The MAP News
482nd Edition Nov 23, 2019 |
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FEATURE To fight climate change, Kenya mangroves work as carbon stores KENYA - On the shores of the Indian Ocean, over a dozen people are circulating on a Kenyan North Coast beach, mangrove seeds in hand, while others are digging in the sand to plant new saplings of the native tree, which grows in brackish water. The beach is quite silent, with a gentle breeze sweeping over the salty water of the ocean, creating a mild wave crawling to shore. It is morning, with the sun looking like a bright ball floating on the water. Posing like a yellow lollipop on the horizon, the great light is on its daily mission to rise gradually to shine bright over the earth. The sea is calm, and the whole area is like a sacred space of coves and creeks along Kenya’s coast with an inlet visible in the distance letting all the ocean water in. “No one is paying us to conserve our mangrove forests, [but] here we are planting them,” said Timothy Mwakideu, wearing the type of shiny-dark silver sunglasses normally seen on the face of an astronaut. Timothy is a fisherman, but that day he skipped work to join a community-led mangrove conservation exercise. He said the locals used to like cutting mangroves for the excellent charcoal they got from them, but now they get more in return for conserving the mangrove forests, which are part of the Arabuko-Sokoke forest. READ MORE GLOBAL Protecting Natural Areas Not Enough to Safeguard Plants, Wildlife GLOBAL - Scientists say expanding the world’s conservation areas to help protect animals and plant life is unlikely to be effective on its own. The reason: rising levels of human activity in and around protected natural areas. Cambridge University researchers studied thousands of conservation areas in more than 150 countries. They found that, in general, recognizing spaces as protected is not reducing human activity in at-risk areas. Across the northern hemisphere and Australia, protected areas often proved effective at slowing human activity when compared with unprotected areas. But in South America, Southeast Asia and African countries south of the Sahara Desert, pressure from human activity inside protected areas was notably higher. The study found agriculture is a major driving force behind human activity in protected areas. For example, African mangrove forests listed as protected experienced 13 percent greater losses to agriculture than unprotected mangrove areas between 1995 and 2010. READ MORE AFRICA Shaping a pan-African forest-landscape restoration exchange CAMEROON - Two weeks after Malagasy Forest Landscape Restoration experts came to Yaoundé, their Cameroonian counterparts visited Madagascar to intensify their South-South exchange on Forest and Landscape Restoration (FLR) in Africa. The African Union Development Agency (AUDA) pilots targeted exchanges between member countries of the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR100) to foster peer-learning on FLR. “Cameroon is currently drafting its national FLR strategy and our role as AFR100 secretariat is to support this process,” AUDA’s Mamadou Diakhité explains. Madagascar is an ideal peer for Cameroon: The island country has pioneered the FLR movement by finalizing its national strategy in 2017 and advancing multi-sectoral and multilevel governance on the ground. To attain its commitment to restore 4 million hectares of degraded land, Madagascar established an inter-sectoral dialogue between relevant ministries and partners and elaborated framework documents for the implementation of FLR. The northwestern watersheds and mangroves of Boeny were the first sites the Cameroonian delegation inspected. READ MORE AMERICAS Species migration in Florida and beyond is causing environmental problems USA - 2019 is on pace to be among the top three of the warmest years on record, according to the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration. Nine of the 10 warmest years on record have occurred since 2005, with only the 1998 El Niño year as the anomaly. We're not the only animals that are feeling the heat. The fauna, fish and flora of Florida are feeling it too. And it's making them change their ways. Animals, fish, birds and even plants are starting to move north. It's creating problems. For the first time in more than 100 years, the Everglade snail kite is nesting north of Orlando. Last year, biologists were stunned to find four nests in Paynes Prairie just south of Gainesville. This year, there were 75. Snook, a fish with tropical characteristics susceptible to cold temperatures, once was a rare catch in waters north of Cape Canaveral or Homosassa. Anglers are catching them with regularity in Daytona and sometimes in the St. Johns River at Jacksonville. Red mangrove trees are "walking" their way up the coasts too. They are actually impinging on salt marsh habitat north of the Mosquito Lagoon, causing changes to habitat and moving the animals and birds that depend on that habitat to live. READ MORE Coastal Resilience Benefits of Mangroves in Jamaica JAMAICA - Caribbean countries, including Jamaica, face substantial risks from storms and hurricanes. Coral reefs, mangroves, and seagrass beds protect communities from storms, and are critical for the sustainability of many economic activities, jobs, and inclusive growth. A recent report, “Forces of Nature,” examines the considerable flood risk reduction services that mangroves provide to Jamaica, together with benefits related to fisheries production, and carbon sequestration. This report supports the growing interest within the development agenda to include nature-based solutions for disaster risk management and provides vital information for discussion on climate change adaptation and mitigation, insurance, and disaster recovery decisions. Mangroves play a key role in protecting Jamaica against flood risks, and risk would be significantly increased if mangroves are lost. READ MORE ASIA Tropical Mangrove Ecosystems; the pulse of nature SRI LANKA - A conference on the Rehabilitation and Protection of Tropical Mangrove Ecosystems was held at the Galle Face Hotel recently, calling to action students, state officials as well as environmentalists and conservationists to protect the island nation’s wetlands. The International Conference on Mangroves was organised by EMACE Sri Lanka in partnership with the German Ministry of International Cooperation and several other organisations from the region, with the aim to bring in experts and best practices to tropical mangrove ecosystems in Sri Lanka. Agricultural Scientist and Executive Director of the Global Nature Fund (GNF) Udo Gattenlöhner speaking at the event noted that while 70% of the mangrove ecosystems were lost over the last 100 years, the involvement of youth in protecting mangroves remains vital. Gattenlöhner who has worked with Sri Lankan experts for many years noted that sometimes natural disasters reflect how important mangroves are in protecting coastal communities. “Following the December 2004 Southeast Asian Tsunami, this disaster somehow enabled us to meet and initiate this partnership, to continue the work on conserving the biodiversity and the preservation of fresh water resources, lakes and wetland ecosystems,” he said. READ MORE Sri Lanka partners win presidential recognition SRI-LANKA - Sudeesa, our partner NGO in the Sri Lanka Mangrove Conservation Project, received a prestigious award last month from president Maithripala Sirisena. Sirisena, whose term ended this month, presided over the annual awards ceremony, which recognized Sri Lankan institutions and individuals who have shown stewardship of the island country’s environment. Sudeesa was the only NGO to receive an award this year. READ MORE Cyclothon urges conservation of mangrove forests INDIA - Odisha Paryavaran Sanrakshan Abhiyan in association with Dakshin Foundation and Aranyani Forest Officer s Wives Association organised its fourth state-level cyclothon to raise awareness about protection of mangrove forests here. Puri Wildlife Division DFO H B Udgata, Biju Patnaik Wildlife Conservation awardee Bichitranand Biswal and Forest Lady Charu Maa joined as honourable guests and appealed all to save the Mangroves. “Destruction of mangrove forests is due to lack of awareness. Hence, this is one of our main objectives. The event is aimed at boosting protection of Mangrove forests in Puri,” said Soumya Ranjan Biswal , co-founder, OPSA . Bichitrananda Biswal said, “Participants will engage in cycling for three days and nights. We want to spread the message of protecting mangrove forests. This is also a way to conserve the coasts .Let’s pledge to spread this message every year.” READ MORE Penaga mangroves to be made permanent forest MALAYSIA - A top Penang official has given the assurance that a 600ha mangrove forest in the northwestern reaches of Seberang Perai would be carved out and marked as a permanent forest reserve.This endeavour is pending studies and legal formalities concerning the site, said state Environment Committee chairman Phee Boon Poh. This assurance came after The Star reported experts’ concerns that the area’s current land-use zoning of “industrial aquaculture” at the forest in Penaga, 11km north of Butterworth, might affect the haven for migratory birds that also serves as a natural defence against tsunamis. The daily reported that there is large aquaculture activity within the Penaga mangrove forests close to the shore facing the Malacca Straits. VIEW SOURCE On the frontline of disasters, mangroves at the receiving end of development and climate change BANGLADESH - The Sundarbans mangroves in West Bengal, on the east coast of India, account for almost half of the total area under mangroves in the country. Apart from the east and west coasts of the mainland, mangroves are found and on the islands of Andaman and Nicobar and Lakshadweep. Indian mangroves represent 3.3 percent of global mangroves and about 56 percent of global mangrove species. As per Forest Survey of India estimates (2017), mangrove cover in the country is 4,921 square km, which is 0.15 percent of the total geographic area of the country. There has been a net increase of 181 square km in the country’s mangrove cover as compared to the 2015 assessment, according to the FSI report, though the number is debatable as conflicting data for certain stretches of mangroves is reported by non-governmental organisations. After West Bengal, Gujarat and Andaman and the Nicobar Islands have the maximum mangrove cover. Considering the growth and diversity, mangroves of Andaman and Nicobar are best in the country, said P. Ragavan of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow. READ MORE Pan Borneo Highway development endangers the Heart of Borneo INDONESIA - A planned highway network in the Malaysian state of Sabah on the island of Borneo threatens the forests protected as part of the Heart of Borneo agreement made with Indonesia and Brunei, a new study has found. The goal of the agreement was to ensure the survival of continuous rainforest in central Borneo that houses wildlife populations, helps to mitigate climate change and fosters the island’s unique biology. But the construction and expansion of roads for the Pan Borneo Highway project could carve up the core of this ecosystem, the researchers who wrote the paper say. “We just know that these [roads] are going to have really severe effects in some of the last, sizable intact tracts of forest in Borneo and in the world,” William Laurance, a tropical ecologist at James Cook University in Australia and the study’s senior author, said in an interview. “Some of the planned highways are relatively benign, but several are flat-out dangerous,” Sean Sloan, the study’s lead author and an ecologist at James Cook University, said in a statement. “The worst roads, in southern Sabah, would chop up and isolate Sabah’s forests from the rest of those in Borneo.” In particular, a planned stretch between the towns of Kalabakan and Sapulut near Sabah’s southern border with the Indonesian province of North Kalimantan would slice through the Heart of Borneo conservation area. READ MORE Mangrove board walk set to open in Abu Ddhabi ABU DHABI - What’s next for residents in Abu Dhabi? The Mangrove Boardwalk, a new hotspot for you to discover with your friends and family, and this time, it’s nature friendly, too. As the name suggests, the walk will overlook the natural setting of mangroves, and is located near Yas Island. It is set to open in January 2020 – and it doesn't come cheap. The project is estimated to cost up to Dhs5 billion, and will also cover 1 million square feet of the area. Impressive! Visitors will be able to take part in kayaking, participate in educational lessons, enjoy a play area for children, and chill on terraces where they can admire the stunning natural landscape and much more. The project aims to convey the importance of Mangrove trees and how they are essential for the environment. VIEW SOURCE LAST WORD Great Gift For The Holidays MAP's 202 Childrens Art Celndars are now available. These make great gifts to show your support of global climate efforts and are a helpful reminder for what we can do to assist in saving our world’s mangroves. Use the donation form below to select your calendar order, and receive a tax-deductible receipt for doing so – thank you! (Note: All costs include the cost of shipping – please select whether you will be shipping to a US or International address for according pricing. CLICK HERE |
CHILDREN'S ART CALENDAR - A great way to show your support for MAP. NOW TAKING ORDERS for our 2020 calendar
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Mangrove Action Project Click here to view past newsletters
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Saturday, November 23, 2019
MAP News Issue 482 - Nov 23, 2019
Saturday, November 9, 2019
MAP NEWS Issue 481 - Nov 9, 2019
PREVIEW VERSION
The MAP News
481st Edition Nov 09, 2019 |
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FEATURE Climate emissions from tropical forest damage 'underestimated by a factor of six' AUSTRALIA - Greenhouse gas emissions caused by damage to tropical rainforests around the world are being underestimated by a factor of six, according to a new study. Research led by the University of Queensland finds the climate impact of selective logging, outright clearing and fire in tropical rainforests between 2000 and 2013 was underestimated by 6.53bn tonnes of CO2. The numbers are likely conservative, and also did not include emissions from other woodlands or the massive boreal forests in the high latitudes of the northern hemisphere. Study co-author professor James Watson of the University of Queensland and the Wildlife Conservation Society said: “We have been treating forests as pretty one-dimensional, but we know degradation impacts carbon. The bottom line is that we knew the numbers would be big, but we were shocked at just how big.” Watson said the numbers used for tropical rainforests were “conservative”, adding, “this is a carbon time bomb and policymakers have to get to grips with this”. READ MORE GLOBAL Extent of human encroachment into world's protected areas revealed U.K. - A study of human activity within thousands of conservation spaces in over 150 countries suggests that—on average across the world—protected areas are not reducing the "anthropogenic pressure" on our most precious natural habitats. Protected areas are vital to preserving diverse life on Earth, as well as mitigating climate change by conserving carbon-sequestering vegetation, say Cambridge scientists. They argue that the findings show the effects of chronic underfunding and a lack of involvement of local communities. "Rapidly establishing new protected areas to meet global targets without providing sufficient investment and resourcing on the ground is unlikely to halt the unfolding extinction crisis," said lead author Dr. Jonas Geldmann from the University of Cambridge Conservation Research Institute. The research, published recently in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is by far the largest analysis of its kind to date. Scientists used satellite evidence of "night lights" and agriculture, as well as census and crop yield data, to assess levels of human encroachment in 12,315 protected areas between 1995 and 2010. READ MORE AFRICA How Earth Observation Data Is Saving The Mangrove Ecosystem In Sierra Leone SIERRA LEONE - Mangroves are groups of trees and shrubs that live in coastal intertidal zones. Mangroves stabilize the coastline and provide a critical ecosystem for fish and other organisms, thus making them important lifelines for human and other species alike. But the mangroves in Sierra Leone are disappearing due to coastal erosion. Human activities around the mangroves have led to landslides and the destruction of homes along the shoreline. As some of the land on the shoreline sinks, the tides rise and erode groves of trees, making it difficult for more trees to grow. In 2017, flooding in Freetown led to landslides, which destroyed homes and other property, and caused the deaths of around 1,000 people. Sierra Leone must preserve its mangroves so the trees can continue to serve as protection from disasters and provide livelihoods to communities who live on the shorelines. Sierra Leone’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is helping to save the mangrove ecosystem using Earth observation (EO) data. READ MORE Kenya issues smart ID cards to protect fishing and forests KENYA - Fishing communities on Kenya’s north coast will be the first to benefit from “smart” identity cards aimed at distinguishing genuine fishermen and loggers from poachers who raid waters and cut down mangroves vital to ease climate change threats. Each government-issued Mvuvi card - the word means “fisher” in Swahili - features a photo and fingerprint taken from its registered owner. Authorities will be able to read the cards using smartphones loaded with communications software that allows short-range wireless data transfers. Officials hope the cards, being used first in Lamu County, home to what the government says are about 60% of Kenya’s protected mangrove forests, will boost security and curb illegal fishing and logging. “There are people who pretend to be fishermen going out to sea but they are doing illegal logging of the mangroves,” Samson Macharia, commissioner of Lamu County, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in a telephone interview. READ MORE AMERICAS Oil spill threatens vast areas of mangroves and coral reefs in Brazil BRAZIL - Hundreds of kilometres of mangroves and coral reefs, as well as humpback whale breeding grounds, are under threat from an oil spill that has polluted more than 2,400km of Brazil’s north-eastern coast in the last two months. The Brazilian Navy, which has deployed 8,500 personnel, 30 ships and 17 aircraft in the cleanup operation, said this week that 4,200 tonnes of oil have been removed from beaches, amid fears by scientists that some has already entered the food chain. “There are still many indirect impacts that have not yet been properly shown,” said Guilherme Dutra, director of Conservation International’s marine programme in Brazil. “The risk of contamination of the food chain is very high, especially in areas directly affected.” The government of President Jair Bolsonaro initially struggled to react to the spill, leaving volunteers to clean up. On Wednesday it staged Brazil’s biggest-ever oil auction for ultra-deep-water rights, which raised $17bn (£13bn) – a disappointing shortfall on the $26bn the government had hoped for. READ MORE Florida mangroves can reduce flooding and insurance costs, new study shows USA - Scientists have known for years mangroves can help prevent flood damage along Florida coastal areas, but the researchers behind a new study hope insurance companies will include mangroves when assessing risks and in turn save counties money. The study, conducted by the Nature Conservancy Florida chapter, analyzed mangroves and if they can be used to measure benefits for insurance companies that assess coastal properties and coastal infrastructure. Mangroves, along with other coastal ecosystems such as salt marshes, beaches and coral reefs offer protection from coastal storms, flooding and surges, said Laura Geselbracht, the senior marine scientist at the Nature Conservancy's Florida chapter. According to the Nature Conservancy's website, mangrove forests have numerous benefits including improving water quality, capturing carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases, and providing a habitat for wildlife. The study led by researchers from the University of California Santa Cruz, partnered with the Nature Conservancy and Risk Management Solutions, a risk modeling company, which has an industry-standard model to assess risks and damages following storms. READ MORE ASIA Choked by Coal: The Carbon Catastrophe in Bangladesh BANGLADESH - Massive coal-based power expansion in Bangladesh is set to propel it into the ranks of the world’s worst polluters, says a major new report out today. The expansion not only threatens global climate targets but promises to further aggravate catastrophic environmental insecurity within a country where floods, cyclones, droughts and pollution have already taken thousands of lives. ‘Choked by Coal: the Carbon Catastrophe in Bangladesh’, exposes foreign-led finance as the driving force behind plans for 29 coal-fired power stations, an expansion that has seen Bangladesh leap, within just 3 years, from 12th to 6th in terms of global coal power under development. If built, these plants would increase the country’s existing coal capacity 63-fold, from 525MW today to 33,200MW. Groups within Bangladesh are outraged. “Building polluting and out-dated coal-fired power stations when the rest of the world is switching to renewables is a colossal act of self-sabotage,” said Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon (BAPA). “UNICEF has already linked climate change to devastating floods, cyclones and other environmental disasters threatening the lives and futures of more than 19 million children in Bangladesh,” said Dr. Abdul Matin, General Secretary of BAPA. “The proposed coal expansion will see this country being led further down a devastating path.” READ MORE 9th Southeast Asia Conference on Business & Human Rights PHILIPPINES - Between 27-30 October 2019, representatives from indigenous peoples’ organisations, civil society and National Human Rights Institutions from across Southeast Asia came together in Subic Bay, the Philippines for the 9th Southeast Asia conference on human rights and business. This year’s event focussed on land conflicts resulting from renewable energy projects such as solar and wind farms, hydropower and agro-commodity farming for use in biofuel production, as well as the potential positive impact that renewable energy projects can have when led by, and initiated by, indigenous communities themselves. The forum included panels exploring the gendered impacts of land struggles, as well as a panel on Special Economic Zones – an increasingly popular mechanism in Southeast Asia for promoting investments – and their impacts on indigenous peoples’ rights. This latter panel built on the discussions at last year’s event in Thailand. READ MORE Thailand seeks clarity on scrapping of US trade preferences THAILAND - Thai government and business leaders are seeking clarification from the United States about the planned suspension of $1.3 billion (39.2 billion baht) in trade preferences, ostensibly because of failure to curb labour abuses in the fishery industry. The suspension, to take effect on April 25, will focus on products for which the US is a relatively important market, but where Thailand accounts for a relatively small share of US imports, the office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) said in a statement. Eligibility of all Thai seafood products for the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) will be revoked due to “longstanding worker rights issues in the seafood and shipping industries”, the statement said. Areas where Thailand was said to remain weak are protection for freedom of association and collective bargaining. Thailand in recent years has taken a number of steps against fishing industry abuses, prompting the European Commission to lift its threat of a ban on Thai seafood. Trade under the GSP between Thailand and the US totalled $4.8 billion in 2018.READ MORE Spend your Water Festival at Mangrove Festival THAILAND - THE upcoming Water Festival will be celebrated in a big way again in the capital this year, with a massive influx of people from the provinces to the capital for three days. The legion of boat races will turn the city centre into a vortex of vibrancy, with the many programmes to be held in tandem with the annual Water Festival. However, for those who want to spend time helping the community instead, you have a new option — the Mangrove Festival is cropping up with its third edition this year. It’s a communal festival organised by groups of youth with the aim to raise awareness on the impact of development in mangrove swamps and to promote eco-tourism. The ‘Mangrove Festival’ will be running for four days at Koh Kong province from Nov 9-12, the same days as Independence Day and the mammoth Water Festival. Mangrove Festival director Mot Kimry called mangrove trees a fence to protect the loss of biodiversity on the coastline. It is a nursery for fish and other aquatic life which also enables fishermen to earn a good income living off the sea. However, mangroves are being endangered in recent times. The rising sea level is a threat to the growth of mangrove which is an income resource for villagers in Koh Srolao, a small island in Koh Kong province. READ MORE Bali mangrove bay is now a conservation zone, nixing reclamation plan INDONESIA - Bali’s mangrove-rich Benoa Bay is now legally off-limits for any reclamation or development activities, following the government’s designation of the area as a maritime conservation zone. Spanning some 1,400 hectares (3,460 acres) in southern Bali, the bay was in 2014 rezoned from a conservation area to a public zone under a decree by then-president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, a move seen at the time as clearing a path for future reclamation and development. Indonesians in Bali and other cities have since opposed every proposed development project in the bay, especially an ambitious plan by PT Tirta Wahana Bali Internasional (TWBI), a property development unit of Indonesian tycoon Tomy Winata’s Artha Graha conglomerate. The developer proposed building artificial islands covering half of the bay, which would host a multibillion-dollar complex featuring hotels, restaurants, entertainment venues and a convention center.READ MORE LAST WORD Dear MAP Friends, Our talk just got featured on TED's homepage, and you're going to love it: VIEW HERE. Also, we added MAP as one of our partners: VISIT OUR SITE Cheers, Ashwin Ashwin Naidu, Ph.D. Co-founder + CEO FishCat.org |
CHILDREN'S ART CALENDAR - A great way to show your support for MAP. NOW TAKING ORDERS for our 2020 calendar
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Mangrove Action Project Click here to view past newsletters
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