A new legislative proposal, criticized by opponents as a step backwards in recognizing the rights and protections of uncontacted and recently contacted Indigenous people, is currently under debate in Perus congress. The controversial proposal, which seeks to alter the current Law for the Protection of Indigenous Peoples in Isolation and Initial Contact Situations (known as PIACI in Spanish), could repeal the creation of some Indigenous reserves reserves which, in many cases, took years to be declared and prevent the entry of extractive industries, like oil and logging companies. One of the changes proposed in the bill is for the creation of Indigenous reserves to no longer be a matter the national government deals with through the ministry of culture and instead be a matter placed in the hands of regional governments. In addition, with the approval of the bill, the status of every Indigenous reserve in Peru already approved until now would be immediately reevaluated, with the purpose of determining whether to continue with their existence as reserves, revoke their status, or scrap them entirely. A recently contacted Machiguenga girl on the outskirts of Manu National Park in Cusco, Peru. Image by Ronald Reategui. Finally, the bill proposes that while it awaits final approval, all proceedings relating to Indigenous peoples in isolation and initial contact should be suspended, including the declaration of new Indigenous reserves. If approved, [the bill] would be an attack on the survival of Indigenous peoples in isolation and initial contact, an attack againstThis article was originally published on Mongabay

A few years ago I was catching butterflies in a strip of rainforest in Panama. One day the camp welcomed a team of jet-lagged vagabonds dragging their rollers full of flashlights and 3D scanners. I thought they were a film crew, but if so they didnt seem to have much of a script: they photographed and scanned whatever came their wayleaves, dead leaves, bugs, dead bugs. It turned out they were developers from a well-known game studio, here deep in the Cordillera to capture details of natural objects for their next big open world game. It wasnt ironic that even in a fantasy world, the developers wanted the virtual flora and fauna to be as realistic as possible. Player immersion was the keyone of the developers name cards had smell the grass printed in stylized font. A tenet of the modern conservation movement is the intrinsic value of biodiversity, but out there in the jungle, I thought, was a rakish horde of digital nomads who cherished biodiversity for a very alien reason: virtual world immersion. Over the years, their effort to digitally preserve our biosphere was facilitated by advances in game engine rendering capability  and has enlivened cyberspace and gaming consoles: bringing players the thrill of elk-hunting in the 19th century Rocky Mountains or that of horse-riding in a post-apocalyptic Pacific temperate forest. Increasingly I have also observed that tools used by game developers are helping real-world conservationists. Figure from the study Synthetic Examples Improve Generalization for Rare Classes, MayThis article was originally published on Mongabay

In 2015, researchers in Brazil started a project to address a tricky challenge: Reducing exposure to mercury contamination in the region of the Tapajs River, a major tributary of the Amazon. Artisanal miners use the heavy metal to separate gold from ore, then burn it off. The waste mercury then ends up in the air, vegetation and water. In bodies of water like the Tapajs, it undergoes a transformation into methylmercury, a toxic substance that can move up the food chain, concentrating in carnivorous fish. For residents of this northern area of Brazils Par state, fishing is an important source of food. The Tapajs Basin has been plagued by illegal mining and mercury pollution for decades. Thats why the researchers at Par Federal University (UFPA) started working with villagers to raise awareness of the dangers of mercury and help manage their exposure, principally by reducing their consumption of potentially contaminated fish. The researchers used learning sessions and local radio to share information about the health risks associated with mercury. Participants in the project also helped to spread the word among other community members. Similar interventions have also proved successful in the past as a short-term solution to address mercury exposure. Of 34 participants whose hair samples were tested in consecutive years during the project, more than half showed reduced exposure to mercury. Though a small sample, the researchers say it indicates that such knowledge-sharing initiatives can be effective to reduce exposure. We need to provide knowledge to local communities aboutThis article was originally published on Mongabay

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