmland, tackle soil erosion, and source native seeds for ecological restoration.

Trial begins in U.K. for victims of Minas Gerais dam disaster (Oct 28 2024)
- A class action lawsuit in the U.K. will decide whether the Fundão tailings dam collapse was the fault of mining companies, Broken Hill Proprietary (BHP) and Miners Vale, which together make up the joint venture Samarco.
- The companies could pay over $40 billion in compensation to 620,000 claimants, following the 2015 dam collapse that released arsenic-laced mud across several Brazilian communities.
- A recent study found that 15 metals, including iron, nickel, arsenic, cadmium and aluminum, were still present in fish, birds, turtles and porpoises at the mouth of the Doce river and on the coast of Espírito Santo and southern Bahia.
- The mining companies argue that the lawsuit doesn’t have jurisdiction in the U.K. and that claimants already received compensation through separate negotiations in Brazil.

Chilean Indigenous association participates in key study for lawsuit against mining (Oct 28 2024)
- In a unique model for Latin America, a council of Lickanantay people in northern Chile created an environmental unit made up of hydrogeologists, engineers and environmental monitors from the territory’s communities to monitor the territory.
- Their study with a national university shows that the La Brava lagoon, located on the edges of the Atacama salt flat, is fed in part by the salt flat’s brine, which makes it vulnerable to mining activities established in the heart of the salt flat.
- Findings from the study were key in a lawsuit brought by the state defense council against three mining companies for irreparable damage to the Monturaqui-Negrillar-Tilopozo aquifer, the main water source for these lagoons.

Inbreeding adds to growing threats to Africa’s smallest wildcat, study finds (Oct 28 2024)
- The tiny black-footed cat (Felis nigripes) is one of Africa’s rarest cats, only found in South Africa, Namibia and Botswana, with a total population size of fewer than 10,000 individuals.
- The black-footed cat’s genome shows a high level of inbreeding, likely due to historic and recent habitat fragmentation, according to a newly published study.
- Inbreeding may increase the risk of amyloidosis, a fatal disease that kills about 70% of captive black-footed cats, and also affects wild populations.
- Long-term ecological studies of the black-footed cat in South Africa and Namibia finds that the species faces numerous complex threats, including land-use change, fragmentation, disease and climate change.

Global biodiversity financiers strategize at COP16 to end ‘perverse subsidies’ (Oct 28 2024)
- COP16, the U.N. biodiversity summit in Colombia, is entering its second week. Without the presence of fossil fuel company lobbyists to stall progress, participants are moving fast and developing plans to end “perverse subsidies” gifted by national governments to fossil fuel companies and other sectors to the tune of $1.7 trillion annually.
- Instead, those subsidies would be repurposed to protect nature and the climate. COP16 participants aim to achieve this goal by immediate implementation of Target 18 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework approved by 196 nations at the COP15 biodiversity summit in Montreal in 2022. Target 18 reads:
- “Identify by 2025, and eliminate, phase out and reform incentives, including subsidies, harmful for biodiversity, in a proportionate, just, fair, effective and equitable way, while substantially and progressively reducing them by at least $500 billion per year by 2030… and scale up positive incentives for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.”
- No one at COP16 has illusions about the challenge of shifting the flood of government and banking money away from big oil, gas and coal. But the alternative outlined in a just-released U.N. report offers little choice: Without drastic measures to conserve nature and stop global heating, we’re headed for a disastrous 2.6° Celsius (4.7° Fahrenheit) temperature rise by 2100, or worse.

More krill fishing and no new protected areas for Antarctic seas after latest talks (Oct 28 2024)
- The Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) held its annual meeting Oct. 14-25 in Hobart, Australia.
- The international body comprised of 27 members is charged with conserving marine life in Antarctic waters, an area that is changing rapidly due to human-caused climate change.
- In 2009, the CCAMLR pledged to create “a representative network” of marine protected areas in the Southern Ocean, yet negotiations over four proposed MPAs have been at a standstill for years, due to repeated vetoes by the Chinese and Russian delegations.
- Despite a year of interim negotiations, CCAMLR members failed again at the latest meeting to reach agreement on creating any new marine protected areas and rolled back regulation of the burgeoning Antarctic krill fishery.

As Kathmandu’s birds get used to humans, biodiversity suffers, studies show (Oct 28 2024)
- Rapid urbanization in Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu, has led to changes in bird behavior, with urban birds showing increased tolerance toward humans.
- The urban sprawl has caused habitat loss, with the city’s built-up area expanding by 112% between 1989 and 2019, largely at the expense of open green spaces and trees crucial for bird nesting.
- Birds such as the house crow have adapted by using urban materials, such as wires and human clothes, for nesting, while other species have become scarce or disappeared entirely from urban areas.
- Despite government efforts, researchers highlight the need for more native trees in urban areas to preserve bird habitats and promote biodiversity.

Indonesia biomass zone for Japan and S. Korea energy razes rainforest in Sulawesi (Oct 28 2024)
- In 2022, Indonesia’s then-president, Joko Widodo, revoked hundreds of operating permits affecting millions of hectares of land previously zoned for new mines and plantations.
- A small proportion of this land has since been reallocated for “energy plantation forests,” in which an area is cleared to plant fast-growing trees that are later cut and chipped to replace some of the coal burned by power plants.
- On the island of Sulawesi, an Indonesian company is exporting wood pellets sourced from two firms that held oil palm licenses prior to the 2022 policy move.
- While biomass cofiring is accounted as a form of renewable energy, environmentalists object to clearing forests as a means of offsetting coal emissions.

50 years of geographic insight: In interview with Jack Dangermond on Esri’s journey and the future of GIS (Oct 28 2024)
- The digital mapping platforms developed by Esri, including ArcGIS, have revolutionized conservation and environmental planning, management and policymaking. Esri co-founder Jack Dangermond calls geographic information systems (GIS) “a sort of intelligent nervous system for our planet at a time when humanity desperately needs one to address the environmental and humanitarian crises at hand.”
- He credits Esri’s success to a sustainable trajectory of heavy investment in R&D, not being beholden to outside investors, and providing discounted and free use of its software to environmental nonprofits.
- In this interview with Mongabay founder and CEO Rhett A. Butler, Dangermond says that technology, amid the current fractured political climate, should be employed to encourage understanding rather than dwell on divisions.
- The text of the interview has been edited for clarity and flow.

When bats die, farmers use more pesticides & infant deaths rise, study shows (Oct 25 2024)
- New research shows that when bat populations crashed due to white-nose syndrome, farmers increased their insecticide use by 31%, leading to a nearly 8% rise in infant mortality rates in affected U.S. counties.
- The study, which examined 245 counties from 2006 to 2017, estimates total damages at $39.4 billion.
- White-nose syndrome, a fungal disease first detected in the northeastern U.S. in the mid-2000s, has now spread to 40 states and nine Canadian provinces, causing more than 90% population declines in three bat species.
- While conservation efforts, including vaccines and fungus removal, are underway, the situation could worsen, as 52% of North American bat species are at risk of extinction within the next 15 years.

Protecting coral reefs boosts fish numbers by 10%: Study (Oct 25 2024)
- New research has found that the protection of coral reefs has boosted the amount of fish they harbor by around 10%.
- The study used survey data from about 2,600 reefs with varying levels of protection from overfishing.
- The team then built a statistical model to predict what would have happened if all reefs had not been protected, and the biomass, or collective weight of the resident fish, dropped by more than 10%.
- The scientists note their findings demonstrate that protections like marine protected areas are working and that greater coverage could lead to even more gains in fish biomass.

New abuse allegations hit China ghost ships in Indonesia waters (Oct 25 2024)
- In mid-April this year, several Indonesian crew members aboard the China-based Run Zeng 03 fishing vessel jumped into the Arafura Sea following a pattern of alleged mistreatment on board.
- One of those who jumped didn’t survive, while the others were rescued by a fishing boat that happened on the crew members fighting for life in the water.
- Authorities in Indonesia may have missed opportunities to confine boats operated by Donggang Runzeng Ocean Fishing Co Ltd, a Chinese company based in a port on the country’s border with North Korea.
- The Indonesian fisheries ministry’s head of supervision explained in an interview that his history of contact with the manager of the boats’ operator was part of a law enforcement operation.

Debate over Chile’s fisheries law exposes industry influence on fish management (Oct 25 2024)
- A new fisheries law is being debated in Chile’s Chamber of Deputies.
- Three members of Congress have recommended more than 200 changes to the proposed law that align with the main arguments put forward by large fishing conglomerates belonging to the country’s main industry group.
- One of these recommendations seeks to remove an article that would limit bottom trawling, a fishing method many scientists criticize due to its impact on marine ecosystems.
- The debate is exposing the industry’s influence on fisheries management in Chile, some experts say.

If all life mattered, what would decision-making look like? (Analysis) (Oct 25 2024)
- Across the world, Indigenous and other communities embedded in nature have articulated, as part their resistance to external domination, an inseparability of nature from all human activity.
- The authors say these worldviews challenge a dominant strand of Western thinking: that humans alone are possessed of rights and that other species exist only for human use.
- As Indigenous leaders at the COP16 U.N. biodiversity conference underline the need for humanity to live at peace with nature, the authors say people who live in urban-industrial contexts alienated from the rest of nature need to understand the principles of traditional governance systems, and support communities in strengthening them. However, they say, we should also bring in changes to deal with the internal inequities or weaknesses of these systems.
- This article is an analysis. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of Mongabay.

Langurs in Bangladesh face extinction as hybridization between species escalates (Oct 25 2024)
- Bangladesh is home to less than 500 Phayre’s langurs and 600 capped langurs in the rainforests in the country’s northeast.
- A recent study has unveiled a trend of hybridization between Phayre’s langurs and capped langurs in Bangladesh, which are listed as critically endangered and endangered, respectively, by IUCN.
- Hybridization is a vital indicator of ecological change, and researchers are raising serious concerns about the genetic health of the two species and their future existence in the wild.
- The study holds human activities such as deforestation, habitat fragmentation and hunting as some of the causes responsible for increasing the risk of hybridization cases.

Carbon markets must recognize Indigenous ‘high forest, low deforestation’ areas (commentary) (Oct 24 2024)
- “We have lived in and safeguarded our forests for generations, helping maintain biodiverse ecosystems designated as high forest, low deforestation (HFLD) areas, which are regions with historically low deforestation,” two Indigenous leaders write in a new op-ed.
- Carbon markets have mostly focused on areas with pre-existing deforestation, but communities like these with historically low deforestation need financing to support their conservation work, too, so shouldn’t HFLD regions get better access to the voluntary carbon market?
- “For too long, Indigenous and local communities who have preserved forests without compensation have been excluded from financial benefits linked to forest conservation. This is not just an environmental issue, but a matter of climate justice,” they argue.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily Mongabay.

Study: REDD+ doesn’t work without Indigenous peoples, but fails to engage them (Oct 24 2024)
- Climate policies like REDD+ often fail to prioritize Indigenous peoples, undermining their effectiveness in tackling the root causes of deforestation and climate change, according to a recent study.
- The authors propose 12 principles to improve climate policies, based on themes such as supporting Indigenous territorial defense and their rights, encouraging Indigenous-led climate initiatives, and directing climate funding to these populations.
- Indigenous-led initiatives like RIA in the Amazon offer a feasible alternative to REDD+ and emphasize the importance of compensating them for their ecological services; however, they face challenges in getting adequate funding.
- Experts suggest that the lessons learned from REDD+ could be applied to the development of biodiversity credits to help make this emerging climate solution more inclusive from the get-go.

New survey puts human face on pollution caused by U.S. wood pellet mills (Oct 24 2024)
- A new groundbreaking survey highlights the human toll from pollution and other quality of life impacts connected to those living near the forest biomass industry’s wood pellet mills in the U.S Southeast.
- Door-to-door interviews were conducted by a coalition of NGOs, with 312 households surveyed in five mostly poor, rural and minority communities located near pellet mills operated by Drax and Enviva, two of the world’s largest pellet makers.
- In four of the five newly surveyed communities, 86% of households reported at least one family member with diseases or ailments, which they say are related to, or made worse by, pellet mill pollution. 2023 research found that pellet mills emit 55 toxic pollutants that largely impact environmental justice communities.
- The wood pellet industry says the survey was not scientifically rigorous and that its members strive to control pollution and improve the local economies in communities where they work.

Indigenous advocates lament decade of failures by Indonesia’s Jokowi (Oct 24 2024)
- Joko Widodo, Indonesia’s president for the past decade, failed to make good on his promises to recognize and protect Indigenous people’s rights, Indigenous rights groups says.
- With Jokowi, as he’s commonly known, leaving office on Oct. 20, the advocacy group GERAK MASA compiled a list of 11 policy actions that it said had harmed Indigenous peoples and their rights over the last 10 years.
- These include pro-investor policies that sideline local communities and make it easy to expropriate their land without their consent or participation.
- AMAN, the country’s main Indigenous alliance, says there’s little hope of improvement under the new president, Prabowo Subianto, given that he’s pledged to continue Jokowi’s legacy — even taking on Jokowi’s son to be his vice president.

Impacts and legacies of migration across the Pan Amazon (Oct 24 2024)
- Although represented by only a few thousand people across 150 years, the Jesuits left a major social and cultural impact on native communities across the Pan Amazon. Their aim was to create autonomous communities based on early Renaissance concepts of equality and a spiritual vision based on the Christian Gospels. But in practice, they worked closely for the political and military interests of the colonies.
- Jesuits settled in remote places and border areas after being invited by colonial authorities interested in taking advantage of the native population’s labor force. But their arrival triggered the collapse of the Indigenous populations of the Western Amazon. Only in the late 17th century, more than 140,000 people died because of diseases brought by the outsiders.
- The success of the Jesuits and the religious colonialism that characterized the Catholic Church in the 17th century motivated other religious orders to follow similar missionary programs.

Mining and logging threaten Bolivia’s newest protected area (Oct 24 2024)
- The Gran Manupare reserve was created in January 2024 in northern Bolivia’s Pando department, making it the newest protected area in the country.
- However, the reserve already faces threats from gold mining along the Madre de Dios River, which forms its northern border.
- Logging is another threat that experts warn could enter Gran Manupare, which holds highly sought-after mahogany trees.

Dam terrorism: How mining companies in Brazil scare residents into relocating (Oct 24 2024)
- Recent research shows how mining companies in Brazil are artificially inflating risk levels for some dams holding mining waste in an effort to scare residents into moving out of the area.
- This so-called dam terrorism began almost immediately after the deadly collapse in January 2019 of a tailings dam in Brumadinho municipality, Minas Gerais state, with several mining companies suddenly declaring their own dams were no longer certified safe.
- Residents living near these dams have been woken up by emergency sirens in the middle of the night, even though there was no evidence that the dams were about to collapse.
- Daniel Neri, the researcher behind the new study, says these scare tactics exploited “the terror of the tragedy in Brumadinho to make people leave everything behind.”

Here’s how to reform multilateral funding to get more money directly to communities (commentary) (Oct 23 2024)
- Although 17% of all forest carbon and 39% of global lands in good ecological condition are managed or governed by Indigenous Peoples, just a tiny fraction of climate and biodiversity financing gets directed to them. Most of the funding seems to evaporate in webs of institutions before reaching communities.
- To meet biodiversity and climate goals, a deeper transformation in partnerships between multilateral funders and Indigenous Peoples and local communities is urgently needed.
- The authors say this includes not only simplified application processes, alignment of funding priorities with community needs, and more responsive, flexible long-term support that directly reaches Indigenous and local communities, but also cultural transformation.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of Mongabay.