Many of the people archaeologist Dulma Karunarathna interviews in rural Sri Lanka have never been interviewed before. And many of them, representing a variety of religions and languages, tell her of the mee tree (Madhuca longifolia). The trees roots balance water levels and share underground nutrients with rice fields. Its flowers, seeds and bark can be used to treat surface wounds, and its leaves provides shade for farmers watch huts to avoid wild animals at night while they exchange call-and-response pel kavi songs across their fields. But most importantly, its nectar attracts bats, which deposit their droppings across the rice fields. For locals, the trees offer a cheap alternative or supplement to nitrogen synthetic fertilizers and improve their resilience to disaster. For this reason, the mee tree is often called the fertilizer tree. Many of Karunarathnas interviewees are elderly, and some face a worrying epidemic of unidentified kidney disease that some researchers link with agrochemicals and heavy metals in drinking water. After an Indigenous doctor who she interviewed died recently, Karunarathna was in shock. That was his first and last interview, she tells Mongabay. An Indigenous man in Peru. Image by Rhett A. Butler. Karunarathnas work to highlight traditional ecological knowledge crystallizes what climate scientists have increasingly begun publishing. Indigenous people and local communities (IPLCs) who benefit from centuries of knowledge by working closely with the land often interact with their environment in ways that reveal profound innovations and ecological tools that can benefit climate resilience and mitigation initiatives. At theThis article was originally published on Mongabay

KATHMANDU When researchers last year confirmed the presence of the manul, the worlds grumpiest cat, on the worlds highest mountain, they immediately looked at past records of the elusive feline in Nepal. And they found that the first person to confirm the cats presence in the country was one Bikram Shrestha. It seemed fitting, given that Shrestha who recently completed his Ph.D. at the Global Change Research Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Charles University has extensive research experience in the Himalayas. But his cat of concern is of a heftier pedigree than the manul (Otocolobus manul): its the king of the mountains itself, the snow leopard (Panthera uncia). Shrestha studied zoology at Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu and began his research career in 2004 by studying the Himalayan tahr (Hemitragus jemlahicus) on Sagarmatha (also known as Mount Everest), a wild goat considered a key prey species for snow leopards. He went on to work for various organizations such as the U.S.-based Snow Leopard Conservancy and WWF before pursuing his doctorate in 2014. His team was also the first to confirm the presence of three snow leopards in lower-elevation areas in western Nepals Mustang district. During his doctorate studies, Shrestha carried out extensive fieldwork using scat analysis and camera traps in the Annapurna and Sagarmatha regions of Nepal. It was his team that found, nearly 17 years after the confirmation of the big cat in the Sagarmatha region, that the population of snow leopards there has beenThis article was originally published on Mongabay

Several regions of the world are at risk of losing their ability to store carbon, which could result in the drastic transformation of ecosystems and accelerated climate change, one recent study has found. Across the globe, landscapes are showing signs of losing their ability to absorb the amount of carbon they once could, according to a study called Diagnosing destabilization risk in global land carbon sinks, published in Nature last month. That would pose serious obstacles to the fight against climate change, as carbon storage in forests, peatlands and other ecosystems is key to keeping the global temperature below 1.5 Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit). For the first time, weve demonstrated that for certain regions of the world, the land might be reaching a tipping point in terms of its ability to host significantly forested land and absorb significant amounts of carbon, said co-author Patrick McGuire, a staff meteorologist at the University of Reading and the National Centre for Atmospheric Science in the UK. The study reviewed the productivity of carbon storage of global ecosystems between 1981 and 2018, finding that many fluctuated greatly from year to year. So much fluctuation means that some parts of the world are at risk of turning into scrubland thats unable to host forests and other ecosystems that act as carbon sinks. Looking up at the rainforest canopy in Costa Rica. (Photo by Rhett Butler) One reason for this, the researchers said, is that landscapes have a memory of which years had high carbon storage andThis article was originally published on Mongabay

A community conservancy in Namibia says it plans to sue the countrys environment minister if he fails to act against a copper mine operating in an area exclusively reserved for tourism. In an open letter released in February, the //Huab Conservancys Management Committee criticized Minister Pohamba Shifeta for granting an environmental clearance certificate (ECC) to the miner, a Namibian individual, stating that rhinos, local jobs, and our conservancy have been imperiled by this groundless, uninformed, and reckless decision. According to Emma Gomes, chairperson of the conservancy, the mine has prompted the local population of black rhinos (Diceros bicornis) to migrate, hurting the communitys income as well as the conservation program it runs. Located in the Kunene region in the countrys northwest, the //Huab Conservancy is one of 13 community conservancies in the area registered under Namibias Community-Based Natural Resources Management program. The CBNRM initiative was initiated by the government in the late 1990s to give local communities legal rights over the management of their land and its natural resources. The //Huab Conservancy is one of 13 community conservation areas in the Kunene region. Image by Jeffrey Hanadaob and John Ellis Aibeb The rhino population in the western Kunene region is not huge, but is considered a key-1 population by IUCN, which means its over 100 individuals, said Andrew Malherbe, chief operating officer of Save the Rhino Trust (SRT), an organization that monitors and collects data on black rhinos in support of conservancies in the countrys northwest. The //Huab Conservancys letterThis article was originally published on Mongabay

On the main road of the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge in South Texas, two ocelots recently jumped out in front of a car. The mother ocelot then went back across the road for a kitten in the brush. Sightings of ocelots like this are rare in the refuge, even though its home to a breeding population of these wild cats. Ocelots are typically nocturnal and most active just after sunset and before sunrise, when they can hunt under the cover of darkness. The cats are quite shy and prefer to stay hidden in the brush of their preferred Tamaulipan thornforest habitat. While visitors often spot bobcats at the refuge, this glimpse of the ocelot family was an unusual and special encounter. Though exciting, its setting on a road is a sobering reminder that when traveling through South Texas, youre in ocelot country. Ocelot crossing sign. Image courtesy of Defenders of Wildlife. The ocelot is now endangered in the U.S., but it once thrived from South Texas to South America, hiding in the deep grasslands and thornforest. Now, just 1% of the ocelots optimal habitat remains in South Texas, most of which is fragmented and separated by high-speed highways. As a result, accidental vehicle collisions have been an unrelenting threat to ocelots. In the past 20 years, most documented ocelot deaths occurred on Texas roadways. Between 2015-2016, eight ocelots were killed by vehicles over a span of just 11 months. With only 60 to 80 ocelots left in Texas, theseThis article was originally published on Mongabay

Carbon offsetting has a controversial 25-year history, with companies like Microsoft and Apple pledging their plans to go carbon neutral, or negative, by allowing aspects of their operations to continue emitting at a certain level, while removing as much, or more, carbon from the air via reforestation or other projects elsewhere in the world. Now an up-and-coming twist on offsetting is surging as consumer brands that rely on agriculture seek ways to curb emissions. Dubbed carbon insetting, it simmered on the backburner of climate action for more than a decade. The practice, though still only loosely defined, covers efforts by companies to reduce or remove emissions within their own internal supply chains (whereas firms that use offsetting typically pay others outside their industry to sequester carbon for them). Firms that are now using insetting, like Nestl and PepsiCo, say the approach gives them better control to shrink their carbon pollution, makes them more responsible and accountable and reduces their carbon footprints. Independent researchers arent so sure, with questions raised similar to those surrounding carbon offsetting as to whether the process lacks independent oversight, uniform high standards and scientific rigor. Some say insetting may even be weaker than traditional offsets. Farmers tending a pepper garden practice agroforestry in Southeast Sulawesi. Image by Yusuf Ahmad/ICRAF via Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0). A climate solution whose time has come? Insetting can take many forms, and industry is still defining the rules to determine legitimate projects. A common insetting project looks like this: A coffeeThis article was originally published on Mongabay

Brazil has an unprecedented opportunity to secure $10 billion dollars or more over the next four years to move the Amazon region towards an equitable, forest-maintaining economy. The very real prospect of significant, agile funding that rewards and finances forest-maintaining activities across rural sectors could motivate Amazon societies to eliminate illegal deforestation and encourage forests to regenerate on marginal lands. This potential could be realized if it is widely understood among Amazon stakeholders that large-scale carbon market revenues are a real possibility, but only if carbon emissions from deforestation and forest degradation decline significantly across Brazils giant Amazon states and if indigenous peoples and local communities are co-creators of the REDD+ programs. Brazils Municpios Crticos program of 2008, designed and implemented under President Lulas previous administration, demonstrated the potential of collective action and peer-to-peer pressure to slow deforestation when benefits for many depend upon success measured across an entire jurisdiction. The program suspended farmer access to public credit lines in municpios with high deforestation rates, which led to successful collective action to slow deforestation in six municpios. Some farm leaders complained, however, that their efforts led to the re-establishment of access to public credit lines, but nothing more.   Potential revenues from the sale of verified credits from the jurisdictional REDD+ programs of the Brazilian Amazon states. These estimates assume (a) a rapid emission reduction scenario, with 20% reduction in emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in 2023, 90% in 2024, and 20% per year 2025-2027 and (b) two creditThis article was originally published on Mongabay

Environmental and social impact assessments (ESIA) have become an important tool for decision-makers around the world to explore and understand the impacts of proposed development projects on the wider ecosystem. Theyre supposed to measure and ensure that mechanisms are put in place to manage the possible negative impacts on ecosystems and affected communities. For local communities and Indigenous peoples, ESIAs should be a keystone of free, prior and informed consent. Through these assessments, local communities, scientists, environmentalists and other interested and affected parties should be able to learn what a project entails, and be given a platform to voice their concerns about risks, changes or losses it might bring. The studies and consultation surrounding an ESIA also allow companies or investors to respond to criticism and explore alternatives, while being pushed to develop adequate mitigation measures and fair compensation schemes. For governments, ESIAs are meant to be the entry point into a development, providing authorities with the information necessary to understand the potential costs and benefits of a project not only in terms of strategic and economic goals, but also in terms of how it will affect the lives and livelihoods of citizens and the health of the land and water it will be sited on. Without environmental and social assessments, governments cant make truly informed decisions. But are ESIAs fit for purpose? Georgine Kengne, coordinator for Consent & the Right to Say No at the WoMin African Alliance, tells Mongabay that in her experience communities are frequentlyThis article was originally published on Mongabay

Under the searing rays of the afternoon sun, Rodolfo Assis Magalhes and his team silently scour the fields that border the forest. Their target, the charismatic Brazilian three-banded armadillo (Tolypeutes tricinctus), wont be easy to catch. The trick is throwing a T-shirt over the animal before it can escape through a sharp jungle of cacti, serrated shrubs and thorn-tipped trees that make any pursuit impossible, says Magalhes, a doctoral student at the Federal University of Minas Gerais. The chase is part of a new project in the village of Sumidouro in northeastern Brazil that aims to understand trends in the armadillo population using long-term monitoring and to promote conservation through citizen science. Despite a complicated past with the species, the community has come to embrace the armadillos protection, providing vital support to the project. Rolling toward extinction Endemic to Brazil, the Brazilian three-banded armadillo is a species native to the Caatinga, a semiarid dry forest ecosystem in the countrys northeast, but it can also be found in the savannas of the Cerrado. Feeding on termites and ants, the armadillo has an excellent sense of smell as it teeters on its enormous claws, combing the landscape in search of its prey. In Portuguese, the species is known as the tatu-bola, or the ball armadillo as it rolls itself into a complete ball when threatened, a defense that bewilders and discourages smaller predators. Its shell, though, offers no protection against its only natural predator, the jaguar, or against humans. Rodolfo AssisThis article was originally published on Mongabay