Researchers suggest that the Himalayan wolf should be classified as a subspecies of the grey wolf or as an entirely distinct species. Geraldine Werhahn / Himalayan Wolves Project
By Mayank Aggarwal
The Himalayan wolf is a distinct species of wolf, which shows unique genetic adaptation to the difficult conditions in the Asian high altitude ecosystems, a study found, reiterating that it needs to be identified as a species of special conservation concern. "Conservation action for the Himalayan wolf is required and of global conservation interest," noted the study.
<p>For the study, the researchers used over 280 samples of scat and hair from the Himalayan region of Nepal, which included Humla and Dolpa districts in the north-western Nepalese Himalayas and the Kanchenjunga Conservation Area (KCA) in the north-eastern Nepalese Himalayas, during the spring and summer periods of 2014 to 2016.</p>
<p>Explaining that the Himalayan wolf is a little-understood wolf lineage found in the Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau of Asia, the study noted that the species diverged from the Holarctic grey wolf 691,000 to 740,000 years ago. The <a href="https://books.google.co.in/books?id=OaI4DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA159&lpg=PA159&dq=holarctic+region+north+to+mexican+desert+region&source=bl&ots=AsIYsLlpGg&sig=ACfU3U1mqEv8zA_Ohvgjd-wQ-tKhTSyz0g&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiC9sGjv-nhAhXLuI8KHZzbDH8Q6AEwC3oECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=holarctic%20region%20north%20to%20mexican%20desert%20region&f=false" target="_blank">Holarctic region</a> includes all the non-tropical parts of Europe, Asia, Africa (north of the Sahara) and North America (till the Mexican desert region). According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the global population of grey wolf (<em>Canis lupus</em>) is <a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/3746/119623865#geographic-range" target="_blank">estimated</a> to be 200,000 to 250,000 individuals.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTQyOTkyNi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxODc2Njc5NX0.La7gNEPnsDv9H3Chhm5j_v9xB4APUubgrg6arxj6z8g/img.jpg?width=980" id="4044f" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="7cfb8b9e9805f1abd3970fe11b6f3693" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
The Himalayan wolf inhabits the high altitude regions of the Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau. Genetic studies revealed that they are adapted to the extreme conditions of these mountain ranges. Photo by Geraldine Werhahn / Himalayan Wolves Project
<p>"The Himalayan wolf presents an overlooked wolf lineage that is phylogenetically [evolutionarily] distinct from grey wolves. Current evidence indicates that this wolf has diverged as an own lineage before the radiation of modern grey wolves. Hence the Himalayan wolf presents an evolutionary significant wolf population that merits appropriate taxonomic recognition," Geraldine Werhahn, lead author of the study, told Mongabay-India.</p><p>Taxonomy is a system of classifying species. Relationships between species can be represented as a family tree, known as a phylogeny.</p><p>Werhahn explained that the Himalayan wolf is more "distinct than many of the currently recognized subspecies of the grey wolf, hence the debate around it potentially meriting full species recognition."</p><p>"The Himalayan wolf is adapted to life in the extreme high altitude habitats of the Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau and along with the snow leopard, is a top predator in this ecosystem. Predators enjoy a growing recognition for the important roles they fulfill, like maintaining ecosystem health and balance. Currently, this wolf is overlooked by science and conservation and local people are not aware that this wolf needs to be conserved and is of global relevance," added Werhahn, who is a conservation biologist at the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU) at the Zoology department of the <a href="http://www.ox.ac.uk/" target="_blank">University of Oxford</a>. The study is a collaborative project between researchers from the U.K., Nepal, Spain, Kyrgyzstan and the U.S.</p><p>According to the study, the Himalayan wolf has been documented at 3,900 to 5,600 meters (approximately 12,800 to 18,400 feet) above sea level across the continuous landscape of the Himalayas and genetic evidence has confirmed its presence in the Himalayas and the Tibetan plateau.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTQyOTkzOC9vcmlnaW4uZ2lmIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2MjM4MDQyOX0.R8tjutJGq0lMwUFY8-tiyMaaSQfo24ivIgeJIe2f-Uk/img.gif?width=980" id="ecc89" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="f9a860a3ab528e9ecfb4f0eb40b5cfb0" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Himalayan wolf pups playing in Upper Dolpa, Nepal. Video by Geraldine Werhahn / Himalayan Wolves Project
<p>The study stated that Nepal, with its northern area dominated by the Himalayan mountain range, holds a considerable Himalayan wolf population.</p><p>It emphasized that the "dramatic inaccessible high Himalayan landscapes may present important habitat refuges for the Himalayan wolf" and recommended that Nepal should play a leading role in Himalayan wolf conservation and act as a role model for the other range countries, which currently, along with Nepal, include India and China.</p><p>Sharing her experience of the study, Werhahn stated that the majority of local people in the Himalayan wolf habitats are Buddhists and have a comparable tolerant and integral attitude towards the natural world around them.</p><p>"They have coexisted for centuries in these challenging but immensely beautiful ecosystems. Local people are not aware that the Himalayan wolf, similar to the snow leopard, needs to be protected and that they should not kill it. Snow leopard conservation has been in place since some decades now and local people are much more aware to not kill snow leopards. Now, the same must happen for Himalayan wolves," she said. "In fact, all predators, and these whole predator guild conservation actions can go hand in hand with conservation actions already in place and functioning for snow leopards," said Werhahn while replying to a query about the attitude of the local people toward the Himalayan wolf.</p>
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<h2>Separate Species Status Would Help in Conservation</h2><p>As per the study, the evaluation of the conservation status of the Himalayan wolf and the subsequent implementation of conservation actions is "hindered by scarce data on taxonomic status, distribution and ecology."</p><p>"Although the scientific evidence supporting its genetic uniqueness has been accumulating in recent years, reliable population estimates are lacking, ranging from 350 individuals in Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh (in India) to several thousand in Tibet and Qinghai," the study said.</p><p>Werhahn stressed that the main problem in conservation of this wolf species is scarce data and that it does not get the attention of science and conservation.</p><p>"Once it is assigned its appropriate and required taxonomic classification, it can then be assigned an IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) conservation status. And these two necessary advancements, taxonomic recognition and conservation status, are crucial to improve conservation efforts with regard to political leverage, but also conservation awareness and conservation funding. This will trigger an increasing interest to research and conserve this wolf," she said.</p><p>She further said that later some more specific actions to mitigate livestock depredation, ensure healthy wild prey populations and decrease illegal <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wildlife">wildlife</a> trade of its parts can be taken for the purpose of conservation of the Himalayan wolf.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Government study confirms endangered red wolves are a separate species worthy of <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/EndangeredSpeciesAct?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#EndangeredSpeciesAct</a> protection: <a href="https://t.co/99cKkUcSzn">https://t.co/99cKkUcSzn</a> via <a href="https://twitter.com/EcoWatch?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@EcoWatch</a></p>— Endangered Species Coalition (@endangered) <a href="https://twitter.com/endangered/status/1112755422547664897?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 1, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://india.mongabay.com/2019/04/recognise-himalayan-wolf-as-a-distinct-species-study/" target="_blank">Mongabay</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Murdered Seringal São Domingos landless settlement leader Nemis Machado de Oliveira being buried. Image courtesy of Amazonia Real
By Sue Branford and Thais Borges
Violence in the Brazilian countryside is on the rise. In the last two weeks, Amazonia has seen an alarming increase in targeted killings, with three massacres and at least nine deaths. The Catholic Church's Pastoral Land Commission (CPT) defines a massacre as a killing involving three or more people.
<p>The <a href="https://g1.globo.com/pa/para/noticia/2019/04/03/conflito-armado-deixa-dois-mortos-e-tres-feridos-no-pa-sargento-da-pm-morre-na-troca-de-tiros.ghtml" target="_blank">most recent killings</a> took place on April 3 in a landless peasant workers' camp near the hamlet of Vila de Mocotó in the Altamira municipal district, in southwest Pará state, near the Belo Monte mega-dam. This is not far from Anapu, where <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/12/brazil-bolsonaro-supporter-works-to-imprison-dorothy-stangs-successor/" target="_blank">Sister Dorothy Stang,</a> an American nun who worked with Amazon landless peasant communities, was murdered in 2005.</p><p>The squatters were campaigning for the area to be turned into an officially authorized agrarian land reform settlement. According to <a href="https://g1.globo.com/pa/para/noticia/2019/04/03/conflito-armado-deixa-dois-mortos-e-tres-feridos-no-pa-sargento-da-pm-morre-na-troca-de-tiros.ghtml" target="_blank">unconfirmed reports</a>, military police were attempting to evict the settlers at the behest of a man claiming to own the land. The police were reportedly <a href="https://g1.globo.com/pa/para/noticia/2019/04/03/conflito-armado-deixa-dois-mortos-e-tres-feridos-no-pa-sargento-da-pm-morre-na-troca-de-tiros.ghtml" target="_blank">acting without a judicial order</a>. The action ended with one confirmed death, a member of the military police, Valdenilson Rodrigues da Silva. Some witnesses say there were three other victims, all landless workers.</p><p>These killings occurred just four days after four people are believed to have been killed in Seringal São Domingos, in Ponta do Abunã, a remote area in the Lábrea municipal district near the intersection of the borders of the states of Acre, Amazonas and Rondônia, about 150 kilometers (approximately 93 miles) upstream from the <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/12/santo-antonio-mega-dam-on-brazils-madeira-river-disrupts-local-lives/" target="_blank">Jirau hydroelectric dam</a>. Landless movement squatters, likely traumatized by the violence, remain too afraid to speak openly, but it is believed that many other people remain missing.</p><p>According to information provided by the Military Police, four hooded and armed men arrived in Seringal São Domingos and told the families living there they must leave their homes. The squatters' leader, 53-year-old Nemis Machado de Oliveira, was reportedly shot dead. The gunmen then expelled the other squatters by firing shots into the air and burning their homes.</p><p>Since 2016, about 140 families have been living in Seringal São Domingos, an old rubber plantation, surviving on rubber tapping and subsistence farming.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTM4Mzc3My9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyMjk4NjI5N30.BpveeVgIRiJMJdJ3ZFL04Qf4oto6TsjCG6xwyCz6SSA/img.jpg?width=980" id="13904" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="ef81a0b5637165d9f5332824f5328483" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Vigil in Salvador Allende Camp in memory of those recently killed
Image courtesy of Outras Midias
<p>The region has a long history of conflict, involving land grabbers, farmers and loggers. One of the most notorious murders occurred in May 2011 when Adelino Ramos, known as Dinho — a leader of the landless peasant movement (Movimento dos Sem Terra, or MST) — was murdered while selling vegetables he had grown in his settlement, which was officially recognized by INCRA (the federal government's National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform). Dinho had survived the 1995 Corumbiara massacre, when eight people were killed and hundreds wounded. At the time of his murder, Dinho was active in denouncing illegal loggers along the Acre, Amazonas and Rondônia frontier.</p><p>These two cases, which may upon investigation turn up a larger number of victims than initially confirmed, both came on the heels of another massacre. On 22 March, Dilma Ferreira Silva, a socio-environmental activist leader with the Movement of People Affected by Dams (MAB), her husband and a friend, <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/03/leading-amazon-dam-rights-activist-spouse-and-friend-murdered-in-brazil/" target="_blank">were killed</a> by hooded motorcyclists in the Baião municipal district about 60 kilometers (37 miles) from the Tucuruí dam in Pará state. They were assassinated inside the family home; Dilma had her throat slit after watching her husband and friend killed.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTM4Mzc3Ny9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxMDY0OTE1OH0.MvSgUhnEuKJcwWBjrfZd91GHs3JoZAGseKCJhJqPSKY/img.jpg?width=980" id="9d441" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="65c111cf106d11153fff9d579a33c358" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Murdered activist Dilma Ferreira Silva, a socio-environmental leader with the Movement of People Affected by Dams (MAB)
Image courtesy of the Movimentos dos Atingidos ppr Barragens
<p>Two days later three burnt bodies were found on a cattle ranch just 14 kilometers (approximately 9 miles) from the Salvador Allende settlement where Dilma and the other two victims lived. The three new victims were identified as Marlete da Silva Oliveira and Raimundo de Jesus Ferreira, who looked after the ranch, and Venilson da Silva Santos, who worked there as a tractor driver.</p><p>The man alleged to have organized both sets of killings is Fernando Ferreira Rosa Filho, known as Fernandinho, who has a reputation locally as a dangerous bandit. He is now being investigated by police with respect to all six execution-style killings. The Pastoral Land Commission, which monitors rural violence, considers the two incidents to be part of the same massacre, largely because of the alleged involvement of Fernandinho in both.</p><p>According to the police, witnesses <a href="https://g1.globo.com/pa/para/noticia/2019/04/03/conflito-armado-deixa-dois-mortos-e-tres-feridos-no-pa-sargento-da-pm-morre-na-troca-de-tiros.ghtml" target="_blank">said</a> that the three ranch employees were considering taking legal action against their employer for not respecting their labor rights. The ranch owner has also been accused of building a clandestine landing strip to facilitate drug trafficking. Local reports suggest that he may have wished to get rid of independently-minded employees. According to the Secretariat of Public Security and Social Defense in Pará state, the crimes are being investigated as an "execution," but police have not established the motive or found the killers — typical of such attacks in the Amazon.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTM4MzgwNC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyMDc1ODU1Mn0.pCcmXdqUa9CJw8RQ2i7-CC9iskIa7l2zBO6hNCGf7GY/img.jpg?width=980" id="38a76" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="3ef7820bee919cf4b3ea817db1db80e4" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Map showing the location of recent attacks as related to hydroelectric dams, deforested areas and agrarian reform settlements
Map by Mauricio Torres for Mongabay
<h3>What Do These Criminal Acts Have in Common?</h3><p>The three attacks on activists involved in social movements or rural workers' organizations have three characteristics in common: they all occurred in areas within the influence of a large hydroelectric <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/dams">dam</a>; they all happened near or within an agrarian reform settlement; and all are located along one of Amazonia's primary <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/deforestation">deforestation</a> fronts (see map 1).</p><p>Vila de Mocotó, for example, is located just 28 kilometers (approximately 17 miles) from the controversial <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/02/belo-monte-legacy-harm-from-amazon-dam-didnt-end-with-construction/" target="_blank">Belo Monte hydroelectric dam</a>. The construction of this dam, the third largest in the world and operational in 2016, led to a massive injection of capital into a rural region that was ill-prepared to receive it. Unsurprisingly, this led to the overheating of the real estate market, sparking a stampede to buy or steal land.</p><p>Today, land prices are rising even higher in the Xingu basin, as the right-wing Bolsonaro government signals the relaxation of environmental regulations and the fast tracking of large-scale projects, such as the giant proposed <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2017/02/judge-halts-excavation-plans-for-largest-ever-brazilian-goldmine/" target="_blank">gold mine</a> that the Canadian mining company, <a href="http://www.belosun.com/" target="_blank">Belo Sun</a>, wants to open near Belo Monte.</p><p>As a result, land thieves and illegal loggers are moving rapidly into the nearby Ituna/Itatá indigenous territory. Satellite monitoring and analysis of the territory shows that the number of illegal invasions there has increased enormously since 2017; that's based on observations by SIRAD-X (Xingu Basin Deforestation Radar System) which uses data provided by the European Space Agency's Sentinel-1 satellite.</p><p>In March of this year, SIRAD-X registered the opening of a new illegal road, invading the area from the west (map 2). More deforestation took place in Ituna/Itatá in 2018 than in any other indigenous territory in the Xingu basin. Altogether, <a href="https://www.socioambiental.org/pt-br/blog/blog-do-xingu/estrada-ilegal-e-identificada-em-terra-indigena-de-isolados-no-xingu-0" target="_blank">6,785 hectares (16,766 acres) were cleared</a>, a huge increase in illegal cutting. In this single year, almost twice as much forest was felled as the sum total of all deforestation happening there in previous years.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTM4Mzg1MC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzNTUxMzQ2MH0.wP7x3vGiDQ1L2rXoF3pph0q4qshLX5y2fC_sae2267U/img.jpg?width=980" id="1e48d" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="51c7853d6a5835085f8a501c1af2458d" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
A portion of the Xingu River basin showing the proximity of a recent massacre, agrarian reform settlements, a new illegal road into the Ituna/Itatá indigenous territory, the Belo Monte dam and the proposed Belo Sun gold mine (which would be the largest in Brazil)
Map by Mauricio Torres
<p>The Ituna/Itatá territory is particularly vulnerable because it is not an officially demarcated indigenous territory. Rather, it is an area that has been "interdicted," where the entry of non-indigenous people has been banned to protect isolated Indians known to be living there. Although anthropologists have gathered convincing evidence of the existence of these indigenous inhabitants, they have not been contacted. As a result, they are clearly unable to organize to drive out intruders, and are entirely dependent on the government for protection.</p><p>The edict authorizing the "interdiction" must be reissued every three years. However, due to President Bolsonaro's campaign promise "that not another centimeter of land" will be given to indigenous groups, land thieves apparently became confident that the government would not renew the Ituna/Itatá territory edict, making the 142,000 hectare (approximately 548 square mile) area available to them.</p><p>But on Jan. 9 of this year — at the very start of the Bolsonaro Administration— FUNAI, the indigenous agency, unexpectedly <a href="http://www.in.gov.br/materia/-/asset_publisher/Kujrw0TZC2Mb/content/id/60551849" target="_blank">renewed the edict</a> for another three years. The land cannot be sold by land thieves while it is still designated as indigenous territory, but even so, deforestation seems likely to continue.</p><p>According to a researcher who prefers to speak off the record for safety reasons, "the deforestation within the indigenous territory is the result of a struggle between at least two groups of land thieves. Despite the renewal of the edict, they remain confident they will eventually get their hands on this land and, if the current rhythm of deforestation continues, it is very likely that, along with the heavy loss of forest, the isolated Indians will be exterminated."</p><p>Much of the Xingu basin is now immersed in a similar climate of lawlessness. Details of the camp massacre near Vila de Mocotó are as yet unknown, but the scenario fits in with a historic pattern of land conflicts occurring in the region. According to the unnamed researcher, "A big infrastructure project overheats the real estate market, peasant families and traditional communities are violently evicted by land thieves, who then deforest the area and then sell it to big mining and farming projects."</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTM4Mzg2OC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzNzIxNzg2MH0.9n8abWovlJINk3CBusRgWw8G9yT6P83J9flItqoAIvM/img.jpg?width=980" id="843ca" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="99d8ed589b7aaf8de2deec2b17deb7e4" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
The Jirau dam cuts across the Madeira River in western Brazil. Its construction, like that of the Belo Monte dam, the Tucuruí dam, and other large Amazon dams, resulted in an upsurge in rural property values, leading to rampant land speculation, exploited by land grabbers, often leading to violence.
Image courtesy of Monitoring the Andean Amazon Project
<h3>Conflict Along the Madeira Deforestation Front</h3><p>The situation is not much different in Ponta do Abunã, located on the Madeira River about 2,000 kilometers (approximately 1,240 miles) to the west of Belo Monte on another deforestation front.</p><p>It is here that Nemis Machado de Oliveira, the leader of the Seringal São Domingos community, was killed. According to a Sustainable Amazonia Plan (Plano Amazônia Sustentável) report, produced by Brazil's Ministry of the Environment, peasant families in this region are being evicted from their settlements to make way for big cattle ranches. Land seizures gained momentum after 2013 when the controversial Jirau dam became operational. That mega-dam has been heavily <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2008/11/brazil-oks-4-billion-dam-in-the-amazon-rainforest/" target="_blank">criticized by environmentalists</a> and activists for harm done to <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2016/05/dams-flood-36000-hectares-brazilian-rainforest/" target="_blank">indigenous communities</a>, <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2017/07/study-brazilian-mega-dams-caused-far-more-flooding-than-eia-predicted/" target="_blank">terrestrial</a> and <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/03/brazil-madeira-river-dams-may-spell-doom-for-amazons-marathon-catfish-studies/" target="_blank">aquatic</a> ecosystems.</p><p>Now a nearly kilometer-long (approximately 3,000-foot) bridge is being constructed across the Madeira River at Ponta do Abunã, about 150 kilometers (approximately 93 miles) upstream from the Jirau dam. Due to be completed this year, the bridge will extend the BR-364 highway into the state of Acre. Experts fear that the new road will lead to heightened land speculation and possibly to violence.</p><p>Local businessmen remain very enthusiastic: "The bridge over the Madeira River at Ponta do Abunã is a very important project," <a href="http://www.rondonoticias.com.br/artigo/400/sergio-pires/ponte-de-abuna-faltam-15-por-cento-das-obras-e-um-empenho-de-19-milhoes-para-entrega-la-em-2019" target="_blank">said</a> Marcelo Thomé, president of the Federation of Industries in the State of Rondônia (FIERO). "It will connect Acre state to the national road network, permitting more development for states in the north [of Brazil], particularly Rondônia ... It is a big step in linking Brazil with the Pacific."</p><p>Brazil has multiple plans for a <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/11/china-increasingly-involved-in-brazils-ambitious-amazon-rail-network/" target="_blank">transcontinental railway</a>, with one proposed route slated to cross Acre and Rondônia. The coast-to-coast railroad would allow Brazil to significantly reduce costs of commodity shipments to China, though conservationists fear it would be a death knell for Amazonian <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/rainforests">forests</a>, indigenous and traditional ways of life.</p><p>The other massacre – the killing of Dilma Ferreira Silva and two others – in the municipal district of Baião lies within the area of influence of the Tucuruí dam, a project initiated by the military government and completed in 1984. Inhabitants affected by the dam are still fighting 35 years later for compensation, and the region, suffering from heavy deforestation, regularly sees a high level of violence.</p><p>If the deaths of at least six peasants in the two most recent attacks are confirmed, Brazil will have achieved an historic record — three massacres in less than two weeks.</p><p>In response to the increased rural violence, the Pastoral Land Commission (CPT) has launched a new website: <a href="https://www.cptnacional.org.br/publicacoes-2/destaque/3984-cpt-lanca-pagina-especial-na-internet-sobre-os-massacres-no-campo" target="_blank">Massacres in the Countryside</a>. That page will be updated with newly confirmed reports of massacres — a killing involving three or more people. Between 1985 and 2017, CPT recorded 45 massacres in which 214 people in nine states were killed. Pará state saw the largest number of massacres over this period — 26 in all, in which 125 people were killed, over half of the victims in all of the massacres.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTM4Mzg3MS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0MDc1ODM1Mn0.KW9AKMECd391Th50uJK6esegbK39--KA1KycFujKT9M/img.jpg?width=980" id="87564" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="0313e258e6a0c6a9318a4fd25bd306b9" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Jair Bolsonaro pretending to shoot a gun, a gesture suggestive of violence that the former Army captain often uses in his speeches and television appearances
Image by Carlos Eugênio
<h3>Bolsonaro Ignores Increase in Rural Violence</h3><p>The federal government has so far not condemned the rise in violence that has occurred since Jair Bolsonaro came to power in January.</p><p>When Mongabay asked the government's National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian reform (INCRA) for a comment, it replied with a statement: "With respect to the deaths mentioned, it is necessary to wait for the results of the police enquiries to see if they are related to agrarian conflicts."</p><p>On taking office, President Bolsonaro moved INCRA, which used to be attached to the presidency, to the Agriculture Ministry, which some analysts say is a conflict of interest. INCRA is now headed by a military officer, General Jesus Corrêa. He <a href="https://politica.estadao.com.br/noticias/geral,se-tiver-de-tirar-gema-estragada-faremos-sem-quebrar-o-ovo-diz-presidente-do-incra,70002715758" target="_blank">said</a> after his appointment that his aim was to remove "bad yolks without breaking the eggs." Social movements interpreted this to be an expression of his determination to root out landless movement activists from the settlements. At the time this story went to press, the Ministry of Justice had not responded to Mongabay's request for comment.</p><p>Isolete Wichinieski, CPT's national coordinator, was not surprised by the administration's failure to issue a public statement on the wave of killings: "The government's position with respect to the countryside is that there are no conflicts, or the conflicts are created by the communities," she told Mongabay. "And their solution is to criminalize the social movements, not to resolve the land conflict."</p><p>Wichinieski does not believe the government is open to dialogue: "It is working in the opposite direction, freeing up the use of arms, opening up the forest to capital, opposing any policies for resolving the conflict."</p><p>To judge by the comments made by Bolsonaro a year before the elections, the best that social movements might expect from his government is to be ignored. "If it depends on me, [large scale] farmers are going to receive the MST [landless movement] by discharging the cartridge of a 762," he <a href="https://canalrural.uol.com.br/noticias/quero-que-matem-esses-vagabundos-mst-diz-bolsonaro-69789/" target="_blank">said</a>, referring to a gun using 7.62mm ammunition. Just to be clear, he added: "If you ask if this means that I want to kill these layabouts, yes I do."</p>
<div id="6a3ab" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="S7CUKL1576662847"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1106881085802246144" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Brazil Moves to Open #Indigenous Lands to #Mining
PLEASE RETWEET https://t.co/meCZe6CQSR</div> — EcoWatch (@EcoWatch)<a href="https://twitter.com/EcoWatch/statuses/1106881085802246144">1552735990.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/04/3-massacres-in-12-days-rural-violence-escalates-in-brazilian-amazon/" target="_blank">Mongabay</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Truck being loaded with bauxite ore at Brazil's Norsk Hydro ASA Paragominas mine. Norsk Hydro ASA via Visual Hunt / CC BY-NC-SA
By Sue Branford and Maurício Torres
For many years, international and Brazilian mining companies have dreamed of getting access to the mineral wealth lying beneath indigenous lands. And finally, the government of Jair Bolsonaro seems determined to give them that opportunity. On March 4, while Brazilians were distracted by Carnival celebrations, the new Minister of Mines and Energy Admiral Bento Albuquerque announced plans to permit mining on indigenous land.
<p><br/></p>
<p>Speaking at the annual convention of the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC), a major event in the mining world that attracts tens-of-thousands of attendees, the Minister said that Brazil's indigenous people would be given a voice but not a veto in the matter. The opening of indigenous ancestral territories to mining, he predicted, would "bring benefits to these communities and to the country."</p>
<p>He also said that he intends to allow mining right up to Brazil's borders, abolishing the current 150-kilometer (93-mile) wide mining buffer zone at the frontier.</p><p>The minister <a href="https://www.revistaforum.com.br/ministro-anuncia-abertura-de-terras-indigenas-para-mineracao-a-estrangeiros-durante-o-carnaval/" target="_blank">said</a> that current mining restrictions are outdated. The long-restricted indigenous and border areas "have become centers of conflict and illegal activities, that in no way contribute to sustainable development or to sovereignty and national security." The administration will shortly be holding a nationwide consultation to discuss how the changes should be made, he concluded.</p>
<p>He also said that he intends to allow mining right up to Brazil's borders, abolishing the current 150-kilometer (93-mile) wide mining buffer zone at the frontier.</p><p>The minister <a href="https://www.revistaforum.com.br/ministro-anuncia-abertura-de-terras-indigenas-para-mineracao-a-estrangeiros-durante-o-carnaval/" target="_blank">said</a> that current mining restrictions are outdated. The long-restricted indigenous and border areas "have become centers of conflict and illegal activities, that in no way contribute to sustainable development or to sovereignty and national security." The administration will shortly be holding a nationwide consultation to discuss how the changes should be made, he concluded.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTI3ODI3MS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1MjIyMTI2MH0.z6Cul0BLb-TIcQBpVV5rHPkwRc8gHveAPLZpG1MwwJM/img.jpg?width=980" id="9d682" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="8fc339c0034040e54eb156afbf67eab1" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
An industrial mining operation in Brazil. Note the forest at the edge of the open pit mine.
Norsk Hydro ASA via VisualHunt.com / CC BY-NC-SA
<h3>Bolsonaro's Indigenous Land Development Agenda<br></h3><p>The minister's announcement was not unexpected. President Jair Bolsonaro, an ex-army captain, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/sep/06/jair-bolsonaro-brazil-tropical-trump-who-hankers-for-days-of-dictatorship" target="_blank">has said</a> that he admires the 1964-85 military dictatorship, and some are drawing parallels between Bolsonaro's policies and theirs regarding indigenous and quilombola communities.</p><p>Bolsonaro recently <a href="https://g1.globo.com/politica/noticia/2019/01/02/bolsonaro-diz-que-vai-integrar-indios-e-quilombolas.ghtml" target="_blank">wrote</a> on Twitter: "Over 15 percent of national territory is demarcated as indigenous and quilombola land. Less than a million people live in these isolated areas, exploited and manipulated by NGOs. We are going to integrate these citizens."</p><p>Back in 1976, Maurício Rangel Reis, interior minister in the military government of General Ernesto Geisel, <a href="http://www.ihu.unisinos.br/587237-estimulo-a-exploracao-de-terras-indigenas-visa-ao-franqueamento-de-terras-publicas-para-o-agronegocio-entrevista-especial-com-marco-antonio-delfino-de-almeida" target="_blank">expressed harsh views</a> toward indigenous peoples: "We plan to reduce the number of Indians from 220,000 to 20,000 in ten years," he declared. But the military didn't achieve this goal. Far from being eliminated, Brazil's indigenous numbers increased to their current 900,000 population.</p><p>Indigenous groups achieved real gains after the military government passed into history, and its dictatorial rule was supplanted by the progressive 1988 Brazilian constitution, which brought two important innovations. It abandoned the goal of assimilating indigenous people into the dominant culture (a goal Bolsonaro wants to reinstate), and it affirmed the concept of "original rights," recognizing indigenous peoples as Brazil's first inhabitants, with the right to remain on ancestral lands.</p><p>Article 231 of the Constitution states: "Indians have the right to the permanent occupation of their traditional land and to enjoy the exclusive use of the wealth in the soil, rivers and lakes." Moreover, their land rights are "inalienable." The Constitution allows for mining on indigenous land, but only after the Indians have been consulted and specific procedures for doing so, approved by them, have been ratified by Congress.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTI3ODI4OC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1MTczNTUyOH0.If4zxxBOC9CUnBJQbVlkH5IApd1RgtQQmmo7_Vf_y-k/img.jpg?width=980" id="17f65" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="c679b748a747779c9abf57afeb95d596" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Mining industry and individual prospecting requests on indigenous land as filed with the federal government.
Mauricio Torres using data provided by the Departamento Nacional de Produção Mineral
<p>Admiral Albuquerque's recent announcement provided no clue as to how the Bolsonaro government could legally give indigenous groups a voice but no veto regarding use of their lands, while somehow staying within the letter of constitutional law.</p><p>The Ministry of Mines and Energy has, however, confirmed to Mongabay that it plans to authorize mining on indigenous areas. Though, as to the legal mechanisms for doing so, it would only say that "the specific regulatory model will be discussed with Congress and other involved parties." Though its reports are unconfirmed, analysts suggest Bolsonaro will probably issue <a href="https://economia.uol.com.br/noticias/estadao-conteudo/2019/01/03/producao-agricola-em-terras-indigenas-deve-ser-liberada.htm" target="_blank">a presidential decree</a> to allow mining, which is the approach he plans to use <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/02/brazil-wants-to-legalize-agribusiness-leasing-of-indigenous-lands/" target="_blank">to permit agribusiness to lease land</a> within indigenous reserves — a move that faces a similar constitutional roadblock.</p><p>If it goes forward with these presidential decrees, the administration will very likely face opposition from powerful figures in the judiciary, including the country's top prosecutor. Speaking at a conference attended by representatives of some of Brazil's 305 indigenous tribes, advocacy groups and a dozen European nations, Prosecutor General Raquel Dodge noted that indigenous land rights are guaranteed in Brazil's Constitution and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-brazil-indigenous/brazil-prosecutor-warns-bolsonaro-government-on-indigenous-land-rights-idUSKCN1PH2W4" target="_blank">warned</a>: "There can be no backsliding on public policies toward the indigenous people."</p><p>The Amazonas branch of the Federal Public Ministry (MPF), an independent group of federal and state litigators, is so concerned at Bolsonaro's mining plan that in February it <a href="http://www.mpf.mp.br/am/sala-de-imprensa/docs/acao-civil-publica-mineracao-terra-indigena" target="_blank">went to court</a> to ask the National Mining Agency (Agência Nacional de Mineração, ANM), the federal body that administers the mining sector, to turn down all requests by international and Brazilian mining companies to prospect or mine on indigenous land.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTI3ODI5MC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2MjIzOTYzNX0.5ZP9FAb9Fc0nlko4HkDG1U3RqwEjJUWAeb-7czzTcws/img.jpg?width=980" id="8ce0a" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="e1e3ceb59881875e47405640bd6a9521" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
The mining industry has not only made prospecting requests (red) within indigenous reserves (yellow), but also on other conserved lands (green).
Mauricio Torres using data provided by the Departamento Nacional de Produção Mineral
<p>According to the MPF, mining companies and individuals have altogether lodged 4,073 requests with the ANM for mining-related activities on indigenous land since 1969, seemingly in preparation for an eventual land rush. The companies say that they are only registering their interest, but MPF argues that, until the required constitutional amendments have been written and approved by Congress, such requests should not even be permitted.</p><p>Brazil's indigenous peoples have clearly indicated that if the mining plan goes forward they will fight back. Most don't want mining on their land. Munduruku female warrior Maria Leuza Munduruku told Mongabay: "We've had a lot of outsiders coming onto our land to mine. Many fish disappear and the ones that remain we can't eat, as they're dirty."</p><p>Joenia Wapichana, Brazil's only indigenous female federal deputy, <a href="https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/poder/2019/01/temos-de-mudar-ideia-de-que-impedimos-desenvolvimento-diz-deputada-indigena.shtml" target="_blank">said</a> that Indians don't want the money mining might bring in: "For us indigenous people wealth is having health, land to live on without receiving threats, a stable climate, demarcated land, a preserved culture and respect for our community." Brazil's mining environmental and safety record is marred by frequent <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/04/anglo-american-iron-ore-pipeline-suffers-second-rupture-in-brazil/" target="_blank">waterway</a> contamination and <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/02/norsk-hydro-accused-of-amazon-toxic-spill-admits-clandestine-pipeline/" target="_blank">land pollution</a>, and includes <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/by/zoe-sullivan-and-caio-de-freitas-paes/" target="_blank">two deadly tailings dam collapses</a> in the past three years,</p><p>Davi Kopenawa Yanomami, one of Brazil's best-known indigenous leaders, <a href="https://apublica.org/2016/06/em-terra-de-indio-a-mineracao-bate-a-porta-2/" target="_blank">says</a> that large-scale mining by big companies is particularly harmful: "This kind of mining requires roads to transport the mineral, large areas to store production, big dormitories where workers can sleep," he said. "It will transform our forest." A 2017 <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2017/11/mining-activity-causing-nearly-10-percent-of-amazon-deforestation/" target="_blank">study</a> found that mining and its auxiliary activities caused 10 percent of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/deforestation" target="_self">deforestation</a> in the Brazilian Amazon between 2005 and 2015. How much Amazon deforestation might skyrocket if indigenous reserves are opened to mining now is anyone's guess; indigenous groups are currently the <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2017/04/indigenous-groups-amazons-best-land-stewards-under-federal-attack/" target="_blank">Amazon's best land stewards</a>.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTI3ODI5MS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0Njg5OTE5Nn0.cO_gLax-bmkis5_8--hIZfHxSpUvomYNdxEcxKl1e94/img.jpg?width=980" id="13876" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="5096f8be7bc4ca668c9111fb8f2c45cb" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Federal Deputy Leonardo Quintao, a major backer of the mining industry.
Vinicius Loures / Agência Brasil
<h3>Mining Companies in the Driver's Seat</h3><p>After last year's election, the pro-mining lobby in Congress, known by some as the "mud lobby," is stronger than ever.</p><p>Their main spokesperson, federal deputy Leonardo Quintão, is a member of Bolsonaro's Civil Office. He openly <a href="https://www.aagencia.info/leonardo-quintao-mineradoras-casa-civil/" target="_blank">admits</a> to receiving money from mining companies: "I am a parliamentarian legally financed by mining companies," he said. Quintão was the first rapporteur for Brazil's new Mining Code, presented to the National Congress in 2013, which mining companies helped him formulate. He is proud of his work: "Our Code is modern … outlawing all kind of speculation in the mining sector."</p><p>But others complain of Congress's failure to talk to potentially impacted communities when planning the new code. <a href="https://www.brasildefato.com.br/2017/02/10/artigo-or-o-que-esta-colocado-para-o-codigo-da-mineracao-em-2017/" target="_blank">According to anthropologist Maria Júlia Zanon</a>, who coordinates the Movement for Popular Sovereignty in Mining (Movimento pela Soberania Popular na Mineração), "The companies' economic interests, evident in the elections, help explain the lack of democracy in the [congressional approval] process."</p><p>As of now, the new Mining Code has yet to be signed into law, and the horrific Vale mining disaster in <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2019/01/photos-of-the-dam-collapse-near-brumadinho-brazil/581446/" target="_blank">Brumadinho</a> this January, with 193 people dead and another 115 missing, might further delay approval. Andréa Zhouri, at the University of Minas Gerais, <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/01/brazil-brumadinho-mine-tailings-dam-disaster-could-have-been-avoided-say-environmentalists/" target="_blank">said</a> the disaster stemmed from "politico-institutional failures," particularly a lack in regular monitoring of hazardous mining operations. "The [value of] ore is above everything and everyone," Zhouri said.</p><p>There has been little indication so far that the government intends to significantly toughen environmental controls in the new Code. Some fear that, once the Brumadinho hue and cry dies down, it will be business as usual and the Mining Code will be approved. Prosecutor Guilherme de Sá Meneghin, who led the investigation into the earlier <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2016/06/1-6-million-brazilians-struggle-to-recover-from-fundao-toxic-waste-spill/" target="_blank">Mariana mining disaster</a>, <a href="https://www.infomoney.com.br/mercados/politica/noticia/7889005/de-mariana-a-brumadinho-como-a-tragedia-se-repete-3-anos-depois-e-o-que-mudou-de-la-para-ca" target="_blank">said</a>: "What we clearly see is that Brazil doesn't learn the lessons of history."</p><p>Today, mining companies chomp at the bit, having registered many prospecting requests within indigenous reserves. Minister Albuquerque — an admiral with a long, illustrious military career, and known for getting what he wants — has signaled readiness to help those firms translate their plans into action. However, Brazil's indigenous people, with a history of batting away threats, often against bad odds, are ready to fiercely resist. The lines are drawn for battle, likely in the courts, and potentially all across Brazil.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTI3ODI5NC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0NTU4NDEwOH0.AyM9NPvHfqBOy1euq35eYFvXPCo7RGb7i4UxoZVAkfQ/img.jpg?width=980" id="1ee8a" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="7ada88c0c3bedc47e1c8ba08e01cd862" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Forest and topsoil must first be removed before ore can be accessed at Brazil's Norsk Hydro ASA Paragominas open pit mine. Such industrial processes would be highly destructive of Brazil's forests, indigenous reserves and cultures.
Norsk Hydro ASA via VisualHunt / CC BY-NC-SA
<div id="867da" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="W1HH9A1576662848"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1073344360077553666" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Unprecedented New Map Unveils Illegal Mining Destroying Amazon https://t.co/BoF0UkBnLD</div> — Josh Fox (@Josh Fox)<a href="https://twitter.com/joshfoxfilm/statuses/1073344360077553666">1544740211.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/03/brazil-to-open-indigenous-reserves-to-mining-without-indigenous-consent/" target="_blank">Mongabay</a>.</em><br/></p>From Your Site Articles
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A vaquita photographed in Mexico in 2008. Paula Olson, NOAA
My organization, the Elephant Action League (EAL), spent 14 months investigating and infiltrating the illicit totoaba swim bladder supply chain, from Baja California in Mexico to Southern China. We released a public report on what we called Operation Fake Gold in July 2018. Since then, we have continued to submit intelligence to Mexican, U.S. and Chinese authorities in order to facilitate disruption of the totoaba supply chain. As a result, further review of the situation surrounding the totoaba trade and its effect on the extinction of the vaquita is warranted.
<p>According to various sources in the Sea of Cortez, the price of raw totoaba swim bladder in Baja California is currently about $2,500 per bladder. This is down from highs of $5,000 to $8,000 per bladder in past years. Although this is a positive and promising development, a development that needs to continue and be supported, it is relatively unnoticed and undervalued by the media, other NGOs and government agencies currently trying to save the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/vaquita">vaquita</a>. A reduction in profit for the Totoaba Cartels is an important key to ending totoaba poaching in the Sea of Cortez.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTI0MTcxMS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyODUyMTU2OX0.Hp1dsNljrRYEhQBUjpC47R22hN_sEJXcaE8w1gU8h5o/img.jpg?width=980" id="42ad6" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="588d007690c19967e175a7f378633928" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">A dead vaquita</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Elephant Action League</small></p><p>More importantly, according to our sources on the ground in Baja California, recent arrests of totoaba traffickers in China and pressure on the Chinese traders in Mexico are beginning to have an effect on the supply chain. Illegal fishermen in Baja have started complaining about a lack of income from the trade. The fishermen claim that the Chinese traders in Mexico are becoming fearful of the possibility of arrest and much less money is flowing to their shores. They are saying that it is not worth the effort and possible danger associated with setting new illegal <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/gillnets">gillnets</a> — the same nets that kill vaquita and other important <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/marine-life">marine life</a> — to poach totoaba.<br></p><p>This is the most important news for the vaquita in years and a result of — and proof that — intelligence activities and law enforcement can disrupt these criminal enterprises and significantly slow their illegal operations. Intelligence operations produce results.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTI0MTcxNy9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzOTI4ODk2MX0.UdKeGY1MzeTpY8MK83Z_3t2Y_70WBI5HE-Jo5oGPImI/img.jpg?width=980" id="e53ce" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="01d5703a7dadc679c7512b9091cb922e" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">This still from the documentary film 'Sea of Shadows' shows a Mexican navy soldier searching for poaching vessels in the Sea of Cortez. </small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Richard Ladkani / Malaika Pictures</small></p><p>Unfortunately, as is the case with many other <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wildlife">wildlife</a> crime-related issues around the world, governments agencies, NGOs, and donors are disproportionately focused on the extremities of the supply chain — <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/poaching">poaching</a> and consumer awareness campaigns. There is very little focus and funding for the most important part of the problem, the <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/07/investigation-reveals-illegal-trade-cartels-decimating-vaquita-porpoises/" target="_blank">trafficking networks and middlemen driving the trade</a>. The only activities that can truly move the needle are investigation and intelligence collection like that performed during EAL's Operation Fake Gold, filmed as part of the feature documentary <a href="https://www.terramater.at/cinema/sea-of-shadows/" target="_blank"><em>Sea of Shadows</em></a>, which recently <a href="http://www.sundance.org/blogs/news/2019-sundance-film-festival-awards-announced" target="_blank">won the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival</a>.</p><p>A few large, U.S.-based NGOs, with the intent of forcing the Mexican government to save the vaquita, filed and won a lawsuit to ban imports of gillnet-caught seafood from Mexico. EAL publicly opposed this effort as being counterproductive. As expected, the ban has exacerbated the already complex and violent situation in Baja California. According to first-hand sources, the ban not only pushed the last few honest independent fishermen into poaching, but also created a parallel illegal shrimp trade run by local criminal organizations. The ban has done nothing but create more conflict on the shores of Baja California and more illegal fishing in the Sea of Cortez. It is now very hard to find a legal fishery in the area.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTI0MTcyMC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzMTQzNzUwNH0.lbVnvACOmeO4-efyNj-jqizVOU9VrpeNpX9sEGQoWfY/img.jpg?width=980" id="13053" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="df8e5ff9eda5357004b52eceafb5fc93" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Fresh totoaba swim bladder seized in Mexico</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Elephant Action League</small></p><p>Again, the most significant pieces of any illegal supply chain, the trafficking networks and middlemen, can only be tackled through intelligence operations, investigations and resulting law enforcement. Intelligence operations work to decrease the militarization of conservation and the violence that now pervades the Sea of Cortez and its shores. Without knowledge of the criminal players within a wildlife trafficking network, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/conservation">conservation</a> is impossible, and the rule of law is irrelevant.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTI0MTcyMS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxNTQ5OTk1MX0.4QYx5yX4g5pYxKiNIDmMpBdDhArarXrSKeY4AVhSokY/img.jpg?width=980" id="f23d0" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="2555aaaaee1b003eb3d569b9e83aaa37" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Totoaba on sale in China</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Elephant Action League</small></p><p>In Baja, among pervasive corruption, attacks on NGOs, widespread violence and still incredible profits for totoaba traffickers, only serious intelligence and undercover operations along the entire supply chain, including on the flow of money, create any hope for achieving an upper hand over the current chaos. Without these efforts aimed at direct disruption of the supply chain itself and the operations of the wildlife crime networks involved, there is absolutely no chance to win the war in the Sea of Cortez, save the vaquita, and save the rest of the region's extraordinary marine life.<br></p><p>Without a serious effort in terms of intelligence collection, investigation and law enforcement to thwart totoaba traffickers, we can say goodbye to the vaquita. The money spent to-date to protect the vaquita will have been wasted.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTI0MTcyNy9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxMzQ0MzkxOX0.MTH1AZ9OkvgHx-ZheD74PsOluqBpUTGt57SKt-NRdS4/img.jpg?width=980" id="987d7" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="086223f6cd4b913d1e953992d634e89c" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">This still from the documentary film 'Sea of Shadows' shows a totoaba caught in a net. </small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Richard Ladkani / Malaika Pictures</small></p><p><em>Andrea Crosta is executive director and co-founder of international wildlife trade watchdog group <a href="https://elephantleague.org/" target="_blank">Elephant Action League</a>.</em></p><p><em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/02/vaquita-still-doomed-without-further-disruption-of-totoaba-cartels-commentary/?iid=obinsite" target="_blank">Mongabay</a>.</em></p>
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The Kalakad-Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve is a mosaic of primary, old-growth forest and plantations. Vignesh Kamath
By Shreya Dasgupta
Eucalyptus plantations in southern India that were abandoned and left to recover for nearly 40 years are still far from resembling the primary forest surrounding them, a new study has found. This, researchers say, suggests that once disturbed for long, forests may never bounce back to their original forms.
In India, eucalyptus has often been the tree of choice when it comes to restoring degraded forests: it grows quickly, is hardy, and requires little care. But can these plantations, when left alone and allowed to regenerate, grow into the forests they replaced?
<p>To find out, researchers turned their attention to the southern stretch of the Western Ghats in India.</p><p>In the past century, large parts of wet evergreen forest in what is now Kalakad-Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve (KMTR) in Tamil Nadu state were cleared to make way for plantations including tea, coffee and cardamom. Vast forested areas were also felled for eucalyptus plantations, with the timber mainly to be used as fuelwood for the tea industry. However, with the establishment of KMTR in 1988 and a subsequent logging ban, many plantations were eventually abandoned and the area has been on a path of recovery ever since. Some plantations have now been regenerating for nearly 40 years.</p><p>In 2016, Ashish Nerlekar, lead author of the study published in the <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-tropical-ecology/article/successional-dynamics-of-a-regenerated-forest-in-a-plantation-landscape-in-southern-india/2FB7B90CE0711490F3D27200CA95E00B" target="_blank"><em>Journal of Tropical Ecology</em></a> and a doctoral student at Texas A&M University, looked at one such eucalyptus plantation in KMTR with his colleagues. The plantation had been abandoned for 36 years as of 2016, and was surrounded by primary, old-growth forest.</p><p>"Because it's the Western Ghats and because there has not been any major disturbance after abandonment, I thought the plantation would be very close to the primary forest," Nerlekar said. "I was expecting some degree of structural resemblance in terms of species richness and so on. I was also expecting to see at least 20 to 30 percent of the trees characteristic of the primary forest in the plantations."</p><p>But as it turned out, this wasn't the case.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTIzODA2Ni9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0MDAyMzE0OH0.g8LhIqwZQVN2vNSF6z-ROrbbPKYhbgqBoC3AmIfmhdQ/img.jpg?width=980" id="59179" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="c4cd0ae6e87b030e79d355525d4ccf36" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">The study looked at a eucalyptus plantation that had been abandoned for nearly 40 years and left to regenerate. </small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Image by Vignesh Kamath</small></p><p>In 2005, researchers from the Bengaluru-based Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE), a nongovernmental research organization, had <a href="http://www.tropecol.com/pdf/open/PDF_50_1/17Selwyn.pdf" target="_blank">studied the same plantation</a>, then abandoned for 25 years, documenting the kinds of trees that were growing inside. Nerlekar used this 2005 study for his baseline data. ATREE has regularly cataloged the tree species within the primary forests surrounding the plantations every five years since 1995, giving Nerlekar the chance to compare the eucalyptus plantation's makeup with that of the nearby old-growth forest.<br></p><p>The researchers found that from 2005, when the plantation was first studied in detail, to 2016, the number of tree species increased by 67 percent, giving it a similar degree of species richness as the adjoining primary forest. But the kinds of trees growing in the plantation were very different from the ones growing in the primary forest. Trees like wild durian (<em>Cullenia exarillata</em>) and <em>palai</em> (<em>Palaquium ellipticum</em>), for instance, which are characteristic of the old-growth evergreen forest in KMTR, were rarely found in the plantation. Instead, the plantation was dominated by small-seeded, bird-dispersed tree species, such as the hill glory bower (<em>Clerodendrum infortunatum</em>) and Wight's litsea (<em>Litsea wightiana</em>).</p><p>"One of the most surprising findings was that even after 36 years, the abandoned plantation patches don't resemble the neighboring forest in terms of structure and function," said co-author Vignesh Kamath, an independent researcher with Gubbi Labs in Bengaluru. "One would assume that a period of nearly four decades of letting nature take over would be enough to restore a disturbed forest, but our study found evidence against it. It makes one wonder, how long would it really take to undo the changes caused by human activities?"</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTIzODA2Ny9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwMTIzMjg5OX0.Yd3E-ZW6g7HBn1ydyUqNiRHIZWoVezFRfgjEq7SoDk4/img.jpg?width=980" id="97d31" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="c7976ca727aa43a4ae291680947770d0" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">The tree species growing in the plantation after four decades of abandonment are strikingly different from those growing in the surrounding primary forest. </small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Image by Ashish Nerlekar</small></p><p>Why the trees characteristic of the primary forest haven't made it into the plantation isn't clear, Nerlekar said. "If you see the plantations, they are all surrounded by primary forests," he said. "So the availability of parent plants that can produce seeds doesn't seem to be the problem because the parent plants are right next to the plantations."<br></p><p>But there could be several other potential barriers, the researchers speculate. There might be a lack of dispersal agents that can spread the trees' seeds into the plantation, for example. "Plants that are wind- or bird-dispersed or have small seeds do not have such limitations," Nerlekar said. "But it may be more difficult for those that have heavy seeds, large seeds, or are dispersed by specialized animals like, say, the lion-tailed macaque."</p><p>Even if the seeds made it to the plantations, "some of the native species might not find enough shade, which they require to survive, especially during the seedling or sapling stage," Kamath added.</p><p>The patchwork of regenerating plantations within the primary forest does have <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/conservation">conservation</a> value. Previous research has shown that plantation forests can serve as important habitats for <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/rainforests">rainforest</a> birds and act as corridors for mammals by connecting fragments of primary forest. But plantation forests are also not a substitute for intact old-growth forests, the researchers say.</p><p>"The primary forest trees store much more carbon than the plantation forest trees and serve as a carbon sink to help reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere," Kamath said. "Preserving the last remaining old-growth forests is the need of the hour. Primary forests are irreplaceable."</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
</p><div id="fcf81" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="QFEDRI1576663745"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="979378943492018176" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Places to watch: 3 forest regions at risk right now https://t.co/ulgsm8ceFO https://t.co/UWVFBdE27r</div> — American Forests (@American Forests)<a href="https://twitter.com/AmericanForests/statuses/979378943492018176">1522337110.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p></p><p><em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/02/abandoned-plantations-in-forested-areas-may-not-recover-fully-study/" target="_blank">Mongabay</a>.</em><br></p>
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Journalists Reporting on the Environment Faced Increased Dangers in 2018
07 January 2019
Insights + Opinion
A man photographing a landscape in Brazil, where environmental journalism is under pressure. Cesar Okada / iStock / Getty Images Plus
By Kaamil Ahmed
A pair of "French spies" had infiltrated India by sea to commit a "treasonous conspiracy," an Indian minister claimed in late November. In reality, they were two visiting journalists, and their mission was an investigation into allegations of illegal sand mining in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. They had merely tried and failed to visit the site of a major mining company through legal means.
Their presence set off alarm bells among some connected to the industry, and the fallout has been significant. It's included a police investigation, a politically fueled propaganda campaign and the arrests of two local translators who had been working for them.
<p>This heavy-handed response is familiar to Indian journalist Sandhya Ravishankar, who has <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/02/a-run-on-for-sand-leads-to-a-creeping-crisis-worldwide/" target="_blank">reported on sand mining</a> since 2013 and found that her probing into allegations of major business interests damaging the local environment has resulted in stalking and various types of harassment—some of it reportedly directed by the head of one of the mining companies.</p><p>"I got rape threats, my bike was vandalized, the miner has openly admitted that there are five detective agencies trailing me wherever I go, CCTV visuals of me having coffee with a source at a cafe have been made public," Ravishankar said, adding that she also discovered government documents showing "officials have colluded to slander me."</p><p>Ravishankar's case is just one example of the growing dangers for journalists reporting environmental stories. Even as environmental journalism becomes increasingly important in the face of destructive business and political interests and practices, the inherent safety risks remain. There are also the more routine challenges of accessing crucial information and convincing editors and readers of their importance.</p><p>"Journalists I've interviewed have been arrested, sued, fired, threatened, harassed, interrogated by police, interrogated by the military, physically assaulted and a number of them have been killed while covering logging, mining, development," said journalism professor Eric Freedman in an interview. Freedman is the Knight Chair in Environmental Journalism and director of the Knight Center for Environmental Journalism at Michigan State University.</p><p>Freedman said environmental journalism came with its own set of challenges, many of which evolve with the story.</p><p>"Environmental controversies frequently involve power, political and economic power," he said. "They involve money, whether mines or <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fracking/">fracking</a> or <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/hydropower">hydropower</a>.</p><p>"Covering these kinds of beats, particularly in areas where journalists are not respected and protected takes a great deal of courage and bravery."</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTA2NDcxNi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzMjQxNDkxM30.egK40wiC-D9TA7DHR95O-2B8IRhP7-hxG_xHbgaRAHU/img.jpg?width=980" id="4ad22" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="3a14133778b99866be9ec3bb0c8c65ad" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">The number of journalists killed each year between 1992-2018</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Chart and data courtesy of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)</small></p><p><br></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTA2NDcxNy9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwODYzMzc3NH0.gBNR62pabnEvO4WQjNIROuyTHwvQnv6HQl2WwhKXVps/img.jpg?width=980" id="0d6b1" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="18de616f24d543403bef1d9ccdc09def" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">The number of journalists killed in 2018</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Chart and data courtesy of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)</small></p><h2>Stalked for Exposing Sand Mining in India</h2><p>The sand of India's southern coasts was being stolen, the minerals extracted by major corporations for export. Ravishankar explored the issue in <a href="https://thewire.in/environment/countdown-begins-tamil-nadus-beach-sand-mining-cartel" target="_blank">a series of stories</a> in early 2017.</p><p>The practice was banned by the Tamil Nadu state government in 2013, but according to Ravishankar's reporting, $5.6 billion worth of minerals were extracted from beach sand and exported between 2013 and 2016.</p><p>Her previous reporting on the topic had left her fighting legal cases. But revealing the ongoing activity and naming the companies responsible prompted a harsh reaction for the journalist: she has been harassed online and had her phone number disseminated, leading to calls with violent threats.</p><p>"It has been very difficult," she said. "Colleagues have stayed away simply because anyone close to me is in danger of being slandered, my family has been under constant threat and anxiety, my husband has been slandered in a targeted manner."</p><p>Ravishankar was working as a freelancer, a common thread in a lot of the cases of journalists facing intimidation, according to a research paper presented by Freedman to the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication in August 2018. Another issue is that many of them are local journalists rather than foreign reporters.</p><p>That is a reality that French journalists Arthur Bouvart and Jules Giraudat's organization, <a href="https://forbiddenstories.org/" target="_blank">Forbidden Stories</a>, recognizes, by helping local journalists cover sensitive stories they have been attacked for.</p><p>Bouvart and Giraudat contacted Ravishankar in August for help investigating sand mining in southern India, but she felt the work was too risky. Instead, she set them up with D. Anandhakumar, a local journalist who translated for the French duo.</p><p>Anandhakumar was not with them on Nov. 26 this year when they visited the site of Indian Rare Earth Limited (IREL) to ask for filming permission. But he and his friend, M. Sriram, another local journalist who also translated for the French journalists, were bombarded by calls from the local police. They were asked to come in for questioning the next day, and ended up being detained for two days.</p><p>Meanwhile, Bouvart and Giraudat left the country, fearing further repercussions after the sudden interest from the authorities. A police investigation has been opened into accusations they trespassed at the IREL site.</p><p>They have also become the focus of the local wing of India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has put up posters with their photos, reading: "There are French spies in Kanyakumari district. People beware."</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTA2NDcxMi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxOTI5NjQ0Nn0.eAJ_nehUOcVsJkb9XfR2iYYJf497D66Qx6K_jzNv8Yk/img.jpg?width=980" id="9568f" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="be2cf4653fcda18e950706665e27a5b4" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Photo by Rhett A. Butler</small></p><h2>The Implications</h2><p>At least 10 journalists covering the environment were killed between 2010 and 2016, <u><a href="https://rsf.org/en/news/environmental-journalism-increasingly-hostile-climate" target="_blank">according to Reporters without Borders</a>—</u>all but two of them in Asia. India and Cambodia were highlighted by the group as countries where journalists have been killed and threatened with impunity.<br></p><p>In his study, Knight's Freedman spoke with journalists around the world about how the dangers they had faced while reporting on the environment had long-term, often traumatic, effects on their lives and careers.</p><p>Some described physical assaults they had been subjected to, others the conditions of their detention, or the experiences of repeated arrests.</p><p>"These journalists, sometimes as a result of these experiences, suffer PTSD, depression, some leave their country, some give up on journalism and at the same time others become even more committed, more passionate about the mission of journalism," Freedman said. He added that he found examples of journalists suffering in a range of countries, including India, Liberia, the U.S. and Canada.</p><p>He also asked them whether they sought therapy for their trauma and found that only a few did. Some said suitable counseling services were not available in their countries, but the majority were simply reluctant to seek help, fitting wider trends observed in places like <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4589076/" target="_blank">Kenya</a> and <a href="http://www.imhlk.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/WPFD2017-Jakarta-Trauma-Counseling-for-Journalists-Gowri-Ananthan-1.pdf" target="_blank">Sri Lanka</a>.</p><p>Ravishankar said dealing with the aftermath of the harassment she faced was a "daily task."</p><p>"I wake up and tell myself everything will be alright some day and that all of this is for a good cause," she said. "And I tell myself that if I do not continue my work, no one else will. So onward with courage."</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTA2NDcxNC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwMTAwNDg5NH0.LYhL8LZRE8DwmnMi_nT7y-Q3fLQ-TyUTpvbsqUpczC4/img.jpg?width=980" id="2bb0e" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="bcc69d20edcd29edf89f0599b6b629db" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">The front page of Daily Eleven in Yangon, Myanmar the day after the murder of one of its reporters</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Photo by Ann Wang for Mongabay</small></p><h2>Hostile Atmosphere</h2><p>While Brazil has previously been praised for taking steps toward combatting environmental damage by <u><a href="https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/06/140605-brazil-deforestation-carbon-emissions-environment/" target="_blank">reducing both deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions</a></u>, it is also a country where the debate around the environment is typically very loaded.<br></p><p>Fears that the discussion will become even more polarizing have grown since the election this year of the right-wing politician Jair Bolsonaro as president. One of his first moves ahead of taking power in the new year was to appoint as his foreign minister an official who has described <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-change">climate change</a> as <u><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/15/brazil-foreign-minister-ernesto-araujo-climate-change-marxist-plot" target="_blank">a "Marxist plot" and climate science as "dogma</a>."</u></p><p>Even before Bolsonaro's election, <u><a href="https://www.article19.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/XPA-Report_A19.pdf" target="_blank">Brazil was already one of the most dangerous places for environmental activists</a></u>, according to a 2017 report by free-speech watchdog Article 19. It recorded 57 environmental activists killed in 2017, most of whom worked to defend the Amazon rainforest.</p><p>Gustavo Faleiros, the editor of InfoAmazonia, which covers issues in the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/rainforests">rainforest</a> across the nine countries it spans, said deeper polarization in Brazilian politics would affect journalists trying to report on the environment. They might face accusations of being activists or part of the political opposition, he said.</p><p>"I think tough questions will be seen as confrontation and that's not good," he said in an interview. "Even worse now there's this discourse treating those who are asking tough questions as saying those people are leftists who are supporting left ideologies. So it's a very strange time where just by being critical you become a Communist."</p><p>Faleiros said a lot of the trends environmental journalists in Brazil had to contend with echoed globally, including an "aversion to facts" when reported by the media.</p><p>"But here it's very visible that no matter what kind [of] scientific facts you bring to your story, there will always be an argument to show that this is not enough to be concerned [about] or that you are just showing one side of the story," Faleiros said.</p><p>Accessing those kinds of facts is something Faleiros said he feared could become more difficult. While information on <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/deforestation">deforestation</a> is quite transparent, it's tougher to access details on natural resource exploration, he said.</p><p>That difficulty could be exacerbated under a government that sees environmental activism as <u><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2018/12/07/activists-feared-brazils-bolsonaro-would-accelerate-amazon-deforestation-now-they-think-its-already-happening/?utm_term=.467bba326664" target="_blank">a barrier to development</a></u>.</p><p>"I'm seeing a drop [in] the agenda of the level of the environmental issues in Brazil," Faleiros said. "It's tough for us but it's a very important time to be an environmental journalist in Brazil."</p><p>Convincing both the public and editors of the value of environmental journalism has become a key issue, Knight's Freedman said.</p><p>Much of the burden has fallen on the shoulders of freelance reporters, since the 2008 financial crisis forced publications around the world to downsize. Many have cut reporters on the environmental beat, though Freedman said he felt the field had recently been able to claw back some of those losses.</p><p>One reporter who says she's had the freedom to work the beat by following her leads and traveling across India to see how environmental change is playing out is Delhi-based Sowmiya Ashok of The Indian Express.</p><p>She said she tried to focus on the "micro-picture," connecting wider debates with on-the-ground realities, but also monitored policy changes, even if it was a struggle to make the wider public care.</p><p>"We're still at a stage when climate change is not the story yet. I think we're way behind the curve," Ashok said in an interview. "I think climate change is a huge story in India, it's just not being told in the mainstream media as much."</p><p>Ashok added that the consequences of ignoring environmental perils weighed on her mind.</p><p>"I often wonder when will be the tipping point where people start taking this seriously," she said. "Perhaps one day when you go to brush your teeth and there is no water in the tap and you realize: this has caught up with me."</p><p><em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/01/journalists-reporting-on-the-environment-faced-increased-dangers-in-2018/" target="_blank">Mongabay</a>.</em></p>
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An especially sanguine view of the Amazon jungle in Peru on Oct. 12, 2018. Kjell Eson / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
By Genevieve Belmaker and Joseph Charpentier
Throughout 2018, forests continued to be threatened and destroyed. From the Amazon, to the Congo Basin, to the Mekong Delta and scores of places in between—journalists reporting for Mongabay filed hundreds of stories about the world's forests.
Although the significance of any one story is difficult to gauge in the short-term, several Mongabay reports from 2018 stood out. These pieces dealt with illegal timber trafficking, advances in technology-based environmental protections and human rights protections for the people doing environment-defense work—formal and informal.
<strong></strong><h3><a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/11/the-last-trees-of-the-amazon/" target="_blank">The Last Trees of the Amazon</a></h3>
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTAzMTMwOC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxNjkwNzQ4NH0.qWovNx2KttK18sHnH6ZzD8P942AYZfW6gZobNpxzbDg/img.jpg?width=980" id="fcc25" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="5444c54f562599cabb8dc733f7ddd13c" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Logged trucks in the Amazon </small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Photo by Mongabay</small></p>
<p>A team of journalists from five Latin American countries investigated how groups of timber traffickers manage to steal and process timber from the Amazon. Illegally-sourced timber from Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador and Colombia are incorporated into the international market with falsified official documents that are almost never verified. Timber traffickers are now pursuing new species of trees, but the countries' governments do very little to protect the species. Reported by Nelly Luna Amancio of Ojopublico and translated by Sarah Engel for Mongabay Latam.</p><h3><a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/01/environmental-reporting-in-vietnam-often-a-comedy-of-errors/" target="_blank">Environmental Reporting in Vietnam Often a Comedy of Errors</a></h3>
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTAzMTQyMy9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyNzM5OTc2OX0.v03o-USC_0Zq_9bNbQxbKj4uZSC-32CLXD96KpamBiM/img.jpg?width=980" id="73ad0" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="00454c4539df3e11d937dff6e5db2ffd" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">The main chamber of Hang En, the third-largest cave in the world, located in Phong Nha-Ka Bang National Park </small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Photo by Michael Tatarski / Mongabay</small></p>
<p>Vietnam's global press freedom ranking is one of the lowest in the world. Reporters Without Borders ranks Vietnam 175 of 180 in its 2017 annual press freedom index. Environmental journalists in Vietnam, including citizen journalists and bloggers covering forests or pollution issues, routinely face roadblocks and sometimes jail time. Reported by Michael Tatarski in Vietnam.</p><h3><a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/10/land-restoration-makes-progress-in-ethiopia/" target="_blank">Land Restoration in Ethiopia Makes Progress</a></h3>
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTAzMTU5Ni9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzMTMxNzkxNn0.hK9d-YZM-B87cDdNlLfhAptET26TF8-I0jeHsd3m3Pg/img.jpg?width=980" id="cf76f" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="35444ed9be33614fb736788a6e43c5e9" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Students of the church live in small huts around the church's land.</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Photo by Maheder Haileselassie Tadese for Mongabay</small></p>
<p>In Meket—a district in Ethiopia's Amhara National Regional State (ANRS)—efforts are underway to restore what experts say is one of the more severely deforested and degraded regions in the country. Of the land in ANRS, less than 2 percent forested land remains, and efforts are underway to restore degraded and deforested areas. In 2016, Ethiopia turned to forestry sector development projects in the form of short rotation planting and rehabilitation of degraded lands in ANRS and other districts. Reported and photographed by Maheder Haileselassie Tadese in Ethiopia.<br></p><h3><a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/09/how-land-is-stolen-in-colombia/" target="_blank">How Land Is Stolen in Colombia</a></h3>
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTAzMTY5NC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0OTMwMjc0NH0.D1RSBqEzpatSx8Jv9lsO1YCF-5A4wAhtchDkEvbzk98/img.jpg?width=980" id="dd04f" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="94de2f1e845b1465bad29bf61963fce3" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Many areas have been used to grow large crops. </small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Photo courtesy of the Solidarity Development Corporation (CDS)</small></p>
<p>Mongabay learned that the superintendent of notary and registry has a record of empty lands being used illegally in seven Colombian departments. The illegally-used land is in the departments of Norte de Santander, Antioquia, Meta, Caquetá, Casanare, Cesar and Vichada. The land makes up a total of 762,807 hectares (almost 1,885,000 acres). Reported by Maria Fernanda Lizcano and translated by Sarah Engel.<br></p><h3><a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/01/bangladeshi-forests-stripped-bare-as-rohingya-refugees-battle-to-survive/" target="_blank">Bangladeshi Forests Stripped Bare as Rohingya Refugees Battle to Survive</a></h3>
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTAzMTc5MC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2MjI0NjYwOX0.ooXgbfE2Kpvug1QWzPo8IvsErXXG4FnO75ToKiG2aXo/img.jpg?width=980" id="dd243" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="2ecd72d1c697843253a1a0fd4cbe5921" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">A Rohingya boy chopping wood from tree stump he freed from soil near Kutupalong-Balukhali refugee camp on Bangladesh </small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Photo by Khaamil Ahmed / Mongabay</small></p>
<p>Their panicked dash from burning villages involved stumbling through forests or battling monsoon-charged waters in search of safety. Along the way and in makeshift shelters and eventually camps, refugees needed a massive supply of firewood and shelter for survival. The rapid decimation of the forest is also possibly contaminating groundwater supplies. Reported and photographed by Kaamil Ahmed on the Bangladesh-Myanmar border.<br></p><h3><a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/05/in-brazil-an-island-laboratory-for-atlantic-forest-restoration/" target="_blank">In Brazil, an Island Laboratory for Atlantic Forest Restoration</a></h3>
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTAzMTgzMy9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwNTA4NDkxM30.TM3_Q7TCukberc1mKQ8B7KcuTPA_w3qxNRoq8ox19qE/img.jpg?width=980" id="488bf" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="4c79bac755aba41bfd7bd6dc24cc0d18" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">A rufous-collared sparrow in Anchieta </small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Photo by Ignacio Amigo / Mongabay</small></p>
<p>Anchieta Island, just off the coast of Brazil near São Paulo, has seen the worst side of humans. Now, scientists and local authorities are laboring to restore its <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/biodiversity">biodiversity</a>. The island is located 800 meters (about 874 yards) from the municipality of Ubatuba, in one of the few regions of Brazil where the Atlantic Forest still thrives. Most of the island's original forest was devastated over a long period of human habitation, and more recent attempts to introduce foreign mammal species have also had a significant ecological impact. Scientists are now studying the complex interactions at play during environmental restoration, including removing some invasive species, as they embark on an intensive reforestation program. Reported and photographed by Ignacio Amigo in Brazil.<br></p><h3><a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/08/trase-earth-tracks-commodities-links-supply-chains-to-deforestation-risk/" target="_blank">Trase.earth Tracks Commodities, Links Supply Chains to Deforestation Risk</a></h3>
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTAzMTkyNS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyNDc3OTc0Nn0.KuFLdb1VdNbSCYXKH7s2SMryLWvEgbshOVcp6zKZJ0E/img.jpg?width=980" id="86020" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="9eb3064fbf884900ea2f03d56b31be49" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Cerrado soy feeds a booming global soy protein market. The Trase 2018 Yearbook tracks the Brazilian soy supply chain in detail, from producers to export. </small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Image by Flávia Milhorance</small></p>
<p>Launched in 2016, <a href="https://trase.earth" target="_blank">Trase</a> is an innovative Internet tool, available to anyone, which tracks commodities supply chains in detail from source to market, and can also connect those chains to environmental harm, including deforestation. Until the advent of Trase, knowledge of supply chains was sketchy and difficult to obtain. The Trase Yearbook 2018 is the first in an annual series of reports on countries and companies trading in such commodities as soy, sugarcane and maize, which also assesses the deforestation risk associated with those crops, making it a vital tool for environmentalists, governments, investors and other interested parties. The Yearbook shows that in 2016 the Brazilian soy supply chain was dominated by just six key players—Bunge, Cargill, ADM, COFCO, Louis Dreyfus and Amaggi—accounting for 57 percent of soy exported. In the past ten years, these six firms were also associated with more than 65 percent of the total deforestation in Brazil. Trase shows that zero-deforestation commitments (ZDCs) have so far not resulted in greatly reduced deforestation risk for the commodities companies and countries making them. Between 2006 and 2016, soy traders with ZDCs, as compared to non-committed firms, were associated with similar levels of deforestation risk. Written by Claire Asher.<br></p><h3><a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/08/fire-more-than-logging-drives-amazon-forest-degradation-study-finds/" target="_blank">Fire, More Than Logging, Drives Amazon Forest Degradation, Study Finds</a></h3>
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTAzMTk5NC9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxMjgzMjM0M30.LOmvgiWmbOubDvMFrMGHQA0rDuAc_aky27YVXdnYIB4/img.png?width=980" id="353e2" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="25da0349b9808614337fd4ab6388e99a" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">The Amazon arc of deforestation stretches across the southern and eastern edges of the forest and is rapidly expanding into the forest's core. </small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Data in Global Forest Watch from Hansen et al (2013) and Brazil's National Institute of Space Research (INPE) PRODES project</small></p>
<p>Forest degradation has historically been overlooked in accounting and monitoring carbon stocks. A recent study combined ground-based inventory, satellite and LiDAR data to record the loss of carbon due to forest degradation in areas exposed to logging, fire damage or both, in the arc of deforestation of the southeastern Amazon. The study revealed that fire damage causes greater losses than logging, and fire-damaged forests recovered more slowly than logged forests. Accurate depictions of both deforestation and degradation are necessary to establish emissions baselines used to inform programs to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+). Written by David Klinges.<br></p><h3><a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/08/seeing-redd-a-database-of-forest-carbon-emissions-reduction-projects/" target="_blank">Seeing REDD: A Database of Forest Carbon Emission Reduction Projects</a></h3>
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTAzMjA3NC9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1ODM0Mjg3OH0.jJunlh4gTGmDPQXHKfU4Fq7MQYr4kokxAfgDfi0PqpA/img.png?width=980" id="6317f" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="7d2eee6bfa138dfb5f3935d0ae4484cb" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">A woman in Senegal farms short-cycle cowpeas instead of millet due to poor seasonal rains, which are expected to become more frequent as climate changes. REDD+ aims to reduce emissions from forest loss. </small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Image by Thierry Brévault, copyright CIRAD</small></p>
<p>A searchable database of 467 forest carbon emissions reduction (REDD+) initiatives in 57 countries is now available through the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR). The ID-RECCO database gathers in one free online tool over 100 different categories of information – including project partners, activities and funding sources – on these subnational projects aimed at conserving forests, promoting local economies, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and degradation. The tool makes these data and their sources accessible to anyone, with minimal interpretation: while it does not summarize project results, it provides goals, activities, and links to project websites for the reader to learn more. Written by Sue Palminteri.<br></p><h3><a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/04/indias-new-forest-policy-draft-draws-criticism-for-emphasis-on-industrial-timber/" target="_blank">India's New Forest Policy Draft Draws Criticism for Emphasis on Industrial Timber</a></h3>
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTAzMjE4Mi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxNzY1NDAyMH0.59PxB1CcEzSSZ_LJphbYxOQ8sout5DQDh2Ypvp_YSZg/img.jpg?width=980" id="44399" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="bd54c872ac017fb7a44c44e453b08745" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">The new draft forest policy may not be beneficial for members of forest-dependent communities, such as this Malayali tribesman from Kolli Hills in Tamil Nadu. </small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Photo by S. Gopikrishna Warrier / Mongabay</small></p>
<p>India's Draft National Forest Policy 2018 is now open for public comment, and will replace the older 1988 policy once it comes into force. Critics are apprehensive about how the draft policy deals with community participation and industrial forestry. The current draft is bereft of knowledge-driven solutions, some experts say. Written by S. Gopikrishna Warrier.</p>
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</p><div id="e2a57" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="T7OXJX1576662149"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="978258409593196544" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Volunteers Plant 67,500 Trees in Portuguese Forest Devastated by Wildfires https://t.co/lujiyDKqK1 #wildfires… https://t.co/dqGYFgBvcW</div> — EcoWatch (@EcoWatch)<a href="https://twitter.com/EcoWatch/statuses/978258409593196544">1522069954.0</a></blockquote></div>
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<p><em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/12/the-10-most-intriguing-forest-stories-of-2018/" target="_blank">Mongabay</a>.</em><br></p>
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Investigators Find Slave Labor on Starbucks-Certified Brazil Coffee Plantation
19 September 2018
Business
zodebala / iStock
By Daniela Penha and Roberto Cataldo, Translator
This story was produced via a co-publishing partnership between Mongabay and Repórter Brasil and can be read in Portuguese here.
At first sight, the Córrego das Almas farm in Piumhi, in rural Minas Gerais state, seems to be a model property. "No slave or forced labor is allowed," reads one of several signs that display international certifications—including one linked to the U.S. based company Starbucks corporation.
<p>But investigators have found that laborers on the farm's coffee plantations were working under degrading conditions and living in substandard housing without sewerage or drinking water. A Ministry of Labor team inspection conducted at the site rescued 18 rural workers in conditions analogous to slavery.</p>
<p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODYzNzQ1MC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1ODU4MDIwMn0.rp9q6ryPdGanZAoi2nGhyG66LbsdWXUZMuuo0yWB44s/img.jpg?width=980" id="03874" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="2009c94f03543e03b056953794ba8c67" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Ministry of Labor investigators rescued 18 workers laboring in conditions analogous to slavery on coffee farms in the state of Minas Gerais; one of those farms held international certifications. </small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Adere</small></p>
<p>The farm, locally known as Fartura (Portuguese for Abundance), also boasts the UTZ seal—a Netherlands-based sustainable farming certificate considered one of the most prestigious in the coffee industry. That seal of approval was suspended after the certifier was questioned by Repórter Brasil about the case.<br></p><p>The farm also holds the C.A.F.E. Practices certification—owned by Starbucks in partnership with SCS Global Services. After hearing of the raid, the two companies responsible for issuing the seal said they would review the farm's quality certificate. The certifiers verify commodity supply chains in order to assure ethical purchases, good labor practices and other criteria required by Starbucks and other retailers.</p><p>Evidence found at Fartura shows that the farm's operating standards were far below those expected at a certified agricultural facility. "There were lots of bats and mice. We'd buy food and the mice would eat it. Then we had to buy it again," said one of the workers rescued.</p><p>"We weren't paid for holidays, Sundays, nothing. And we worked from Monday to Saturday with no record of the hours. During the week, we would start at 6 am and only stop at 5 pm," said another former employee rescued from the farm, where workers received payment according to the amount of coffee they picked.</p><p>The employees lived in collective lodgings without drinking water. According to the inspectors, sanitation was so precarious that it put workers' health at risk. The rescued group reported that dead bats were often found in the water tanks, which had no cover. This water was used for cooking and drinking.</p><p>In addition, the inspectors collected farm reports indicating that accounts payable were rigged. "We'd harvest and they'd leave it [the beans] there to be weighed the next day. When we arrived there, the coffee was gone. And then we were humiliated: we complained and they laughed in our faces," said one of the rescued workers.</p><p>"I've always harvested coffee, and I've never been through something like that in my life. I wasn't even able to send money home," added another.</p><p>It was also reported that, for workers to cash their pay checks or to buy food, they had to pay R$ 20 for a "clandestine bus"—in the words of one laborer—to go from the farm to the nearest town. "We had to pay in order to get paid," he explained.</p><p>UTZ said the seal's audit of the farm occurred in February 2018, and the certificate was issued in April. After Repórter Brasil questioned the organization, the certification was suspended and the group said their team would look into the conditions at the farm.</p><p>"Workers' rights and wellbeing are of the utmost importance and are an integral part of our standard. We take those issues very seriously because something like that would violate the UTZ standard. Whenever we receive reliable evidence of breaches on UTZ certified farms, we take immediate action, which includes conducting a thorough investigation," the organization said in a statement.</p><p>According to Starbucks, the Fartura farm has been certified since 2016, but the firm denied having "purchased or received any coffee from this farm in recent years. It said it is starting a process of investigation to re-evaluate the seal. "We are already investigating this matter and will continue to pay very close attention to issuances from the Ministry of [Brazilian] Labor and Employment and communicate expectations to our suppliers that no farm on the list may supply coffee to Starbucks," the statement said.</p><p>SCS, a Starbucks partner on the C.A.F.E. seal, reported that inspections and audits are conducted before certifications are granted and that no signs of slave labor were detected when the process was conducted at Fartura: "Forced labor is considered a point of zero tolerance, therefore farms with forced labor would not be eligible for the status in the program."</p><p>In addition to these two seals, another sign at Fartura suggests its certification by the 4C Association of the Coffee Assurance Services (CAS), a worldwide organization. However, the indications at the farm were that this seal was still under analysis, and "the final decision on the license has not yet been made."</p><p>The discovery of slavery-like conditions on this particular farm points to flaws likely to be present elsewhere in the coffee certification process: "This is not the first or second time, and it will not be the last time a certified farm is charged with employing slave labor and violating labor rights," said Jorge Ferreira dos Santos, who heads the Coordination of Rural Employers of Minas Gerais (Articulação dos Empregadores Rurais de Minas Gerais, Adere-MG) and who accompanied the Labor Ministry inspectors. The certification system is weak and not transparent, he added, and fails at "taking workers' views and reality into account."</p><p>The Fartura Farm is currently caring for 3 million coffee trees, while also raising so, and cattle; it has 151 employees. The property is leased and managed by Fabiana Soares. In a statement, her lawyer, Amanda Costa Ferreira, claimed that the property owner learned about the inspection "with shock" since slave labor is not the company's "work philosophy."</p><p>"Our farm has been operating in the coffee market for many years and has always sought to comply with all legal requirements, that includes obtaining all certifications, licenses and awards whose requirements are extremely strict," the statement read.</p>
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODYzNzQ2My9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyNTk0ODg4NH0.vy33ny5_hrW44hTNXUy20pwOafWewI5mR-EpNtgt1KM/img.jpg?width=980" id="bc09c" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="2fd68f1e656b022a5739aeb22c44ccb1" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Living conditions at the Córrego da Prata farm, where workers were rescued from illegal labor conditions. The farm belongs to the sister-in-law of state deputy Emidinho Madeira. </small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Adere</small></p>
<h3><strong>Second Raid Rescues 15 Workers</strong></h3><p>Another inspection in Minas Gerais, in the town of Muzambinho, rescued 15 workers in conditions analogous to slavery from a farm owned by Maria Júlia Pereira, the sister-in-law of a state deputy, Emidinho Madeira. The workers there included a 17-year-old.</p><p>The laborers questioned reported that they were forced to buy their own equipment, so ended up owing the farm owner R$ 2,500-3,000 before even beginning harvesting. The group also told Repórter Brasil that they were required to work 90 days straight, without a single day off. Coffee harvesting only paused on rainy days, with work generally continuous from 6 am to 8 pm, one laborer said.</p><p>"And if we stopped, the boss got angry," added another. "It was exhausting."</p><p>Pereira was not charged, but the workers said that she paid severance. Her lawyer Thiago de Lima Dini, issued a statement explaining that Pereira acquired the farm at the end of 2016 and that she leased it to Elias Rodrigo de Almeida in December of the same year, "ignoring any procedures and occurrences on that property." The lawyer, who also represents Almeida, said that he "used subcontractors to hire workers" and that he is "a victim, just like other workers."</p><p>The Córrego da Prata Farm was cited for 34 violations and paid R$ 87,000 (US$ 20,000) to the workers in damages. The Fartura farm received 27 notifications and paid R$ 71,000 in severance.</p><p> <em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/09/slave-labor-found-at-starbucks-certified-brazil-coffee-plantation/" target="_blank">Mongabay</a>.</em><em></em></p>
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The Blue Nile Falls / Tis Abay / Tis Issat near Bahar Dar, Ethiopia, East Africa. Arterra / UIG via Getty Images
Australia's Murray Darling basin covers more than a million square kilometers (approximately 386,000 square miles), 14 percent of the country's landmass. It's the site of tens of thousands of wetlands, but increasing demand for water has stretched its resources to the limit.
Many of the basin's wetlands and floodplain forests are declining—several former wetlands and forests have even been consumed by bushfires, which are becoming more frequent every year. Yet when Australian officials sought to introduce strict water allocation rules, they met with fierce resistance from farmers in the region who depend on irrigation for their livelihood.
<p>This is just one example of the ongoing conflicts over ecological water allocations featured in a new <a href="https://www.iufro.org/science/gfep/forests-and-water-panel/report/?utm_source=IUFRO-GFEP+media+release&utm_campaign=9b2b1ed60c-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_07_09_08_41&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_cc147badf6-9b2b1ed60c-294350001" target="_blank">report</a> released by the <a href="https://www.iufro.org/science/gfep/" target="_blank">Global Forest Expert Panel</a> (GFEP) on Forests and Water, an initiative led by the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO).</p><p>More than 7.5 billion humans currently occupy planet Earth together with an estimated three trillion trees, and both of these populations require water. According to the GFEP report, the growing human population and <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-change">climate change</a> are exacerbating a looming global water crisis that has already hit home in places like the Murray Darling basin—but the crisis could potentially be averted if humans paid more attention to the links between forests and water.</p><p>"This international effort to highlight the interlinkages between forests, water, people and climate is very timely, given the pressures we now face on both human society and natural ecosystems," Caroline Sullivan, an environmental economist at Australia's Southern Cross University who contributed to the report, said in a <a href="https://www.scu.edu.au/engage/news/2018/forests-form-buffer-against-water-crisis-findings-of-new-international-report.php" target="_blank">statement</a>. "For example, here in Australia, we are facing water shortages, massive loss of <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/biodiversity">biodiversity</a>, rising incidence of <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/flooding">floods</a> and <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/drought">droughts</a>, and loss of economic capital and human wellbeing."</p>
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODIxMzI0MC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0NDA1OTY3MH0.MSYlpDGzseJmuVzyeb-NEtMrok6_vpXHR1IH3lw-i3s/img.jpg?width=980" id="f7977" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="0a7c3879fada0b797a9a920ed996f813" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption..."> In Mongolia, freshwater resources are scarce. </small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit..."><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/gradlon/7825892688/" target="_blank">L'irrésistible silhouette bleue</a> / CC BY-SA 2.0</small></p>
<p>Despite the links between the global climate, forests, people and water, international bodies like the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) have tended to view carbon sequestration as the chief role of forests and trees. GFEP co-chair Meine van Noordwijk, chief scientist at the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) in Indonesia and a professor of agroforestry at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, warns that we ignore the importance of water in the climate debate at our own peril.<br></p><p>"In view of the vital role water plays, even in facilitating the continuous sequestration of carbon in standing forests, a lack of understanding of landscape-scale effects amongst the forest and water science communities and policymakers is of increasing concern," Noordwijk said in a statement.</p><p>The GFEP report finds that water should be key to discussions of the interactions between forests and the global climate, especially in areas of water scarcity, because strategies focused entirely on carbon sequestration can still have drastic and unintended consequences for water resources. For example, reforestation projects need to take into account the water needs of new foliage and prioritize the use of species that are adapted to local conditions, per the report.</p><p>Irena Creed of the University of Saskatchewan in Canada is the other co-chair of the GFEP and co-editor of the report along with Noordwijk. She says that, just as it is missing from the climate debate, water is often overlooked as an important component of forest management.</p><p>"[N]atural forests, in particular, contribute to the sustainable water supply for people in the face of growing risks," Creed said in a statement. "And it is also possible to actively manage forests for water resilience."</p><p>For instance, the report spotlights the example of the various countries in the Hindu Kush-Himalaya region that have revived dried-up springs by applying water-sensitive land management strategies in recharge zones.</p><p>Creed added that the future impacts of climate change introduce a level of unpredictability that we will also have to learn to deal with. "Natural disturbances and human activities influence forest and water relations with their impacts, depending on their timing, magnitude, intensity and duration," she said. "Under a changing climate, these influencing factors vary more than ever, sometimes in unanticipated ways. Forest management for the future must therefore factor in uncertainty."</p><p>Noordwijk notes that, "In our assessment, we focused on the following key questions: Do forests matter? Who is responsible and what should be done? How can progress be made and measured?" Because the answers to those questions depend heavily on regional context, Noordwijk, Creed and their co-authors seek to identify "globally relevant information on forest-water interactions" and highlight implications for international policymakers in the report. Specifically, they look at how a better understanding of the climate-forest-people-water connection can help achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) laid out by the UN in its <a href="https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/post2015/transformingourworld" target="_blank">2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development</a>.</p><p>"Governments and all stakeholders wanting to achieve the SDGs need to understand that water is central to attaining almost all of these goals, and forests are inseparably tied to water," Hiroto Mitsugi, assistant director-general at the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization, said in a statement. "Policy and management responses must therefore tackle multiple water-related objectives across the range of SDGs, and take a multiple benefits approach."</p><p>The report concludes that governance of water and forests as resources can be improved "to reduce the identified hydro-vulnerability in the context of all SDGs, and the persistent and growing threats arising from climate change. Failure to place water at the centre of discussions on forest-climate interactions and diverse forestation strategies, will have important negative impacts on policy effectiveness and ultimately on the provision of water."</p><p>International governance can play a "highly important" role, the report states, by creating norms such as the SDGs, and providing opportunities for those norms to be discussed, negotiated and agreed upon. "National level governance can also be radically improved," the report adds, "in particular, by beginning to bring together competing sectors of the economy into national level institutional frameworks that encourage cooperation and negotiation across the broader scope of forest and water interactions."</p>
<p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
</p><div id="432b1" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="WKPYU01576662529"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="997128977390194688" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">NASA Study of Increasingly Dire Global Water Shortages Finds 'Clear Human Fingerprints' https://t.co/BNwBktsBtC… https://t.co/Q7tgaDNiBj</div> — EcoWatch (@EcoWatch)<a href="https://twitter.com/EcoWatch/statuses/997128977390194688">1526569048.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p></p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/07/pay-more-attention-to-forests-to-avert-global-water-crisis-researchers-urge/" target="_blank">Mongabay</a>.</em><br></p>
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The pumpkin toadlet (Brachycephalus ephippium), endemic to Brazil's Atlantic Forest, is highly susceptible to the hybrid Bd fungus. Gui Becker
By Morgan Erickson-Davis
A fungus that has decimated frog populations around the world could get even deadlier, according to new research. The study found that hybridization of different types of the fungus creates strains that can cause greater mortality in frogs. And it warns that deforestation could make this impact worse.
<p>The fungus is called <em>Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis—</em>Bd for short—and it causes a disease called chytridiomycosis that affects a frog's ability to absorb water and electrolytes through its skin. Scientists first started to take notice in the 1970s when frog populations in Central and South America started disappearing. </p><p>By the 1990s Bd had spread around the world, likely aided by the <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/doctors-used-to-use-live-african-frogs-as-pregnancy-tests-64279275/" target="_blank">laboratory trade in African clawed frogs</a> and <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1046/j.1472-4642.2003.00013.x" target="_blank">invasions</a> of American bullfrogs. By 2007 it had been implicated in the decline or extinction of some <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10393-007-0093-5" target="_blank">200 species.</a></p><p>Today, biologists consider it <a href="http://www.iucngisd.org/gisd/species.php?sc=123" target="_blank">one of the biggest threats</a> to amphibians globally.</p><p>Some research has offered a bit of hope for frogs, with a <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/03/frogs-may-be-fighting-back-against-deadly-epidemic/" target="_blank">study</a> published earlier this year in <em>Science</em> finding populations may be able to develop resistance to Bd.</p><p>But <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-27828-w.epdf?author_access_token=oI8OvG2F3_uNcDP7duA0GNRgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0McT2go0kNB072Jv77DpaXt_FYKRg_mQJj5wB7MCJ6Pgh3Vqv1CaRX_efPk2y6zo_W5my1jBHfXKktmAUXvCvEcB0Rh-YMv91gUE-hUdphRsg%3D%3D" target="_blank">a new study</a> published last week in <em>Scientific Reports</em> adds another hurdle for frogs, finding that hybridization between a native strain of Bd in Brazil and the one that's caused the global pandemic can lead to greater infection rates and illness strength than either can alone.</p><p>The study was conducted by researchers from universities in Brazil and the U.S. who looked at infection in several frog species native to Brazil's Atlantic Forest. They chose that region because of its high amphibian <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/biodiversity">biodiversity</a> (despite being <a href="https://www.nature.org/ourinitiatives/regions/latinamerica/brazil/placesweprotect/atlantic-forest.xml" target="_blank">one of the most deforested ecosystems</a> on the planet) and because it's the only known region in the world where multiple strains of Bd coexist and hybridize.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODE1NzU5OC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwMDk5MDUxOH0.AmEP1VrIfvBbC_rs00vJxSuG0Z5oPLUjsDA10XaWMxg/img.jpg?width=980" id="09e13" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="5fa0d5fa282de8c7c660cbb92de1a21c" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Deforestation for agriculture and other development has reduced Brazil's Atlantic Forest to less than 15 percent of its original extent.</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Mongabay</small></p><p>Scientists believe the Brazilian strain of Bd (Bd-Brazil) evolved along with amphibian populations there and, because of this, is not as harmful to them as the Global Pandemic Lineage (Bd-GPL). But when the team compared infection and illness rates of the two types of Bd and a third hybridized one, they found that the latter had a significantly worse impact on two of the three frog species they examined.<br></p><p>The researchers write that this effect may be due to a phenomenon called "hybrid vigor" (also referred to as "heterosis"), by which the sudden surge in genetic diversity caused by hybridization leads to a more dramatic expression of advantageous physical traits. Take, for example, mules, which tend to be stronger (and smarter, according to <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/52f6e70ae4b09d0c250122c6/t/544afb4de4b0d6a3acd90638/1414200141928/art%3A10.1007%2Fs10071-008-0172-1.pdf" target="_blank">at least one study</a>) than either their horse or donkey parents. The same might be happening for Bd. Combining the genes of different strains of Bd could make a hybrid strain even stronger than Bd-GPL.</p><p>Another reason why hybrid Bd may be affecting frogs so profoundly is reduced genetic diversity in the frogs themselves. The authors write the pumpkin toadlet (<em>Brachycephalus ephippium</em>), one of the frog species that experienced high death rates when infected with the strain, lives in isolated, patchy habitats that "may have limited its exposure to pathogens throughout its evolutionary history or lowered its immunogenetic diversity."</p><p>The study's results appear to be already playing out in the real world, with <a href="http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/284/1848/20162254" target="_blank">previous research</a> from the team finding that frog populations are declining and disappearing more quickly in the zone where the two Bd strains are known to hybridize.<br></p><p>And they warn that deforestation "may tip the host-pathogen balance further in favor of the pathogen" as habitat loss stands to increasingly isolate frog populations, further reducing their genetic diversity, while "even the most fragmented landscapes in the Atlantic Forest" don't seem to be a barrier to Bd.</p><p>The researchers say their results indicate frogs may face a future even more dire than anticipated as different strains of Bd spread around the world and combine into more harmful forms. They call for increasing global monitoring efforts to detect these shifts before they lead to new outbreaks.</p><p>"With globalization facilitating pathogen spread across continents, hybridization of chytrids might lead to new epidemic waves reducing amphibian biodiversity in both tropical and temperate regions," said study coauthor Gui Becker, assistant professor of biological sciences at the University of Alabama.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
</p><div id="bc13d" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="1COQ4M1576662509"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="997041558947090433" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Some Tropical Frogs May Be Developing Resistance to a Deadly Fungal Disease – But Now Salamanders Are at Risk… https://t.co/xdA3kEf1Fy</div> — EcoWatch (@EcoWatch)<a href="https://twitter.com/EcoWatch/statuses/997041558947090433">1526548206.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p></p><p><em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/07/global-frog-pandemic-may-become-even-deadlier-as-strains-combine/" target="_blank">Mongabay</a>.</em><br></p>
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What’s Worse Than Palm Oil for the Environment? Other Vegetable Oils, IUCN Study Finds
03 July 2018
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A Bornean orangutan in Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of Borneo. An endangered species, the ape is threatened by the unbridled expansion of oil palm plantations into their forest homes. Rhett A. Butler / Mongabay
By Hans Nicholas Jong
Banning palm oil in favor of other vegetable oils deemed less destructive to the environment could lead to greater biodiversity losses, a new report says.
The report by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) comes amid mounting debate about the use of palm oil, with the European Union seeking to phase out the use of the ubiquitous commodity in biofuels by 2030, citing environmental and human rights violations in the production of the commodity.
<p>But existing vegetable oils that could theoretically replace palm oil would be far more damaging to the environment because they would need more land, according to the IUCN report "Palm Oil and Biodiversity."</p><p>The production of palm oil is characterized by its high yield relative to other vegetable oils, meaning more of it can be produced from a given area of farmland than other oil crops. The latter require up to nine times more land than oil palms to produce the same amount of oil.</p><p>Palm oil is currently produced from just 10 percent of all farmland dedicated to growing oil crops, yet accounts for 35 percent of the global volume of all vegetable oils.</p><p>"Half of the world's population uses palm oil in food, and if we ban or boycott it, other, more land-hungry oils will likely take its place," IUCN director general Inger Andersen said in a <a href="https://www.iucn.org/news/secretariat/201806/saying-no-palm-oil-would-likely-displace-not-halt-biodiversity-loss---iucn-report" target="_blank">press release</a>.</p><p>Indonesia and Malaysia are the world's biggest producers of palm oil, accounting for a combined 90 percent of global supply. However, the expansion of oil palm estates, particularly in Indonesia, has long been criticized for <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/01/biofuel-boost-threatens-even-greater-deforestation-in-indonesia-malaysia-study/" target="_blank">driving deforestation</a> across much of the islands of Sumatra and Borneo, as well as stoking social conflicts over land and other resources with forest and indigenous communities.</p><p>Feeding global demand for vegetable oils with other crops would only shift the damage elsewhere, to ecosystems such as the tropical forests and savannas of South America, the IUCN report said. One such oil crop widely cultivated in South America is soy, which has already had a massive negative impact on biodiversity in the region. Studies have linked the cultivation of soy to lower bird diversity in Brazil and Argentina. Much of Brazil's soy production takes place in the Cerrado, a vast tropical savanna that's home to rare and threatened species found nowhere else.</p><p>A <a href="https://www.actionaidusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/AAUSA_MightyEarth_Burned_FINAL_web.pdf" target="_blank">recent report</a> by the global environmental campaign NGO Mighty Earth found that 30,000 acres of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/forests">forest</a>, or about 12,100 hectares, were being cleared to plant new soy fields in northern Argentina, which supply some of the companies producing soy-based biodiesel for export to the U.S.</p><p>"When we look at soybean use of production there, we [sent] a team to Argentina, and we found tremendous damage to the forest," Henry Waxman, chairman of Mighty Earth, said at a panel discussion at the Oslo Tropical Forest Forum in Norway on June 28.</p><p>The IUCN report emphasized that even though palm oil was the most efficient oil crop, it needed to be <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/deforestation">deforestation</a>-free to halt the destruction of biodiversity in Southeast Asia and other regions where it's produced. The current practice of producing palm oil remains highly destructive, leading to the decimation of tropical rainforests and the species that depend on them, the report said. Orangutans, gibbons and tigers are among the 193 <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/endangered-species">threatened species</a> on the IUCN's Red List that would be affected by the continued expansion of oil palm plantations into forest areas—a menagerie of biodiversity representing half of the world's threatened mammals and almost two-thirds of threatened birds.</p><p>"Palm oil is decimating South East Asia's rich diversity of species as it eats into swathes of tropical forest," said Erik Meijaard, the report's lead author and chair of IUCN's oil palm task force. "But if it is replaced by much larger areas of rapeseed, soy or sunflower fields, different natural ecosystems and species may suffer."</p>
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODE0Nzk1NS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxMjk2OTYzMX0.v8zxjBE8dYx1lRIvzYJjV_NX4ehwN7gBmQiFvMTGlds/img.jpg?width=980" id="4cdcf" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="0110bceddb3f3ad9194b8bd05dce5735" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Rainforest cleared for an oil palm estate in Indonesian Borneo</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Sandy Watt for The Gecko Project</small></p>
<p><strong>What's Next?</strong><br></p><p>The report found that by far the biggest gains for biodiversity in an oil palm context are through avoiding further deforestation, which can be achieved through improved planning of new plantations and better management of forest patches left untouched in plantations.</p><p>The report also recommended stakeholders push for greater demand for sustainably produced palm oil, thereby putting pressure on producers to improve their practices.</p><p>"With most palm oil being supplied to India, China, and Indonesia, consumer awareness in these countries needs to be raised to ensure that this demand will materialize," the report read.</p><p>Adrian Suharto, the head of stakeholder engagement at Finland-based biodiesel supplier Neste Corporation, agreed with the report's recommendations.</p><p>"The most important thing is that what you buy is sustainable and you educate people and help support the local government in Indonesia and Malaysia, Thailand, Colombia, and everywhere else to understand the importance of having sustainable production [of palm oil]," he said at the Oslo Tropical Forest Forum.</p><p>The European Federation for Transport and Environment, an umbrella for NGOs working in the field of transport and the environment, said the best solution would be to completely remove biofuel mandates and incentives for crop-based biofuels that force people to use biofuel. It cited as a case in point the EU's 2009 policy requiring every EU member state to have 10 percent renewable fuels by 2020.</p><p>The EU is now revising its renewable energy policy, which will remove the incentives for crop-based fuels starting from 2020. It will also phase out the use of palm oil in biodiesel, which Laura Buffet, the manager for clean fuels at the transport and environment federation, said was a move in the right direction.</p><p>"I agree that if you keep the same drivers and the same high target, and you just remove one feedstock from the equation, it'll be likely to be filled by something else," she said at the Oslo forum. If those alternatives are soy or rapeseed oil, she added, "you will also look at indirect impact and deforestation, so it's not going to solve entirely the issue."</p><p>"That's why we're asking for reducing or completely removing the mandate, and that's going to be the best solution."</p><p><em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/07/whats-worse-than-palm-oil-for-the-environment-other-vegetable-oils-iucn-study-finds/" target="_blank">Mongabay</a>.</em></p>
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Tucuxi Amazon river dolphins (Sotalia fluviatilis). Projeto Boto
By Claire Asher
Populations of two species of river dolphin in the Amazon are halving every decade, according to the results of a twenty-two year survey.
The Amazon rainforest is home to the Amazon river dolphin, or Boto (Inia geoffrensis) and the Tucuxi (Sotalia fluviatilis). But the results of a long-term study published in PLoS ONE show that both of these once abundant aquatic mammals are now in rapid decline in the Brazilian Amazon, likely due to hunting and fishing.
<p>Vera da Silva from the Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia, in Manaus, Brazil, and colleagues conducted monthly surveys of river dolphins in the Mamirauá Reserve in Amazonas state between 1994 and 2017. They found steep declines in both species over the last two decades, with Boto populations halving every ten years and Tucuxi every nine years—some of the most severe declines seen in cetaceans since the moratorium on commercial whaling came into effect in the 1980s.</p><p>"Data from over 22 years of monitoring … revealed a precipitous decline of [Boto] in the last two decades," said da Silva. "Before 2000, the population was quite stable."</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODA4OTc5Ny9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyNjg0MzI2OX0.Kq-Hls8ot5LCt7zJt9v0bC39sVzfBTKHvojuB36wTAU/img.jpg?width=980" id="2cd2f" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="e1b55d844bfe9209e92566fdb36910bd" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Boto Amazon river dolphins (Inia geoffrensis). According to researchers, Boto populations are halving every ten years in the study area. </small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Image courtesy of Associação Amigos do Peixe-Boi (AMPA)</small></p><p>The IUCN Red List categorizes both species as "data deficient," meaning that there is insufficient information to determine their conservation status; the murky waters of the Amazon river make them difficult to study. But the authors say that applying the IUCN Red List Criteria to their data would result in the species being listed as Critically <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/endangered-species">Endangered</a>, having suffered greater than 90 percent declines since 2000 (the Boto declined by 94 percent, and the Tucuxi by 97 percent in the study area, according to the researchers).<br></p><p>"In my opinion, the real importance of this paper is it shows that populations in their study site have a negative growth trend, and [the research] does it with quantitative information," said Elizabeth Campbell, a <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/conservation">conservation</a> scientist at <a href="https://www.prodelphinusperu.com/" target="_blank">ProDelphinus Peru</a>, a conservation NGO based in Lima, Peru who was not involved in the current research. Although <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320715302160" target="_blank">other studies have attempted to estimate population trends</a> for these enigmatic creatures, "this is the only study that has had a constant presence for 20+ years, through different seasons, in [the same] area," she said.</p><p>Finding these illusive creatures requires patience and an eagle eye: "The Botos and Tucuxis come to the surface to breathe every 1-2 min," explained da Silva, which provides a brief window of opportunity to spot the creatures, before they disappear back into the muddy waters.</p><p>The scientist said that when they first began their surveys, the dolphins were plentiful. "When we started our work with these dolphin populations in 1994, we were astonished by the number of animals in the area," da Silva said. "It was impossible to go out by boat without seeing dolphins."</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODA4OTc5OS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2MjEyOTMwN30.eZH_Rqu1Ela41fK0iwVC09jzNSDQkSRCiaPhg-3nxZM/img.jpg?width=980" id="a9008" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="c6e5a59bc24d66292fb952e0f3c4520f" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">A Boto surfaces in the Marañón River, Peru. Difficult to detect in Amazonia's murky waters, both species are listed as "Data Deficient" by the IUCN. But researchers maintain that if region-wide surveys were conducted both species would end up being listed as Critically Endangered. </small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Clara Ortiz-Alvarez</small></p><p>Over the years, the team not only counted the numbers of dolphins, it also captured and marked some, allowing the researchers to identify individuals in the field. As time passed, they started noticing huge scars from harpoon and machete injuries on the river dolphins they caught. Interviewing local fishermen confirmed the team's suspicions: "Botos were being hunted for bait, and in large numbers," said da Silva.<br></p><p>Around the turn of the millenium, catches of commercially important catfish known as Piracatinga or Mota (<em>Calophysus macropterus</em>) in Colombia were shrinking, so new fisheries began to spring up in Brazil to meet market demand.</p><p>By 2011, subsistence fishermen had shifted toward becoming commercial fishermen in the Brazilian state of Amazonas, as they hauled in 4.4 million kilograms (9.7 million pounds) of catfish each year. Part of their success could have been due to the bait they used. "They started using caiman meat," said da Silva, but soon found that Boto carcasses from entanglement with fishing gear were a more effective bait. "Dolphin meat lasted longer and [the catfish] preferred Boto carcasses," she said.</p><p>The supply of accidentally-killed Botos was soon exceeded by demand, and <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2017/07/the-dolphin-who-became-man-will-the-boto-survive-the-catfish-trade/" target="_blank">the fishermen started actively hunting them</a>.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODA4OTgwMi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0MDEzNzg2N30.chhG3VDX5RC4iVjMXawn4Ak0IyG1-YldB6g4bZhRgw0/img.jpg?width=980" id="f8267" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="e050676562632415abcce7da3f0c5f4e" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">River dolphin leaping. Amazon river dolphins had been considered resilient compared to their Asian relatives. But this latest study shows that South America's river dolphins may also be headed toward oblivion unless action is taken to reduce hunting, fishing and other pressures on both species.</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">F. da Silva VM</small></p><p>The dolphins were abundant at the time, and their high densities in small river inlets and bays, combined with their natural curiosity, made them easy targets, da Silva explained. The Brazilian government placed a five-year moratorium on fishing for piracatinga in 2014, but the practice still continues illegally.<br></p><p>Botos are found throughout both the Amazon and Orinoco river basins. In the wet season, the dolphins leave river channels and swim out into the flooded forests to search for prey among the roots and trunks of partially submerged trees.</p><p>Although legally protected in the Amazon, poor enforcement has meant that the species is still routinely entangled in fishermen's nets and gear, as well as deliberately hunted for fat and blubber. Some fishermen see the dolphins as a nuisance—competing with them for fish and damaging their equipment—and so kill them intentionally. "Fisherman do not like Botos because they damage the fish and the fishing gear," said da Silva.</p><p>In contrast to Boto, the survey showed that Tucuxi have been declining consistently since at least the mid-1990s. Unlike the Botos, Tucuxi don't enter the flooded forests to feed, but instead stick to the main river channels and tributaries. The species is smaller and faster-moving than the Boto, and is generally considered friendly and not a pest by local fishermen, making it less vulnerable to deliberate hunting. However, gear entanglement remains a serious threat, particularly because fishing nets are often set at the mouths of river channels where the Tucuxi tend to congregate.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODA4OTgwNS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyNDI5MDU2NH0.UrxRftsdabp2wesd-Fe3_K8ekx-ir7j2ps073JPJwwM/img.jpg?width=980" id="ae631" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="220c67d50ebb7d9eae2586d3aea3a774" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Boto swimming in the Rio Amazonas, Brazil in 2016. A lack of political will, drastic cuts to the Brazilian environmental ministry budget, and continued illegal dolphin hunting and fishing are putting these aquatic mammals at risk.</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit..."><a href="https://visualhunt.com/author/fc83db" target="_blank">Martha de Jong-Lantink</a> on <a href="https://visualhunt.com/re/9e3bda" target="_blank">Visualhunt.com</a> / CC BY-NC-ND</small></p><p>The decline of both species is significant for aquatic ecology. River dolphins are a key part of the Amazonian ecosystem—Botos are known to feed on 43 different species of fish, most of which live near the river bottom, while Tucuxis feed on at least 28 species, mostly small schooling fish found higher in the water column. Many of these fish are commercially exploited, too, putting the dolphins in direct competition with local fishermen.<br></p><p>"The takeaway message for me is that fisheries interaction with river dolphins is probably the most significant threat these species face," said Campbell, adding that "populations are decreasing faster than we could expect."</p><p>Mamirauá Sustainable Development Reserve, where the study was conducted, is a 4,300 square-mile (11,000 square-kilometer) protected area—one of the largest in the Brazilian Amazon. Within the reserve, where commercial fishing is banned, mortality of dolphins is primarily the result of accidental deaths from subsistence fishing. However, some Botos travel up to hundreds of kilometers, straying outside the reserve where they may encounter other threats, including direct hunting, commercial fishing gear and pollution from agricultural run-off and mining.</p><p>One danger: toxic <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/mercury">mercury</a>, <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2016/07/illegal-gold-mining-causing-mercury-contamination-in-indigenous-groups/" target="_blank">often used in mining to separate gold</a> from soil and rock, accumulates in river sediments and can cause problems for top predators, like river dolphins, that consume large quantities of pollutants in the fish they prey on. The mercury bio-accumulates in increasing, eventually deadly, amounts in the dolphins' fat.</p><p>Amazon river dolphins had been considered resilient compared to their Asian relatives, the endangered Ganges river dolphin (<em>Platanista gangetica</em>) and the critically endangered Baiji (<em>Lipotes vexillifer</em>), which many conservationists <a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2007.0292" target="_blank">believe may be extinct in the wild</a>. Da Silva and colleagues' latest study shows that South America's river dolphins may also be headed toward oblivion.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODA4OTgxMi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0MjY4NTQ1NH0.udJ4-a_lBjGHDsn7QmAa_FvuvVAbZTmsmy6xKn-LeyQ/img.jpg?width=980" id="836b1" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="ccea4b2672faed02332bf291381301ff" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Tucuxi swimming. Brazil's struggling economy means that fishermen are likely to try to increase their catches, even if that means illegally using dolphins for bait, or killing them either by accident or intentionally.</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit..."><a href="https://visualhunt.com/author/605dba" target="_blank">Mike LaB</a> on <a href="https://visualhunt.com/re/9e3bda" target="_blank">Visualhunt</a> / CC BY-NC-ND</small></p><p>If Amazon basin dolphins are to survive, the Brazilian government needs to take the first step of strengthening existing protections and improving enforcement, da Silva said. "Controlling the fisheries catching catfish and preventing fishermen setting nets at the entrances of rivers, lakes and channels," would be a good start, she said.<br></p><p>Implementing dolphin protections and preventing illegal hunting in the flooded forests of the Amazon would be challenging, but is possible, da Silva said. But Brazil's environment ministry has seen draconian budget cuts (<a href="http://www.climatechangenews.com/2017/04/03/brazil-halves-environment-budget-amid-rising-amazon-deforestation/" target="_blank">51 percent in 2017 alone</a>) under the Temer administration, so it lacks the staff, equipment and fuel needed to monitor remote Amazonian regions. And as in many countries, there is currently a lack of political will to pass and enforce strong environmental legislation. Meanwhile, Brazil's struggling economy means that fishermen are likely to try to increase their catches, even if that means illegally using dolphins for bait, or killing them either by accident or intentionally.</p><p>"Fisheries in the Brazilian Amazon are not well controlled and quantified," da Silva said. And there is no sign that that reality will change soon.</p>
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<p><em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/06/hunting-fishing-causing-dramatic-decline-in-amazon-river-dolphins/" target="_blank">Mongabay</a>.</em><br></p>
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vil.sandi / Flickr / CC BY-ND 2.0
By Edward Carver
Lemurs in Madagascar have been under pressure from deforestation, poaching, drought and other challenges for years. Now, in the much-visited Berenty Reserve near the island's southern tip, one species faces a mysterious new threat.
In the last month and a half, at least 31 Verreaux's sifakas (Propithecus verreauxi) have died in the reserve. Most were found already dead; others were found gravely ill and later died from respiratory failure. Berenty staff and local scientists have reached out to veterinarians and primatologists across the world. The experts believe that a parasite or tick-borne disease is likely to blame, but the exact cause remains unknown.
<p>This is the one of largest lemur die-offs that scientists in Madagascar can remember. "We haven't seen something like this before," Patricia Wright, a lemur expert and the founder of Centre ValBio, a research center in eastern central Madagascar, told Mongabay.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xNzY4NDkyOC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2MjE1MDA3NX0.EF9KWTTBHFmjnFcqcHePeYOlWNI2PA4UPGkBIYsiD8U/img.jpg?width=980" id="6dbf7" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="ed126b7d92764e8f79915fbed84265ca" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">A Verreaux's sifaka (Propithecus verreauxi)</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Rhett A. Butler</small></p><p>Verreaux's sifakas were struggling long before this outbreak. The white, fluffy lemurs were already listed as <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/endangered-species">endangered</a> by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The population is highly fragmented and has been declining for decades, according to the IUCN. The species is found in the dry areas and spiny forests of southwest Madagascar.<br></p><p>By coincidence, a large IUCN Red List <a href="http://www.primate-sg.org/" target="_blank">Primate Specialist Group</a> meeting took place last week in Antananarivo, Madagascar's capital, and reassessing the endangerment status of all lemur species was a top agenda item. The group decided to uplist all nine sifaka species from endangered to critically endangered, according to people in attendance. The status change is not yet official, but during the meeting the Facebook page of the specialist group's Lemur Conservation Network project mentioned it: "We are very sad to announce that all sifaka species are now under the Critically Endangered criteria."</p><p>Verreaux's sifakas travel in groups of up to 14 individuals, and at least two of these groups have been killed off in Berenty since late March. Berenty is a private reserve run by a French family that owns a local sisal business. For decades, it has been a research site and a popular ecotourism destination. Lemurs are the main attraction.</p><p>Scientists have pieced together clues about the cause of death by assessing the afflicted sifakas that were found still alive. Several of those sifakas had paralyzed hind legs; to move, they had to drag themselves by their hands on the forest floor. (Normally, Verreaux's sifakas have powerful hind legs that allow them to bounce sideways on the ground or jump as far as 3 meters, or 10 feet, from tree to tree.) Within a day, in most of the cases, the paralysis moved up the body and into the lungs, causing death from respiratory failure.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xNzY4NTAwOS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyNjkwOTQ5NX0.6N-nwgc0Mjy-XiVsDdbX2wCer7GyiV-zpB9GL_wXis8/img.jpg?width=980" id="8a11e" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="3efa36887e111a9e2dc2f8794f17454f" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">Verreaux's sifakas in a heated territorial chase</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Rhett A. Butler</small></p><p>Most of the dead sifakas were found covered in ticks, which scientists say may have caused the paralysis by transmitting a neurotoxin or some type of infectious rickettsial bacteria to the sifakas. However, in 2014, scientists found many other Verreaux's sifakas covered in ticks, and they showed no signs of disease.<br></p><p>Another possibility is that the recent deaths were caused by single-cell toxoplasma parasites, which affect the nervous system and which, like rickettsial bacteria, could have been brought to the area by humans. The parasites could have been in the local soil or in cat dung. Tissue and organ samples from the dead sifakas' bodies have been sent to the Institut Pasteur de Madagascar, in Antananarivo, but the test results have not yet come back.</p><p>Almost all of the dead sifakas were male, and this at first led scientists to believe that perhaps the deaths were due to aggressive territorial disputes. Because outside threats have forced Verreaux's sifakas and other lemur species to crowd into small areas, this wouldn't be surprising. "When we found the first 9 [dead sifakas] we thought it might be due to an overpopulation," Claire Foulon, the reserve manager, told Mongabay. However, the dead bodies showed no signs of violence, and that theory has now been ruled out. Experts are not sure why most of the dead sifakas are male.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xNzY4NTA4NC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwODY3MzQ2MH0.j6gxmxlZ9NL4ZrmXqVmMxONlXn40r_nE75S5ULj92f8/img.jpg?width=980" id="13f4b" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="f1d6141abf780f8e8b4baf8152f0a530" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">A Verreaux's sifaka nursing her baby</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Rhett A. Butler</small></p><p>Whatever the cause of the illness turns out to be, other types of lemurs do not appear to be as vulnerable to it as the Verreaux's sifakas. So far, none of the many ring-tailed lemurs (<em>Lemur catta</em>) in the same area have been affected. However, one brown lemur (genus <em>Eulemur</em>) was found dead, apparently from the same illness.<br></p><p>No sifakas have been found sick or dead since April 30, so experts are hopeful that the worst may be over. "As most of the news has been pointing to this localized event within a timeline, I am hoping that whatever has caused the 37 deaths (which is the number that was discussed at the IUCN meeting) has ridden its course," Edward Louis, director of the NGO Madagascar Biodiversity Partnership and director of conservation genetics at the U.S.-based Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium, said in an email to Mongabay. (Louis and other experts cited a death toll in the high thirties, but Foulon, the reserve manager, later told Mongabay that only 31 sifakas had died in the outbreak.)</p><p>A team of veterinarians from Germany is now on site to support the Malagasy veterinarian working on the case.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xNzY4NTEzNi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0NjAxNDQ2Mn0.DPVm2Mgke26ESHQ28mUb_00N41rJNylvtA9Pd5CmNpE/img.jpg?width=980" id="33fcd" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="a3b95b12cf9d0c649c05f8ae9e07faed" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">A Verreaux's sifaka dancing</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Rhett A. Butler</small></p><p><em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/05/sifaka-lemurs-listed-as-critically-endangered-amid-mysterious-die-off/" target="_blank">Mongabay</a>.</em><br></p>
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