A new feature was published just too late for inclusion in the Mongabay weekly email newsletter below that just went out, but I think it is of high interest to folks on this email list since the methodology of the Red List is called into question by this new study:
*Overestimated range maps for endemic birds in India’s Western Ghats lead to underestimated threats, study finds* https://news.mongabay.com/2017/04/overestimated-range-maps-used-for-endemic-birds-in-indias-western-ghats-lead-to-underestimated-threats-study-finds/ Erik ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Mongabay Newsletter <[email protected]> * FEATURED* ================================ Conserving Congo’s wild places on a shoestring <http://Mongabay.us14.list-manage.com/track/click?u=80161fe385606408293ae0e51&id=848232611d&e=e26e3b91f2> by *William Clowes* [04/25/2017] <http://Mongabay.us14.list-manage.com/track/click?u=80161fe385606408293ae0e51&id=baa0c5fb06&e=e26e3b91f2>- The park operates on a budget so small they can hardly afford to patrol the 76,000 hectares (188,000 acres) of mangroves, waterways, beach and ocean. - Though the beach and savannah portions of the park are partially protected areas, a handful of communities have continuously lived there since long before the park’s creation. - Park officials and rangers face the difficult task of protecting the vast area with just a handful of rangers and are up against generations of ingrained practices by residents, such as poaching turtles and their eggs. Namibia’s low cost, sustainable solution to seabird bycatch <http://Mongabay.us14.list-manage.com/track/click?u=80161fe385606408293ae0e51&id=caccb0de1f&e=e26e3b91f2> by *William H. Funk* [04/25/2017] <http://Mongabay.us14.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=80161fe385606408293ae0e51&id=f31df22056&e=e26e3b91f2>- Accidental take of marine animals by commercial fisheries is a serious global environmental problem, with 40 percent of the world’s ocean fishing totals disposed of as bycatch annually. - Roughly 63 billion pounds of unwanted wildlife — seabirds, marine mammals and sea turtles, countless fish species, rays, and cephalopods — are killed as bycatch due to the swallowing of baited hooks or entanglement in nets. - Nambia, once known as the “world’s worst fishery” regarding avian bycatch is addressing the problem. It has installed “bird-scaring” lines on the nation’s 70 trawlers and on its 12 longline fishing vessels, and has also adopted other low cost methods to minimize avian bycatch, which once killed more than 30,000 birds annually. - The Meme Itumbapo Women’s Group, known for its seashell necklaces and other jewelry, is now sustainably manufacturing and supplying the bird-scaring lines from their headquarters “Bird’s Paradise,” in Walvis Bay, Namibia. The hope is that these combined efforts will reduce avian bycatch by 85-90 percent in the near future. *Get daily Mongabay news updates <http://mongabay.us14.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=80161fe385606408293ae0e51&id=c0c4a535da&e=e26e3b91f2>* Our topic-based news alerts allow you to get daily or weekly notifications via email about topics you select. The land is forever: Rodrigo Tot wins Goldman Prize for land-title quest <http://Mongabay.us14.list-manage.com/track/click?u=80161fe385606408293ae0e51&id=652e434351&e=e26e3b91f2> by *Sandra Cuffe* [04/24/2017] <http://Mongabay.us14.list-manage.com/track/click?u=80161fe385606408293ae0e51&id=c1c128f447&e=e26e3b91f2>- Rodrigo Tot is one of this year’s winners of the Goldman Environmental Prize honoring global “grassroots environmental heroes.” - He has been working for decades to secure title to his community’s lands, which are embroiled in an ongoing dispute with mining interests. - Tot has faced threats to his safety as well as the murder of his son in 2012, in what he believes was retaliation for his land-rights work. The March for Science makes its stand: “There is no Planet B” <http://Mongabay.us14.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=80161fe385606408293ae0e51&id=53219004b8&e=e26e3b91f2> by *Sharon Guynup story and photos* [04/24/2017] <http://Mongabay.us14.list-manage.com/track/click?u=80161fe385606408293ae0e51&id=a9d79fa2b9&e=e26e3b91f2>- On Saturday, April 22nd tens of thousands of protestors defied bone chilling rain to march on Washington D.C., while fellow marchers protested at “March for Science” events across America and around the world. - The D.C. march, attended by prominent scientists and supporters of science, was held in opposition to the anti-science policies of Congress and the Trump administration — which has proposed draconian cuts at the Environmental Protection Agency, and a virtual shutdown of U.S. climate research. - Michael Mann, the director of the Earth System Science Center at Penn State University, summed up the purpose of the march: “to insure that policy is informed by an objective assessment of scientific evidence.“ - Caroline Weinberg, co-founder of the U.S. March for Science, noted that: “Science extends our lives, protects our planet, puts food on our table [and] contributes to the economy.… [P]olicymakers threaten our present and future by ignoring scientific evidence.” Women could be a key to great ape conservation in the Congo <http://Mongabay.us14.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=80161fe385606408293ae0e51&id=ae2a8b4949&e=e26e3b91f2> by *Tina Deines* [04/21/2017] <http://Mongabay.us14.list-manage.com/track/click?u=80161fe385606408293ae0e51&id=92532ad212&e=e26e3b91f2>- The Bonobo Conservation Initiative (BCI), Gorilla Rehabilitation and Conservation Education Center (GRACE), Jane Goodall Institute (JGI), and Coopera are all organizations working with women in and around the Democratic Republic of the Congo to help advance great ape conservation through education, empowerment, healthcare and food security access. - Some examples: BCI helps fund pilot micro-credit projects for women who want to launch business enterprises, including soap and garment making. GRACE employs women as surrogate mothers for newly orphaned gorillas during an initial 30-day quarantine period. - GRACE also provides women and their families with bushmeat alternatives by teaching them to care for and breed alternative protein sources. Coopera helps provide alternative food sources through ECOLO-FEMMES, an organization that trains women in livestock breeding and agriculture to reduce great ape hunting in Kahuzi-Biega National Park. - Coopera, working with Jane Goodall’s Roots and Shoots, engages young rape victims in tree planting to provide food sources to wild chimpanzees. JGI’s women’s programs in Uganda and Tanzania keep girls in school through peer support, scholarship programs and sanitary supply access. Educated women have smaller families, reducing stress on the environment. No safe forest left: 250 captive orphan chimps stuck in sanctuaries <http://Mongabay.us14.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=80161fe385606408293ae0e51&id=30567017da&e=e26e3b91f2> by *Eugene N. Nforngwa* [04/20/2017] <http://Mongabay.us14.list-manage.com/track/click?u=80161fe385606408293ae0e51&id=a4111cd08a&e=e26e3b91f2>- Cameroon currently has more than 250 rescued chimpanzees living in three chimp wildlife sanctuaries. Attempts to find forests into which to release them — safe from the bushmeat and pet trade, and not already occupied by other chimpanzee populations — have failed so far. - The intensification of logging, mining and agribusiness, plus new roads into remote areas, along with a growing rural human population, are putting intense pressure on un-conserved forests as well as protected lands. - Unless habitat loss, poaching and trafficking are controlled in Cameroon, reintroduction of captive chimpanzees may not be achievable. Some conservationists argue, however, that reintroduction of captive animals is needed to enhance genetic resilience in wild populations. - If current rates of decline are not curbed, primatologists estimate that chimpanzees could be gone from Cameroon’s forests within 15 to 20 years. * NEWS* ================================ Illegal trade threatens nearly half the world’s natural heritage sites: WWF <http://Mongabay.us14.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=80161fe385606408293ae0e51&id=421ba90fb4&e=e26e3b91f2> by *Shreya Dasgupta* [04/27/2017] - Poaching, illegal logging and illegal fishing of rare species protected under CITES occurs in 45 percent of the natural World Heritage sites, a new WWF report says. - Illegal harvesting degrades the unique values that gave the heritage sites the status in the first place, the report says. - Current approaches to preventing illegal harvesting of CITES listed species in World Heritage sites is not working, the report concludes. The meat hook: satiating Asia’s demand for beef <http://Mongabay.us14.list-manage.com/track/click?u=80161fe385606408293ae0e51&id=cd2cbdab5d&e=e26e3b91f2> by *Maxine Chen* [04/27/2017] - Traditionally, beef was never a favored meat across much of Asia, but rising incomes and changing cultures are dramatically increasing beef demand on the continent. - Increased beef demand in China is bumping up imports from Brazil, leading to a new boom in local beef production. - Given the massive climate impact of beef production, some Asian nations are trying to dissuade beef consumption but the results, if any, remain to be seen. Plans to drill for oil near newly discovered Amazon Reef alarm scientists <http://Mongabay.us14.list-manage.com/track/click?u=80161fe385606408293ae0e51&id=4986e8cdf0&e=e26e3b91f2> by *Mike Gaworecki* [04/26/2017] - The reef system is believed to extend 9,500 square kilometers (or nearly 3,700 square miles), from the territorial waters of French Guiana to Maranhão State in northern Brazil. - Exploratory drilling could start as soon as this summer, with the closest well to be drilled just 28 kilometers (17 miles) from the reef, according to Greenpeace. - But there are hurdles yet to be cleared by oil companies hoping to drill near the Amazon Reef. A spokesperson for the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA), told Mongabay that Total and BP are still awaiting permits to begin exploratory drilling, the aim of which would be to verify the existence of the oil reservoirs beneath the ocean floor. Singapore convicts rosewood trader in historic CITES seizure <http://Mongabay.us14.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=80161fe385606408293ae0e51&id=6ba1df3a15&e=e26e3b91f2> by *Edward Carver* [04/26/2017] - Late last month a high court in Singapore found Wong Wee Keong guilty of importing rosewood from Madagascar in 2014 in violation of the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES). - Environmental groups are heralding the ruling, which reversed the decision of a lower court and sidestepped conflicting claims about the legality of the shipment by Malagasy authorities. - The outsized shipment to Singapore was larger than all of the other seizures of rosewood in the world, combined, over the past decade. Colombia’s indigenous Arhuaco awarded 500 hectares in ongoing bid to regain ancestral lands <http://Mongabay.us14.list-manage.com/track/click?u=80161fe385606408293ae0e51&id=3b68b2a75a&e=e26e3b91f2> by *Bram Ebus* [04/26/2017] - Having survived Spanish colonizers and internal conflict, climate change and deforestation pose new threats to the cultural survival of the Arhuaco indigenous peoples. - The Arhuaco people in Colombia describe themselves as global custodians of the world who bear the responsibility for the wellbeing of the mountains. - These so-called indigenous “forest wardens” are sounding the alarm over fears that mankind is irreparably impacting and harming the environment. Indonesian court revokes environmental license for the Cirebon coal plant expansion <http://Mongabay.us14.list-manage.com/track/click?u=80161fe385606408293ae0e51&id=77614b2d3f&e=e26e3b91f2> by *Mongabay.com* [04/25/2017] - An Indonesian administrative court ruled that expansion plans for the Cirebon coal-fired power plant in West Java are in violation of the local spatial planning law. - The court ordered the project's environmental license be revoked, without which development should not be able to continue. - The verdict came one day after a consortium of lenders, led by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), committed to providing $1.74 billion in project financing. - Local and international environment activists have protested the expansion plans for years, and the project is currently the subject of a civil suit. 2 wildlife rangers shot and killed by poachers in Congo park <http://Mongabay.us14.list-manage.com/track/click?u=80161fe385606408293ae0e51&id=a08fc9d415&e=e26e3b91f2> by *Shreya Dasgupta* [04/24/2017] - While out patrolling on April 11, Ari and Afokao heard gunshots. - The patrol unit followed signs and tracks until they discovered a group of six poachers who were cutting up a freshly slaughtered elephant carcass. - A shootout followed, in which both Ari and Afokao were fatally shot. Meet the winners of the 2017 Goldman Environmental Prize <http://Mongabay.us14.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=80161fe385606408293ae0e51&id=30994c33f5&e=e26e3b91f2> by *Shreya Dasgupta* [04/24/2017] - The Goldman Environmental Prize, dubbed the Green Nobel Prize, honors grassroots environmental heroes from Europe, Asia, North America, Central and South America, Africa, and Islands and Island nations. - The winners will be awarded the Prize today at the San Francisco Opera House. - The winners include Uros Macerl from Slovenia, Prafulla Samantara from India, mark! Lopez from the United States, Rodrigo Tot from Guatemala, Rodrigue Mugaruka Katembo from DRC and Wendy Bowman from Australia. ‘Lost & Found’: Telling the stories of rediscovered species <http://Mongabay.us14.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=80161fe385606408293ae0e51&id=8333baadc2&e=e26e3b91f2> by *Mike Gaworecki* [04/21/2017] - The project is the brainchild of Diogo Veríssimo, a David H. Smith Conservation Research Fellow at Johns Hopkins University. Veríssimo studies the ways human behavior and biodiversity conservation intersect, focusing in particular on conservation marketing. - “Talking about nature has too often become about extinction, decline and loss,” Veríssimo says. “With Lost & Found we aim to make it about hope, determination and passion.” - Mongabay spoke with Diogo Veríssimo about what first sparked his interest in rediscovered species, why it’s important to highlight the field researchers who track down lost species, and just what he hopes to ultimately achieve by telling these stories. Mapping indigenous lands in Indonesia’s tallest mountains <http://Mongabay.us14.list-manage.com/track/click?u=80161fe385606408293ae0e51&id=f69dd7a6ad&e=e26e3b91f2> by *Wahyu Mulyono* [04/21/2017] - Local NGOs in the Baliem Valley of Indonesia's Papua province are working with indigenous peoples to map their customary territories. - Over the past two decades, one foundation has mapped 19 of the 27 customary territories in Papua's Jayawijaya district. - Some communities who were initially suspicious of the program have decided to trust it. BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill caused $17.2 billion in environmental damage to the Gulf of Mexico <http://Mongabay.us14.list-manage.com/track/click?u=80161fe385606408293ae0e51&id=6198565df8&e=e26e3b91f2> by *Mike Gaworecki* [04/20/2017] - The Deepwater Horizon disaster is considered the largest marine oil spill in United States history. - New research to be published in the journal Science tomorrow quantifies for the first time the damage done to the Gulf of Mexico’s natural resources by the 2010 disaster. - Researchers determined that the average U.S. household is willing to pay $153 for a program to prevent future oil spills, and this figure was used to extrapolate the final $17.2 billion estimate of how much the Gulf’s natural resources are worth. Canceled: Plans for a bridge in a critical wildlife area in Borneo have been scrapped <http://Mongabay.us14.list-manage.com/track/click?u=80161fe385606408293ae0e51&id=38991ec4ef&e=e26e3b91f2> by *Mongabay.com* [04/20/2017] - Plans for the Sukau Bridge, crossing the Kinabatangan River near a wildlife sanctuary in Malaysian Borneo, raised a global outcry. - "We are not going ahead with the bridge," Sabah Forest Department Chief Conservator Sam Mannan announced at an event in London. - In explaining his decision, Mannan reportedly cited a recent letter by celebrated naturalist and broadcaster David Attenborough, as well as concerns expressed by scientists, NGOs and corporations. Study finds there are ways to mitigate deforestation risks of palm oil expansion in Africa <http://Mongabay.us14.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=80161fe385606408293ae0e51&id=ac05c9a5f7&e=e26e3b91f2> by *Mike Gaworecki* [04/20/2017] - It’s been estimated that, over the next five years, as much as 22 million hectares (or more than 54 million acres) of land in Central and West Africa could be converted to oil palm plantations. - Seven African nations signed a pledge dedicating themselves to the sustainable development of the palm oil sector, known as the Marrakesh Declaration, at the UN climate talks in Marrakesh, Morocco last November. - According to a study published in the journal Environmental Research Letters earlier this month, those seven nations, which collectively represent 70 percent of Africa’s tropical forests, have good reason to be proactive when it comes to managing the rollout of oil palm operations within their borders. But there is also reason to hope that oil palm expansion in Africa will be done more sustainably in Africa. A foreseen environmental disaster in Colombia? <http://Mongabay.us14.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=80161fe385606408293ae0e51&id=44b97f9b4e&e=e26e3b91f2> by *María Lourdes Zimmermann* [04/20/2017] - On the morning of April 1, more than 60,000 people were hit by a massive landslide that dragged large amounts of water, dirt and mud downhill and buried 17 neighborhoods of Mocoa in the process. - For risk management expert Gustavo Wilches-Chaux, the lack of land use planning is one of the factors that determined the impact of this natural disaster. - Wilches-Chaux notes that some Colombian populations have settled along the tributaries of the main rivers of the country — areas highly vulnerable to floods, landslides and avalanches. * ANNOUNCEMENTS* ================================ - Ocean Exchange <http://Mongabay.us14.list-manage.com/track/click?u=80161fe385606408293ae0e51&id=cadc02c135&e=e26e3b91f2> is seeking innovative solutions to ocean problems and offering two $100,000 awards. - ESPD50 EVENT: Ethnopharmacologic Search for Psychoactive Drugs II: 50 Years of Research <http://Mongabay.us14.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=80161fe385606408293ae0e51&id=f13d175771&e=e26e3b91f2> will be held June 6 – 8, 2017 * RECENT FEATURES* ================================ Is a property boom in Malaysia causing a fisheries bust in Penang? <http://Mongabay.us14.list-manage.com/track/click?u=80161fe385606408293ae0e51&id=09e2682b6b&e=e26e3b91f2> by *Rod Harbinson* [04/19/2017] Deforestation has become big business in the Brazilian Amazon <http://Mongabay.us14.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=80161fe385606408293ae0e51&id=e3359265a9&e=e26e3b91f2> by *Sue Branford and Maurício Torres* [04/18/2017] Documenting the fight to save Borneo’s animals <http://Mongabay.us14.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=80161fe385606408293ae0e51&id=9279845df0&e=e26e3b91f2> by *Mongabay.com* [04/18/2017] Connectivity and coexistence key to orangutan survival on croplands <http://Mongabay.us14.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=80161fe385606408293ae0e51&id=8bc2e13d4b&e=e26e3b91f2> by *Linda Lombardi* [04/13/2017] Great apes in Asian circus-style shows on rise — so is trafficking <http://Mongabay.us14.list-manage.com/track/click?u=80161fe385606408293ae0e51&id=01af22df0f&e=e26e3b91f2> *Millie Kerr* [04/12/2017] Ex-mine security head cleared of murder, assault against indigenous Guatemalans <http://Mongabay.us14.list-manage.com/track/click?u=80161fe385606408293ae0e51&id=de7a61d8fa&e=e26e3b91f2> by *Sandra Cuffe* [04/10/2017] Illegal bushmeat trade threatens human health and great apes <http://Mongabay.us14.list-manage.com/track/click?u=80161fe385606408293ae0e51&id=4da10c6c51&e=e26e3b91f2> by *Claire Asher* [04/06/2017] * LET'S BE FRIENDS* Facebook <http://Mongabay.us14.list-manage.com/track/click?u=80161fe385606408293ae0e51&id=c8a1d04518&e=e26e3b91f2> | Twitter <http://Mongabay.us14.list-manage.com/track/click?u=80161fe385606408293ae0e51&id=457ad96a19&e=e26e3b91f2> | Instagram <http://Mongabay.us14.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=80161fe385606408293ae0e51&id=2d80653c56&e=e26e3b91f2> | LinkedIn <http://Mongabay.us14.list-manage.com/track/click?u=80161fe385606408293ae0e51&id=378665443f&e=e26e3b91f2> | YouTube <http://Mongabay.us14.list-manage.com/track/click?u=80161fe385606408293ae0e51&id=72929eebde&e=e26e3b91f2> `'*:-.,_,.-:*'``'*:-.,_,.-:*'``'*:-.,_,.-:*'``'*:-.,_,.-:*'`` Copyright 1999-2017 Mongabay
