Category Archives: Conservation

Cane toads’ spread through Western Australia’s Kimberley revealed by motion sensor cameras

Posted on by

Cane toads first crossed into WA from the Northern Territory 15 years ago and have slowly spread through the Kimberley

Motion sensor cameras have revealed the confronting spread of cane toads across Western Australia’s eastern Kimberley region.

Supported by the World Wide Fund for Nature-Australia, the Nyaliga Rangers deployed cameras at 141 locations between August 2020 and October 2022.

Continue reading...

Labor’s nature repair market must ban offsets and will need initial funding injection, scientists say

Posted on by

Members of threatened species scientific committee say allowing environmental offsets would undermine the scheme

A “nature repair market” proposed by Labor will not succeed unless backed by substantial initial public funding and a ban on environmental offsets in the scheme, government scientific advisers have warned.

The Senate environment legislation committee heard a range of critical evidence about the bill on Friday, prompting the government to concede it will indefinitely postpone its passage in parliament.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

PwC walks back report used to claim Australia’s nature repair market could be worth $137bn

Posted on by

Report cited by environment minister in support of offset bill was criticised for inflated figures and lack of clarity on outcomes

PwC has walked back a report used to claim the nature repair market could be worth $137bn, accepting it measures “indirect spending towards biodiversity” but the amount spent on “threatened species conservation, with clear outcomes, is likely much less”.

The consultancy firm made that submission to a Senate inquiry examining the Albanese government’s nature repair market bill in response to a critique of the report from progressive thinktank the Australia Institute.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Destruction of world’s pristine rainforests soared in 2022 despite Cop26 pledge

Posted on by

An area of primary rainforest the size of Switzerland was felled last year suggesting world leaders’ commitment to halt and reverse deforestation by 2030 is failing

An area the size of Switzerland was cleared from Earth’s most pristine rainforests in 2022, despite promises by world leaders to halt their destruction, new figures show.

From the Bolivian Amazon to Ghana, the equivalent of 11 football pitches of primary rainforest were destroyed every minute last year as the planet’s most carbon-dense and biodiverse ecosystems were cleared for cattle ranching, agriculture and mining, with Indigenous forest communities forced from their land by extractive industries in some countries.

Continue reading...

Nature at risk of breakdown if Cop15 pledges not met, world leaders warned

Posted on by

Author of landmark UK review into the economic value of nature joins UN environment chief in calls for ‘action, not just words’ on biodiversity goals

Humans are exploiting nature beyond its limits, the University of Cambridge economist Prof Sir Partha Dasgupta has warned, as the UN’s environment chief calls on governments to make good on a global deal for biodiversity, six months after it was agreed.

Dasgupta, the author of a landmark review into the economic importance of nature commissioned by the UK Treasury in 2021, said it was a mistake to continue basing economic policies on the postwar boom that did not account for damage to the planet.

Continue reading...

Dancing Capercaillie bird makes a tentative comeback in Scotland

Posted on by

Exclusive: Ecologists say there are early signs that the population is recovering in remote forests

It is a discotheque for Britain’s biggest type of grouse. Before dawn, male capercaillie will begin their courtship rituals, their black tail feathers erect and fanning out, chests puffed out, their heads thrust high into the cold spring air.

Their dancefloors are forest clearings in the Highlands which echo the males’ wheezing, popping and clattering mating calls. Often perched in surrounding pine trees, hens will carefully watch as their potential mates compete to win their affection.

Continue reading...

Massive strike pits African fishers against ‘superprofitable’ EU firms

Posted on by

About 2,000 crew members withdrew labour over pay and conditions, as well as citing serious breaches of overfishing rules by Spanish and French companies

The waters of west Africa and the Indian Ocean boast some of the world’s largest, healthiest populations of tropical tuna, and that makes them havens for industrial tuna fishing fleets, owned by countries vastly richer than the nations whose borders form these coastlines.

In order to protect the fish populations of poorer African nations from rapacious overfishing by richer countries, EU tuna vessels are bound by agreements centred on the sustainability and “social empowerment” of third countries.

Continue reading...

Giant saltworks proposed for Exmouth Gulf a threat to Ningaloo and endangered species, conservationists say

Posted on by

German company’s plan for 210-sq-km development in WA could ‘block the water that runs over that coastline into the gulf’

A proposal to build a giant saltworks in the Exmouth Gulf in Western Australia has been condemned by conservationists as a threat to endangered species.

German industrial company K+S has submitted its proposal to build a 210-sq-km saltworks on the pristine gulf – a crucial part of the adjacent world heritage-listed Ningaloo coast.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Activists take Canada’s environment minister to court in fight to save northern spotted owl

Posted on by

Advocacy group says continued destruction of critical habitat leaves it no choice but to take legal action against Steven Guilbeault

Environmental groups in Canada are taking legal action against the country’s environment minister, arguing his delay in protecting old growth forest is harming the critically endangered northern spotted owl.

In February, Steven Guilbeault said he would recommend an emergency order after determining the species was facing “imminent threats” to its survival.

Continue reading...

Britain is not ready for reintroduction of lynx and wolves, Ray Mears warns

Posted on by

Better management of existing apex predators and compensation schemes for farmers and gamekeepers needed, broadcaster says

Lynx and wolves are likely to become feared and hated if they are reintroduced into Britain’s forests, the adventurer and broadcaster Ray Mears has warned.

Speaking at Cheltenham science festival, he said Britain was not ready for such rewilding schemes, despite the potential ecological benefits.

Continue reading...

More wildlife-friendly farming needed to stop decline of insects in Britain, says report

Posted on by

Populations of bees, spiders, ground beetles and hoverflies have declined twice as fast on land farmed for crops in the past 30 years, despite funding for more sustainable farming methods

Conservation measures over the past 30 years have failed to stop the decline of insects on British farmland, a new report shows. Populations of bees, spiders, ground beetles and hoverflies have disappeared twice as fast in areas intensely farmed for crops, according to the paper, which looked at citizen science data on more than 1,500 invertebrate species.

Although there was a push to intensify agriculture after the second world war, since the early 90s more sustainable and wildlife-friendly farming practices have emerged, with EU agri-environment funding made available for farmers to plant hedgerows and wild flowers, alongside better regulation of pesticides. However, these have not managed to stem biodiversity loss.

Continue reading...

Reintroduction of endangered vulture in Spain paused over planned windfarm

Posted on by

Conservationists say plan to increase bearded vulture numbers in north-east would be ‘severely compromised’

Conservationists in Spain are calling for a “profound debate” on how best to balance the protection of wildlife with renewable energy demands after efforts to reintroduce endangered bearded vultures to an eastern area of the country had to be paused because of the threat posed by a huge new windfarm.

The bearded vulture – known in Spanish as the quebrantahuesos, or bone-breaker, because of the way it drops bones from a great height so they shatter and yield their marrow – was common across the country until the 20th century, when it was poisoned and hunted to the brink of extinction.

Continue reading...

The multinational companies that industrialised the Amazon rainforest

Posted on by

Analysis shows handful of corporations extract tens of billions of dollars of raw materials a year – and their commitments to restoration vary greatly

A handful of global giants dominate the industrialisation of the Amazon rainforest, extracting tens of billions of dollars of raw materials every year, according to an analysis that highlights how much value is being sucked out of the region with relatively little going back in.

But even as the pace of deforestation hits record highs while standards of living in the Amazon are among the lowest in Brazil, the true scale of extraction remains unknown, with basic details about cattle ranching, logging and mining hard to establish despite efforts to ban commodities linked to its destruction.

Continue reading...

March of the fire ants could reach Sydney’s outskirts by 2035, costing economy up to $1.2bn a year

Posted on by

Exclusive: Study finds pests could damage crops, and households would incur costs for pesticides, veterinary bills and electrical faults

Failure to stop the spread of an outbreak of invasive fire ants in south-east Queensland could cost the Australian economy more than $1bn a year, including damage to high-value crops, infrastructure and homes.

A previously unreleased cost-benefit analysis, commissioned by a steering committee managing the outbreak of red fire ants and obtained by Guardian Australia, says that eradication of the species provides “much higher returns” than suppression measures that simply limit its spread.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Last images of Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira found on recovered phone

Posted on by

Photos and videos on phone found near site of men’s killing show some of their last movements in Brazilian Amazon

Some of the last images of Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira have been found after Indigenous activists recovered a mobile phone Pereira was carrying when the two men were killed in the Brazilian Amazon last year.

The phone was found last October when activists from Univaja, the Indigenous association where Pereira worked, returned to a stretch of flooded forest along the Itaquaí River where the men’s bodies were taken after they were shot dead on their boat on the morning of 5 June 2022.

Continue reading...

More than 40,000 hectares of nationally vital koala habitat marked for potential logging in NSW

Posted on by

Analysis shows area includes 9,000 hectares where there was already active logging as pressure grows on government to end practice

Conservationists say forest areas that include 41,000 hectares of nationally important koala habitat have been identified for potential logging on the north coast of New South Wales in the region’s 12-month logging plan.

The analysis, by the North East Forest Alliance, comes as pressure grows on the NSW government to cease logging of native forests after the Victorian government announced logging in its native forests would end in December, six years earlier than planned.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

York groundsel blooms again in Britain’s first-ever de-extinction event

Posted on by

Yellow flower that only grows in York went extinct in 1991 brought back to life by Natural England experts

York groundsel was a cheerful yellow flower that slipped into global extinction in 1991, thanks to overzealous application of weedkiller in the city of its name.

But now the urban plant has been bought back to life in the first ever de-extinction in Britain, and is flowering again in York.

Continue reading...

Dorset ‘super reserve’ recreates ancient savannah habitat to boost biodiversity

Posted on by

Devon cattle stand in for extinct aurochs in project aimed at protecting precious species such as sand lizards

The mighty aurochs have gone, as have the tarpan horses and the wild boars, but modern-day substitutes have been drafted in to recreate a large open “savannah” on heathland in Dorset.

Instead of aurochs, considered the wild ancestor of domestic cattle, 200 red Devon cattle are to be found roaming the Purbeck Heaths, while Exmoor ponies are stand-ins for the tarpan horses and curly coated Mangalitsa pigs are doing the sort of rooting around that boars used to excel at here.

Continue reading...

MEPs accused of ‘culture war against nature’ by opposing restoration law

Posted on by

Fears biodiversity proposals could be abandoned amid opposition from lobby groups and some countries

MEPs have been accused of whipping up “a culture war against nature” after the fisheries and agriculture committees voted against the EU’s biodiversity restoration law.

Last June, the European Commission revealed proposals for legally binding targets for member states to restore wildlife on land, in rivers and the sea. The nature restoration law was announced alongside separate legislation proposing a crackdown on chemical pesticides with the aim of reversing the catastrophic loss of wildlife on the continent.

Continue reading...

Cocoa planting is destroying protected forests in west Africa, study finds

Posted on by

Global trade in chocolate, worth more than $1tn a year, is leading to widespread deforestation in Ivory Coast and Ghana

The world’s hunger for chocolate is a major cause of the destruction of protected forests in west Africa, scientists have said.

Satellite maps of Ivory Coast and Ghana showed swathes of formerly dense forest had become cocoa plantations since 2000, according to a study.

Continue reading...