Nature Beat #46

Updates, stories, resources and opportunities

Oct 19, 2024

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.

Countdown to COP16

The sixteenth conference of parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) — or COP16 — begins on 21 October in Cali, Colombia. For a quick overview, see Catherine Early’s preview.

The pre-COP meeting of the CBD’s Subsidiary Body on Implementation ended on 18 October. One of its main jobs was to review how well parties to the CBD have aligned their national plans with the Global Biodiversity Framework. While less than 30 of the CBD’s 196 parties have submitted new National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans — as requested ahead of COP16 — around 100 have provided new national targets.

According to the CBD’s analysis, most parties have provided targets that align with most of the Global Biodiversity Framework’s 23 targets. The subsidiary body drafted text for a COP decision that urges the remaining parties to submit their new strategies and action plans as soon as possible.

Follow the COP

The Earth Negotiations Bulletin has daily updates.
Giuliana Viglione and Verner Viisainen of Carbon Brief will be tracking and analyzing the evolution of each negotiating text in near-real time throughout COP16.
Carbon Brief’s team of food, land and nature journalists are hosting a COP16 webinar on 22 October — register here.
Two journalists from Climate Home News will be sharing live updates from COP16 in this WhatsApp group.

Who wants what?

Aimee Gabay spoke with indigenous and community leaders about their hopes for the COP.
Environmental lawyers ClientEarth outlined their priorities in a briefing paper — see press release.
A coalition of more than 50 international organizations is demanding that parties to the CBD integrate biodiversity and the values of nature across all areas of policy.
Greenpeace shared its five priorities for governments at COP16 and published a seven-page media briefing that assesses the European Union’s biodiversity targets.
Rainforest Foundation US has five key demands relating to indigenous people’s land rights.
TRAFFIC wants urgent action around wildlife trade.
The Finance for Biodiversity Foundation laid out its priorities here.

Where is the money?

Benji Jones explored the US$700 billion ‘biodiversity finance gap’ and how decisions at COP16 could help to close it.
Aruna Chandrasekhar dived into data showing that most wealthy countries have not paid their fair share of finance agreed at COP15.

In Focus: Biodiversity Credits

COP16’s hot topics will include biodiversity credits. These are tradeable units that represent a positive outcome for biodiversity for a specific area and time. An international panel of experts set up by France and United Kingdom will deliver its recommendations on how to set up an international market for these credits.

Proponents see markets for biodiversity credits as a potentially large source of private finance needed to implement the Global Biodiversity Framework. Opponents say biodiversity credits will lead to the same problems that some carbon credit schemes have caused, and that market-based approaches are inherently problematic. Somewhere in the middle are people who say biodiversity credits markets can learn from the issues with carbon credits, by emphasizing safeguards and ecological integrity and by producing net gains rather than offsetting harm.

Recent statements show the range of views:

Writing for Mongabay, conservationist and environmental lawyer Byron Swift argues that biodiversity credits are fundamentally flawed.
In a forthcoming paper in the journal npj Biodiversity, T. Mitchell Aide outlines science-based approaches that he says will ensure that markets for biodiversity credits are effective.
Brian O’Donnell, the director of Campaign for Nature, says the buzz around biodiversity credits could distract governments at COP16 from increasing public finance for nature, reports Giada Ferraglioni.

David Smith and Aniruddha Dhamorikar reported from the frontline of human-elephant conflict — Assam, India — where local people are showing that coexistence is possible.
Ted Malanda wrote about how wildlife traffickers in East Africa are finding new routes to markets in Asia following the strengthening of controls at Kenya’s main port and airport.
Nicola Jones reported on the ways that ocean warming and acidification are affecting tiny plankton with significant implications for marine food chains.

In Focus: Deforestation

The Forests and Finance Coalition of nongovernmental organizations says governments must do more to regulate the financial sector, as banks are continuing to finance tropical deforestation. Its new report says that, since 2015, banks have provided US$395 billion in credit to companies in sectors linked to deforestation and human rights abuses. Most of the financing comes from banks in Brazil, China, Indonesia, the European Union and United States. Many of the banks are members of one or more sustainability initiatives. The report says that this shows that such initiatives alone are inadequate and that regulatory action is needed to curb investment in deforestation.

Meanwhile, more than 225 civil society organizations from 42 countries have called on the European Parliament and member states of the European Union (EU) to reject the European Commission’s proposal to delay implementation of the EU’s anti-deforestation law — see the press release or the joint statement. As Justin Catanoso reports, activists fear that the delay will lead to the law being weakened.

Tips And Resources

Ocean journalist Ian Urbina answered questions from members of the Earth Journalism Network.
On 23 October, the World Resources Institute has a webinar on how to scale up climate finance for developing nations — see the speaker list and register here.
Ahead of next month’s COP29 climate change conference, here is a trio of online press briefings — Imperial College London has one on 23 October (register), the World Resources Institute has one on 30 October (register) and the Allied for Climate Transformation by 2025 consortium has one on 31 October (register).

See past editions for more tips and resources.

What Caught My Eye

Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro issued a decree recognizing indigenous peoples as the custodians and managers of natural resources in their territories.
The European Commission shared the European Union’s priorities for the upcoming UN conferences on biodiversity (COP16), climate change (COP29) and desertification (COP16), as well as the negotiations towards a global treaty on plastics.
Scientists say conservation research and policy must address the impacts of armed conflict on biodiversity.
ENB’s summary of the annual general meeting of the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development is long but packed with interesting details.
G20 environment ministers have endorsed payments for ecosystems services — Eric Wilburn explains why this could be a big deal.
Fauna and Flora International published a review of evidence for locally led protected area management — see the news story or the full report.
Busani Bafana previewed two major reports that the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services will produce in December.
Chile and the United Kingdom propose giving fungi equal status with plants and animals under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, reports Jonathan Watts.
The Nature4Climate Coalition gave a preview of updates to its guide to better integrating nature into national climate change commitments.
Hans Nicholas Jong reported that Indonesian prosecutors are investigating the Ministry of Environment and Forestry over suspected corruption linked to an amnesty for illegal oil palm plantations.
Nigerian customs officers seized 9.4 tons of pangolin scales in warehouse raids.
The Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) published its biodiversity plan with regional targets in line with the Global Biodiversity Framework.
The Entomological Society of America has denied entry to its annual conference to a journalist called Rebecca Raney because of her previous reporting, which focused on funding the society received from agrochemical companies and a decline in the annual meeting’s coverage of insecticides.

From The Journals

There is a mismatch between how journalists frame climate change and how their media outlets portray it — read the full paper.
Plastic debris in the ocean sounds just like prey to deep-diving whales — read the press release or the full paper.
Fish farming uses far more wild fish as food than previously thought — read the press release or the full paper.
Scientists found microplastics in the air the dolphins exhaled — read the press release or the full paper.
Carbon dioxide emissions from forest fires increased by 60 percent globally since 2001 with much faster rates of increase outside of the tropics — read the press release, the full paper or a commentary by the authors.
Tracing seven decades of Chinese wildlife legislation — read the full paper.

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Jobs And Opportunities

Mongabay is providing virtual fellowships to support African journalists to cover remotely next month’s UN Climate Change Conference (COP29).
Bloomberg Green is seeking a climate editor — no deadline listed.
Apply here for a fellowship to attend Science Journalism Forum 2024
The National Association of Science Writers has grants for freelancers investigating science, environment or health issues — deadline 18 November.
Journalismfund Europe has grants to build the capacities of environmental investigative journalists — deadline 13 February 2025.

Bonus content: There are 25 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

28-31 October 2024: Science Journalism Forum 2024 takes place online.

8-11 November 2024: The ScienceWriters2024 conference takes place in Raleigh, North Carolina.

11-22 November 2024: UN Climate Change Conference (COP29) will take place in Azerbaijan.

18-19 November 2024: Brazil hosts the G20 Summit in Rio de Janeiro.

25 November - 1 December 2024: The International Negotiating Committee developing a treaty to address plastic pollution will hold its fifth and final negotiating session, in Busan, South Korea.

Bonus content: The full calendar for Global Nature Beat’s supporters includes 45 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 puffin. Photo credit: Nick Goodrum / Flickr — Creative Commons

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