Nature Beat #21
Updates, stories, resources and opportunities
Welcome to the latest edition of Global Nature Beat. If you are new here, read my About page to find out what this newsletter 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 to what’s coming up in the world of biodiversity and nature policy.
Taking The Pulse
Plastics: Ahead of the penultimate schedule negotiation session towards a global treaty on plastic, the Center for International Environmental Law has published its recommendations by annotating the latest draft of the treaty text. Meanwhile, a new scientific report shows that there are now 16,000 known chemicals in plastic, with a quarter of these being hazardous to human health or the environment. The authors say the treaty must consider the chemicals and address the threats they pose — see press release. On 19 March, Margaret Spring, chief conservation and science officer at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, gave a press briefing at the US State Department on the forthcoming negotiations — read the transcript or watch the video here.
Wildlife in medicine: A proposal to promote substitutes for endangered animal and plant ingredients in traditional Chinese medicine was submitted at the annual plenary sessions of China’s National People’s Congress earlier this month. The Environmental Investigation Agency has welcomed the move — see the blog post by Ceres Kam.
Corporate Sustainability: On 15 March, the European Council approved the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD). One approved by the European Parliament, the CSDDD will hold big companies in the EU responsible for environmental damage and violations of human rights in their supply chains. The approved text is much weaker than the initial proposal, as Global Witness explains here. Lawyer Jon McGowan provides analysis here.
Trophy hunting: In Botswana, representatives of communities that benefit from trophy hunting held a protest at the British High Commission against planned UK legislation that would ban imports of hunting trophies. They said the law would harm rural livelihoods and conservation. Meanwhile, conservationists in Kenya launched a petition calling on the President of Tanzania to ban trophy hunting of elephants in the north of the country, because it is threatening elephants from Kenya’s Amboseli National Park that migrate across the border.
In The Spotlight
Jonathan Watts reported on the Trees for the Future reforestation programme that has planted tens of millions of trees across nine African countries.
Jessica J. Lee explores the notions of ‘weed’ and ‘invasive’ in this writing about what has been called the most dangerous plant in Britain — an extract from her book Dispersals: On Plants, Borders, and Belonging.
Keith Fabro produced a great data story on the impacts of plastic trash and wastewater on people and biodiversity in the part of the Philippines that attracts most tourists.
How doomed are we? Climate scientist Adam Sobel tries to answer what he says an existential, philosophical, and personal question, but mostly not a scientific one.
Yao Hua Law and Tracy Keeling produced this in-depth multimedia story of a once-common food fish in Malaysia that is now heavily farmed for the international aquarium trade and endangered in the wild, with releases of captive-bred fish providing some hope it can be saved. Part two is here.
In Focus: Meat and Climate Change
Researchers surveyed 210 experts in 48 countries for what they say is the first analysis showing how the global livestock sector must change to comply with the Paris Agreement on climate change. Their report says greenhouse gas emissions from the sector must peak by 2025 in high-income and middle-income countries — and then rapidly fall. Read the press release or the full report. Staying on this topic:
Björn Ólafsson dug into the livestock industry’s claims that it can produce ‘climate-friendly’ beef.
Research published on 15 March showed that reducing grazing intensity on 75 percent of currently grazed land, and increasing it on the remaining 25 percent, would turn pasture from a net source of carbon to a net sink that locks away 63 billion tons of carbon. Yale e360 covered the research here.
As Damian Carrington reports, scientists have criticised a UN plan for addressing climate change and hunger for failing to include measures to reduced meat consumption. Read their full paper here.
In the United States, Wyatt Myskow and Lee Hedgepeth wrote about concerted efforts by right-wing lawmakers to ban lab-grown meat.
Jenny Splitter wrote for SEJ.org about how journalists can cover the environmental impacts of animal agriculture.
Tips And Resources
TRAFFIC and WWF-India released a factsheet on the illegal shark trade in India from 2010 to 2022.
On 26 March, the World Resources Institute is holding an embargoed press call to give reporters a preview of how much tree cover was lost in 2023 and an analysis on the state of the world’s forest, ahead of the data’s publication in April — register here.
With philanthropies committing large sums of money for conservation and climate action, Mongabay’s latest podcast focuses on how journalists can access the effectiveness and fairness of this funding.
On 26 March, the Pulitzer Center’s Environmental Unit is holding an online ‘ask me anything’ session for journalists who want to pitch stories or apply for rainforest or ocean reporting grants.
See past editions for more tips and resources.
What Caught My Eye
A wild story from the United States: A man has plead guilty to wildlife trafficking charges after illegally importing body parts of endangered wild sheep from Kyrgyzstan as part of an elaborate plan was to create giant sheep hybrids to sell to captive hunting facilities.
Economist Impact released an online map with data on 100 marine protected areas, with detailed information on ten of them — and warned that a lack of monitoring and assessment of the outcomes of marine protected areas is undermining conservation.
Jayashree Nandi reports that former civil servants in India have published an open letter criticising the government’s new Green Credit Rules, which they say will enable private companies to acquire and destroy forests.
Hướng Thiện wrote about sexual harassment experienced by women working in conservation in South-East Asia.
BirdLife International says the European Commission’s proposed changes to the EU Common Agriculture Policy are a “frontal attack” on the policy’s environmental elements, which are already “the bare minimum to tackle the pressing nature and climate emergencies.”
As forests shrink in Sri Lanka, human-elephant conflict is rising — it caused the deaths of 170 people and 470 elephants there last year, reports Thaslima Begum.
IUCN published a summary of the Accelerating Nature-Based Solutions conference that took place last week in Zambia.
Devin Farmiloe spoke with journalist Sasha Chavkin about his reporting on how commodity production and trade drives illegal deforestation in Brazil.
The grave of explorer Ernest Shackleton on South Georgia island has become inaccessible due to “dead seals blocking the way” — Phoebe Weston reports on the spread of H5N1 bird flu.
Josh Gabbatis reports on a study saying that logging companies have “acquired” roughly 1m hectares of Indigenous peoples’ territory in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
IUCN published a briefing document on synthetic biology in relation to nature conservation to inform a process underway to develop a policy on this topic.
A body representing indigenous peoples and local communities is seeking comments on its draft recommendations on the development of markets for biodiversity credits, reports Giada Ferraglioni.
South Africa’s Biodiversity Investment Portal has secured its first investments to promote conservation, growth of the biodiversity economy and community wellbeing.
Twelve environmental organizations in the UK called on the government to develop a robust and ambitious National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan — read the letter here.
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From The Journals
Researchers used artificial intelligence to scour social media for evidence of bat exploitation around the world — see the press release or the full paper.
A study on critically endangered North Atlantic right whales found that 89% of females had experienced at least one entanglement in fishing gear — with impacts on breeding rates. See the press release or the full paper.
Researchers assessed the content of Chinese nature documentaries, finding gaps and opportunities to improve public awareness of biodiversity loss and conservation — see the full paper.
Inspired by the increased risk of timber laundering following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, researchers have developed a technique for analysing timber to determine where it was harvested. See the press release or the full paper.
In Focus: Nature And Climate In Ireland
This week, the Irish Times was tricked into reporting that Ireland’s state forestry agency, Coillte, had said its widespread planting of non-native tree species was a problem and that it would only plant native species from next year. The hoax story — you can read it here — focused attention on Coillte’s track record and Ireland’s almost total lack of native forest.
“Whoever was behind this hoax… it was a work of pure genius,” wrote author and rewilder Eoghan Daltun on x.com. “The attention can only put more pressure on the current ecocidal forestry model.” Journalist John Gibbons pointed out a complete lack of environmental expertise among Coillte’s board members.
In other news, the European Commission is taking Ireland to court for failing to stop peat extraction in Special Areas of Conservation. As campaigner Pádraic Fogarty notes in his summary of the case, it is 13 years since the European Commission first warned Ireland.
Finally, as Caroline O'Doherty reports, the Irish government has still not set up a senior working group to tackle rising threats of coastal land loss and flooding, almost five months after it was announced.
Jobs And Opportunities
The Earth Journalism Network is offering grants to media outlets in Nepal to support coverage of natural resource management and green growth — deadline 10 April.
The Working Class Writers Nature Prize is open for entries (UK residents only) — deadline 19 April.
India-based environmental journalists can apply to join Thibi and the Earth Journalism Network’s Environmental Data Journalism Academy — deadline 30 March.
InfoNile invites journalists and scientists in ten Nile Basin countries to join a fellowship scheme to co-produce stories based on scientific research on water and the environment — deadline 31 March.
Bonus content: There are 35 jobs, grants, fellowships and other opportunities listed here for The Nature Beat’s paying supporters. Paid subscriptions are less than £1 per week. A free seven-day trial is available.
On The Horizon
3-7 April 2024: The Society of Environmental Journalists holds its annual conference in Philadelphia, United States.
10-12 April 2024: The UN Ocean Decade Conference takes place in Barcelona, Spain.
15-17 April 2024: The 9th Our Ocean Conference takes place in Athens, Greece.
15-19 April 2024: The Secretariat of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity is holding a dialogue on National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans, and a workshop on Target 3 of the Global Biodiversity Framework, for Caribbean countries. Both take place in Georgetown, Guyana.
17-21 April 2024: The International Journalism Festival takes place in Perugia, Italy.
Bonus content: The full calendar for The Nature Beat’s supporters includes 57 nature-related intergovernmental negotiations, scientific conferences, report launches, and other events up until 2026. Paid subscriptions are less than £1 per week. A free seven-day trial is available.
Whose Eye Was It?
The eye belongs to an aye-aye. Photo credit: Elias Neideck / Wikipedia — Creative Commons
Thanks for reading. For past editions, see the Archive. If you found it interesting or useful, please share and subscribe. If you want to get in contact, you can reach me at: thenaturebeat@substack.com.
Aye-aye, cap’n! (I did not guess correctly this week either.) But my daughter was looking over my shoulder at my phone and when I told her whose eye it was, she recalled a school report she’d done on them in third grade. So we dug that up and spent a lovely hour researching the species afterward. That middle finger!!