Consumed traces the life cycle of a variety of common consumer products from their origins, across supply chains, and waste streams. The circular economy is an attempt to lessen the pace and impact of consumption through efforts to reduce demand for raw materials by recycling wastes, improve the reusability/durability of products to limit pollution, and […]
Indigenous Batwa win human rights victory over eviction from DRC park
Bobby Bascomb2 Aug 2024
The African Commission on Human and People’s Rights has found that the violent forced eviction of the Indigenous Batwa community from Kahuzi-Biega National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo was a violation of their human rights. That’s according to a press release from the London-based nonprofit Minority Reports Group (MRG) and Environnement, Ressources Naturelles et Developpement (ERND), a DRC NGO.
The Batwa people are thought to have lived in the Kahuzi-Biega forests for centuries. In 1970, the area was made a national park, and a decade later designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. People weren’t allowed to live in national parks, so overnight the Batwa were forcibly removed from their ancestral forest home by armed guards.
“We did not know they were coming,” a Batwa widow from the area previously told the advocacy group Survival International. “Then suddenly one of them forced the door of our house and started shouting that we had to leave immediately because the park is not our land. I first did not understand what he was talking about because all my ancestors have lived on these lands.”
The Batwa became conservation refugees. Many became squatters on land just outside the new park. Those who returned to their ancestral lands were subject to violence at the hands of park guards and soldiers with the DRC army, according to a 2022 report by MRG titled “To Purge the Forest by Force.”
In 2015, MRG and ERDN filed a case on behalf of the Batwa people with the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights. They successfully argued that the violence inflicted on the Batwa was a violation of human rights.
The commission in its decision that was made public in June this year, declared that “the Kahuzi-Biega Forest has been the ancestral home of the Batwa People since time immemorial,” and that their “occupation of the forest did not constitute any danger to biodiversity.”
The commission has also put forward a list of recommendations to the DRC government. This includes making a full public apology to the Batwa people; acknowledging the abuse by park rangers; rescinding all laws that prohibit the presence of the Batwa on their ancestral lands; compensating the Batwa; and granting them titles to their ancestral land within the park.
Samuel Ade Ndasi, African Union litigation and advocacy officer at MRG, said in the press release that this decision should set a precedent that no Indigenous group should again be evicted in the name of conservation.
Batwa community member Joséphine M’Cibalida added that the ruling made her hopeful.
“While we were hunting, state agents invaded our community and burned down our homes, leaving us homeless and destitute,” M’Cibalida said in the press release. “We lost everything, including our dignity as human beings. This ruling brings us hope that we will receive justice for the harm done to us.”
Banner image of Batwa women courtesy of USAID Biodiversity & Forestry/Flickr (public domain).
Six new natural sites added to UNESCO World Heritage List
Shreya Dasgupta2 Aug 2024
The UNESCO World Heritage Committee recently added six new natural sites to the World Heritage List.
“These areas are home to the world’s most impressive dunes, exceptional cave-dwelling species, peat bogs and mires, as well as important bird migratory routes, yet are all under increasing pressure,” Tim Badman, Director of World Heritage at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), said in a statement. “They will benefit from the international recognition that comes from the UNESCO World Heritage List”.
The new additions, covering a diverse range of vulnerable landscapes, include:
The Flow Country (United Kingdom)
The Flow Country in northern Scotland is the first peatland ecosystem to be included in the World Heritage List. The area is a vast carpet of bog, where dead vegetation has accumulated in the form of peat for the last 9,000 years, making it a critical carbon sink and an important breeding ground for birds.
Te Henua Enata – The Marquesas Islands (French Polynesia)
This group of islands in the South Pacific Ocean is dotted with cliffs and abruptly rising ridges. The archipelago is a hotspot for terrestrial and marine biodiversity, including numerous species of coastal fish, seabirds, sharks, and dolphins. As per the World Heritage Committee, “the waters of the Marquesas archipelago have been identified as the wildest coastal marine province in the world.”
Badain Jaran desert – Towers of Sand and Lakes (China)
The Badain Jaran desert, located in northwestern China, stands out for its massive dunes, up to 500 meters (1640 feet) tall, intersected by lakes. The desert features the world’s tallest stable dune, the highest concentration of inter-dunal lakes, and the largest expanse of “singing sands”, produced by wind moving the sand, according to the committee.
Lençóis Maranhenses National Park (Brazil)
Located in northeastern Brazil, Lençóis Maranhenses National Park is recognized for its unique geomorphological formations, including stunning coastal sand dunes and blue and emerald lagoons. The park is also home to rare species like the neotropical otter (Lontra longicaudis), the oncilla (Leopardus tigrinus), and the West Indian manatee (Trichechus manatus).
Vjetrenica Cave is the largest cave in Bosnia and Herzegovina and is “one of the world’s most important biodiversity hotspots for cave-dwelling fauna”, according to the World Heritage Committee listing. The cave is home to more than 200 species of subterranean animals.
Migratory Bird Sanctuaries along the Coast of Yellow Sea-Bohai (China)
In 2019, a series of wetland Migratory Bird Sanctuaries, located along the coast of the Yellow Sea-Bohai Gulf of China, were added to the World Heritage List. The latest review has added five more sanctuaries in the same region. The area “supports crucial habitats for birds migrating on the East Asian-Australasian Flyway which spans some 25 countries from the Arctic to South-East Asia and Australasia,” according to the listing.
EPA releases a strategy to protect endangered species from insecticides
Bobby Bascomb1 Aug 2024
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently released a draft insecticide strategy to identify protections the agency will consider when it registers a new insecticide or reevaluates an existing one.
The goal is to help protects 850 endangered plant and animal species from going extinct as a result of exposure to the 450 million kilograms (one billion pounds) of insecticides used in the U.S. each year.
The EPA was required to take action on the harms pesticides can cause endangered species following a settlement agreement with the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) in September 2023. CBD successfully argued that the EPA was required to take such action under the Endangered Species Act.
Insect populations globally are in sharp decline. Research has found a 76% decline in flying insect biomass in protected areas over the last 30 years. Other work estimates upwards of 10% of the world’s insect species have gone extinct since the industrial revolution. That’s roughly half a million species that are no longer around to feed the countless animals that depend on them, including birds, frogs, fish and bats. Insects are also critical for pollination, without them some 90% of flowering plants will not be pollinated, including 35% of the food crops that most people eat. The sharp decline of such a critically important group of animals has led activists to sound the alarm about an impending insect apocalypse.
Many factors are contributing to the decline of insects, from habitat loss and invasive species to climate change and chemical insecticides like those the EPA hopes to address with their new plan.
Earlier in July, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued a draft opinion on just one of the 800 pesticides registered for use in the U.S. They looked at the insecticide methomyl, used to control soil-borne insects, and found it is likely to threaten 82 species of plants and animals with extinction, including the rusty patch bumble bee (Bombus affinis), Karner blue butterfly (Plebejus melissa samuelis) and, further up the food chain, the red wolf (Canis rufus).
“I’m encouraged to see the EPA recognize that insecticides pose a major threat to our most endangered pollinators and finally step up with a plan to protect them,” said Lori Ann Burd, environmental health director at CBD in a press release. “The EPA has to do all it can to ensure that no species goes extinct because of the pesticides it’s in charge of regulating.”
The proposed EPA strategy is open for public comment until September 23rd.
Banner image: Karner blue butterfly, courtesy of USDA Forest Service
Shark ‘Fitbit’ captures rare footage of collision with boat
Shreya Dasgupta1 Aug 2024
A Fitbit-like device has captured the first known footage of a boat striking a basking shark, according to a new study.
The basking shark (Cetorhinus maximus), the world’s second-largest fish, is endangered due to historical overfishing and government culling programs. But sightings have increased off the coast of Ireland, where basking sharks aggregate to feed on small crustaceans at the surface, the study notes.
To understand how these sharks feed, Alexandra McInturf, a fish researcher at Oregon State University, U.S., and her colleagues had tagged a 7-meter (23-foot) female basking shark with a Fitbit-like device in April. This device had a camera and sensors to record the shark’s movements and was set to self-release in about 18 hours.
When the team analyzed the data from the device, they noticed an interesting series of events. For the first six hours, the shark fed at the surface, diving occasionally. But suddenly, a large boat cut across the shark’s back, making it tumble for a bit. Then the shark dove rapidly down to the seabed, where it remained for much of the next seven hours, when the tag released.
The researchers don’t know what happened after that. However, this is the first time scientists have directly observed a basking shark’s immediate behavioral response to a boat collision. And they could only do so thanks to the tracker, McInturf told Mongabay in an email. “These devices are costly, data-intensive and require retrieval to offload the data,” she added.
“There are a number of examples of whale sharks colliding with boats, but for basking sharks it is not well reported and in fact I am not aware of any studies reporting basking sharks colliding with boats,” David Ebert, a shark researcher at San Jose State University, U.S., who wasn’t involved in the study, told Mongabay. “It would not be unexpected since they do feed at the surface.”
It wasn’t a surprise for the study’s authors, either. “We do see sharks with anti-fouling paint on their backs in this location, indicative of brushing against a ship’s hull, as well as with scars on their fins, likely from propellers,” McInturf said.
In May, the Irish government designated its first marine national park, off the Kerry coast, where the researchers conducted their study. The researchers say the recorded collision highlights the need for more studies of basking sharks to inform policies to protect them.
“Though basking shark-specific policies have yet to be announced within the park (as far as I am aware), further action, like speed restrictions when, or at locations where, basking sharks are likely to be at the surface, would greatly help reduce the likelihood of such strikes in the future,” McInturf said.
Banner image of basking shark by Greg Skomal/NOAA Fisheries Service (Public domain).
Critically endangered North Atlantic right whale spotted near Ireland
Bobby Bascomb31 Jul 2024
A lone critically endangered North Atlantic right whale was recently photographed off the coast of Ireland, some 5,000 kilometers (3,100 miles) from its usual habitat in the western North Atlantic. It’s the first confirmed sighting there in several decades.
There are an estimated 360 North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena glacialis) today, living along the East Coast of North America. They typically migrate between their calving grounds as far south as coastal Florida and their feeding grounds off New England and Canada.
Historically Europe was also part of their natural range until whaling starting in the 12th century drove the whales away, Philip Hamilton, a senior research scientist with the New England Aquarium, told Mongabay in a phone call. He said this is the first confirmed sighting of this species in Ireland since the 1970s.
“We do know that it is the historic range of North Atlantic right whales before they were extirpated by whaling,” Gib Brogan, a campaign director with Oceana told Mongabay in a phone call. “So, this may be somewhere in their collective genetic memory, or this may be an individual from a very stressed population looking for a way to find their way.”
There are many stressors for the whales that might force them towards a different part of the ocean. The western North Atlantic is one of the fastest warming oceans on the planet and the whales’ primary food source, small crustaceans called copepods, are struggling in the warming waters off New England. Canada’s Gulf of St. Lawrence has proven to be a greener pasture, where copepods are more abundant and more nutritious.
The whales started following their food to Canada about a decade ago. That additional distance makes their migration from Florida 50% longer, Brogan said. Canadians weren’t expecting the whales and had inadequate regulations in place for their protection.
“We detected 13 deaths in Canada in 2017 alone,” Hamilton said. The mortalities were largely from ship strikes and entanglements with fishing gear. North Atlantic right whales spend a lot of their time at the surface of the water near the coast, exactly where they are most likely to become caught up in fishing gear or hit by a passing boat. The Canadian government quickly responded with better regulations, significantly improving safety for the whales, Hamilton added.
Much like the Canadians, the Irish were not expecting a North Atlantic right whale to suddenly turn up in their waters, but Pádraig Whooley, sightings officer with the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group who originally confirmed the sighting, said the whale was safe there.
“Based on the legal framework and the remoteness of the Irish NW region in terms of the main dual threats of ship strike and entanglement in fishing gear, we’d be reasonably certain that this whale would be a lot safer in Irish waters than on any stretch of water between Florida and Nova Scotia!” Whooley told Mongabay in an email.
Banner image: Peter Duley/NOAA Fisheries
Sharks have cocaine in their bodies
Shreya Dasgupta31 Jul 2024
Cocaine has found its way into sharks at sea, a new study has found.
Researchers dissected 13 Brazilian sharpnose sharks (Rhizoprionodon lalandii) caught by artisanal fishers in the waters off Brazil between September 2021 and August 2023. All 13 sharks had trace amounts of cocaine, while 12 were positive for benzoylecgonine, one of the metabolites that cocaine breaks down into within human bodies.
“Like many toxicology studies, this illustrates an important point – what we release into the environment can ‘come back to haunt us.’ Dilution is not the solution to pollution,” James Gelsleichter, an ecotoxicologist at the University of Florida, U.S., who wasn’t involved in the study, told Mongabay.
With cocaine consumption increasing globally in the past decade, researchers are finding the illegal drug in a variety of aquatic animals, from crabs and shrimps to fish. This is partly because you excrete what you consume. And like a lot of other pharmaceutical waste, cocaine and its metabolites reach water bodies through sewage that’s either partially or completely untreated.
Brazil, one of the world’s largest consumers of cocaine, has the additional problem of inadequately treated sewage. So biologist Rachel Ann Hauser-Davis, a co-author of the study from Brazil’s Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, wasn’t surprised to find cocaine in the muscle or liver tissues of all the sharks they examined. However, the sharpnose shark is routinely consumed by residents of southeastern Brazil, and the presence of cocaine may pose a concern.
“The fact that cocaine was detected may comprise an indirect conservation tool, as consumers may think twice about consuming a cocaine-contaminated species,” Hauser-Davis told Mongabay.
While the researchers found only trace amounts of cocaine in the shark’s tissues, the levels were much higher than those found in other aquatic animals in previous studies.
As animals near the top of most marine food chains, sharks bioaccumulate environmental pollutants more than many if not most other fish, Gelsleichter said.
“The results demonstrated evidence for biomagnification of cocaine in sharks, which suggests that we need to look at this more closely in the future since many sharks are much higher on the food chain than the species that was examined in this study,” he added.
The sample size of 13 sharks is low. But Gelsleichter noted that as a pilot study, the project has “strong value” for being the first to detect cocaine in sharks and demonstrate that the drug bioaccumulates in their bodies.
“It is also relevant to note that these analyses can often be expensive to conduct so it is not uncommon for pilot studies to begin with a smaller number of individuals to first determine if this is an issue that requires greater study,” he said.
How the drug affects sharks isn’t known yet. However, most shark and ray species are threatened with extinction. “So further studies on these animals are required to detect the extent of contamination and attempt conservation efforts,” Hauser-Davis said.
Banner image of Brazilian sharpnose shark by Ross Robertson (Public domain).
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