Nature Beat #7
Updates, stories, resources and opportunities
Welcome to the latest edition of the The 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
Endangered species: On 11 December, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature will present updates to its Red List of threatened species (see press release). The press conference will be webcast live here.
United Kingdom: On 29 November, the UK launched a package of measures including 34 new landscape recovery projects, new community forests and funding to help children get into nature. Read the press release. Environmentalists have raised doubts about the plans.
France: On 27 November, France published its National Biodiversity Strategy to 2030. It includes plans to boost agroecology, increase ecological restoration, and set aside ten percent of national territory under “strong protection” for conservation. Read the press pack (in French) or this story by Hugo Struna.
EU policy: On 29 November, the European Parliament's environment committee approved the EU's nature restoration law (see Nature Beat #4).
Focus on COP28
COP28 — the latest UN climate change conference — is underway and will run until 12 December. The Earth Negotiations Bulletin has daily summaries here. The formal negotiations are entering a difficult phase and it is too early to whether the outcome will adequately reflect the importance of nature to climate action.
But on the sidelines of the COP, there have certainly been many notable nature-related announcements. I’ve included a selection below. As ever, pledges are great but it is implementation that matters. And when looking at sums of finance, consider that a single footballer is now earning more than US$200 million a year. Natural solutions to climate change remain woefully underfunded.
FORESTS:
Brazil announced its Arc of Restoration plan, saying it would spend up to US$205 million to restore 60,000 square km of deforested and degraded forest land in the Amazon by 2030.
Brazil also proposed a new US$250 billion Tropical Forests Forever fund to conserve the world’s rainforests. Alistair Walsh explains for Deutsche Welle.
Under a new Forest Partnership, the European Union will help Honduras to restore 1.3 million hectares of forest and implement its national biodiversity strategy and action plan.
Members of the Forest & Climate Leaders’ Partnership announced hundreds of millions of dollars for forest protection. Ghana, Papua New Guinea, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the Republic of Congo announced ‘country packages’ for forests, nature and climate. See the press release for full details.
The annual 10 New Insights in Climate Science report warned that over-reliance on natural carbon sinks — such as forests — is a risky strategy as their contribution in a warmer world is uncertain.
FINANCE:
Sytemiq published a report that calls a rapid boost to investment in nature, as nature-based solutions are getting only 15 percent of the money that goes to more traditional climate solutions.
The Asian Development Bank launched the Nature Solutions Hub for Asia and the Pacific to promote the flow of US$2 billion of public and private finance for conserving nature by 2030.
Big development banks launched an initiative to scale up debt-for-nature swaps, sustainability-linked loans and other tools. They will set up a task force in January, reports Stian Reklev for Carbon Pulse.
FOOD AND AGRICULTURE:
More than 130 countries committed to transform their food systems to address the climate and nature crises.
OCEANS:
Big philanthropies launched the Ocean Resilience and Climate Alliance (ORCA), with an initial US$250 million to fund ocean-based climate solutions.
Dubai launched the Dubai Reef project, which aims to restore coral reef habitats over an area of 600 square kilometres and capture seven million metric tons of carbon each year.
Representatives of the governments of Australia, France, Mauritania, Nigeria, Palau, the Philippines and the United Arab Emirates Nigeria called for swift ratification of the High Seas Treaty agreed last year to protect biodiversity beyond national jurisdictions. At least 60 countries must sign and ratify the treaty for it to enter into force. So far, 83 have signed it but none has ratified.
INDIGENOUS PEOPLES:
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the International Indigenous Forum on Biodiversity and tech company Esri launched Act30. It will combine indigenous knowledge and mapping technology to help governments to meet their targets of protecting 30 percent of land and sea by 2030.
Indigenous groups and local communities directly received only 2.1 percent of the US$494 million delivered last year under a donor program aimed at helping these groups secure tenure over their forests. Aimee Gabay reports for Mongabay.
The Inter-American Development Bank launched a US$10 million fund exclusively for Indigenous communities, in coordination with COICA, the Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin.
LINKING NATURE AND CLIMATE:
The Commonwealth Secretariat unveiled the Living Lands Charter Implementation Framework on joint action on land, biodiversity and climate challenges among the 56 Commonwealth countries.
Government ministers from Colombia, Germany and Grenada signed an open letter calling for more ambition on nature in climate action in the outcome of the Global Stocktake at COP28. Read the letter here.
In The Spotlight
Dyna Rochmyaningsih, a Knight Science Journalism Fellow, describes her experiences covering Indonesia’s environmental crisis.
What connects COP28, money laundering and the Amazon? Anastasia Moloney and Andre Cabette Fabio explain.
Graeme Green reports on plans to move 2,000 newly purchased southern white rhinoceroses to protected areas across Africa.
Smitha TK reports for The Quint on the silent killer of marine life in Kerala, India.
Patrick Greenfield, Phoebe Weston and Ajit Niranjan asked scientists, Indigenous leaders and conservationists about the consequences of inaction on biodiversity loss by the middle of this century.
Tips And Resources
The Open Notebook has launched its sixth free science journalism master class: How to Own a Science Beat. Find it and the other five here.
On 7 December, the Earth Negotiations Bulletin is holding a webinar to mark the mid-way point of the COP28 climate change conference. Register here.
If you ever write about elephants — or any other wildlife that can clash with local people — there is something to think about in this new study of media coverage.
What Caught My Eye
Yet another Indigenous forest defender has been murdered. Kichwa leader Quinto Inuma had received death threats from illegal loggers in the Peruvian Amazon. The BBC reports that at least 30 environmental activists and community leaders have been killed in Peru since 2020.
Tanzania has signed a deal for a huge carbon credit project covering six national parks and 1.8 million hectares. Gloria Aradi reports that the deal will support the protection, conservation, and enhanced management of the national parks.
Food giant Cargill says it will eliminate deforestation and land conversion from its operations in Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay by 2025 — see the press release and some critiques reported by Max Radwin for Mongabay.
What does ‘nature positive’ mean? There’s now a definition.
The Global Landscapes Forum has a three-part series of features on “Financing the future of forests” — in Africa, Asia and Latin America
Sharks and the straw-headed bulbul now have greater protection under the Convention on Trade in Endangered Species as new restrictions have come into effect.
A study by the Toulouse School of Economics concluded that protected area policy in the European Union — including when the UK was a member —has been ineffective, as policymakers tended to protect land that was not under threat of development.
A court in Ecuador has backed the Siekopai Nation’s claim to their ancestral homeland, protecting more than 40,000 hectares of the Amazon rainforest, reports Lindsey Jean Schueman.
We need to view nature as infrastructure, says Erik Berglöf, Chief Economist of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, which has a new report on this.
Hundreds of scientists launched the Science Panel for the Congo Basin to address a lack of information about the river basin and rainforest.
Conservationists say Mexico takes too long to update its official list of endangered species.
Also in Mexico, Lydia Larsen reports that when tourists stopped visiting coastal Cabo Pulmo National Park during COVID-19 lockdowns, fish numbers boomed.
IUCN interviewed Partha Dasgupta, commissioned by the UK government to write an independent, global review of the economics of biodiversity.
From The Journals
In case you missed it, last week’s roundup of new research included papers on: Carbon emissions and extinction risks. Mining waste in protected areas. Flowers helping farmers. Legal trade in endangered species. Cultural rewilding. How community forests are good for people and planet. A reality check for regenerative cattle farming. Read the summaries here.
Jobs And Opportunities
The Logan Science Journalism Program is offering journalism fellowships in collaboration with the Marine Biological Laboratory — deadline 25 January 2024.
Covering Climate Now is seeking an Associate Audience Editor (deadline 8 December) and a Regional TV Engagement Coordinator (deadline 15 December) — apply here.
Free Press Unlimited is offering two climate change fellowships for journalists in Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Palestine, Syria or Tunisia — deadline 24 December.
Texas Southern University is hiring an environmental journalist / staff writer.
Internews is seeking a Climate Journalism Officer based in Amman, Jordan for a regional project in Jordan, Tunisia, and Lebanon.
Journalismfund Europe has grants for cross-border teams of journalists to do investigative environmental reporting related to continental Europe.
Carbon Pulse is seeking a biodiversity correspondent to focus on emerging markets for biodiversity credits — apply here.
Covering Climate Now launched a training program for local TV in the United States. Sign Up here.
The European Press Prize 2024 is open for entries to journalists from 46 European countries — deadline 15 December.
Apply to join the Pulitzer Center’s Rainforest Investigations Network — deadline 20 December — or apply for a grant from the Rainforest Journalism Fund.
You can submit your work for the next edition of The Best American Science and Nature Writing, so long as it appeared in any North American publication in 2023 — deadline 20 December.
EJN has grants for journalists to cover environmental crime in the Amazon — deadline 8 January 2024.
The Pulitzer Center 's ocean initiative is also accepting proposals from journalists and will re-open applications for its Ocean Reporting Network in March-April 2024. Find out more here.
The Knight Science Journalism Program at MIT offers nine-month fellowships. I know a few journalists who have completed this program and they all loved it. Apply by 15 January 2024.
On The Horizon
12-17 February 2024: The 14th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS COP14), will take place in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.
26 February – 1 March 2024: The Sixth Meeting of the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA-6) will take place in Nairobi, Kenya.
3 March 2024: World Wildlife Day.
10-12 April 2024: The UN Ocean Decade Conference takes place in Barcelona, Spain.
21-30 April 2024: The International Negotiating Committee developing a treaty to address plastic pollution will hold its fourth of five negotiating sessions, in Ottawa, Canada.
Whose Eye Was It?
The eye belongs to a black-winged kite. Photo credit: Hari K Patibanda / 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.