Nature Beat #27

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.

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Taking The Pulse

Plastics treaty: The latest session of negotiations towards a global plastics treaty ended on 29 April with some progress but no major breakthroughs. See press releases from UNEP, WWF, the Center for International Environmental Law, the Environmental Investigation Agency and the Center for Biological Diversity — and the summary from the Earth Negotiations Bulletin.

Parties engaged in concrete negotiations, made some updates to the draft treaty text, and agreed to meet to work on some issues ahead of the scheduled final negotiating session in November in Busan, South Korea. But there is still no agreement on big issues, such as whether the treaty will include limits to plastic production or instead have a narrow focus on plastic waste management. Also undecided is whether the treaty will impose global rules or rely on voluntary national action.

This reflects disagreement between a ‘High Ambition Coalition’ of countries and a ‘Like-Minded Group’ of countries that want a treaty with limited scope. Other countries sit in the middle wondering which way to turn. As Valerie Volcovici and Gloria Dickie reported, lobbyists from the plastics and fossil fuel sectors were out in force to sway minds. Nearly 200 of them registered to attend the talks — an increase of 37 percent since the previous negotiation session.

G7 commitments: Climate, energy and environment ministers from the G7 group of most industrialized nations met in Italy on 29-30 April. A key outcome is their pledge to produce updated national climate change plans that align with the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting global heating to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. The new plans will cover all sectors and all greenhouse gases, will have targets for 2030 and 2035 and will be released sometime between the end of this year and early in 2025.

The official communique has more details of these and other climate measures, including a 2035 deadline for phasing out coal power. Matteo Civillini dug into the document for Climate Home News and found it lacking. The communique also has commitments relating to other issues including plastics, chemical pollution and implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. There’s not much new, but it is useful to see everything in one place.

UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD): Research shows that governments widely failed to provide evidence of their efforts to implement a National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP) in line with their commitments under the CBD up to the year 2000. The research looked at nearly 8,000 commitments in 58 NBSAPs. Governments reported on only 56 percent of these pledges.

The findings are timely as the nearly 200 countries that are party to the CBD are due to submit a revised NBSAP before the next Conference on Parties, in October. The updated documents will show how governments plan to meet the 23 targets of the Global Biodiversity Framework by 2030. The researchers say their findings show that more robust national monitoring is crucial — see the full paper or Sergio Colombo’s story for Carbon Pulse.

Deforestation for beef in Brazil: It was great to see a journalist among the winners of a 2024 Goldman Environmental Prize. Marcel Gomes and colleagues at Repórter Brasil exposed how the giant meatpacking company JBS had sourced beef from illegally deforested land in Brazil. In this article for Mongabay, André Schröder interviewed Gomes about this work.

It’s an ongoing story. As André Campos and Poliana Dallabrida reported for Repórter Brasil this month, a supplier of JBS chemically deforested more than 80,000 hectares in Mato Grosso state by spraying a cocktail of 25 pesticides from planes. This drone footage of the area is bleak.

The rancher’s plan was to grow grass to raise more cattle on the land. However, a court has imposed a fine of 2.8 billion reals (more than US$500 million) and another 2.4 billion reals (US$385 million) in costs for restoring the damage. It has ordered the seizure of the rancher’s cattle and other assets to help cover the costs.

Whose eye is this? Answer below…

In The Spotlight

• Justine Calma wrote a great feature story on how climate change is presenting new challenges to conservationists whose decades-long efforts have successfully restored a huge area of tropical forest in Costa Rica. The photos of declining numbers of moths attracted to light traps are shocking.

• Giada Ferraglioni reported on growing market interest in indigenous-led biodiversity credit projects and on a new paper by the UN-backed Biodiversity Credits Alliance on how to ensure the social and environmental integrity of the emerging biodiversity credit market.

• The Maldives is dredging sand from its seabed and using it to reclaim land from the sea, but as Jesse Chase-Lubitz reports, there are concerns that this will harm marine ecosystems and make the country more vulnerable to rising seas. In an accompanying interview, Chase-Lubitz tells the Pulitzer Center how she found and covered the story.

• Kenny Torrella reported on how the US Department of Agriculture has killed 56 million wild animals in the past 20 years, primarily to protect livestock farmers.

• Attracta Mooney wrote about how deforestation is raising the risk of diseases spreading from wildlife to people.

Tips And Resources

• The Environmental Investigative Forum launched #MineAlert-Africa in partnership with Oxpeckers Investigative Environmental Journalism. The platform combines maps and journalism to document threats to biodiversity posed by mining licences across the African continent, including where licences overlap with protected areas.

• On 2 May, the Society of Environmental Journalists and the Freedom of the Press Foundation are hosting an online discussion on ‘intersection of press freedom and the environment’.

• On 3 May, Media in Cooperation and Transition is holding a conference on climate journalism in Africa — register here to join online or in person in Berlin.

• On 22 May, Future Earth and partners have a webinar at which contributors to the ‘10 Must Knows from Biodiversity Science’ report will discuss the findings and take questions — read about the report or register for the webinar here.

See past editions for more tips and resources.

In Focus: Transition Minerals

Transition minerals are things like nickel and cobalt that are needed to decarbonize economies with supplies of renewable energy. Rising demand is creating some problems for the environment and for people living near mining operations. Last week the UN Secretary General convened a panel of government representatives and non-state actors to develop global voluntary principles for ensuring the energy transition is fair and sustainable. Three articles from the past week highlight the issues:

• Fred Pearce reports on concerns that Indonesia's rainforests will suffer as mining for nickel booms.

• Yessenia Funes reports on the human and environmental costs of cobalt mining in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and how to make the sector cleaner and fairer to local communities.

• Rukka Sombolinggi, Secretary General of AMAN, the world’s largest Indigenous peoples organization, summarized the demands Indigenous People laid out earlier this month, regarding mining and renewable energy projects that affect them and their territories.

What Caught My Eye

• South Africa has 8,000 to 10,000 captive lions, far more than the estimated 3,490 in the wild, says Stephanie Klarmann in this article highlighting a huge industry keeping indigenous and exotic cat species for economic reasons.

• Bottom trailing supplies a quarter of all wild-caught seafood, but does untold damage to marine life and ecosystems. Catherine Early asks whether it can ever be sustainable.

• A single gang might have killed 10 percent of all Javan rhinos in the past five years, reports Jeremy Hance.

• Mexico’s presidential election is in June. Patricia Ramirez reports on an analysis of what the candidates are saying about environmental issues.

• Researchers say the deterioration of the UK’s natural environment could lead to a 12 percent drop in GDP, a similar level to that caused by COVID-19.

• Two Malaysian men who previously pleaded guilty to charges of trafficking rhino horn have reversed their plea and opted instead for a trial, reports TRAFFIC.

• Irish government agencies incorrectly refused 92 percent of public requests for environmental information, reports Caroline O’Doherty.

• Lai Yun and Chen Yu of Global Witness wrote about proposed legal changes in China that would mandate ecological restoration of mining areas and the implications for Chinese mining companies operating in other countries.

• Caroline Chebet wrote about how a planned highway threatens an important area for biodiversity in Kenya, despite a report finding that the road would bring no socio-economic benefits.

• The Center for Biological Diversity secured legal protection decisions for 15 species in the United States.

• Nepal’s government has bypassed parliament to issue an ordinance that would allow foreign investment in infrastructure projects in protected areas, reports Abhaya Raj Joshi.

• Yanine Quiroz reported on the outcomes of the third Conference of the Parties to the Escazú Agreement, the first environmental treaty for Latin America and the Caribbean.

• The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration has launched a second season of its RESTORE documentary series, with each episode focusing on one of the seven UN World Restoration Flagships — watch here.

• Monica Evans wrote a primer on peatlands, “the quiet, sodden heroes of carbon sequestration”.

• Zsolt Vegvári reviewed two new books on the ecological impacts of roads and cars.

From The Journals

In case you missed it, my latest round-up of new research included papers on: Burnt-out mammals. Invasive megafish. Tiger research. Pollinators with backbones. Conservation is working. And much more… Read the summaries here.

Can You Help?

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Jobs And Opportunities

• The Heinrich Böll Foundation has grants for US- or Canada-based journalists to report on case studies of climate disinformation — deadline 15 May.

• The Earth Journalism Network has story grants for journalists covering biodiversity and conservation — deadline 5 May.

• Dart Center Europe and the City University of London invite applications to join a two-day workshop in July on best practices for reporting on the environment and climate change — deadline 15 May.

• Journalists in Latin America and the Caribbean can apply for a CONNECTAS fellowship to report on environmental crimes — deadline 26 May.

• Journalismfund Europe has grants for cross-border teams of journalists to investigate environmental issues related to Europe (all countries, not only the EU) — deadline 25 July.

Bonus content: There are 24 jobs, grants, fellowships and other opportunities listed here for Global Nature Beat’s paying supporters. Paid subscriptions are less than £1 per week. A free seven-day trial is available.

On The Horizon

6-9 May 2024: The 18th International Conference on Community-Based Adaptation to Climate Change takes place in Arusha, Tanzania.

13-18 May 2024: The UN Convention on Biological Diversity’s Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice will meet in Nairobi, Kenya to, among other things, finalize the approach for monitoring implementation of the Global Biodiversity Framework — meeting documents are here.

15 May 2024: IUCN hosts the first World Species Congress as a 24-hour online event.

21-29 May 2024: The UN Convention on Biological Diversity’s Subsidiary Body on Implementation will meet in Nairobi, Kenya — meeting documents are here.

22 May 2024: International Day for Biological Diversity.

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 a snowy owl. Photo credit: Judy van der Velden / Flickr — Creative Commons

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