Nature Beat #47

Updates, stories, resources and opportunities

Nov 11, 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.

Taking The Pulse

COP16: The UN biodiversity conference turned out to be a flop — see my summary. Yes, the parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity agreed on a fund that could — one day… maybe — generate a billion dollars a year for conservation in developing nations. But they failed to agree on the more important strategy for mobilizing 200 times as much money. Without finance, each party’s National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan is just words on a page — and only 44 of the CBD’s 196 parties had even produced updated versions of these documents by the COP16 deadline.

For an in-depth look at what happened at COP16, the Carbon Brief team has everything covered in this thorough summary. Thanks to Aruna Chandrasekhar, Daisy Dunne, Orla Dwyer, Yanine Quiroz and Giuliana Viglione for pulling this together so quickly.

For topic-specific reporting, I recommend:

Aimee Gabay: What was achieved, and not, for Indigenous and local leaders at COP16
Mariel Lozada: Biodiversity market takes off at COP16, in shadow of carbon credit chaos
John Cannon: How the oceans fared at the COP16 biodiversity conference in Colombia
Benji Jones: A groundbreaking new plan to get Big Pharma to pay for wildlife conservation
Justin Catanoso: COP16: ‘A fund unlike any other’ will pay tropical nations to save forests

COP29: The COP29 climate change conference has started in Baku, Azerbaijan — see the conference overviews published by Chatham House, the World Resources Institute and The Nature Conservancy. I expect it will be among the grimmer of COPs.

With President Trump’s reelection, the United States will have little to bring to the table. Trump’s probable withdrawal from the Paris Agreement — and potentially from the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change too — will cast a long shadow over the COP. And the failure of the biodiversity COP to reach agreement on finance — which is also the main agenda item of COP29 — does not bode well.

Papua New Guinea had already had enough, and said it will not attend. Its foreign minister Justin Tkatchenko said:

“Papua New Guinea is making this stand for the benefit of all small island nations. We will no longer tolerate empty promises and inaction, while our people suffer the devastating consequences of climate change. The pledges made by major polluters amount to nothing more than empty talk. They impose impossible barriers for us to access the crucial funds we need to protect our people.”

The Earth Negotiations Bulletin has daily coverage of the negotiations, which run from 11-22 November. For more on nature-climate links at COP29:

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has published a position paper with 10 key messages for COP29.
The World Wildlife Fund also shared its expectations for COP29 and a calendar of events happening in its Panda Pavilion.
Nature4Climate Coalition has gathered information on all of COP29’s nature-related events and published its key asks.

Erica Gies reported a possible link between deforestation and the power of typhoons, hurricanes and cyclones.
Dianah Chiyangwa and Roving Reporters investigated a rapid increase in snare-setting by poachers in South Africa’s Kruger National Park.
Fred Pearce covered Brazil’s push for the upcoming G20 summit to adopt principles for a sustainably bioeconomy.
Amanda Royal told the story of how one woman and a tiny ocean refuge brought sea otters back to Californian seas and restored the coastal ecosystem.

Tips And Resources

Covering Climate Now has a guide for reporting on the COP29 climate change conference.
Journalists reporting remotely on COP29 can register for a virtual pavilion focused on ocean issues.
Writing for The Open Notebook, Emma Gometz provided guidance to help journalists to incorporate indigenous science in their reporting — also available in Spanish.
Bethany Brookshire and Douglas Main shared ideas about how to tell compelling stories about obscure species.
Do you know your REDD+ from your J-REDD? Nature4Climate published a useful explainer of jargon related to forest carbon.
The Pulitzer Center produced Making Waves, a report that reflects on the current landscape of ocean journalism and explores opportunities for better storytelling.
Erika Hayasaki has some great advice for science writers on long-form story structure.
The Lao Journalists’ Association and CARE International launched a website with resources related to environmental issues in Lao PDR.

See past editions for more tips and resources.

If You Find This Useful…

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What Caught My Eye

Emmanuel Macron, Mia Amor Mottley and William Ruto — the heads of government of France, Barbados and Kenya — say solidarity levies could raise hundreds of billions of dollars for climate action in developing countries.
Shanna Hanbury reported on Brazil’s plan to restore an area of degraded land half the size of the UK.
IUCN released a report celebrating ten years of tiger conservation.
Benji Jones told the history of why the United States was not at the COP16 negotiating table and is unlikely ever to join.
Tom Baxter asked climate experts from China, India, Kenya, South Africa, Colombia and Mexico to react to the US presidential election results.
Jonathan Watt questions the relentless calls for hope in the face of environmental crises.
An Lambrechts, Cyril Kormos and Virginia Young say the UN’s artificial divide between climate change and biodiversity has created “a huge, missed opportunity for holistic, integrated and mutually reinforcing solutions”.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo became the first African country to endorse the creation of an international crime of ecocide.

From The Journals

Plastic pollution worsens all major global environmental problems — read the press release or the full paper.
Deforested land whose total area exceeds that of Mexico is ripe for natural restoration — read the press release or the full paper.
Ecological change increases malaria risk in the Brazilian Amazon —read the full paper.
Only 16 percent of the world’s kelp forests are protected and just 2 percent of the restoration target has been met — read the full paper.
The Annual Review of Environment and Resources published reviews on the state of the world’s soils, the state of the world’s rivers, coastal wetlands in the Anthropocene and governance of the high seas.

Jobs And Opportunities

The Pulitzer Center invites applications for the fifth cohort of its Rainforest Investigations Network — deadline 31 December.
Apply here for a fellowship to attend the 2025 Global Investigative Journalism Conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia — deadline 31 January.
The Environmental Reporting Collective is hiring a managing editor ideally based in Southeast Asia.
The New York Times is hiring a Climate Writer for its Climate Forward newsletter.
The Connecticut Mirror is hiring an environment and energy reporter.
Prospect Magazine is hiring a climate change columnist.
The Best American Science and Nature Writing is open to submissions of work published by US or Canadian outlets in 2024.
Jounalismfund Europe has grants for cross-border investigations on environmental themes related to Europe — deadline 25 January 2025.

Bonus content: There are 18 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

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.

10-16 December 2024: The 11th Session of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services plenary will take place in Windhoek, Namibia. The provisional agenda is here.

2-13 December 2024: The 16th Conference of Parties (COP16) to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification will take place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

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 hooded merganser. Photo credit: Steven Kersting / Flickr — 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.