Nature Beat #56

Updates, stories, resources and opportunities

Mar 11, 2025

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.

Trump 2.0: The United States has pulled out of the UN climate fund set up to compensate developing countries for loss and damage caused by climate change. It has also left the Just Energy Transition Partnership, which supports developing nations to switch from fossil fuels to renewable energy. At home, the Trump Administration has taken aim at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), shrinking the workforce by 20 percent and imperilling lives by weakening NOAA’s ability to detect and warn of extreme weather events — see reactions from former NOAA hurricane scientist Jeff Masters and Covering Climate Now’s David Dickson, a former TV meteorologist.

Plastics treaty: The United Nations Environment Programme has announced that intergovernmental negotiations towards a global plastics treaty will take place on 5-14 August in Geneva, Switzerland. The previous negotiating session was supposed to be the final one, but a deal was elusive. Expect tension between Europe and the United States as their political divergence deepens.

Biodiversity: At the end of February, negotiators from nearly 200 countries agreed a strategy for raising US$200 billion a year by 2030 for biodiversity conservation. The strategy was the main outcome of the resumed COP16 biodiversity conference, in Rome. Negotiators also agreed on indicators for measuring progress towards the 23 targets of the Global Biodiversity Framework. Carbon Brief has a great analysis of the whole conference. See also the press release from the Secretariat of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity or the Earth Negotiations Bulletin’s meeting summary.

In The Spotlight

‘On a night in 1997, Benjamin Dauda killed a gorilla for the first time’ — so begins Orji Sunday’s detailed account of the illicit trade in gorilla parts.
Nidhi Jamwal wrote about the urban biodiversity parks restored from degraded land in New Delhi, India.

Tips And Resources

The Society of Environmental Journalists has advice for journalists covering the flood of news coming from the White House — see their tracker of Trump trackers or perspectives from veteran journalists.
On 13 March, Covering Climate Now is holding an online press briefing on the implications of the Trump administration’s recent cuts and layoffs at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — register here.
On 14 March, David Cooper, former Acting Secretary of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, is giving a talk about the state of global biodiversity governance —register here to watch online.
On 18 March, the Pulitzer Center has a webinar for journalists on how to ensure equity in ocean stories — register here.
On 27 March, Mongabay is holding a webinar on how to cover pangolin trafficking — register here.
Media accreditation for the UN Ocean Conference is open — apply by 17 May.

See past editions for more tips and resources.

In Focus: Succulent Smuggling

A thriving illicit trade in cactuses and other succulent plants is driving some species towards extinction. In a feature for Yale e360, Adam Welz wrote about the Succulent Karoo region of southern Africa, where millions of plants have been illegally harvested in recent years. Plant poachers sell into organized crime networks that smuggle the succulents to Asia and elsewhere, where demand has grown in part because of ‘plantfluencers’ on social media.

Chile’s Atacama Desert is another source of in-demand succulent plants. Poachers taking cactuses from the desert are threatening the plant species and the wider ecosystem. As Isabella Kaminski reports, two Italian men were recently found guilty of illegally taking the plants and shipping them to Europe for onward sale to buyers on three continents. In a precedent-setting case, the court both imposed criminal sanctions on the men and ordered them to remedy the harm they caused to a conservation organization that joined the case as a civil party — see the press release.

What Caught My Eye

Ethan Freedman makes the case for ‘pro-biodiversity’ journalism.
The Mo Ibrahim Foundation published a summary of what the recent UN negotiations on climate change, desertification and biodiversity mean for Africa.
The United Kingdom’s net zero sector is growing three times faster than the country’s overall economy, reported Damian Carrington.
On 4 March, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and private-sector partners launched the Deforestation-Free Leather Fund — see the press release.
Eleven non-profit media outlets the United States have formed the Climate News Task Force to collaborate on climate change coverage.
Butterfly numbers in the United States have fallen by 22 percent in two decades, reports Oliver Milman.
91 percent of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon last year was illegal, reports Shanna Hanbury.
Indonesian prosecutors transferred more than 221,000 hectares of illegal palm oil plantations to a new state-owned company after the were seized in a corruption probe.
South Africa lost 420 rhinos to poachers last year — three quarters of them were killed in national parks.
Fergus O’Leary Simpson, Lara Collart and Joel Masselink wrote about the environmental impacts of the conflict underway in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Microplastic pollution threats food security for hundreds of millions of people by limiting photosynthesis in crop plants, reports Damian Carrington.
The International Institute for Sustainable Development published its State of Global Environmental Governance 2024 report.

From The Journals

Livestock drugs linked to steep declines in vulture populations in South Asia and Europe are widely available in South America potentially threatening scavenging birds there — read the full paper.
Climate change is outpacing the ability of tropical forests in the Americas to adapt — read the press release or the full paper.
Forests with many tree species store much more carbon than monoculture plantations so restoration schemes should plant mixed species — read the press release or the full paper.
Solar farms managed for biodiversity can have many more birds and bird species than surrounding farmland — read the full paper or a commentary by the authors.
Removing dams and other river barriers could help invasive species to spread — read the full paper.
Biodiversity offsets, their effectiveness and their role in a nature positive future — read the full paper.

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Jobs And Opportunities

The Earth Journalism Network has story grants to support reporting on the marine environment in the Adriatic Region — deadline 13 March.
The Caribbean Climate Journalism Awards are open for entries — apply by 14 March.
The Earth Journalism Network has grants for newsrooms and organizations with proposals for boosting media coverage of biodiversity issues — deadline 30 March.
The Earth Journalism Network has story grants for reporting on the 30x30 marine conservation target — deadline 1 April
Apply for an Idea Grant from the National Association of Science Writers — deadline 4 April.
Journalists can apply for the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Awards for Excellence in Science Communications — deadline 31 March.

Bonus content: There are 23 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

12-13 March 2025: The 12th World Ocean Summit & Expo takes place in Tokyo, Japan.

17-28 March: The 30th Session of the International Seabed Authority Assembly and Council (Part I) takes place in Kingston, Jamaica.

23-26 April 2025: The annual meeting of the Society of Environmental Journalists takes place at Arizona State University.

24–25 April: GLF Forests 2025: Defining the Next Decade of Action takes place online and in-person in Bonn, Germany.

28 April – 9 May: The 2025 Meetings of the Conference of the Parties to the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions take place in Geneva, Switzerland.

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.

Whose Eye Was It?

The eye belongs to a yellow viper. Photo credit: martinbuck119 / 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.