Source: To Prevent Future Pandemics, Start by Protecting Nature
The latest news related to nature conservation from around the world. If there is
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New paper urges shift to ‘nature positivity’ to restore Earth
Mongabay
A new paper, published by leading conservationists and the heads of various global institutions, argues for adopting a “nature-positive” goal. This would require restoring the Earth from 2020, placing the world on a nature positive path by 2030 to mount a full recovery by 2050…
FREE Master Classes in Nature Writing With Top Journalists and Authors Now Offered on Zoom
Good News Network
The pandemic has gone on so long, it spawned an entire online university—one that offers masterclasses on writing, podcasting, photography, reporting, and other literary topics. From May 11 through May 25, Pandemic University is offering an entirely free series of classes for writers looking to sharpen their skills in evoking the natural world…
To Prevent Future Pandemics, Start by Protecting Nature
World Politics Review
The coronavirus pandemic has highlighted humanity’s growing vulnerability to emerging infectious diseases and underscored the need to reduce our collective exposure to these pathogens. Not surprisingly, then, the past year has seen a torrent of reports on pandemic preparedness, including…
Canada’s oceans on the crest of a transformative decade
National Observer
Canada is in the enviable position of having the longest coastline in the world. But our trio of oceans is being battered by a storm of negative impacts, be it overexploited fish stocks, plastics pollution, degrading marine food webs, increasingly fragile coastal ecosystems or biodiversity loss accelerated. Yet, at the very crest of their vulnerability, Canada’s oceans may stand to benefit from a potentially transformative decade…
Humanity’s challenge of the century: Conserving Earth’s freshwater systems
Mongabay
On April 11, 2020, a band of fighters stormed and seized a water control station in the Libyan Sahara. Taking employees prisoner, they occupied a key nexus that helps move 1.2 million cubic meters (317 million gallons) of water per day – 480 Olympic-sized swimming pools – from freshwater aquifers beneath the desert down to the coast…
How solar power is helping a community and jaguars
World Wildlife Fund
WWF-Mexico and the NGO Animal Karma helped install a solar powered electric fence around Las Piedras, which emits a low voltage electric shock if the jaguar touches it… Beyond reduced jaguar attacks, the fence brought electricity to the ranch for the very first time. And the solar energy used to power the fence also means minimal impact to the environment…
Amazon deforestation jumps sharply in April
Mongabay
Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon surged during the month of April, ending a streak of three consecutive months where forest clearing had been lower than the prior year. The rise in deforestation came despite a high-profile pledge from Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro to rein in deforestation…
Kenyan environmental tribunal protects open rangeland
Mongabay
An April 26 ruling against a licence for a commercial farm near Kenya’s Amboseli National Park will help to preserve free movement of both Maasai livestock herders and wildlife. The National Environment Tribunal’s dismissal of an appeal by KiliAvo Fresh Ltd confirms the importance of ecological concerns in determining appropriate land use in the semi-arid region…
Hantavirus study shows restoring forests can reduce zoonotic disease risk
Mongabay
Brazilian scientists have found that transmission of hantavirus, a deadly infection, could be reduced by 45% if Brazil restores its Atlantic Forest to levels mandated by its Native Vegetation Protection Law. Hantavirus, spread by contact with infected rodents, can become more prevalent across a landscape when forests are cleared and rodent populations increase…
Lost and far from home, these whales are emblems for our times
The Guardian
From the Thames to the Mediterranean, seeing nature out of place reminds us of our impact on the planet. With the weekend’s arrival of a young minke whale stuck in the River Thames – not far from where a seal pup was recently savaged by a dog – it seems marine mammals are appearing everywhere they shouldn’t…
New Approach to Blue Carbon Projects Underway in Colombia
Yale Environment 360
A mangrove preservation project along Colombia’s Caribbean coast is using a more comprehensive method to calculate how much carbon is stored in coastal and marine ecosystems, potentially boosting global efforts to conserve so-called blue carbon…
Species Solidarity: Rediscovering Our Connection to the Web of Life
Yale Environment 360
As climate change intensifies and human activity impacts every corner of the planet, repairing our world increasingly means realizing that our fate is intertwined with that of other animal and plant species — not separate from theirs — and that we must think and act accordingly…
The Birds and the Buoys: Using Googly Eyes to Avert Extinction
New York Times
A pair of looming eyes could scare away seabirds from fishing nets in which they are often entangled… A prototype was recently tested on long-tailed ducks in Küdema Bay in Estonia. The results of this study, published on Wednesday in the journal Royal Society Open Science, suggest that looming-eyes buoys can reduce the number of seabirds by up to 30 percent within a 165-foot radius…
Recent notifications from the Convention on Biological Diversity
For many people around the world, watching and listening to birds during the pandemic has been a great source of comfort and happiness, bringing with it a whole new awareness and appreciation of birds… The 2021 World Migratory Bird Day theme is an invitation to people everywhere to connect and re- connect with nature by watching and listening to birds…
Survey on proposed Headline Indicators
The Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity has prepared a survey to collect feedback from SBSTTA Focal Points and observer organizations on the applicability and usability of each of the Headline Indicators in document CBD/SBSTTA/24/3/ADD1…
