Atlantic puffins courting at Maine Coastal Island National Wildlife Refuge in 2009. USFWS / Flickr
When Europeans first arrived in North America, Atlantic puffins were common on islands in the Gulf of Maine. But hunters killed many of the birds for food or for feathers to adorn ladies' hats. By the 1800s, the population in Maine had plummeted.
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<p>"Puffins were almost completely lost," says Don Lyons of the Audubon Seabird Institute.</p><p>He says that about 50 years ago, conservationists started bringing puffin chicks from Canada and hand-raising them on the Maine islands.</p><p>When those birds reached adulthood, they came back to the islands where they were raised and began nesting themselves.</p><p>Now the puffin colony in Maine has recovered to more than 1,000 nesting pairs. But global warming threatens to undo some of that progress.</p>
<p>"The Gulf of Maine is actually now one of the most rapidly warming water bodies on the planet," Lyons says.</p><p>That's driving many fish to cooler waters, so the puffins are forced to fly farther or dive deeper to catch enough food.</p><p>"The most intense warm years during the last decade have made it very difficult for puffins to raise chicks because of the additional work involved in finding food for them," Lyons says.</p><p>So reducing global warming can help Maine's beloved puffins survive.</p>
<p class=""><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/08/global-warming-threatens-atlantic-puffin-recovery-in-maine/" target="_blank">Yale Climate Connections</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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A sand tiger shark swims over the USS Tarpon in Monitor National Marine Sanctuary. Tane Casserley / NOAA
By John R. Platt
Here at The Revelator, we love a good shark story.
The problem is, there aren't all that many good shark stories. According to recent research, sharks and their relatives represent one of the world's most imperiled groups of species. Of the more than 1,250 known species of sharks, skates, rays and chimeras — collectively known as chondrichthyan fishes — at least a quarter are threatened with extinction.
<p>That's just what we know so far. About half of all shark species have a conservation status of "data deficient," meaning we have no idea how well they're doing or whether they're at risk.</p><p>But that's why it's so important to tell stories about sharks. They're our lens into issues like conservation, ocean protection, overfishing, coastal development, wildlife trafficking and so much more. And as frequently maligned species — <em>Jaws</em>, anyone? — sharks also help us to understand our relationship with predators that may seem scary but don't really pose much of a threat.</p><p>Sharks also give us an opportunity to talk about <em>people</em> — the people living near them, the people harming them, the people who rely on them, and most importantly the experts working to understand and conserve them.</p><p>And honestly, sharks are just fascinating. They come in all manner of shapes and sizes; often boast amazing behaviors; serve important roles in their ecosystems; and have wide and varied reproductive strategies — some of which make them more vulnerable to exploitation. Oh, and most of them look pretty cool (although there are a few oddities in the bunch — we're talking about you, <a href="https://ocean.si.edu/ocean-life/sharks-rays/goblin-shark" target="_blank">goblin sharks</a>).</p>
<p>So let's keep talking about sharks — whether it's during Shark Week or the other 51 weeks of the year.</p><p>With that in mind, we've collected our best essays and articles about sharks and related conservation issues (and we'll add to this list as we go along). Check them out below:</p>
Speaking of Shark Week:
<p><a href="https://therevelator.org/film-fakery-shark-week-conservation/" target="_blank">Film Fakery: Does Shark Week Harm Conservation Efforts?</a></p>Big Questions:
<p><a href="https://therevelator.org/shark-conservation-success/" target="_blank">Are We Ready for Shark Conservation to Succeed?</a></p>Sharks and Fisheries:
<p><a href="https://therevelator.org/protect-sharks-overfishing/" target="_blank">How to Protect Sharks From Overfishing</a></p><p><a href="https://therevelator.org/florida-anglers-endangered-sharks/" target="_blank">Florida Anglers Are Targeting Endangered Sharks</a></p><p><a href="https://therevelator.org/recreational-fishing-environmental-impact/" target="_blank">Fishing for Fun? It Has a Bigger Environmental Impact Than We Thought</a></p><p><a href="https://therevelator.org/fins-protected-sharks-traded/" target="_blank">Fins from Protected Shark Species Still Heavily Traded</a></p><p><a href="https://therevelator.org/essential-unprotected-fish-habitats/" target="_blank">'Essential' But Unprotected: How the United States Fails Its Most Important Fish Habitats</a></p>Sharks and the Extinction Crisis:
<p><a href="https://therevelator.org/lost-shark/" target="_blank">Found But Lost: Newly Discovered Shark May Be Extinct</a></p><p><a href="https://therevelator.org/rhino-rays-cites/" target="_blank">A Chance to Save the 'Rhinos of the Sea'</a></p><p><a href="https://therevelator.org/one-million-extinctions/" target="_blank">What Losing 1 Million Species Means for the Planet — and Humanity</a></p><p><a href="https://therevelator.org/extinction-crisis-keep-feeling-overwhelmed/" target="_blank">The Extinction Crisis is Here. How do We Keep from Feeling Overwhelmed?</a></p>Broader Ocean and Conservation Issues:
<p><a href="https://therevelator.org/ocean-biodiversity-mpa/" target="_blank">The Top 10 Ocean Biodiversity Hotspots to Protect</a></p><p><a href="https://therevelator.org/protect-species-environmental-dna/" target="_blank">How Do You Protect a Species You Can't See?</a></p><p><a href="https://therevelator.org/global-ocean-treaty/" target="_blank">Here's Our Best Opportunity to Save the Oceans — and Ourselves</a></p><p><a href="https://therevelator.org/coral-reef-replanting/" target="_blank">Coral in Crisis: Can Replanting Efforts Halt Reefs' Death Spiral?</a></p><p><a href="https://therevelator.org/oceans-challenges/" target="_blank">What Are the Biggest Challenges for Saving the Oceans?</a></p><p><a href="https://therevelator.org/empowering-communities-save-ocean/" target="_blank">Empowering Communities to Save the Ocean</a></p><p><a href="https://therevelator.org/toxic-plastic-pollution-food-chain/" target="_blank">Something Fishy: Toxic Plastic Pollution Is Traveling Up the Food Chain</a></p><p><a href="https://therevelator.org/trump-offshore-oil-wildlife/" target="_blank">Trump's Offshore Oil Plan: Like Nothing the Country Has Ever Seen</a></p><p><a href="https://therevelator.org/author/john/" target="_blank">John R. Platt</a> <em>is the editor of <em>The Revelator</em>. An award-winning environmental journalist, his work has appeared in <em>Scientific American</em>, <em>Audubon</em>, <em>Motherboard</em>, and numerous other magazines and publications. His "Extinction Countdown" column has run continuously since 2004 and has covered news and science related to more than 1,000 endangered species. He is a member of the Society of Environmental Journalists and the National Association of Science Writers. John lives on the outskirts of Portland, Ore., where he finds himself surrounded by animals and cartoonists.</em></p><p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://therevelator.org/sharks-imperiled/" target="_blank">The Revelator</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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EcoWatch Daily Newsletter
President Trump displays his signature after signing The Great American Outdoors Act on August 4, 2020. The White House
The Great American Outdoors Act is now the law of the land.
<p>President <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/donald-trump" target="_self">Donald Trump</a> signed the bill, which passed the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/great-american-outdoors-act-conservation-2646197665.html" target="_self">Senate</a> and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/great-american-outdoors-act-2646574786.html" target="_self">House</a> with bipartisan support, on Tuesday. It is considered a major U.S. <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/conservation" target="_self">conservation</a> milestone.</p><p>"You cannot overstate the importance of this bill and what it will mean for <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/national-parks" target="_self">national parks</a>, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/public-lands" target="_self">public lands</a> and communities across the country," <a href="https://www.npca.org/" target="_blank">National Parks Conservation Association</a> (NPCA) President and CEO Theresa Pierno <a href="https://www.npca.org/articles/2618-npca-celebrates-park-victory-decades-in-the-making" target="_blank">said</a> when it passed the House in July. "This is the largest investment our country has made in our national parks and public lands in more than 50 years, and it comes not a moment too soon."</p>
<div id="e0008" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="ffc07febbf5d2d585ad06d3f43e2be56"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1290667833999929344" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">🚨Breaking News: The President has just signed the bipartisan #GreatAmericanOutdoorsAct. It will help: 🏗️ Restore… https://t.co/RPefKPMn7S</div> — Fix Our Parks (@Fix Our Parks)<a href="https://twitter.com/FixOurParksUS/statuses/1290667833999929344">1596554165.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>The bill is important because it secured permanent funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) for $900 million a year, EcoWatch <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/great-american-outdoors-act-2646574786.html">previously reported</a>. This fund uses <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/oil-and-gas" target="_self">oil and gas</a> revenue to finance national parks and historic sites, along with local and state parks and recreation areas. The bill also earmarked $6.5 billion over the next five years to address the maintenance backlog currently burdening the National Park System, NPCA pointed out.</p><p>Trump claimed the bill signing as a major environmental legacy for himself and the Republicans.</p><p>"From an environmental standpoint and from just the beauty of our country standpoint, there hasn't been anything like this since Teddy Roosevelt, I suspect," he said at the signing ceremony, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/04/us/politics/trump-land-conservation-bill.html" target="_blank">The New York Times reported</a>. "At some point, they'll have to start thinking about the Republican Party and all of the incredible things we've done on conservation and many other fronts."</p>
<p><br>Trump's remarks overlook the fact that his administration is the only one in history to strip more protections from public lands than it added, the <a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/green/news/2020/05/21/485260/anti-nature-president-u-s-history/" target="_blank">Center for American Progress calculated in May</a>. In fact, the administration has tried to gut protections for 35 million acres, an area roughly the size of Florida. Trump has also moved to roll back 100 environmental rules since taking office, according to a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/climate/trump-environment-rollbacks.html" target="_blank">New York Times tracker</a>.</p><p>Trump undercut his own conservation bonafides Tuesday when he mispronounced California's famous Yosemite National Park as "Yo-Semites" twice in his speech.</p><p>"When young Americans experience the breathtaking beauty of the Grand Canyon, when their eyes widen in amazement as Old Faithful bursts into the sky, when they gaze upon yo-Semites, yo-Semites, towering sequoias, their love of country grows stronger, and they know that every American has truly a duty to preserve this wondrous inheritance," Trump said, according to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/video-trump-mispronounces-yosemite-national-park-as-yo-semite-twice-2020-8" target="_blank">Business Insider</a>.</p>
<p>The park is one of the most frequented tourist destinations in the U.S. and welcomed 4.5 million people in 2019. However, the lead official at the park's visitors center told <a href="https://www.fresnobee.com/news/california/yosemite/article244730067.html" target="_blank">The Fresno Bee</a> that Trump's mistake was not uncommon.</p><p>"We hear it all the time, especially from East Coasters for some reason," CEO of <a href="https://www.yosemitethisyear.com/" target="_blank">Visit Yosemite Madera County</a> Rhonda Salisbury said. "I'm always shocked that people don't know how to say Yosemite. I think foreign visitors know how to say it correctly more than American visitors."</p><p>Trump's signing ceremony also obscured the bipartisan origin of the new law. Only Republicans were present, and Trump did not mention any Democrats during his speech, The New York Times reported.</p><p>In fact, the bill was introduced last year by Civil Rights icon and Georgia Democratic Representative John Lewis, who passed away in July. Trump made no mention of this.</p><p>He did credit the man who <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/3422/all-info" target="_blank">introduced</a> it in the Senate, Colorado Republican Cory Gardner. Gardner is one of two Republicans who Trump said convinced him to sign the measure. Trump had previously wanted to cut funding for the LWCF by almost 97 percent, according to <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/510272-trump-signs-major-conservation-bill-into-law" target="_blank">The Hill</a>. But a more than hour-long meeting with Gardner and Sen. <a href="https://thehill.com/people/steve-daines" target="_blank">Steve Daines</a> (R-Mont.) persuaded him otherwise.</p><p>Gardner told reporters in June how he and Daines persuaded the president.</p><p>"I showed him a picture of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park and I think Steve showed a picture as well and he looked at the park and said 'it's beautiful' and we pointed up at the picture of Teddy Roosevelt on the wall and said this could be the biggest accomplishment going back to Teddy Roosevelt," Gardner said in The Hill article.</p>
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The fact is, cats play different predatory roles in different natural and humanized landscapes. PIXNIO / CCO
By William S. Lynn, Arian Wallach and Francisco J. Santiago-Ávila
A number of conservationists claim cats are a zombie apocalypse for biodiversity that need to be removed from the outdoors by "any means necessary" – coded language for shooting, trapping and poisoning. Various media outlets have portrayed cats as murderous superpredators. Australia has even declared an official "war" against cats.
<p>Moral panics emerge when people perceive an existential threat to themselves, society or the environment. When in the grip of a <a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/moral-panic-3026420" target="_blank">moral panic</a>, the ability to think clearly and act responsibly is compromised. While the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.13346" target="_blank">moral panic over cats</a> arises from valid concerns over threats to native species, it obscures the real driver: humanity's exploitative treatment of the natural world. Crucially, errors of scientific reasoning also underwrite this false crisis.</p><h2>The (Shaky) Case Against Cats</h2><p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/fee.1633" target="_blank">Conservationists</a> and the <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2019/09/essay-to-save-birds-should-we-kill-off-cats/" target="_blank">media</a> often claim that cats are a main contributor to a <a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250062185" target="_blank">mass extinction</a>, a catastrophic loss of species due to human activities, like habitat degradation and the killing of wildlife.</p><p>As an interdisciplinary team of scientists and ethicists studying animals in conservation, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.13346" target="_blank">we examined this claim</a> and found it wanting. It is true that like any other predator, cats can suppress the populations of their prey. Yet the extent of this effect is ecologically complex.</p><p>The potential impact of cats differs between <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2016.11.032" target="_blank">urban environments, small islands and remote deserts</a>. When <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0025970" target="_blank">humans denude regions of vegetation</a>, small animals are particularly at risk from cats because they have no shelter in which to hide.</p>
<p>Small animals are similarly vulnerable when humans kill apex predators that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/jmammal/gyv100" target="_blank">normally would suppress cat densities and activity</a>. For instance, in the U.S., cats are a <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/urban-coyotes-eat-lot-garbageand-cats-180974461/" target="_blank">favorite meal for urban coyotes</a>, who <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0075718" target="_blank">moderate feline impact</a>; and in Australia, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2664.2012.02207.x" target="_blank">dingoes hunt wild cats</a>, which relieves pressure on native small animals.</p><p>Add in contrary evidence and the case against cats gets even shakier. For instance, in some ecological contexts, <a href="https://www.livescience.com/2102-birds-glad-cats-eat-rats.html" target="_blank">cats contribute to the conservation of endangered birds</a>, by preying on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2656.1999.00285.x" target="_blank">rats and mice</a>. There are also <a href="https://doi.org/10.1071/WR19181" target="_blank">documented cases of coexistence</a> between cats and native prey species.</p><p>The fact is, cats play <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.12103" target="_blank">different predatory roles</a> in <a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2013/08/australian-cats-and-foxes-may-not-deserve-their-bad-rep" target="_blank">different natural and humanized landscapes</a>. Scientists cannot assume that because cats are a problem for some wildlife in some places, they are a problem in every place.</p>
Faulty Scientific Reasoning
<p>In our <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.13527" target="_blank">most recent publication</a> in the journal Conservation Biology, we examine an error of reasoning that props up the moral panic over cats.</p><p>Scientists do not simply collect data and analyze the results. They also establish a logical argument to explain what they observe. Thus, the reasoning behind a factual claim is equally important to the observations used to make that claim. And it is this reasoning about cats where claims about their threat to global biodiversity founder. In our analysis, we found it happens because many scientists take specific, local studies and overgeneralize those findings to the world at large.</p><p>Even when specific studies are good overall, projecting the combined "results" onto the world at large can cause unscientific overgeneralizations, particularly when <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2015.01.003" target="_blank">ecological context is ignored</a>. It is akin to pulling a quote out of context and then assuming you understand its meaning.</p>Ways Forward
<p>So how might citizens and scientists chart a way forward to a more nuanced understanding of cat ecology and conservation?</p><p>First, those examining this issue on all sides can acknowledge that both the well-being of cats and the survival of threatened species are legitimate concerns.</p><p>Second, cats, like any other predator, affect their ecological communities. Whether that impact is good or bad is a complex value judgment, not a scientific fact.</p><p>Third, there is a need for a more rigorous approach to the study of cats. Such an approach must be mindful of the importance of ecological context and avoid the pitfalls of faulty reasoning. It also means resisting <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.13126" target="_blank">the siren call of a silver (lethal) bullet</a>.</p><p>There is no one-size-fits-all solution. Yet there are many options to consider. Protecting apex predators and their habitat is fundamental to enabling <a href="https://theconversation.com/lets-give-feral-cats-their-citizenship-45165" target="_blank">threatened species to coexist with cats</a>. In some cases, people may choose to segregate domestic cats from vulnerable wildlife: for instance, with <a href="http://www.feralcats.com/catio/" target="_blank">catios</a> where cats can enjoy the outdoors while being kept apart from wildlife. In other cases, unhomed cats may be managed with <a href="https://www.animallaw.info/article/community-cats-changing-legal-paradigm-management-so-called-%22pests%22" target="_blank">trap-neuter-return programs</a> and <a href="https://www.lanaicatsanctuary.org/" target="_blank">sanctuaries</a>.</p><p>Finally, contrary to the framing of some scientists and journalists, the dispute over cats is not primarily about the science. Rather, it evokes an <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.13494" target="_blank">ongoing debate</a> over the ethics that ought to guide humanity's relationship with other animals and nature.</p><p>This is the root of the moral panic over cats: the struggle to move beyond treating other beings with domination and control, toward fostering a relationship rooted in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2020.108648" target="_blank">compassion and justice</a>.</p>
<p>
<em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/william-s-lynn-182185" target="_blank">William S. Lynn</a> is a Research Scientist at Clark University.</em>
</p><p>
<em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/arian-wallach-120709" target="_blank">Arian Wallach</a> is a Lecturer at Centre for Compassionate Conservation, University of Technology Sydney.</em>
</p><p>
<em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/francisco-j-santiago-avila-598733" target="_blank">Francisco J. Santiago-Ávila </a>is a Postdoctoral Researcher at University of Wisconsin-Madison.<br/>
<br/>
Disclosure statement: Arian Wallach receives funding from the Australian Research Council for research on cats, and from Alley Cat Allies for a workshop on cats in 2017. Francisco J. Santiago-Ávila and William S. Lynn do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</em>
</p><p>
<em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://theconversation.com/dont-blame-cats-for-destroying-wildlife-shaky-logic-is-leading-to-moral-panic-138710" target="_blank">The Conversation</a>.</em>
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Porcupines Face a Poaching Crisis — and It’s All Because of What’s in Their Stomachs
01 August
Animals
A Malayan porcupine photographed at Kaeng Krachan National Park, Phetchaburi, Thailand. Jason Thompson / CC BY 2.0
By John R. Platt
A porcupine's diet is wide, varied, and a little hard to digest. A lifetime of grasses, herbs, bark and other vegetation can leave little bits of indigestible matter behind in a porcupine's digestive tract, where they occasionally congeal into a hard ball called a bezoar.
<p>That sounds uncomfortable, but a porcupine's health probably doesn't suffer due to the presence of this undigested mass in its stomach or intestines — that is, not until humans come along.</p><p>For centuries people have valued these rare "stones" or "dates," as they're sometimes called, for their purported healing abilities. Bezoars have been used to "treat" everything from fevers to diabetes and even cancer.</p>
<p>Bezoar use even creeps into popular fiction: the stones are an ingredient for protective spells in the <em>Harry Potter</em> universe.</p><p>The medicinal claims are equally fiction: there doesn't appear to be any veracity to bezoar use to treat illnesses. Yet despite the lack of evidence, the trade in bezoars has persisted. Not only that, it appears to be increasing.</p><p>A study published recently in the journal <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2351989420307459?dgcid=raven_sd_aip_email" target="_blank"><em>Global Ecology and Conservation</em></a> tracked, for the first time, the online trade in old-world porcupines (those from the family <em>Hystricidae</em> in Asia and Africa). The researchers examined e-commerce sites in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore for four months in 2019, where they found active for-sale listings for 443 individual bezoars and a large variety of powdered products. Based on the weight of the powders, and the assumption that they might have contained other ingredients, the researchers estimate this translated to at least 680 and as many as 1,300 bezoars. (The researcher ignored "out of stock" listings and more dubious sites, such as one that claimed to have 2,000 tons of product on hand.)</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzUyNzM0NS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0MDE2MjE1N30.IEpEpforer7WNqqOdzQzJevwCQfg3yVaPLxoL00Rom4/img.jpg?width=980" id="4ead9" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="2a6f39c01025f8a63700f9917460dacc" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://therevelator.org/porcupines-bezoars/" target="_blank">The Revelator</a>. </em><em></em></p>A bezoar and typical medical claims, posted to Instagram. Screen grab July 24, 2020.
<p>Previous research has suggested that bezoars only grow in an incidentally small portion of the porcupine population, so the total number of animals killed to accumulate that quantity for sale could conceivably have been in the tens of thousands.</p><p>And since the study didn't look at the e-commerce sites every day, it probably uncovered only a portion of the total trade.</p><p>This paper calls for more study about this issue and additional conservation actions to protect porcupines. Currently the various species enjoy some national-level protection but precious little on the international level, because they're still perceived as relatively common. In fact, most old-world porcupine species currently appear on the IUCN Red List as <a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/search?query=porpupine&searchType=species" target="_blank">either "least concern" or "data deficient."</a> Only the <a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/10753/22231557" target="_blank">Philippine porcupine</a> (<em>Hystrix pumila</em>) is listed as "vulnerable to extinction." None are currently protected by the Convention on Trade in Endangered Species.</p><p>Should that change? While the authors acknowledge the limitations caused by their study's short time frame and their inability to examine and verify the nature of the bezoars (some of which could have come from other animals or been counterfeits), they still uncovered an alarming level of trade. The authors warn that "current trade levels are likely unsustainable, and we predict that porcupine species may become threatened in the future should current trade levels continue."</p><p>And while some porcupines are farmed, this study indicates pressure on wild porcupines, which also face threats from habitat destruction and the bushmeat trade, as well as persecution as agricultural pests. It suggests a need to protect certain populations which fetch higher prices due to their purported purity. The study quotes one popular website: <em>"The most valuable for the porcupine bezoars are procured from … the rainforest of Indonesia or Borneo. The porcupines here eat unpolluted herbs that have high medicinal value causing the bezoars … to be of the rarest and highest value. The price is very high and has collection, medicinal and stockpiling value."</em></p><p>In many ways this isn't surprising. The bezoar trade has been around for centuries, and it isn't restricted to southern Asia. The paper notes that Europeans in the 16th to 19th centuries, who sometimes wore the stones as jewelry, valued porcupine bezoars so much they priced each one "as high as forty times its own weight in gold."</p><p>Bezoars today don't fetch quite that amount, but the study still found them selling for around $151 a gram — two and a half times the current price of gold — all for a useless clump of congealed, inedible food.</p><p>Too bad we don't value a living porcupine half that much.</p><p><em><a href="https://therevelator.org/author/john/" target="_blank">John R. Platt</a> is the editor of The Revelator. An award-winning environmental journalist, his work has appeared in Scientific American, Audubon, Motherboard</em><em style="">, and numerous other magazines and publications. His "Extinction Countdown" column has run continuously since 2004 and has covered news and science related to more than 1,000 endangered species. He is a member of the Society of Environmental Journalists and the National Association of Science Writers. John lives on the outskirts of Portland, Ore., where he finds himself surrounded by animals and cartoonists.</em></p>
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Brazilian Amazon Has Lost Millions of Wild Animals to Criminal Networks, Report Finds
30 July
Animals
Freeland Brasil works to conserve biodiversity by combating wildlife trafficking. Freeland Brasil
By Sharon Guynup
The Brazilian Amazon is hemorrhaging illegally traded wildlife according to a new report released Monday. Each year, thousands of silver-voiced saffron finches and other songbirds, along with rare macaws and parrots, are captured, trafficked and sold as pets. Some are auctioned as future contestants in songbird contests. Others are exported around the globe.
<p>Fish bound for ornamental home aquariums also pour out of the Amazon, including the tiny, iridescent blue and red cardinal tetra. Arapaima fish — also known as <em>pirarucù</em>, one of the world's largest freshwater fish — are caught illegally, "laundered" amidst captive-bred specimens and shipped to the U.S. in large numbers.</p><p>Other fish are headed for the dinner table, as are freshwater turtles and their eggs, while tapir, peccary and other mammals are sold in Brazil as bushmeat. Jaguar teeth, heads and skins are shipped to China.</p><p>Millions of animals are being illegally captured and traded live and in parts in a thriving Brazilian black market, according to the report, produced by TRAFFIC, a UK-based nonprofit that studies the trade. "The pervasive and uncontrolled capture of wild animals and plants for the illegal trade is having grave consequences for Brazilian <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/biodiversity" target="_self">biodiversity</a>, the national economy, the rule of law and good governance," it says.</p>
<h3>Lack of Data Hides Trafficking</h3><p>Deep-dive research by biodiversity consultant Sandra Charity — who wrote the 140-page study with Juliana Ferreira, executive director of the nonprofit <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/conservation">conservation</a> group <a href="https://en.freeland.org.br/sobre-nos" target="_blank">Freeland Brasil</a> —focused on Amazon rainforest species and closely investigated the domestic bird trade.</p><p>Importantly, the researchers found that an ever-increasing segment of the illegal trade launders poached animals via a sprawling, legal captive breeding industry — a network that specializes in birds, which have a huge domestic market in Brazil.</p><p>The authors also discovered that few government agencies have kept records or reported solid data that quantify the true scope of the problem. In many cases, records did not even identify the species or number of animals seized by authorities, while data coming from the Amazon was "notoriously scarce."</p><p>"Significant seizures are made on a daily basis by Amazon state law enforcement, and we did not have access to their data," Ferreria said, adding, "from what we saw, [the illegal trade] is even bigger than we imagined."</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzUyMzgyMC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwMDA3NzM1OH0.VUPTr8JGnro51eIVKkTzeNylJGlbLlTE43JRM3g4Pjw/img.jpg?width=980" id="611e7" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="2be4dcc7509e3f05df53742af3cec824" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
<p>Trends remain difficult to track, however, since seizure data alone represents a mere fraction of animals illegally pulled from the wild. But it is clear from existing data that there is an uptick in smuggling of some species, including jaguars: seizures increased by 200% from 2012 to 2018.</p><p>The lack of comprehensive data, the report notes, tends to play down the importance, as well as concealing the severity, of Brazilian trafficking — undermining enforcement efforts, legal attention and the funding needed to fight it.</p><p>But the study warns that the illegal trade is having serious consequences not only for the animals seized, but for entire species, ecosystems and people, not just in the Amazon but around the globe. The current COVID-19 epidemic, for example, caused by a coronavirus that jumped from wildlife to humans, has reminded the world that trafficking in wild animals is not merely a conservation issue, says Ferreira. It's both a public health issue and a biosafety issue.</p><p>An overarching national strategy is needed now to deal effectively with the problem, said the research team.</p>
<h3>Impact on the Amazon</h3><p>Today's vigorous, deadly commerce has helped speed the demise of 1,173 species that are either facing extinction or have already vanished in Brazil. Often the largest, strongest, most beautiful animals are lost, impacting the entire population. For example, the trade targets male birds with their showy plumage, while the few survivors of a species remaining in the wild can become inbred, weakening the gene pool and genetic resilience.</p><p>The scope of the plunder has also sparked concern over broader, cascading ecosystem impacts, says Ferreira, who explained that regularly taking animals from wild populations creates a domino effect, dismantling the biological and physical systems that sustain all life on Earth.</p><p>For example, without birds that act as pollinators and seed-dispersers, trees and plants that many creatures rely on for food disappear. Tropical forests also act as huge carbon vaults, mitigating climate change and extreme weather; they offer buffers from flooding and provide drinking water for millions of people. Losing millions of animals every year to trafficking could lead not only to empty forests, but eventually cause whole ecosystems to crash.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzUyMzgyMy9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwMzYxNTQ1NH0.UmXQbzCzJXdxIN_vMeotnVIJgF3MWlYKDnQLndFtct0/img.jpg?width=980" id="b7598" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="ba860e575989538043788aea786470e4" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
<h3>Trafficking as Global Organized Crime</h3><p>The wildlife trade is also gaining increasing attention because of its lawless perpetrators: transnational criminal trafficking networks span the globe, make huge profits and cultivating massive corruption. Their illicit supply chain extends from the Amazon to almost every continent.</p><p><a href="https://www.thegef.org/" target="_blank">The Global Environment Facility (GEF)</a> describes the illegal wildlife trade as "one of the most lucrative illegal businesses in the world." It's ranked as the world's fourth largest source of criminal earnings, generating up to <a href="https://www.unenvironment.org/news-and-stories/story/three-ways-united-nations-environment-programme-works-address-illegal-trade" target="_blank">U.S. $23 billion</a> annually. With so much money changing hands under the table, the trade has even become a global national security issue.</p><p>But even though environmental authorities may seize illegally traded animals and apprehend some smugglers, the study notes that law enforcement is not targeting the kingpins who mastermind the trade or its supply chains. As a result, this shadowy underworld industry thrives as it breeds widespread corruption, bribery, fraud, forgery, money laundering and smuggling.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, "Existing legislation does not consider wildlife trafficking a 'serious crime,'" and there are numerous loopholes and inconsistencies in laws, the report says. Since the illicit trade is such a lucrative business, mild penalties offer little deterrent. A six- to 12-month "detention" is common, which is just restriction of freedom — not jail time — or is negotiated down to a stint at community service.</p><p>In addition, the report documented extensive evidence of widespread fraud by both private and commercial breeders in Brazil who forged permits, mislabeled species declarations, and tampered with government-issued identification rings to sell illegally-acquired songbirds alongside those they legally breed. This particular market is largely domestic, feeding an entrenched Brazilian culture that keeps songbirds as pets. IBAMA, Brazil's environmental agency, estimated that in 2015 alone, some three million passerine birds were fraudulently listed with the government — 75% of all that were registered.</p>
<h3>Curbing Amazon Trafficking</h3><p>While the goal of the new report was not to make a comprehensive assessment of the international trade, the authors found that foreign buyers are driving much of it. "It seems that some Asian countries are sourcing more species in Brazil, such as sea cucumber, sea horses, ornamental fish, jaguars and shark fin," Ferreira said, adding that the U.S. is a top consumer of ornamental fish and leather made from pirarucu skin. Birds, amphibians and reptiles typically sell to European collectors, and the Middle East is a market for Amazon raptors.</p><p>Digital commerce — the internet, social media and messaging groups — have become key "sales offices" for wild animals and the products made from them. The "merchandise" itself is moved in every way imaginable: via cars, buses, boats, planes and overnight courier services. Human "mules" have been arrested with birds or eggs taped to their bodies or concealed in clothing. A porous, 8,000-mile border between Brazil and eight Amazon neighbors creates an easy flow. The Peruvian and Colombian borders in the Northwestern Amazon form a "particularly relevant hub" for trafficking, the report noted.</p>
<p>Combatting the trade requires that it be recognized and treated as a serious crime. More complete data is also needed that will allow for strategic planning and strengthened law enforcement, says lead author Sandra Charity. Stronger national laws that target professional traffickers would also allow for the implementation of the UN Convention on Organized Crime, she said.</p><p>Without a market, there is no commerce, so educating consumers is key, concludes Ferreira.</p><p>"Ultimately, it is a matter of choosing why we are buying that animal, or wildlife product, and if it is worth it …. Cultures are dynamic and need to evolve. We need to start to change the way we view wildlife as commodities," she said, and "we also need to understand that loving an animal does equal imprisoning them."</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/07/brazilian-amazon-drained-of-millions-of-wild-animals-by-criminal-networks-report/" target="_blank">Mongabay</a>.</em><br/></p>From Your Site Articles
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The Pianodrome, a first-of-its kind theater currently under construction in Glasgow, Scotland is being built with recycled pianos. Matt Wright
A first-of-its kind theater currently under construction in Glasgow, Scotland is giving the phrase "in tune with nature" a whole new meaning.
<p>The 80-person performance space is the UK's first permanent auditorium made entirely from <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/recycling" target="_self">recycled</a> pianos, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jul/26/glasgow-project-uses-recyled-pianos-create-new-theatre-space?CMP=fb_gu&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR1TeM4dbqchkceVXm3Ug2LXkTH-hJdPS5b9THqyMSxlIKMWhGGRs65W9z0#Echobox=1595770531" target="_blank">The Guardian reported Sunday</a>. The innovative design is the fruit of a collaboration between Glasgow community organizer Alex Docherty; Tom Binns, a man who finds homes for old pianos in Glasgow, and <a href="https://pianodrome.org/" target="_blank">Pianodrome</a>, an Edinburgh-based group that built the world's first 100-seat amphitheater from recycled pianos.</p><p>Pianodrome's Tim Vincent-Smith told <a href="https://inews.co.uk/news/pianos-auditorium-young-perfomers-glasgow-springburn-374483" target="_blank">inews</a> that the discarding of old pianos reminded him of the treatment of the environment.</p><p>"The countryside is like a piano that granny used to play but we don't have any use for anymore," Vincent-Smith said. "And we are chucking our environmental health away and literally burning it."</p>
<p>The piano theaters work against this throwaway logic by giving old instruments new homes.</p><p>"People have an extraordinary emotional attachment to their instruments and would be heartbroken to see them go in a skip," Binns, who founded the <a href="https://www.glasgowpianocity.org/" target="_blank">Glasgow Piano City</a> project in 2013 to reuse discarded instruments, told The Guardian. "We're giving pianos a new life."</p><p>The pianos are in turn bringing new life to Glasgow's Springburn Park neighborhood. Two years ago, Docherty stopped a steel hut from being torn down so he could transform it into a community space instead.</p><p>"When I talk to my gran who grew up in Springburn, it used to have cinemas and places to go," Docherty told The Guardian. "But since the decline in industry and the motorway demolitions [creating the unpopular dual carriageways and flyovers that bisect Springburn] they disappeared. We really need a community space in the area."</p>
<p>It was Binns who thought of Pianodrome to design the space's auditorium.</p><p>For Pianodrome, which premiered its temporary amphitheater at the Edinburgh Fringe festival in 2018 and has conducted numerous temporary installations since, it was a chance to design a permanent structure.</p><p>"Here, our installations have been limited to 28 days here and there, whereas in Springburn the council have given the Springburn Auditorium a long-term use of that building and the plan is to make an installation that is going to stay there," Vincent-Smith told inews.</p>
<p>Pianodrome is now <a href="https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/the-pianodrome" target="_blank">crowd-funding</a> a permanent home for its Edinburgh amphitheater.</p><p>The Glasgow auditorium is made from about 40 pianos, including a baby grand, according to The Guardian.</p><p>The project is not yet finished, according to the <a href="https://www.glasgowtimes.co.uk/news/18600432.recycled-pianos-turn-springburn-shed-auditorium/" target="_blank">Glasgow Times</a>. The outer-shell needs weather-proofing and the seating is not done yet.</p><p>"We'll be working with a team of craftsmen through the autumn and I would hope to finish before the winter. It will be the new year 2021 that we'll probably open but that's okay," Binns told the Glasgow Times.</p>
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A tiger in Kanha National Park, India. Ola Jennersten / WWF-Sweden
By Stuart Chapman
The goal set 10 years ago to double the number of wild tigers by 2022 remains one of the most ambitious conservation goals ever for a single species. Currently home to the vast majority of the world's remaining tigers, well-resourced protected areas are a cornerstone of this goal. Tigers are a conservation-dependent species and the persistence of tigers relies on well-funded and well-protected conservation areas.
<p><br/></p>
<p>Investing in 'tiger protected areas' helps protect globally-important ecosystems including some of Asia's last wilderness. These areas contain a wealth of critically important goods and ecosystem services that tens of millions of people rely on, from mitigating climate change and regulating freshwater to reducing the impact of natural disasters and improving the health of local people.</p>
<p>But as <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/list/covid-19/" target="_blank">COVID-19 has severely impacted so many people, communities and countries</a> around the world, it also threatens to undermine the ability of protected areas to conserve tigers, due to budget cuts and a changing role for the rangers who are at the forefront of managing protected areas.</p><p>Led by WWF Tigers Alive Initiative, a recent survey of 77 staff across more than 40 protected areas in tiger range countries highlights the problems currently facing tiger protected areas.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzUyMTE4OS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0ODk1OTgxNn0.xw9eA71uZCaBZCCwLTm-gxUTIM1I1Y55eIa0X2QG5YI/img.jpg?width=980" id="c89ae" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="197cb2faf86a715e90f8160dd7f9cd69" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
A Bengal tiger in the Khata Forest, which 10 years ago was a degraded patch of land. This image was captured by a camera trap between November 2019 and March 2020 by WWF-Nepal.
<h3>Tiger Conservation Budgets Are Being Cut</h3><p>Almost half of respondents in the survey indicated that their budget for managing protected areas had already been reduced, compared to pre-COVID levels. Most concerning is that three-quarters of respondents were pessimistic about future budget allocation. It comes as no surprise then that 62% were pessimistic about their ability to manage the protected area due to the impacts of the pandemic.</p><p>These findings are compounded by the fact that budgets for protected areas are already greatly uneven across tiger range countries. India commits a combined $111 million from national and state budgets for the management of the nation's 50 tiger reserves, which support roughly three-quarters of the world's population and provide billions of dollars of annual ecosystem services. In other tiger range countries, particularly in Southeast Asia, the government budgets for protected area management and tiger conservation are orders of magnitude less. These are the countries which are struggling, even prior to COVID, to conserve and recover their tigers.</p><p>Rangers in most tiger range countries are considered to provide essential services and are thus exempt from lockdown rules. However, as countries grapple to cope with the COVID-19 outbreak and its impact on infrastructure and economies, the ability of rangers to effectively work is being compromised by additional responsibilities, salary cuts and disruption of essential supplies and equipment.</p>
<p>More than half of respondents from protected areas outside Nepal indicated they have been asked to take on wider duties since the outbreak of COVID-19, including border control and staffing community health checkpoints. Rangers in 23% of protected areas also reported taking salary cuts.</p><p>Key supplies, equipment, and maintenance has been disrupted in almost 60% of protected areas, while increased constraints in filing legal cases against offenders were reported by 40% of respondents. Where they had been occurring previously, community engagement activities have essentially stopped around the surveyed protected areas.</p><p>All of these factors mean that the work of rangers, critical guardians of protected areas, is becoming more difficult.</p>
<p>Investing in tiger protected areas is an investment in ecosystems that millions of people depend on. But this is not the only case for investing in protected areas and the people who manage them.</p><p>The COVID-19 crisis demonstrates that systemic changes must be made to address the environmental drivers of pandemics. We must curb the high-risk trade and consumption of <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wildlife">wildlife</a>, and halt deforestation and land conversion — and to do that, we need protected areas; they are an essential buffer between zoonotic disease pools and human populations.</p><p>That's why we urge governments to ensure funding levels remain or are increased in protected areas across Asia.</p>
<p><em>Stuart Chapman leads WWF's <a href="https://wwf.panda.org/get_involved/volunteer/volunteer_stories/tigers_alive_initiative/" target="_blank">Tigers Alive Initiative</a>.</em><br/></p><p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/07/on-world-tiger-day-lets-recommit-to-the-goal-of-doubling-wild-tiger-populations-by-2022-commentary/" target="_blank">Mongabay</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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A group of 150 leading scientific and economic experts on the Amazon basin have taken it upon themselves to launch an ambitious conservation project. Jlwad / Wikimedia Commons / CC by 4.0
By Shanna Hanbury
With the Amazon rainforest predicted to be at, or very close to, its disastrous rainforest-to-savanna tipping point, deforestation escalating at a frightening pace, and governments often worsening the problem, the need for action to secure the future of the rainforest has never been more urgent.
<p>Now, a group of 150 leading scientific and economic experts on the Amazon basin have taken it upon themselves to launch an ambitious conservation project. The newly founded Science Panel for the Amazon (SPA) aims to consolidate scientific research on the Amazon and propose solutions that will secure the region's future — including the social and economic well-being of its thirty-five-million inhabitants.</p><p>"Never before has there been such a rigorous scientific evaluation on the Amazon," said Carlos Nobre, the leading Amazon climatologist and one of the chairs of the Scientific Panel. The newly organized SPA, he adds, will model its work on the style of the authoritative reports produced by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in terms of academic diligence and the depth and breadth of analysis and recommendations.</p><p>The Amazon Panel, is funded by the United Nation's Sustainable Development Solutions Network and supported by prominent political leaders, such as former Colombian President, Juan Manuel Santos and the elected leader of the Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon River Basin, José Gregorio Díaz Mirabal. The SPA plans to publish its first report by April 2021.</p>
Reversing the Amazon Tipping Point
<p>Over the last five decades, the Amazon rainforest lost almost a fifth of its forest cover, putting the <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/12/the-tipping-point-is-here-it-is-now-top-amazon-scientists-warn/" target="_blank">biome on the edge</a> of a dangerous cliff. <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/01/impending-amazon-tipping-point-puts-biome-and-world-at-risk-scientists-warn/" target="_blank">Studies show</a> that if 3 to 8% more forest cover is lost, then deforestation combined with escalating climate change is likely to cause the Amazon ecosystem to collapse.</p><p>After this point is reached, the lush, biodiverse rainforest will receive too little precipitation to maintain itself and quickly shift from forest into a degraded savanna, causing enormous <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/02/amazon-tipping-point-puts-brazils-agribusiness-energy-sector-at-risk-top-scientists/" target="_blank">economic damage</a> across the South American continent, and releasing vast amounts of forest-stored carbon to the atmosphere, further destabilizing the global climate.</p><p>Amazon researchers are now taking a proactive stance to prevent the Amazon Tipping Point: "Our message to political leaders is that there is no time to waste," Nobre wrote in the SPA's press release.</p><p>Amid escalating forest loss in the Amazon, propelled by the anti-environmentalist agenda of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/04/satellite-data-show-amazon-rainforest-likely-drier-more-fire-prone-this-year/" target="_blank">experts fear</a> that this year's burning season, <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/07/fires-rage-in-the-amazon-despite-official-ban-greenpeace-photos-reveal/" target="_blank">already underway</a>, may exceed the August 2019 wildfires that shocked the world. Most Amazon basin fires are not natural in cause, but <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/09/brazilian-amazon-fires-scientifically-linked-to-2019-deforestation-report/" target="_blank">intentionally set</a>, often by land grabbers invading indigenous territories and other conserved lands, and causing massive deforestation.</p><p>"We are burning our own money, resources and biodiversity — it makes no sense," Sandra Hacon told Mongabay; she is a prominent biologist at the Brazilian biomedical Oswaldo Cruz Foundation and has studied the effects of Amazon forest fires on health. It is expected that air pollution caused by this year's wildfire's, when combined with COVID-19 symptoms, will cause <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/06/overlap-of-fire-covid-19-peaks-a-catastrophe-for-brazils-amazon/" target="_blank">severe respiratory impacts</a> across the region.</p><p>Bolivian ecologist Marielos Penã-Claros, notes the far-reaching economic importance of the rainforest: "The deforestation of the Amazon also has a negative effect on the agricultural production of Uruguay or Paraguay, thousands of kilometers away."</p><p>The climate tipping point, should it be passed, would negatively effect every major stakeholder in the Amazon, likely <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/02/amazon-tipping-point-puts-brazils-agribusiness-energy-sector-at-risk-top-scientists/" target="_blank">wrecking</a> the agribusiness and energy production sectors — ironically, the sectors responsible for much of the devastation today.</p><p>"I hope to show evidence to the world of what is happening with land use in the Amazon and alert other governments, as well as state and municipal-level leadership. We have a big challenge ahead, but it's completely necessary," said Hacon.</p>
Scientists Offer Evidence, and Also Solutions.
<p>Creating a workable blueprint for the sustainable future of the Amazon rainforest is no simple task. The solutions mapped out, according to the Amazon Panel's scientists, will seek to not only prevent deforestation and curb global climate change, but to generate a new vision and action plan for the Amazon region and its residents — especially, fulfilling development goals via a sustainable standing-forest economy.</p><p>The SPA, Nobre says, will make a critical break with the purely technical approach of the United Nation's IPCC, which banned policy prescriptions entirely from its reports. In practice, this has meant that while contributing scientists can show the impacts of fossil fuels on the atmosphere, they cannot recommend ending oil subsidies, for example. "We inverted this logic, and the third part of the [SPA] report will be entirely dedicated to searching for policy suggestions," Nobre says. "We need the forest on its feet, the empowerment of the traditional peoples and solutions on how to reach development goals."</p><p>Researchers across many academic fields (ranging from climate science and economics to history and meteorology) are collaborating on the SPA Panel, raising hopes that scientific consensus on the Amazon rainforest can be reached, and that conditions for research cooperation will greatly improve.</p><p>SPA participants hope that a thorough scientific analysis of the rainforest's past, present and future will aid in the formulation of viable public policies designed to preserve the Amazon biome — hopefully leading to scientifically and economically informed political decisions by the governments of Amazonian nations.</p><p>"We are analyzing not only climate but biodiversity, human aspects and preservation beyond the climate issues," Paulo Artaxo, an atmospheric physicist at the University of São Paulo, told Mongabay.</p><p>Due to the urgency of the COVID-19 pandemic, the initiative's initial dates for a final report were pushed forward by several months, and a conference in China cancelled entirely. But the 150-strong team is vigorously pushing forward, and the first phase of the project — not publicly available — is expected to be completed by the end of the year.</p><p>The hope on the horizon is that a unified voice from the scientific community will trigger long-lasting positive changes in the Amazon rainforest. "More than ever, we need to hear the voices of the scientists to enable us to understand how to save the Amazon from wanton and unthinking destruction," said Jeffrey Sachs, the director of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, on the official launch <a href="https://www.theamazonwewant.org/" target="_blank">website</a> called <a href="https://www.theamazonwewant.org/" target="_blank">The Amazon We Want</a>.</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/07/scientists-launch-ambitious-conservation-project-to-save-the-amazon/" target="_blank">Mongabay</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
- Brazil's Amazon Rainforest Is the Wild West for Illegal Gold Miners ... ›
- Amazon Rainforest Deforestation Hits Highest Rate in 10 Years ... ›
- Amazon Deforestation Increases 28 Percent in One Year - EcoWatch ›
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Pixabay
By John R. Platt
Raging, guttural vocals. Pounding snare drums. Blazing-fast guitar riffs.
<p>For Swedish death-metal musician Peter Hauschulz, these are the sounds and emotions of the extinction crisis.</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://therevelator.org/extinction-eco-slam/" target="_blank">The Revelator</a>.</em><em></em></p>
<p>Hauschulz's new solo grindcore project, Extinction, has just released an eight-track EP called "<a href="https://extinctionevent.bandcamp.com/album/smoldering-enfoulment" target="_blank">Smoldering Enfoulment</a>." The "eco-slam" songs tell the tales of recently extinct (or nearly extinct) species, such as the cryptic tree-hunter and the Miss Waldron's red colobus.</p><p>Most of the songs, Hauschulz says, were inspired by <a href="https://therevelator.org/extinction-species-lost-2019/" target="_blank">articles published here at <em>The Revelator</em></a>.</p><p>The album was released July 21 on Bandcamp and is now available for download, with proceeds supporting several environmental organizations and social-justice causes. Physical copies are being distributed on old-school audio cassette — recorded over tapes found in thrift stores.</p><p>That recycling approach is echoed in the band T-shirts and other merch — and even in the music itself. The album was mostly recorded in an aluminum storage space about 30 feet away from a local recycling dump. Hauschulz played all the instruments and sang the main vocals, then mixed in guest vocals from performers based in Poland, the Czech Republic and Portland, Oregon.</p><p>We spoke with Hauschulz about Extinction (and extinction), and you can preview several songs below:</p>
First up, what’s an “eco-slam”? And why death metal for such an already dark topic?
<p>I've always been fascinated with the juxtaposition of extremes in death metal, which often takes lyrical concepts to an absurd degree of foreboding exaggeration, while the music itself is equally eager to achieve a kind of rhythmically visceral and disturbing impact. There's a sub-genre of death metal called "slam," which is often some of the most ridiculous and lowbrow of the style and is an excellent opportunity to combine Neanderthal-esque delivery with relevant factual concepts and content. The idea is to subvert the extreme metal expectation that the topics must necessarily be comically grotesque and therefore easy to brush off as gory escapism, while also adhering to the underlying spirit of death metal in plainly confronting the horrors of reality.</p><iframe style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=2866059127/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/tracklist=false/artwork=small/transparent=true/" seamless><a href="http://extinctionevent.bandcamp.com/album/smoldering-enfoulment">Smoldering Enfoulment by Extinction</a></iframe>
What were the origins of this project?
<p>The idea for the project first took hold after I had read a <em>National Geographic</em> article sometime shortly after New Year in 2019. It was a small, touching story about how a tree snail (George) had been declared extinct just a few days earlier. Something about it just struck an unexpected nerve. I hadn't really considered how many known species were going extinct every day.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzUxMzI5NS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwNjU4OTY4NH0.nqdBlv1dX6P67PlXf9X3bWzr82px-1JMNuG9K43r2yU/img.jpg?width=980" id="4043c" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="b4824c0444cb93598aab7735f6fefebc" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Peter Hauschulz, photo by Smilla West.
<p>It was a perfect fusion of a genuinely dark topic that really wasn't being processed, either in the extreme metal community or at large, and therefore a ripe topic for deeper exploration.</p><p><em>(George's story was one of two songs on an </em>Extinction<em> demo album called "</em><a href="https://extinctionevent.bandcamp.com/album/anthropogenic-degradation-of-ecosystemic-vegetation-demo-2019" target="_blank"><em>Anthropogenic Degradation of Ecosystemic Vegetation</em></a><em>," released last year.)</em></p><p>For me, art and music are at their best when they seek to entertain, inform, inspire and connect with the listener. I felt that there was an opportunity to artistically energize the topic by connecting it to charity causes as well. It's very easy to become discouraged or feel like one isn't "doing enough" for the world, so I'm hoping to support the idea that we can all contribute in different ways according to our own needs and values and abilities, and not be held to an arbitrary standard of perfection that may be more discouraging than anything.</p><p>A few dollars here and there may not seem to be much, but it's important for me to try to align aspirations and ideas with actions. I hope that doing so artistically may inspire others to find clever ways to bring their unique talents and ideas to the world.</p>What are your creative goals when developing music and lyrics about such a difficult subject, and what do you hope your listeners will get out of it?
<p>My main goal with the project is to develop and foster connection between myself and the world, myself and other people, and hopefully inspire people's connection with their world, too.</p><p>Of course, encased in that is my own impulse to continuously challenge myself and hone my craft, so I hope listeners experience a feeling of deep urgency as a result of the music, but also a sense of inspiration to harness that feeling for something positive.</p>What’s your writing process?
<p>The process often involves a lot of iteration, bouncing from concept to experimentation on guitar or drums and back again, until it seems like it's congealing into something unique and alive. My primary musical focus is on the rhythms first, since I've always loved the way that aspect of music can reach deep into the core of a body and electrify it and give it motion.</p><p>I try to set the lyrics together in such a way that they amplify the music and give it a conceptual direction for that movement. For instance, the lines "flames of greed lick their black boots, inferno of corruption boils the frog, our spirit croaking for release, from the hell of our own kind" in the song "Electile Dysfunction" are some of my favorites in capturing the wretched spirit of greed behind so much of our planetary destitution.</p>Why did you pick some of these species to profile? What drew you to the need to tell their stories in musical form?
<p>I tried to represent a wide variety of species types, including those outside the more relatable ones that are cute or fuzzy, because things like mosses and trees are certainly just as important, but less often make it into headlines or story form. I also tried to focus on species whose extinction was more or less directly caused by human activity, whether by direct hunting or deforestation — something that highlights our essential relationship and the negative consequences of our actions and choices as a species on the planet.</p>You have a unique approach to merchandise and the physical distribution of your music. Where did the idea of recycled goods come from?
<p>Growing up in largely DIY punk scenes, it was common for smaller bands to screen print logos on thrift-store shirts. That seemed to be the most appropriate way to minimize the band's resource footprint while also opening the door to unique artistic opportunities. So far, the best result is when I can find an old novelty shirt from a vacation at Sea World or some other aquarium. Stamp a giant Extinction logo on top of a frolicking dolphin or killer whale and now it has become more than just a gift-store item.</p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Speaks for itself really <a href="https://t.co/tNFkVJX497">pic.twitter.com/tNFkVJX497</a></p>— EXTINCTION (eco-slam) (@Capt_Grapefruit) <a href="https://twitter.com/Capt_Grapefruit/status/1283074219249676288?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 14, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
What comes next? I know you already have a follow-up album in the works, and you were planning on touring before the pandemic hit.
<p>Next for Extinction is a bit up in the air, like for many bands and people of all inclinations all over the world. I'll be creating a music video in the coming months for one of these songs, continue writing a follow-up, which will be water-species themed, probably release a charity compilation single in a few months, and seek out like-minded collaborators of all types to start collecting a live lineup.</p>
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Woodland caribou in northern Ontario. J.H. / CC BY-ND 2.0
By Tara Lohan
A logged forest is a changed forest, and for woodland caribou that could mean the difference between life and death.
<p>A recent <a href="https://wildlife.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/jwmg.21829" target="_blank">study</a> in the <em>Journal of Wildlife Management</em> tracked the survival rates and population growth of woodland caribou (<em>Rangifer tarandus caribou</em>) across two areas of northern Ontario, Canada. In one area about a third of the forest had been logged 30 to 50 years ago. In the other, the only disturbances were from natural events.</p><p>The research found "substantial differences" in the survival of adult caribou between the two areas.</p>
<p>The animals, it turned out, fared considerably worse in the previously logged landscape — so badly that the researchers, led by <a href="https://www.fryxell-lab.com/thefryxelllab" target="_blank">John Fryxell</a>, a professor at the University of Guelph and executive director of the <a href="https://biodiversity.uoguelph.ca/" target="_blank">Biodiversity Institute of Ontario</a>, concluded it would lead to a dwindling population. The unlogged habitat, however, they found "should be considerably more capable of sustaining caribou."</p><p>The high mortality rates for the caribou in the logged forest are mostly due to wolf predation, but human changes to the landscape help make that possible. Development has been a driving force behind declining caribou numbers throughout their range.</p><p>As a result of these human disturbances, the caribou population in North America is in a precarious position. Woodland caribou once ranged across half of Canada and the northern reaches of the contiguous United States. But they're now gone from their southern range. In Canada's boreal forests, the animals are listed as threatened under the federal Species at Risk Act, Canada's version of the Endangered Species Act.</p><p>While woodland caribou have evolved to live with forests disturbed by wildfire, they haven't fared well in forests disturbed by people. One of the biggest threats is habitat fragmentation from commercial logging, mining, oil and gas — and all the roads associated with those activities.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzUxMzA0Ni9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwMjc4Nzc5OX0.Im2Bk0epol_P5NjtPoPU8wCFVC6Jmmdekm7ObdaiRbg/img.jpg?width=980" id="4204a" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="99b5f5d275212ce21fa200e2d57edd83" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://therevelator.org/woodland-caribou-boreal/" target="_blank">The Revelator</a>. </em><br/></p>Tar sands mining in Fort McMurray, Alberta fragments habitat for caribou. Kris Krüg / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
<p>But here's the twist: Moose do better in these disturbed landscapes, and that puts caribou further at risk, albeit indirectly.</p><p>Previous research has found that moose prefer the vegetation that grows in these early successional forests that follow a large-scale disturbance, like commercial logging. And a higher density of moose attracts more wolves, which are also able to <a href="https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1365-2664.12732" target="_blank">move faster and hunt farther</a> by following linear clearings like roads and pipelines in these developed areas.</p><p>While moose are the primary prey for wolves, caribou that wander into these forests become another tasty target.</p><p>"The bottom line," Fryxell explains, "is that the combination of vegetation changes, increase in road density, increase in moose, and consequent increase in wolves threaten long-term viability of woodland caribou in boreal landscapes of Ontario, in a similar fashion to many other parts of Canada."</p><p>A national assessment found that around 70% of Canada's local <a href="http://registrelep-sararegistry.gc.ca/default.asp?lang=En&n=2FEAAC82-1#_ex" target="_blank">populations of woodland caribou were no longer self-sustaining</a>.</p><p>So what's to be done?</p><p>Last year provincial managers in Quebec floated the idea of <a href="https://www.nationalobserver.com/2019/12/11/news/quebec-plan-kill-wolves-protect-caribou-angers-conservationists" target="_blank">killing wolves</a> to protect caribou herds. Their idea met with public backlash, but wolves in British Columbia weren't so lucky. During the winter of 2019-2020, a whopping 463 wolves were killed by the B.C. provincial government for the stated purpose of protecting populations of southern mountain caribou, another caribou ecotype.</p><p>Some of the money to pay for the kill came from Coastal GasLink, a company actively clearing land in caribou habitat for a pipeline, the Canadian news outlet the <em><a href="https://thenarwhal.ca/a-dangerous-road-coastal-gaslink-pays-to-kill-wolves-in-endangered-caribou-habitat-in-b-c-interior/" target="_blank">Narwhal </a></em><a href="https://thenarwhal.ca/a-dangerous-road-coastal-gaslink-pays-to-kill-wolves-in-endangered-caribou-habitat-in-b-c-interior/" target="_blank">reported</a>.</p><p>And a <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10531-020-02008-3" target="_blank">recently published study</a> in the journal <em>Biology and Conservation </em>found that the culls were not likely to aid caribou and pointed out several shortcomings in previous research that called for such wolf-control measures.</p><p>There are other, and better, options — like habitat protection and restoration.</p><p>Fryxell's study concluded that "the most secure conservation measure would be to set aside extensive tracts of boreal forest with natural patterns of disturbance to sustain viable caribou sub‐populations."</p><p>Research shows that the animals need at least 65% of their range undisturbed to have a good shot at survival.</p><p>And helping caribou will come with other environmental benefits. Canada's 2018 <a href="http://registrelep-sararegistry.gc.ca/default.asp?lang=En&n=2FEAAC82-1#_ex" target="_blank">federal action</a> plan to restore caribou stated, "Boreal caribou is also considered by many to be an indicator of the overall state of Canada's boreal forest ecosystem." So keeping forests intact or restoring habitat is a proposition that would benefit not only caribou but many other species.</p><p><em><a href="https://therevelator.org/author/taralohan/" target="_blank">Tara Lohan</a> is deputy editor of The Revelator and has worked for more than a decade as a digital editor and environmental journalist focused on the intersections of energy, water and climate. Her work has been published by The Nation, American Prospect, High Country News, Grist, Pacific Standard</em><em style=""> and others. She is the editor of two books on the global water crisis.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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