Posts tagged habitat protection
To Conserve More Species, Act while Their Numbers Are High

Scientific American - OpEd

November 30, 2021
November 30 is the Remembrance Day for Lost Species, an informal holiday established in 2011 by a U.K.-based coalition of artists, scientists and activists. The point of the day is political: to draw public attention to human-caused extinctions, in hopes of preventing more. But for many participants the day is also personal, an attempt to grasp the enormity of extinction.

Every year brings more species to memorialize, and this year is no exception. Among this year’s newcomers are 23 species of plants and animals that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declared extinct at the end of September. Had you heard of the turgid-blossom pearly mussel, the flat pigtoe mussel or the stirrupshell mussel? What about the Scioto madtom or the San Marcos gambusia, two freshwater fish? Me neither. These species, like so many others, went extinct before most of us even knew their names. 

We need a Remembrance Day for Lost Species. But if we want to protect life on a meaningful scale, we also need to remember the species we still have.

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biodiversity, biodiversity loss, conservation, extinction, habitat protection, species protectionSara Sheehyextinction, habitat protection, species protection, conservation
COP26: World leaders promise to end deforestation by 2030

BBC News

November 2, 2021
Brazil - where stretches of the Amazon rainforest have been cut down - was among the signatories on Tuesday.

The pledge includes almost £14bn ($19.2bn) of public and private funds.

Experts welcomed the move, but warned a previous deal in 2014 had "failed to slow deforestation at all" and commitments needed to be delivered on.

Felling trees contributes to climate change because it depletes forests that absorb vast amounts of the warming gas CO2.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is hosting the global meeting in Glasgow, said "more leaders than ever before" - a total of 110 - had made the "landmark" commitment.

"We have to stop the devastating loss of our forests," he said - and "end the role of humanity as nature's conqueror, and instead become nature's custodian".

The two-week summit in Glasgow is seen as crucial if climate change is to be brought under control.

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Amazon Rainforest, climate change, COP26, deforestation, habitat destruction, habitat protection, natural climate solutionsSara Sheehydeforestation, habitat protection, habitat destruction, cop26
Naturaleza y Política

Latercera - OpEd

December 18, 2020
El Covid-19, el cambio climático y la extinción masiva de especies nos están golpeando al mismo tiempo. Estas tres calamidades tienen un mismo origen: hemos desconocido que la naturaleza tiene un límite.

El modelo económico actual, abrazado por Chile y la mayoría de los países en el mundo, está poniendo nuestra supervivencia en riesgo. La mejor ciencia disponible pronostica que, de seguir en esta trayectoria, tendremos eventos climatológicos cada vez más extremos, más sequías e inundaciones, mayores olas de calor y frío, millones de desplazados climáticos, más incendios, nuevas pandemias, colapso de las pesquerías comerciales y la extinción de un millón de especies. Todo esto provocará más muertes que el coronavirus.

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Latin America, human rights, protected areasSara Sheehyprotected areas, habitat protection, human rights, climate change
'It's about saving ourselves': senator pushes plan to conserve 30% of US by 2030

The Guardian

October 22, 2020
A US senator has introduced a proposal to conserve 30% of the country’s lands and seas in the next 10 years, amid a surge of similar proposals.

The initiative, brought by the New Mexico senator Tom Udall last week, is called the “30 by 30” plan. In the US, 12% of land area is protected, according to Udall, mostly in Alaska and the west. If passed, the resolution would align the United States with international goals to protect and preserve nearly a third of the world’s land and water by 2030.

“The United States faces a conservation and climate crisis, with nature in a steep decline and greenhouse gas emissions not declining at the rate scientists say is needed,” according to the proposal. “Nature, like the climate, is nearing a tipping point.”

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30x30, biodiversity loss, Campaign for Nature, conservation, habitat protection, nature, USAMary Price30x30, Campaign for Nature, USA, biodiversity loss, conservation, habitat protection
Corridors between habitat areas can reduce roadkill

New Straits Times

September 2, 2020
Roads encroach on animal habitats and populations, posing a hazard to wildlife. 

In Malaysia, as elsewhere, the rise in roadkill incidents contributes to biodiversity loss, which is a threat to the wellbeing of humans every bit as dangerous as climate change.

The solution includes safe corridors of transit between habitat areas — passages and bridges — and better driving habits. 

On an exceptionally large scale, we need to ensure the connectivity between national and international protected areas and animal habitats.

A global effort to conserve biodiversity got underway recently. Campaign for Nature (CFN) called on governments worldwide to protect at least 30 per cent of the planet's land and oceans by 2030, deemed by scientists to be the minimum area needed to halt biodiversity loss. 

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30x30, biodiversity loss, Campaign for Nature, habitat protection, land management, natureGuest User30x30, Campaign for Nature, biodiversity loss, habitat protection, land management
How Indigenous Farming Methods Could Save The West From Wildfires

Fronteras

September 1, 2020
It seems counterintuitive to many of us — in order to keep our landscape healthy, we need to let it burn sometimes. That's the lesson that many indigenous leaders are hoping we can learn in order to help our wildfire-ravaged forests and grasslands in the West recover. For tens of thousands of years before Western settlers came to California and Arizona, indigenous peoples cared for the land and made it thrive — often using fire as a tool. And today, there are efforts underway to relearn those lessons and restore our land. I spoke with Debra Utacia Krol, indigenous affairs reporter at the Arizona Republic, more about it.

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Indigenous people, land management, wildfire, habitat protection, Indigenous knowledgeGuest Userwildfires, Indigenous knowledge, Indigenous peoples, habitat protection, land management
The heroic effort in the Amazon to save the world’s largest eagle

National Geographic

April 10, 2020
[…] As top predators, harpy eagles play a crucial ecological role, keeping populations of prey species in check; their presence in a forest is indicative of a healthy, functioning environment. No one knows how many remain in the wild, but scientists do know that they’re disappearing. The giant raptors once lived from southern Mexico to northern Argentina, but since the 19th century their range has declined by nearly half, leaving the Amazon with 93 percent of the species’ remaining occupied habitat. Deforestation—the primary threat to harpy eagles’ survival—shows no signs of slowing. Last year, the world watched as massive tracts of the Amazon went up in flames, and right now 45 acres of Brazilian Amazon are being razed every hour.

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conservation, extinction, habitat protection, Indigenous people, success story, wildlifeGuest Userwildlife, habitat protection, extinction, conservation, Brazil, Indigenous peoples
Sir David Attenborough urges halt to deep sea mining plans in wake of new scientific report

Oceanographic

March 11, 2020
Sir David Attenborough has urged countries to halt plans to mine the deep sea. This comes in light of a recently published report from scientists at Fauna & Flora International (FFI) warning that deep sea mining is likely to cause significant disruption to the ocean’s life-support systems, its carbon capture and a loss of biodiversity.

The report is the first to comprehensively assess the risks and potential impacts of mining the deep seabed for minerals. Its publication comes ahead of a July meeting of key countries hoping to finalise the rules that will govern deep sea mining.

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conservation, habitat protection, marine protection, ocean management, oceansGuest Useroceans, ocean management, habitat protection, deep sea, conservation
These 3 supertrees can protect us from climate collapse But can we protect them?

Vox

December 12, 2019
Dozens of countries have extraordinary tropical forests, but three stand out: Brazil, Indonesia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. These countries not only have the largest areas of tropical forest within their borders; they also have the highest rates of deforestation.

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climate change, habitat protection, nature-based solutionsGuest Userclimate change, natural climate solutions, habitat protection
$10M in prize money for mapping rainforest biodiversity

Mongabay

November 27, 2019
Efforts to catalog the fast-declining biodiversity of tropical rainforests just got a $10 million boost via a new competition from XPRIZE, an organization that has more than a dozen competitions on topics ranging from spaceflight to oil cleanup over the past 25 years.

Last week, XPRIZE formally unveiled the $10 million Rainforest XPRIZE to catalyze development of “technology capable of identifying and cataloging rainforest biodiversity” that can underpin the emergence of new bioeconomy based on the value of standing forests as heathy and productive ecosystems.

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biodiversity, habitat protectionGuest Userhabitat protection, biodiversity, technology
To save wildlife, African governments turn to private management

National Geographic

Screenshot 2019-11-12 10.52.15.png

November 12, 2019
The headquarters at Zakouma National Park, in southeastern Chad, is a sand-colored structure with a crenellated parapet that gives it the look of an old desert fortress. Outside the door to the central control room on the second floor hangs an image of a Kalashnikov rifle, circled in red, with a slash: No weapons allowed inside. Kalashnikovs are ubiquitous in Zakouma. All the rangers carry them. So do the intruders who come to kill wildlife.

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conservation, habitat protection, land managementGuest Userhabitat protection, conservation, land management
Protected status not enough to guard threatened nature reserves, scientists find

Reuters

October 29, 2019
Expanding the planet’s protected natural areas to safeguard vanishing forests and other ecosystems, and the species they protect, is unlikely to be effective on its own as human encroachment into reserves grows, scientists warned Tuesday.

[…]

Both chronic underfunding of efforts to protect the land, and a lack of engagement with local communities that live there are hurting conservation efforts, they found.

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conservation, habitat protection, land managementGuest Userhabitat protection, conservation, land management