Wildlife Conservation and Protection

The study

• A palm oil firm has cleared more than 3,000 hectares (7,500 acres) of forest inside a UNESCO biosphere reserve in Indonesian Borneo, threatening areas identified as orangutan habitat.
• The concession overlaps with a wildlife corridor linking two national parks, raising concerns over habitat fragmentation and increased human-orangutan conflict.
• Authorities have acknowledged the presence of the habitat inside the company’s concession, but proposed voluntary conservation measures rather than halting clearing, drawing criticism from environmental groups.
• The case highlights broader issues of weak enforcement, disputed land rights with Indigenous communities, and supply-chain loopholes that continue to allow deforestation-linked palm oil into global markets.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/35220376

• A 4 meter high perimeter wall was built alongside a village bordering Ngezi Forest Reserve as construction to a luxury resort estate has started on Zanzibar’s Pemba island.
• A dirt road cutting through the protected forest has been widened to facilitate the transport of goods.
• Researchers warn that no environmental planning has been done and that animal and plant species could go extinct if the development goes ahead.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/35220230

• This month, officials in Ecuador announced a 2,159-square-kilometer (833-square mile) biodiversity corridor, connecting Llanganates National Park with Yasuní Biosphere Reserve.
• The Llanganates–Yasuní Connectivity Corridor is unique because it allows “altitudinal connectivity” between the high-elevation Andes mountains and the low-elevation Amazon Rainforest.
• Experts say some species could start to move between the ecosystems in response to climate change and habitat loss.

• In the Amazon and Atlantic forests, field research is seeking new ways to understand the behavior of mammals like monkeys and sloths that depend on the treetops to move around and survive in different types of vegetation.
• Using photographic equipment on artificial bridges — whose ropes, nets and platforms are intertwined with trees to protect wildlife — researchers are mapping fauna in both continuous forests and fragmented areas, providing new scientific insights.
• Experts working to reduce the risks of roadkill and species’ isolation in fragmented forest areas say studies are crucial to improving the installation of artificial crossings over highways.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/34967698

• Dozens of protected areas in Cameroon’s anglophone regions, including parks that are home to great apes and other threatened species, have been swept up in a decade-long armed conflict between government forces and separatist militias.
• The ongoing conflict has blocked conservationists’ access to forests, and exposed conservationists, local civilians and the region’s wildlife to violence.
• Displaced people have turned to farming and hunting in forests in order to survive, while militias also hunt and camp in the forest.
• Conservationists have explored new strategies to keep their work alive, including working with local citizen scientists, but say the task of rebuilding organizations in the midst of a humanitarian crisis is huge.

(Note that this article may understate the francophone government's role in the threat to non-human animals.)

Lebialem is a global biodiversity hotspot in Cameroon’s southwest, host to dozens of endemic and threatened species

For anyone who doesn't know, "southwest" in this context refers to the region near the southern end of the border with Nigeria, NOT the southwestern corner of Cameroon near Equatorial Guinea.

Anglophone separatists declared a breakaway state of Ambazonia, comprising the Northwest and Southeast regions

Typo in the article. Not "Southeast" but the same Southwest region mentioned above.

On Jan. 29, the government of Guinea-Bissau issued a flat ban on fish meal production, citing threats to marine ecosystems and food security.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/34758537

The paper is here

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/34758345

“Historically, overfishing has been the main driver of biomass declines in many of the world’s fisheries [and] according to the FAO [UN Food and Agriculture Organization] the proportion of overfished stocks globally continues to rise,” said Ortuño Crespo, who was not involved in the study. “The current challenge is that this overfishing crisis is being further exacerbated by ocean warming and deoxygenation.”

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/34448167

As the Atlantic warms, many fish along the east coast of North America have moved northward to keep within their preferred temperature range. Black sea bass, for instance, have shifted hundreds of miles up the coast.

A doubling of fish biomass along Asia’s longest river shows hope for large-scale conservation efforts and a lifeline for the endangered finless porpoise.

• El PEPP Framework propone principios éticos y legales para investigar la comunicación animal, ante riesgos que van desde el estrés hasta la manipulación de las especies.
• El proyecto surge de académicos de la Universidad de Nueva York, quienes identificaron una brecha regulatoria frente al uso de tecnologías como IA, robótica o bioacústica.
• El marco plantea proteger la autonomía animal, prevenir daños y asegurar la participación de comunidades locales e indígenas.
• Por el momento, la adhesión es voluntaria, pero se espera que así se inicie un tránsito hacia la creación de regulaciones vinculantes.

Researchers have proposed a new ethical framework to regulate emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, used to decode animal communication, Ana Cristina Alvarado reports for Mongabay Latam.

The proposed guidelines, known as the PEPP Framework, which stands for Prepare, Engage, Prevent and Protect, lay out the principles for studying animal communication responsibly. Scientists at the More than Human Life Program (MOTH) at New York University and the Cetacean Translation Initiative (CETI) warn that poorly regulated research can cause harm to animals.

“Even routine recording and playback can cause stress in animals,” CETI founder David Gruber told Alvarado by email.

In one documented case, researchers studying elephant communication played a recorded call from an individual that had already died, causing significant distress to the elephants that heard its call. The elephant family went wild calling and looking around for their dead relative. The dead elephant’s daughter called for days afterward.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/33848718

• Since 2020, at least five companies have been granted mining concessions in an land designated as a community protected area adjoining Cambodia’s Lumphat Wildlife Sanctuary.
• Satellite analysis and on-the-ground reporting reveal that marble extraction has been underway since 2021, with companies piling up and shipping out thousands of blocks of marble, leaving behind cleared forests and water-filled pits.
• Government officials and mining companies did not respond to interview requests, but local residents and community chiefs say they have not been consulted, or been given adequate compensation, as quarries tore through land in the community zone.
• Lumphat sanctuary is also under pressure from industrial agriculture and a planned hydropower development.