Nature Beat #53

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

Global risks: Climate change and biodiversity loss are the top risks facing humanity over the next decade, according to World Economic Forum’s annual Global Risks Report, published on 15 January — see the press release. Environmental challenges occupy the top four of ten places in its ten-year outlook, which is based on a survey of more than 900 risk experts, policymakers and industry leaders. In a press statement in response to the report, WWF International said: “We have the solutions, technologies and international agreements - we now need to urgently shift to implementation.”

Heat: Last week, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the World Meteorological Organization and the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service all declared that 2024 was the warmest year on record. It was also the first calendar year in history whose average global temperature was 1.5°C above that of the pre-industrial period. As the United Kingdom’s national meteorological service noted, the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide rose last year at the fastest annual rate since records began in 1958.

Trump 2.0: Matteo Civillini wrote about how a second Trump term could affect climate action and Daniel Cressey focused on what Trump 2.0 means for the ocean. Global Witness highlighted other concerns, including reduced protections for defenders of land and the environment, deregulation of forest-destructive industries and growth in disinformation. Considering what is coming, Joseph A. Davis says there has never been a better — or scarier — time for environmental journalism.

Whose eye is this? Answer below…

In The Spotlight

• Elena Valeriote reported on the recovery of emblematic birds called crested ibises in Japan’s Sado Island, decades after they went extinct in the country.

• Hans Nicholas Jong wrote about the growth in legal threats against environmental advocates in Indonesia, including a scientist who has given evidence in hundreds of legal cases.

• Catherine Early wrote about illegal logging, corruption and the challenges facing forest defenders in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

• Patrick Greenfield reported that growing protections for nature in the North Sea could be working, with marine wildlife bouncing back.

Tips And Resources

• The World Resources Institute’s annual Stories To Watch presentation is on 30 January and will focus on the US$300 billion global climate goal — register here.

• Alice Fleerackers wrote about how journalists can use open data to improve their science stories — also available in Spanish.

• The Standing Committee of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) is meeting next month — register here for a briefing from CITES officials on 28 January.

• The Ecological Society of America shared resources for journalists on wildfire, forest management and climate.

See past editions for more tips and resources.

What Caught My Eye

• Edward Davey of the World Resources Institute described three possible scenarios for the COP30 climate change conference in Brazil — from breakdown to inspiring action.

• Katherine Snow says we need a new UN Declaration to bring nature out of its ‘environmental’ silo and into the political mainstream and force governments to say — yes or no — whether they care.

• Hundreds of dead sea turtles have washed ashore in Tamil Nadu, India, where authorities have failed to implement and enforce protective measures, reports S.V. Krishna Chaitanya.

• Germany will spend five million euros on a three-year project with INTERPOL and WWF to prevent illegal fishing, logging, pollution, mining and wildlife crime.

• In the United Kingdom, the National Trust announced a ten-year strategy to restore habitats on 250,000 hectares of land.

• Fully restored ecosystems across the European Union could store more carbon than global energy production emitted in 2021, says a report by BirdLife Europe.

• Phoebe Weston wrote about the rising risk of multi-species pandemics.

• Eric Wilburn wrote about how to shift economies from viewing nature solely as source of products to valuing it also as a source of essential services.

• Farmers and environmentalists protested in Thailand to demand action to address the ecological and economic impacts of an invasive fish, reports Carolyn Cowan.

How Does Disinformation Affect Environmental Journalism?

Janara Nicoletti, a lecturer and researcher at the University of Munich, Germany, is looking for environmental journalists to take part in a study on the effects of disinformation on their professional practice. Register your interest in taking part here.

In Focus: Conservation in Africa

• Ashoka Mukpo reports that the South African conservation organization African Parks has signed a long-term deal to manage Ethiopia’s Gambella National Park. The park is Ethiopia’s largest protected area. It will become the 23rd area that African Parks manages across 13 countries.

• Recent research — covered here by Warren Cornwall — showed that deforestation rates are lower in African protected areas managed by nongovernmental organizations than in similar state-managed protected areas.

• And as Fred Pearce reports, there is also new evidence showing that community-managed conservancies in Africa protect wildlife better than state-run protected areas while avoiding the social harms of ‘fortress conservation’.

From The Journals

• How should we bend the curve of biodiversity loss to build a just and sustainable future? — read the full paper, which introduces a collection of papers on this theme.

• How pathogens and parasites are responding to global change and what this means for pandemic prevention and biodiversity conservation — read the full paper or an interview with its lead author.

• Logged forest can still help to maintain biodiversity so should not be ‘written off’ for conversion to oil palm plantations — read the press release, the full paper or a commentary by three of the authors.

• Growing global trade in ornamental plants brings myriad risks to source and recipient countries, including from stowaway animals — read the press release or the full paper.

• The lack of data on the legal trade of tens of thousands of species of plants, animals and other organisms makes it is impossible to assess the trade’s sustainability, impacts on biodiversity and potential pest or disease risks — read the press release or the full paper.

• There is little or no research on how best to conserve most of Canada's 200-plus endangered species — read the full paper.

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Jobs And Opportunities

• Journalists in Pakistan can apply for year-long fellowships on climate change reporting — deadline 20 January.

• InfoAmazonia is running an online course — in Portuguese —on mapping for environmental investigations — register by 25 January.

• Environment journalists from Asia and Europe can apply to attend a workshop in Singapore on ‘challenges of dealing with plastic waste’ — apply here by 26 January.

• Politico is hiring a food and agriculture reporter

• The National Association of Science Writers invites worldwide entries to its Science in Society Journalism Awards — deadline 1 February.

• Journalists in Latin America and the Caribbean can apply (in Spanish) for a CONNECTAS Fellowship to report on topics including environmental crime —deadline 2 February.

• The Earth Journalism Network has grants for stories on climate and environmental solutions in Asia and the Pacific — deadline 3 February.

• The Earth Journalism Network has grants for newsrooms and media organizations with proposals focused on the goal of protecting 30 percent of the ocean by 2030 — deadline 7 February.

• The Pulitzer Center is offering grants for journalists to report on ways that climate policies affect the governance of rainforest and ocean ecosystems— deadline 15 February.

• Carbon Brief is hiring a data analyst to work with its climate and energy journalists — deadline 17 February.

Bonus content: There are 36 jobs, grants, fellowships and other opportunities listed here for Global Nature Beat’s paying supporters. Paid subscriptions are less than £1 per week.

On The Horizon

20-24 January 2025: The World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting takes place in Davos, Switzerland.

20-24 January 2025: The 64th Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Convention on Wetlands takes place in Gland, Switzerland.

3-8 February 2025: The 78th meeting of the CITES Standing Committee will take place in Geneva, Switzerland (see agenda).

25-27 February 2025: The resumed 16th Conference of Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity takes place in Rome, Italy.

Bonus content: The full calendar for Global Nature Beat’s supporters includes 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 ground hornbill. Photo credit: Raj / Flickr — Creative Commons

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