The MAP News
491st Edition Mar 28, 2020 |
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FEATURE 'Save Our Mangroves Now' mangrove training in Tanga, northern Tanzania By Dominic Wodehouse - MAP TANZANIA - MAP returned to Tanzania in February to conduct another Community-Based Ecological Mangrove Rehabilitation (CBEMR) training for the IUCN and WWF Germany's 'Save Our Mangroves Now' (SOMN) initiative. This time we partnered with the Tanzania Forest Conservation Group and A Rocha of Switzerland, staying at the Tanga Beach Resort and Spa. We explored the surrounding mangroves with the Tanzania Forest Service (TFS) Northern Zone boss, Mr Ezra to find suitable teaching sites. Fortunately we had two good sites 10 minutes drive from Tanga town. Above on Mombasa Rd, NW of the town. TFCG arranged for us to meet the Tanzania Forest Service officer for the region and local conservation group members. Their issue was fishermen digging under mangrove trees for a worm for fishing bait, killing the trees in the process. The training was opened by Raphaelle Flint (IUCN) and Anouk Neuhaus (WWF), with an introduction to Tanzania's mangroves by Emmnuel Japhet (Wetlands International). a huge thank you to IUCN and WWF for funding this training, Tanzania Forest Conservation Group for the logistics, and (very nearly Dr.) Emmanuel Japhet for safely driving us south to Rufiji and back to Dar. As before, we really enjoyed our time in Tanzania and we are looking forward to returning in the near future. VIEW PHOTOS GLOBAL Mangroves: how they help the ocean GLOBAL - Mangrove forests are crucial for the health of the ocean and the planet. Meet the pioneering scientists who are harnessing the power of mangroves to help tackle the world’s most pressing issue: climate change. VIEW VIDEO International Day of Forests 2020: As Fires Ravage Forests, Can ‘Nature Super Year’ Salvage Global Biodiversity? GLOBAL - On March 21, the world celebrates the International day of forests every year since 2012 to raise awareness about the importance of all types of forests. The theme this year is 'Forests and biodiversity: too precious to lose'. As research and observations show that global biodiversity is deteriorating at an accelerated pace and millions of hectares of forests are being lost every year, the theme seems more apt than ever before. "2020 has been referred to as a "Nature Super Year" and must be the year where we turn the tide on deforestation and forestry loss," says UN Secretary-General António Guterres. As per the latest assessment report of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), 25 per cent of plant and animal species are threatened, and around 1 million species are already facing extinction, many within decades. Moreover, between 2010 to 2015, 32 million hectares of forest were lost in the most biodiverse regions of the tropics. Added to the human pressure, the accelerating climate change and frequent forest fires have been taking a toll on the fragile forest ecosystems. Last year the world witnessed few of the most intense forest fires on record all across the planet—Amazon, Bandipur, California, and Australia bushfires. READ MORE Urgent changes needed to save forests for the benefit of us all GLOBAL - This March 21, the International Day of Forests is putting the spotlight on the great variety of animal, plant and other life supported by the world’s forests with the theme, “Forests and Biodiversity: Too precious to lose.” While this observance encourages us to appreciate the benefits of forests—from Pacific coastal redwoods to tropical mangroves—it is more of an urgent call to action than a celebration. Forests are home to most life on land, an estimated 80 percent of the world’s terrestrial biodiversity. This natural wealth goes far beyond the 60,000 species of trees that have been identified to date. It includes plants, animals, organisms and ecosystems which help to keep our air, soil and water healthy and which provide us with food, fuel and shelter. Roughly one billion people depend directly on forests for their food, and that figure does not include the farms that rely on nearby forests for pollinators like bees and bats. All this biodiversity is under serious threat from climate change and other forces that are chipping away at the world’s forests on a daily basis. An estimated 73 percent of deforestation in the world is driven by the clearing of land for agriculture. READ MORE What could be wrong about planting trees? The new push for more industrial tree plantations in the Global South GLOBAL - What could be wrong about planting trees? Haven’t communities around the world been planting a diversity of trees since the dawn of human civilization Yes they have. But in more recent times, companies have also been planting trees, especially in Africa, Asia and Latin America, and the way they do so is very different from that of communities. They cover huge areas with trees from one single species, creating vast industrial or monoculture plantations devoid of biodiversity Today, these same companies plan to start a new round of massive expansion. Exploiting growing public awareness and concern about climate change, they argue that monoculture plantations are an excellent option to help solve some of the world’s most urgent problems: loss of forests, global heating and dependence on fossil fuels (oil, coal and gas). In this booklet, WRM aims to alert community groups and activists about the corporate push for a new round of industrial tree plantation expansion. It also reveals why planting trees on such a large scale can be extremely detrimental, in spite of seductive marketing campaigns claiming that these plantations will or could be a “solution” to the climate crisis.DOWNLOAD PAPER AFRICA Lagos marks International Day of Forests with Tree planting NIGERIA - The Lagos State Government at the weekend marked the International Day of Forests with tree planting in Lekki area of the State. March 21st was the International Day of Forests, a day set aside by resolution of the United Nations General Assembly in 2012 to celebrate and raise awareness of the importance of forests. The theme for this year’s celebration is ‘Forests and Biodiversity’. Lagos State Government, through the Lagos State Parks and Gardens Agency (LASPARK) donated and planted trees as a contribution to global climate action efforts. The General Manager, LASPARK, Mrs. Adetoun Popoola stated that Biodiversity was under serious threat from deforestation, forest degradation and climate change, saying that forest depletion, combined with heavy industrial effluents and carbon monoxide is a danger to the environment and to humanity which has aggravated climate change, global warming and rainfall patterns around the world. She explained that the day was set aside globally to encourage organizations at local, national and international levels to take action to prevent and reverse global deforestation which gave credence to the present administration’s efforts to achieve a Healthy and Sustainable Environment. READ MORE AMERICA Mangrove Bayou Walkway is Underway USA - If you’ve visited The Bay recently (while, of course, taking proper precautions), you may have noticed stakes lining the mangroves, which mark the first steps toward realizing the future Mangrove Bayou Walkway. As of this Wednesday, partners at Jon F. Swift Construction put up a fence that officially starts construction for the walkway, which is estimated to be completed by the end of the year. The Mangrove Bayou Walkway will be a safe, lighted walkway that will line the newly revitalized mangroves and coastal wetlands. It is one of many exciting projects The Bay is undertaking as they continue their journey toward building The Bay Park. The best part? The area around the construction fence will be open and accessible to all park goers during the construction process. This means the community is free to take a stroll, enjoy the fresh air and sunshine, and take a look at our progress as it happens. There will be alternative walking routes during the construction process, and importantly, the new walkway will be a significant improvement of the park for everyone. READ MORE ASIA Papua mangroves could help Indonesia coast to climate targets INDONESIA - The characteristics of mangroves in a range of ecosystems – from undisturbed natural settings to areas where considerable land-use changes have occurred – should be evaluated to properly assess country-level blue carbon emissions accounting, according to new research. While mangroves have long been recognized as significant “blue carbon” sinks and as coastal buffers against erosion caused by ocean activity and sea level rise, now scientists have shown that their carbon storage capacity varies greatly depending on a variety of ecological factors. This discovery could have implications for Indonesia’s targets under the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). “Our findings show that mangrove regeneration over the long-term has the potential to contribute to Indonesia’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) by increasing mangrove carbon stocks and offsetting anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions from land-use change,” said lead author Sigit Sasmito, a researcher at the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and a Ph.D. candidate at Australia’s Charles Darwin University. READ MORE EUROPE First comprehensive portal to track international capacity development support for forest monitoring ITALY - The Global Forest Observations Initiative (GFOI) launched a portal - the first such comprehensive platform - to track international capacity development support to developing countries in forest monitoring for climate action. The portal - the GFOI Inventory of Activities - is a one-stop shop with easy-to-access information on more than 400 forest monitoring activities in 70 developing countries across Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean. Users can search for information by country or region, by type of forest monitoring activities, and by donors. "Collecting and disseminating better information on forests is vital for countries and the international community's efforts to take targeted and effective action on climate change," said Hiroto Mitsugi, FAO Assistant Director-General for Forestry. The portal will help governments and donors identify gaps, share resources, avoid overlaps and explore opportunities for new partnerships to better address the challenges countries face as they develop their National Forest Monitoring Systems. The platform will be maintained by the GFOI Office, hosted by FAO, with funding from Australia and Norway. The portal displays information from the world's leading forest monitoring development partners, including national governments, development practitioners, space agencies and forestry experts. READ MORE OCEANA Fiji: Destroying Paradise FIJI - We investigate a Chinese developer accused of ruining land and intimidating locals as it builds Fiji's biggest resort. Fiji is sold to tourists as the land of white sandy beaches and clear blue waters but a new resort development is threatening the Pacific nation's idyllic image. A Chinese-owned company is building a casino hotel on Malolo Island, near a world-famous surf break. Landowners claim that without any permits or permission, the company has ripped up 5,000 square metres (53,820 square feet) of the ancient reef, ploughed through a mangrove forest used by locals to source food, and illegally encroached on their property. 101 East investigates how one of the country's biggest resort developments is wreaking havoc on Fiji's pristine environment. WATCH VIDEO |
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Saturday, March 28, 2020
MAP News Issue #491 - March 28, 2020
Saturday, March 14, 2020
MAP News Issue #490 - Mar 14, 2020
The MAP News
490th Edition Mar 14, 2020 |
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FEATURE Addressing Climate Change Vulnerability of Coastal Cities Through Mangrove Forests By Alfredo Quarto - MAP USA - Around the world, coastal cities are threatened by storms, rising sea levels, and other climate change related hazards. With conventional approaches often both costly and ineffective, nature-based solutions are offering valuable alternatives. One example are the community-based methods developed by the NGO Mangrove Action Project. The climate crisis is real and measurable. Sea levels are rising, storms and droughts are intensifying at an alarming rate. A recent study warns that major coastal cities such as Mumbai, Shanghai, Jakarta, and Bangkok could be lost to rising sea levels over the next 30 years, affecting an estimated 300 million people living along the world’s coasts. This is about three times the number of people affected than previously estimated. “The figure could double to 630 million people affected by 2100 if little is done to rein in greenhouse gas emissions. These assessments show the potential of climate change to reshape cities, economies, coastlines and entire global regions within our lifetimes,” says Scott Kulp, lead author of the study. Earlier projections seem to have been far too conservative, while newer ones claim that major coastal population centres run risks of becoming completely inundated, displacing hundreds of millions of people, resulting in tragic environmental, social and economic disruption. For instance, much of Southern Vietnam will be inundated, where rising seas would potentially displace a quarter of the country’s population. The cities of Mumbai and Bangkok could be completely submerged. READ MORE GLOBAL Mangrove conservation can pay for itself in flood protection USA - The natural coastal defenses provided by mangrove forests reduce annual flooding significantly in critical hotspots around the world. Without mangroves, flood damages would increase by more than $65 billion annually, and 15 million more people would be flooded, according to a new study published March 10 in Scientific Reports. Climate change is increasing the risk of coastal flooding through its effects on sea level rise and the intensity of hurricanes. According to the study's authors, conservation and restoration of natural defenses such as mangroves offers cost-effective ways to mitigate and adapt to these changes. The researchers provided high-resolution estimates of the economic value of mangrove forests for flood risk reduction across more than 700,000 kilometers of coastlines worldwide. They combined engineering and economic models to provide the best analyses of coastal flood risk and mangrove benefits. Their results show when, where, and how mangroves reduce flooding, and they identified innovative ways to fund mangrove protection using economic incentives, insurance, and climate risk financing. READ MORE Earth's coral reefs could be gone by 2100, research finds GLOBAL - Climate change could wipe out almost all coral reef habitats around the world by 2100, according to research released Monday. The bleak outlook forecasts that warming oceans and rising seas could have a devastating impact on ocean ecosystems, suggesting that efforts to restore dying corals will likely encounter difficulties as global warming continues to wipe out habitats that could once support healthy reef systems. "By 2100, it's looking quite grim," Renee Setter, a biogeographer at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa, said in a statement. She presented her findings at the annual Ocean Sciences Meeting, which is being held through Friday in San Diego. Setter and her colleagues simulated ocean environments in which coral reefs currently exist based on projections of sea surface temperature, ocean acidification, wave energy, pollution and fishing practices. They found that by 2100, few to zero suitable habitats for corals are likely to remain. READ MORE AFRICA Africa must not be shortchanged on climate finance KENYA - Fifty-five kilometres south of Kenya’s coastal capital of Mombasa is Gazi village, a small rural community snoozing in the Chale Peninsula, deriving its name from Gazi Bay. Gazi Bay is a major fish-landing site in the eastern seaboard of Africa, where the ecosystem and monsoon tides favour a rich marine life. However, Gazi is better known globally for its mangrove biodiversity more than for its fish or tourist appeal. Conserving biodiversity, improving community livelihoods and combating climate change are the hallmarks of this rural parish, a world leader with its pioneering, community-led approach to mangrove conservation. “When you talk about mangrove conservation in Africa, Gazi Bay stands out,” says Josphat Mwamba, the programme manager. “The Mikoko Pamoja [Swahili for ‘mangroves together’] initiative is the world’s first project to fund mangrove conservation through the sale of carbon credits.” The proceeds from Mikoko Pamoja’s conservation work are ploughed back to benefit the entire Gazi community of about 10,000 residents. Clean piped water, electricity, refurbishment of schools, provision of books and materials and support for youth and women groups, all benefit directly from the income generated from the carbon funds that the community receives courtesy of protecting mangrove forests. READ MORE Saving Mozambique’s seagrass MOZAMBIQUE - People can’t think of Inhaca without thinking about seagrass,” says Salamao Bandeira of Maputo’s Eduardo Mondlane University, knee-deep in the shallow waters on the seaward side of Maputo Bay, as he points at the shores of Inhaca Island.Nearby, residents are submerged waist-deep in the sea, taking advantage of the low-tide to fish in the current or hunt for clams and crabs in the seagrass. “It means a lot to the people here—it’s not just a resource, it’s part of the way of life,” he adds. Indeed, seagrass helps sustain life here in the Maputo and Inhambane bays of Mozambique. The shrimps, sea cucumbers, clams and crabs found among these underwater meadows are a source of food and employment for local communities, says Bandeira. But experts warn that destructive shellfish harvesting—along with the flooding and sedimentation from rivers emptying into the bay—are destroying seagrass beds at a rapid rate. Research indicates that 86 per cent of seagrass meadows have been lost in the northwest of Maputo Bay alone—putting local culture, jobs and food security at risk. READ MORE AMERICA Mexico is illegally destroying protected mangrove trees to build an $8 billion oil refinery MEXICO - Mexico’s state-owned oil company Pemex has defied a government order by cutting down protected mangrove trees on the site where president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has ordered the construction of an oil refinery, according to sources familiar with the project. Satellite images show a landscape razed presumably to accommodate the controversial $8 billion project. The populist president has made the Dos Bocas refinery project, located in his home state of Tabasco, central to his bid (paywall) to revive Pemex from its current dysfunction. Now Latin America’s second-biggest company by revenue, Pemex drove the Mexican economy in the 1960s and 1970s but lost $35 billion last year. Critics say the refinery isn’t economically viable. So far, the project has come at the cost of a forest of mangroves, a tree treasured by conservationists and important in combating climate change. The trees create complex ecosystems that provide almost 6% of Mexico’s GDP, according to the University of California, San Diego. Swaths of jungle, including a few dozen hectares of mangrove, were cut down by a third-party company shortly after then-president-elect Lopez Obrador announced the project in July 2018. The permit to begin work wasn’t issued until the next year. READ MORE Tropical Forests Are Losing Their Ability to Absorb Carbon, Study Finds BRAZIL - The world's tropical forests are rapidly losing their ability to absorb carbon from the atmosphere, worrying scientists that a major carbon dump will transform them into a carbon source, according to research published recently. The study, which was published in the journal Nature, found that in 15 years the Amazon could turn into a carbon source, due to wildfires, deforestation, and the excess greenhouse gasses pumped into the atmosphere, as The Guardian reported. An international consortium of European and African scientists led by researchers from the University of Leeds studied more than 300,000 trees over the course of 30 years in the Amazon and the African tropics. The researchers found that climate models that typically predict that tropical forests will serve as carbon sinks for decades are inaccurate. Instead, the decades of analysis found that the uptake of carbon into the world's tropical forests actually peaked in the 1990s, according to a press release from the University of Leeds. "Our findings show that back in the 1990s intact tropical forests were absorbing 4.6 billion tons of carbon dioxide every year," Simon Lewis, professor of Global Change Science at University College London, and Lee White, the government of Gabon's Minister for Water, Forests, the Sea and Environment, wrote in The Independent. READ MORE Florida Poised to Protect Gulf of Mexico’s Largest Seagrass Bed USA - Boaters stop to swim and fish in the clear waters of the St. Martins Marsh Aquatic Preserve in Crystal River, Florida, along the state’s Nature Coast. Bills passed by the Florida Legislature would expand protections to coastal waters off Citrus, Hernando, and Pasco counties. Florida’s west coast is home to vast seagrass beds where fishing, scalloping, and ecotourism form the backbone of coastal economies. Some 400,000 acres of those beds moved a critical step closer to protection during the Florida legislative session when lawmakers approved bills to create the Nature Coast Aquatic Preserve off the coasts of Citrus, Hernando, and Pasco counties. The legislation now awaits signature by Governor Ron DeSantis (R). With his approval, the area would become the first new preserve designated in more than 30 years and the 42nd in a state system designed to maintain water quality and biological value to ensure healthy ecosystems. The preserve, which covers part of the Gulf of Mexico’s largest seagrass bed, would still allow traditional activities such as boating, fishing, and scalloping. READ MORE Company touting cure to farmed shrimp disease signs deal with global pharmaceutical giant USA - Pebble Labs, the US-based biotech company that claims to have found a potential solution to two of the shrimp farming industry's biggest problems, has signed a deal with one of the world's largest veterinarian phramaceutial groups to co-develop and commercialize its technology. French group Virbac is already a leading animal health player in aquaculture, will work with Pebble Labs to bring RNA-based technologies to global large-scale aquaculture and focus on a solution for white spot syndrome virus (WSSV), a disease that can cause mortalities in a shrimp crop of up to 50 percent and incur costs of around $3.5 billion worldwide each year. Currently the aquaculture industry relies heavily on probiotics, synthetic chemicals and antibiotics to fight the diseases which can be devastating to shrimp farms worldwide. READ MORE ASIA More than 60% of Myanmar's mangroves has been deforested in the last 20 years MYANMAR - Mangroves account for only 0.7 per cent of the Earth's tropical forest area, but they are among the world's most productive and important ecosystems. They provide a wealth of ecological and socio-economic benefits, such as serving as nursery habitat for fish species, offering protection against coastal surges associated with storms and tsunamis, and storing carbon. While many countries have established legal protection for mangroves, their value for sustainable ecosystem services face strong competition from converting the land to other more lucrative uses, particularly for agriculture. In the past decade, studies have shown that mangrove deforestation rates are higher than the deforestation of inland terrestrial forests. New research from the National University of Singapore (NUS) provided additional support for this, with results showing that mangroves deforestation rates in Myanmar, an important country for mangrove extent and biodiversity, greatly exceed previous estimates. READ MORE |
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