Nature Beat #1

Oct 24, 2023

Welcome to the first edition of my newsletter. Read my About page to find out what it is, who I am and why I am doing this. Or just dive in. You’ll find news, reporting resources, job postings, links to some great stories and a look ahead at what’s coming up in the world of biodiversity and nature policy.

Taking The Pulse

Intergovernmental negotiations under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity took place in Nairobi from 15–20 October. These talks sadly get very little media coverage. Delegates focused on the scientific, technical, and technological aspects of implementing the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, which parties to the CBD adopted last year. Read the Earth Negotiations Bulletin’s summary of the meeting here. Civil society organization Avaaz has some big concerns. Read Avaaz’s full assessment here or find Oscar Soria’s tweeted summary here.
In India, a group including former civil servants in the forest sector have brought a case to the Supreme Court challenging India’s Forest (Conservation) Amendment Act 2023. There’s a good summary here by one of the petitioners, Prerna Singh Bindra, who says: “This is a fight to conserve India’s wealth of forests and precious wildlife, preserve our natural and cultural heritage, save the ecosystems crucial for our ecological and financial security.”
Tree planting sounds great in principle but it can harm biodiversity if done wrong. The Global Biodiversity Standard aims to address this. Botanic Gardens Conservation International is developing the standard and will launch a public consultation in late October 2023. The standard will be increasingly needed as tree-planting projects proliferate worldwide.

In The Spotlight

Big congratulations to Mongabay.com for winning the BBVA Foundation’s Biophilia Award for its environmental journalism focused on biodiversity and conservation in the tropics.
The Earth Journalism Network and Deakin University are researching the state of climate and environmental journalism globally. Take part in the study or find out more.
Ben Goldfarb’s new book Crossings is about the ecological harm roads cause and it sounds great. Here’s a review by Jonathan Slaght of the Wildlife Conservation Society.

Tips And Resources

The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism has published the last of 13 essays in its How to fix climate journalism series.
Demon crop or unfairly demonized? There is some food for thought for journalists covering the environmental and social impacts of palm oil production in a new study summarized here by Denise Oliveira for CIFOR’s Forests News site.
Mongabay has a webinar for journalists on how to cover conservation technologies on 26 October 2023. Read more and register here.
Also on 26 October, the Earth Journalism Network is hosting a webinar on how journalists, local communities and civil society can improve civic engagement around natural resource governance in the Mekong region. Khmer and Burmese interpretation is available. Register here.

Jobs And Opportunities

The Third Pole is seeking pitches from journalists in Central, South and Southeast Asia. Check the guidelines before you pitch.
The Earth Journalism Network is offering four year-long fellowships for journalists covering topics including biodiversity — deadline 16 November — and grants for covering environmental crimes in the Amazon — deadline 26 October.
Mongabay Africa has three jobs on offer and has launched its new internship scheme.
Apply for a PhD position on climate advocacy journalism at the University of Amsterdam, working with Christel van Eck – deadline 1 November.

What Caught My Eye

The great cash-for-carbon hustle — excellent reporting by Heidi Blake in this long feature about the perils of trading carbon in tropical forests.
Terrible news from Brazil, where drought and forest fires are choking the city of Manaus, killing rare river dolphins and harming communities that depend on the Amazon river. Jonathan Watts reports for The Guardian.
Rubber production has caused at least two times more deforestation in Southeast Asia than generally thought, including in key biodiversity areas. See Aruna Chandrasekhar’s story for Carbon Brief, or read the research in Nature.
Tropical forests may be getting too hot for photosynthesis, reports Meghan Bartels for Scientific American.
Malta has permitted thousands of songbird trappers to catch and release finches in the name of science. BirdLife Malta is highly critical and wants the public’s help to spot illegal trapping.
Scientists are using artificial intelligence to listen to forest sounds and identify what species are there. Warren Cornwall tells the story for Anthropocene.
James Ashworth reports that people may have been ‘farming’ giant birds called cassowaries 18,000 years ago, according to research led by Kristina Douglass of Columbia University.
Taras Bains from the Conservation Optimism crew shared seven positive stories from around the world.
Kew published the State of the World’s Plants and Fungi 2023. Find the full report here or read a summary by Eddie Johnston. Part of this work identified 32 global ‘darkspots’ where plant species are yet to be scientifically named, described and mapped. Are you living in one of them?

On The Horizon

24 October 2023: The 2023 Forest Declaration Assessment report will track progress towards the goals of eliminating deforestation and forest degradation by 2030. Find it here.
23-27 October 2023: The Latin America and the Caribbean Climate Week (LACCW) is taking place in Panama City, Panama. See the website, agenda and the page for media.
26-28 October 2023: The Summit of the Three Basins of Biodiversity Ecosystems and Tropical Forests takes place in Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo.
6-10 November 2023: The 77th meeting of the Standing Committee of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES SC77) takes place in Geneva. To find out what is going on, check out the recording of this recent briefing or read the Earth Negotiations Bulletin’s preview.
14 November 2023: Sarah Edwards is giving the 2023 Kent/Kew Distinguished Ethnobotanist Lecture, on ‘Ethnobotany: The Sacred and The Science’. Attend online.
30 November 2023: COP28, the 28th Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), will take place in the United Arab Emirates and will run until 12 December. See the UNFCCC’s media page.
May 2024: The UN Convention on Biological Diversity’s two subsidiary bodies will meet to finalise the approach for monitoring implementation of the Global Biodiversity Framework.
21 October 2024: COP16, the 16th Conference of Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, is due to take place on 21 October to 1 November. Turkey was going to host the meeting but has withdrawn. If no other country steps in, COP16 will be in Montreal, Canada.

Whose Eye Was It?

The eye belongs to a rhinoceros hornbill. Photo credit: Mark Dumont / Flickr: Creative Commons

Until Next Time

Thanks for reading. Please let me know what you think and what you would like to see. If you found it useful, please consider subscribing or sharing the newsletter with colleagues. If you have some new work that you’re especially proud of, please let me know. I’d love to see it. You can reach me at: shanahan.mail [at] gmail.com

Before I go, I want to pay tribute to John Vidal, the former environment editor for The Guardian newspaper who passed away last week. John was a trailblazer in the field of environmental journalism who broke many important stories and always championed the vulnerable in his work. He was funny, irreverent and a great provider of support to less experienced colleagues. His obituary is here.