KATHMANDU As dawn breaks over the forest in the Kawasoti area on the edge of Nepals Chitwan National Park, early risers can catch a glimpse of rare vultures roosting in their nests perched in the tall trees. This was the sight Ankit Bilas Joshi, vulture conservation program manager at the NGO Bird Conservation Nepal, expected to see on the morning of March 13. But the scene in the forest that day was different. The adult birds of prey werent in the treetops: they were lying motionless on the ground, their wings outspread and insects buzzing around their lifeless bodies. Vultures from surrounding areas, some of which are tagged, feed on a carcass provided at a vulture restaurant in southern Nepal. Image by Abhaya Raj Joshi for Mongabay. When Joshi and local residents looked around, they discovered six dead white-rumped vultures (Gyps bengalensis), a critically endangered species. We also found the corpse of a golden jackal [Canis aureus] nearby, Joshi told Mongabay. Looking at the corpse of the jackal, we believe that it was poisoned by the local community using rodent poison. The alleged poisoning incident came on the heels of an international Saving Asias Vultures from Extinction (SAVE) meeting in the area, where international delegates applauded the success of community-led programs such as vulture restaurants that provide a safe source of food for the birds. Initiatives like these came about following the South Asia vulture crisis of the 1990s, when vultures in the region died in massive numbers fromThis article was originally published on Mongabay

In Sumatra, villagers occupied an oil palm plantation and set tires on fire; in the Bangka-Belitung Islands, they filled the local parliament building demanding action; in Borneo, paramilitary police were deployed to control the protests. Each of these incidents appeared in local media reports in Indonesia in the past few years and told what was becoming, to anyone paying attention, an increasingly familiar story. Since the 1970s, as corporate-run palm oil plantations spread across Indonesia, companies promised to share them with local villagers, in plots known as plasma. Initially, they made these commitments to secure access to land and subsidized government financing; from 2007, it was a legal obligation to share a fifth of any new plantation with villagers. During our field reporting in Indonesias palm oil heartlands, we repeatedly encountered allegations that companies were failing to deliver. Local media reports from across the Southeast Asian country told a similar story, with a steady stream of appeals to government, protests, direct action and sometimes even violence, due to simmering conflicts over plasma. When we began to investigate this in earnest, one of the key questions we sought to answer was just how widespread this problem was. It soon became clear that government monitoring was patchy and unreliable. Government agencies themselves openly acknowledged the flaws in their data. Most palm oil producers declined to share data that would enable us to interrogate their claims that they were complying with the law. Since the 1970s, as corporate-run palm oil plantations spread acrossThis article was originally published on Mongabay

COLOMBO The fishers in Illuppaikadawei village in the northern district of Mannar mostly use fence fishery, where they erect a series of poles and tie a net around them during high tide. When the tide retreats, the fish get trapped in the net. We prefer to set up these traps near the seagrass beds, as there are more fish, crabs and squids, says Angie Thomas, a fisher who practices fence fishery, a family tradition. Thomas and other fisher households in the village get sufficient catch to sustain their daily needs despite their fishing area being quite small, thanks to the seagrass meadows on the coastline. Seagrass meadows support a great abundance and diversity of fish and invertebrates where a number of commercially and recreationally important species have been linked to seagrass at some stage of their life cycle, says Susantha Udagedara, of the Blue Resources Trust (BRT), an organization that started studying seagrasses more than a decade ago. Seagrass meadows are important marine ecosystems. Image courtesy of Susantha Udagedara. In a study that delves into socioeconomic factors across 147 villages in Cambodia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Tanzania, a group of scientists including Udagedara report that seagrass is the most preferred habitat for fishing across villages in all the four countries studied due to the reliability of a good catch. Poorer households are less likely to own motorboats, and this makes them significantly dependent on seagrasses, as they are unable to fish elsewhere. This highlights the economic reasons, in additionThis article was originally published on Mongabay

Squid fishing could be getting out of control due to the industrys lack of regulations, scientists say, prompting calls for greater oversight. Thousands of squid fishing vessels operate across the world, using light to lure the eight-armed cephalopods to the surface and catching them with nets or jigging equipment. While some research suggests that squid are globally abundant, other evidence suggests that overfishing is driving some populations to decline, including the jumbo flying squid (Dosidicus gigas) in the Southeast Pacific and the Argentine shortfin (Illex argentinus) in the Southwest Atlantic. Experts also say that most squid fishing takes place in unregulated areas in international waters, which has allowed the industry to operate without scrutiny. In a new study published in Science Advances, researchers from Global Fishing Watch, the University of California, Santa Cruz, the Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security at the University of Wollongong, and the Japan Fisheries Research and Education Agency used satellite and vessel tracking data to study the movements of the squid fishing vessels. It found that squid fishing across the global oceans increased by 68% over three years (2017-2020), accounting for about 4.4 million total hours of fishing time. The study also indicated that 86% of this fishing occurred in unregulated areas, and that many of the vessels traveled long distances to operate in different regions. A major challenge with unregulated fisheries is that we dont know what we dont know and the data to deeply understand questions about stock status andThis article was originally published on Mongabay

PALEMBANG, Indonesia Lithan, 68, grew up eating fish caught from the rivers and freshwater swamps near his village in Ogan Ilir district, near the southern tip of the island of Sumatra. Fish were so abundant, he recalls, that the villagers would smoke them, salt them, ferment them, even make fish crackers out of them. But the fish predominantly baung and lais, catfish from the Hemibagrus and Kryptopterus genera, respectively have become increasingly scarce as the water bodies in the region are lot of the people here make smoked fish from catfish that they raise in ponds, says Lithan, identifying these farmed fish as patin (Pangasius spp.), lele (Clarias spp.) and even Nile tipalia (Oreochromis niloticus), an exotic species introduced here from Africa. But the taste is different and theres not much demand for it, adds Lithan, who heads the farmers collective in the village of Muara Penimbung Ulu. So this [fish-preserving] tradition could disappear as the freshwater fish are vanishing.. Freshwater fish like these catfish are declining in population in South Sumatra as their wetland habitat is converted for oil palm plantations and highways. Image by Fadhil Nugraha/Mongabay Indonesia. Its a similar story in the neighboring district of Ogan Komering Ilir. Here, in the village of Menang Raya, freshwater fishing was for a long time the main source of livelihood for residents, according to village head Ryan Syaputra. But the fish started to disappear just as oilThis article was originally published on Mongabay

Whether youre looking at her giant paintings of Indigenous women creators or having a chat before the interview, Daiara Tukano always transmits her power, her well-honed critical viewpoint and excellent sense of humor. Daiara Tukano, who is also a political activist, educator and communicator, hails from the Yep Mahs people, also known as the Tukano, who are native to the Upper Rio Negro region in Brazils Amazonas state. She visited So Paulo in February for the opening of her first solo exhibition, Am Numi, held on a sunny Saturday morning at a packed gallery in the city. Her first remarks regarding what she took away from the event left us reeling: I thought it was incredible that there were so many children there, and even three dogs. In this exclusive Mongabay interview, the artist speaks frankly about museums still run with a colonial air, tells of the importance of seeing Indigenous women in government, and quotes U.S. drag queen RuPaul when she speaks about what moves her to create. The interview has been translated from Portuguese and lightly edited for length and clarity. Daiara Tukanos show at the Millan Gallery in So Paulo. Image courtesy of Ana Pigosso/Millan Gallery. Mongabay: Does art help drive the Indigenous fight? Does it reach places that information from organizations like nonprofits doesnt, for example? Daiara Tukano: Without a doubt, the work of Indigenous musicians, painters and influencers reaches an audience far beyond those already following the issues being debated in Congress. Our artistic expressionThis article was originally published on Mongabay

BACALAR, Mexico Less than a decade ago the El Bajo ejido a form of communal land in Mexico consisted primarily of rainforest. Today, the landscape is vastly different, with vast open fields of soybeans, sorghum and corn. This transformation was brought about by the mechanized agricultural activities of Mennonite families who began settling in the southern part of the Mexican state of Quintana Roo in the early 2000s. In the past, we could enter on horseback, but since they [the Mennonites] came, they have made many roads for us, said Rigoberto, an ejidatario or communal landowner in his eighties who has witnessed the transformation of the land. Mennonite colonies only began to establish themselves in the municipality of Bacalar a little over two decades ago. Image by Robin Canul. The mechanized agricultural practices employed by the Mennonites, a religious group of European origin known for their extensive monoculture plantations and demand for permanent land rights, have faced opposition from some of the regions residents, who say they are flouting environmental regulations. They cut down thousands of hectares there is a lot of illegal logging with them, said one member of Kabi Habin, a cooperative of Quintana Roo beekeepers. The member, who requested anonymity for safety reasons, said large-scale agriculture has spread from what is now known as the Salamanca ejido the first place where the Mennonites arrived back in 2001  to other parts of the municipality. Satellite data from Global Forest Watch shows clearingThis article was originally published on Mongabay

Starting this April, Japan will implement a new life cycle greenhouse gas emission standard for biomass power plants supported by its feed-in tariff subsidy for renewable energy. Designed to ensure that forest biomass usage actually reduces carbon emissions compared with fossil fuels, Japans new standard is similar to those already implemented by fellow forest biomass users like the United Kingdom and European Union. However, forest advocates warn that all three standards contain major loopholes and therefore arent doing enough to reduce emissions: They do not apply to biomass plants approved before a certain date, nor do they count the largest source of forest biomass emissions: the CO2 released when wood is burned. Although biomass power plant smokestack emissions are counted as zero under international carbon accounting rules, scientists have shown that forest biomass releases more carbon per unit of energy than that produced by coal. The life cycle greenhouse gas standards should more accurately be called partial life cycle standards, say forest advocates. In Japan, for example, wood pellets imported from Canada Japans second-largest wood pellet supplier release just 60 grams of CO2 equivalent per megajoule (g CO2/MJe) from production, harvesting and shipping, but almost 450 g CO2/MJe across their whole life cycle, according to a document prepared by the Japanese nonprofit Biomass Industrial Society Network that was shared with Mongabay. The vast majority of emissions come when the wood pellets are burned. Despite this fact, nations continue counting biomass as a carbon neutral fuel. A biomass plantThis article was originally published on Mongabay

Scientists and activists have tirelessly campaigned for the protection of forests to mitigate rising global temperatures and preserve humanitys future. For some local Amazonian communities, who depend on logging, mining and ranching, these claims have stood in the way of their livelihoods, creating a standoff between conservationists and deforesters. But a new study shows that these local communities should be alarmed about the future of their environment too. It confirms what scientists and activists have been saying for years: Human-led deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest is causing irregular rainfall patterns not only around the globe but at a local level, leading to conditions that wreck ecological cycles and cripple communities that live in deforested areas. Experts hope this growing body of compelling evidence will encourage decision-makers to create protection policies that can engage these communities as well. The study published in the journal Nature on March 1 used satellite-based precipitation datasets from 2003 to 2017 to reveal that tropical forest loss in the Amazon, Congo and Southeast Asia causes significant decreases in annual mean rainfall. Even deforestation on a small scale caused some decline, but the greatest impact was observed in areas larger than 2,500 square kilometers (965 square miles) where a reduction of evapotranspiration the pumping of moisture from trees into the atmosphere is most dominant. At the largest scale measured 40,000 square kilometers (15,444 square miles) of affected area monthly rainfall was 0.25 percentage point (or 0.1 mm) lower for every 1 percentage pointThis article was originally published on Mongabay

The Philippine eagle, the archipelagic nations iconic, endemic apex predator, has been declared threatened with extinction for nearly three decades. Yet despite its status as the national bird, little is definitively known about the extent of the raptors range and its numbers in the wild. A recent study published in the journal Animal Conservation is trying to change that, raising hope among conservationists who are racing against time to save this keystone, and critically endangered, species. Scientists from nonprofits The Peregrine Fund (TPF) and the Philippine Eagle Foundation (PEF) identified a total of 2.86 million hectares (7.07 million acres) of forest habitat suitable for the Philippine eagle (Pithecophaga jefferyi), which they estimate host around 392 breeding pairs. This new global population estimate is higher than previous estimates of 340 pairs in 2018 and 88-221 pairs in 1989. The new study renewed our hope that we can improve the conditions of our imperiled national symbol within our lifetime, paper co-author and PEF research and conservation director Jayson Ibaez told Mongabay in an instant message. The Philippine eagle, an endemic apex predator in the Philippines, has been declared threatened with extinction for nearly three decades. Image by Klaus Nigge / PEF. Using satellite images, decades of georeferenced nest locations, and data from citizen scientists, the researchers modeled the eagles area of habitat and preferred land cover type, which appears to be dense, multilayered forest canopies. The population estimate was calculated using home range size requirements observed in breeding adults fitted with satelliteThis article was originally published on Mongabay

Hundreds of thousands of European bison once grazed the grassy slopes from Spain to Ukraine until they gradually went extinct in the wild by 1927. But when the last free-roaming individual was shot, that wasnt the end of the story for the species. Fifty-four bison remained in captivity, and from this small group a new population was born, with several thousand bison now roaming the ranges of Europe again. Species are classified as extinct in the wild when theyre known to survive only in cultivation, in captivity, or as a naturalized population far from their natural range. Its a strange liminal space: disappeared from the wild, yet not entirely extinct, write Donal Smith, a postdoctoral researcher at the Zoological Society of London, and Sarah Elizabeth Dalrymple, senior lecturer in conservation ecology at Liverpool John Moores University. Yet for species so perilously close to full-on extinction, Smith said, they receive surprisingly little attention. Unlike endangered species, their numbers are not monitored by the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority that maintains the Red List of Threatened Species. Information on how many extinct-in-the-wild individuals exist and where can be hard to find. The sihek, or the Guam kingfisher, has been extinct in the wild since 1988. This bird is part of the Sihek Recovery Programme. Image John Ewen. We were increasingly aware that this group of species existed, but maybe they werent getting quite the attention that they required, Smith told Mongabay. We thought it was sort of an ignoredThis article was originally published on Mongabay

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, the postdoctoral researcher at the University of Victoria 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 benefitThis 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