Nature Beat #2
Thank you to everyone who has subscribed to the newsletter already. In the first week, people from 45 countries have signed up. It is great to see so many familiar names among them. There’s plenty in this edition. I hope you find it useful.
Taking The Pulse
“Life on planet Earth is under siege. We are now in an uncharted territory.” So begins the 2023 State of the Climate Report. It is worth reading in full. Sit down first. It pulls no punches.
The H5N1 bird flu virus has killed millions of wild birds since 2021 and has now reached Antarctica for the first time. Scientists are worried for the penguins and other birds there. Time to re-read this wonderful piece of writing by Julian Hoffman, who witnessed H5N1 devastate a colony of Dalmatian pelicans in Greece.
The Interconnected Disaster Risks Report 2023, published by the United Nations University, warned of six risk tipping points, including “Accelerating extinctions: A chain reaction to ecosystem collapse”. The press release and images are here.
Africa’s first-ever community-led conservation congress took place in Namibia. Representatives of Indigenous Peoples and local communities from across the continent got together to advance plans for their emerging alliance. RRI has a summary of all three days.
The 2023 Forest Declaration Assessment report came out last week. It shows we not on track to meet the goals of eliminating deforestation and restoring 350 million hectares of degraded land by 2030. The press release is here. UNDP Climate & Forests has a handy summary with graphics here.
More On Forests
"We don’t need new forest pledges. We need to see proper implementation of those we already have," said WWF-UK’s CEO Tanya Steele launching the Forest Pathways Report which identifies solutions relating to rights, financing, trade rules and nature-based economic activities.
Heads of state from countries in the Amazon basin, Congo basin and South-East Asia issued a declaration at the Summit of the Three Basins. They agreed to enhance cooperation and action on tropical forests and biodiversity, but did not form a formal alliance as some had hoped. WWF says it is “an important start”. Other organizations had opposed the Summit and its focus.
In The Spotlight
Congratulations to Terrence McCoy for winning the Kevin Carmody Award for Outstanding Investigative Reporting, from the Society of Environmental Journalists, for his series “The Amazon, Undone”.
Catrin Einhorn interviewed seven scientists studying the impacts of global warming on the nonhuman world and heard about the emotional toll of being “witnesses to an intricately connected world that we have pushed out of balance”.
Eduardo Franco Berton wrote a great feature for NatGeo on how Bolivia regulates traditional use of an endangered lizard species to treat pain and injured limbs.
The Council of the International Seabed Authority is meeting from 30 October to 8 November. Dánica Coto reports for AP on why environmental groups want a moratorium on deep-sea mining.
The man rescuing Britain's 'magical' glow worms — I enjoyed this story about rewilding, by Helen Briggs.
Tips And Resources
The Society of Environmental Journalists is holding its 2024 Journalists' Guide to Environment and Energy on 16 November. Join online or in person.
Jonas Geschke and colleagues have published ideas about how conservation scientists can improve how they communicate with journalists about biodiversity.
Emily Atkin wants fellow journalists to go beyond saying that things are caused by climate change and directly implicate fossil fuels, deforestation and industrial agriculture.
The World Resources Institute has launched a new Spanish language site.
Do you find the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) website useful? The CBD Secretariat is seeking feedback — deadline 6 November.
New Stripes On The Block
You’ve probably seen the Climate Stripes and perhaps also the Biodiversity Stripes. WWF has now launched the Forest Stripes to show that the population abundance of species that depend on forests fell by 79 percent from 1970 to 2018. Miles Richardson, who leads the Nature Connectedness Research Group at the University of Derby reflects on the three sets of stripes on his Finding Nature blog.
Jobs And Opportunities
Could you be the next editor of Climate Home News? Apply here — deadline 6 November.
Want to go deep on a rainforest story? Apply to join the Pulitzer Center’s Rainforest Investigations Network — deadline 20 December — or apply for a grant from the Rainforest Journalism Fund.
The Pulitzer Center also has grants for reporting on oceans and fisheries.
The Society of Environmental Journalists is seeking a new Executive Director.
There’s still time to apply for the Earth Journalism Network’s four year-long fellowships for journalists covering topics including biodiversity — deadline 16 November.
The CNN Academy and the Rockefeller Foundation will support 15 young journalists from the Global South to produce documentaries on climate change — deadline 15 November.
Grist is offering four paid fellowships for underrepresented, early-career journalists in the United States who are interested in climate and environmental reporting.
What Caught My Eye
A study of ten years of media coverage of seizures of illegally caught and traded birds in India has identified trafficking hotspots. The authors wrote a blog post about their research here.
“The World Health Organization should declare the indivisible climate and nature crisis as a global health emergency,” said 200 medical journals in a joint statement.
A study suggests that a lion protection fee could replace revenue from trophy hunting in South Africa. The authors explain the findings here and give a useful summary of the trophy hunting debate.
Botanists are an endangered species — Sebastian Stroud tells Mongabay why that matters
Remember when billions of snow crabs disappeared in 2022? A new study suggests that global heating is to blame.
Big global banks are investing in companies making products from leopard and pangolin parts. Alex Binley reports for the BBC on an exposé by the Environmental Investigation Agency.
Coral bleaching has been reported at record depths, where coral was previously thought to be more resilient to ocean heating.
Biodiversity is about to go mainstream in ESG (environmental, social and governance) investing, says William Attwell of Sustainable Fitch’s global research team.
Tosin Thomson wrote a feature for Nature on scientists using artificial intelligence to record and monitor biodiversity.
The Food and Agriculture Organization published The World’s Mangroves 2000–2020. Headline figure: A net decline in global mangrove area of 284,000 hectares.
How To Compensate For Biodiversity Loss
The United Kingdom’s Biodiversity Net Gain policy is among the world’s most ambitious biodiversity compensation schemes. It will require any new development to leave biodiversity in a better state than before it was constructed. But a new study warns that: “resourcing and governance shortfalls risk undermining the policy's effectiveness at halting biodiversity loss.” One of the authors, Sophus zu Ermgassen, explains why here for Carbon Brief. The full research paper is here.
On The Horizon
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.
7-9 November 2023: The Nature for Life Hub 2023 is an online conference aimed at boosting action under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. There is something for everyone in the three-day agenda. Explore it and register here.
13-17 November 2023: Malaysia is hosting the Asia-Pacific Climate Week, the last of four regional conferences ahead of COP28.
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.
16-21 June 2024: The World Biodiversity Forum will take place in Davos, Switzerland.
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.
Remembering Saleemul Huq
Saleemul Huq, the scientist and visionary advocate for climate justice, has died at his home in Bangladesh. He was a friend and former colleague and I am devastated to learn of his death. I’ve written some thoughts about him here. Journalists who knew him and have written obituaries include: Joydeep Gupta, Jayanta Basu and Seth Borenstein.
Whose Eye Was It?
The eye belongs to a ring-tailed lemur. Photo credit: 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: thenaturebeat@substack.com