Source: After record low, monarch butterflies return to California
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The Conversation
Forests directly cool the planet, like natural evaporative air conditioners. So what happens when you cut them down? In tropical countries such as Indonesia, Brazil and the Congo, rapid deforestation may have accounted for up to 75% of the observed surface warming between 1950 and 2010. Our new research…
Marine Biologists are Making Efforts to Save Coral Reefs in Mariana Islands
Nature World News
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands’ southern islands include some of the archipelago’s oldest and most developed reefs, while the island of Saipan has one of the most diversified kinds of coral reefs…
After record low, monarch butterflies return to California
Phys.org
There is a ray of hope for the vanishing orange-and-black Western monarch butterflies. The number wintering along California’s central coast is bouncing back after the population, whose presence is often a good indicator of ecosystem health, reached an all-time low last year…
Why Climate Change Could Put New Conservation Areas in Jeopardy
Yale Environment 360
A global initiative to protect 30 percent of the earth’s land and oceans by 2030 is gaining momentum. But scientists warn that as the world warms, many conservation areas will become less and less suited to the types of species and ecosystems they were intended to protect…
Amazon birds shrink but grow longer wings in sign of global heating
The Guardian
Birds in the Amazon are becoming smaller but growing longer wings, a study has found, with scientists saying global heating is the most likely explanation. Several recent papers have reported birds getting smaller, but as their subjects were migratory birds there were many confounding factors…
Indigenous groups call for gov’t intervention as land grabbers invade Bolivian protected area
Mongabay
San Ignacio de Velasco Municipal Protected Area was created on February 12, 2021, to protect 983,000 hectares (about 2,429,045 acres) of primary forest in the Chiquitania region of Bolivia. But despite its new protected status, residents are reporting invasions and human settlements in Bajo Paraguá…
Study evaluates role of rivers in creating the Amazon’s rich biodiversity
Mongabay
In the 19th century, British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace, who developed the theory of natural selection independently of Charles Darwin, hypothesized that the large rivers in the Amazon Basin could be natural barriers influencing the diversity of life in the forest. A new study now shows how it also applies to plant species…
How the circular economy can help transform food to fight climate crisis and build biodiversity
World Economic Forum
As the diversity of foods produced has fallen, so too has the resilience of the food system to threats such as pests, diseases, weather shocks exacerbated by climate change. Rather than bending nature to produce food, our food needs to be designed for nature to thrive…
98% of the Great Barrier Reef has been affected by coral bleaching
World Economic Forum
The great barrier reef has experienced five mass bleaching events since 1998, as higher than average water temperatures force coral to expel the algae that provide them with nutrients and color. Since that time, only 2% of coral has escaped the effects of coral bleaching…
COP26 hails Nature-based Solutions for sustainable and resilient Ecosystems
The Indian Wire
Major changes like biodiversity loss, productivity decline etc., attributed to climate change need to be addressed collectively as interwoven challenges, and will require finance to be drawn towards high-quality nature-based solutions…
Recent notifications from the Convention on Biological Diversity
Building Support for Protected Areas and Other Effective Area-based Conservation Measures (OECMs)
I am writing as a follow-up to the communications sent in April and July 2021 regarding a stocktaking exercise undertaken to establish an accurate picture of the status of the elements of Aichi Biodiversity Target 11 in each country…
