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1. Good news from Colombia - Chiribiquete National Park is to be extended

   Posted on 9:00pm Monday 5th Mar 2018

   Good news from Colombia. The President, Juan Manuel Santos, has announced plans to extend the country’s largest national park by 1.5 million hectares.  At the moment, the Chiribiquete National Park covers 2.8 million hectares in the Amazon region, so this planned extension is enormous.   The National Park has got one of the highest rates of plant diversity in the northern Amazon, and it’s famous for its tepuis (table-top rock formations) which rise out of the forest.   In fact, the forest is located on one of the world’s oldest rock formations, the Guiana Shield.  The park is rich in wildlife and it has traces of ancient human life.  Francisco Forero Bonell, a phpotographer, documented ancient paintings on the sheer rock faces depicting animals and humans.  They are thought to have been made by one of the indigenous groups which lived in the area way before the arrival of the Spanish Conquistadors. The Colombian government is hoping that Chiribiquete will be added to UNESCO’s list of World Heritage sites this year;  it’s on the tentative list at the moment, and the World Heritage Committee will study the application in June.

2. Peru has a new national park - the Yaguas National Park

   Posted on 9:00pm Friday 2nd Mar 2018

   Peru has a new national park In January 2011, the Peruvian government established the Yaguas National Park. It is enormous – 2,147,166 acres.  And it’s a safeguard and home to hundreds of species of flora and fauna AND has the ancestral lands of over 1,000 indigenous people living in the region.  The park sits in a remote northwestern region of Peru.  It’s near the Colombain border, and it runs along the Putumayo River.  And it controls weather patterns in the United States. The area has a history of exploitation – logging, mining and rubber production.  Needless to say, some of this has been illegal.  The indigenous people were forced to collect rubber from the forest under terrible conditions, facing murder, mutilation and systematic rape, according to the Field Museum. But now, with the national park status, the land and people are protected.   Additionally, so are 3,000 plant species, 600 bird species and over 150 mammal species in the area.  Many of these are threatened or endangered.   And over 300 fish species live in the various rivers flowing in and out of the Yaguas National Park. Species such as giant otters, woolly monkeys, Amazonian river dolphins and manatees live there. South America is creating vast stretches of protected wilderness, so hopefully they are signs of both people and governments showing how important these regions of wilderness are, both for animal and human wellbeing.

    

3. Tanzania wildlife populations benefit from Wildlife Management Areas

   Posted on 9:00pm Friday 2nd Mar 2018

   In Tanzania, wildlife populations have really suffered in recent decades. Needless to say, this suffering is due to human activities such as poaching, farming, and mining. However, there’s good news which shows that community-based wildlife conservation can bring fast win-wins amongst all species great and small. The Journal of Mammology published a paper in which scientists from the Wild Nature Institute show significantly higher densities of giraffes and dik-diks, and lower densities of cattle in a community Wildlife Management Area, rather than an unprotected control site.  Before the Wildlife Management Area was established, the densities of wildlife and livestock were similar when both managed by the same authority.  However, the data showed that the establishment of Wildlife Management Areas had positive ecological outcomes with higher wildlife densities and lower livestock densities, which met the researcher’s definition of ecological success. Efforts to bring wildlife management under the control of local communities rather than central agencies have been made through the establishment of Wildlife Management Areas.   The idea is that several vilages set aside land for wildlife conservation in return for most of the tourism revenues from these areas.  There are 19 such areas already in operation, covering 7% of Tanzania’s land area, and 19 more are planned.  Hopefully this will provide an example to other countries they can follow.  Eco-tourism can provide an income for locals, and it’s the largest economic sector and money earner for Tanzania.   Click on the elephants above for ideas of holidays in Tanzania listed through Responsible Travel

    

4. Forests really matter

   Posted on 9:00pm Wednesday 28th Feb 2018

   Nature Ecology & Evolution have published research that shows the enormous value of Earth’s remaining intact forests on several levels: Climate Change Infact forests absorb about 25% of our carbon emissions from all human sources – if we destroy them, there will be far more carbon dioxide in the air which a) makes the climate warmer and b) can hardly be good for any of us to breathe in Water availability Intact forests ensure that local and regional weather remains stable, as they generate more rain than cleared forests which reduces the risk of drought. Biodiversity Intact forests have higher numbers of species who are dependent on forests and who have higher functional and genetic diversity Indigenous cultures Intact forests enable many indigenous groups to sustain their livelihoods and cultures Human health The loss of forest compromise the supply of species that millions of people rely on for medicinal purposes, and it drives the spread of many infectious diseases because humans come into closer contact with disease vectors. Professor James Watson of the Wildlife Conservation Society and the University of Queensland says that not all forests are equal and forest conservation should be prioritised on their relative values.  The researchers say we need to act while we still have intact forests left to save, before mankind destroys them all. Global and national environmental strategies must retain the integrity of infact forest, and there must be more efforts to stabilise deforestation frontiers and stimulate restoration. Policy interventions the researchers recommend include; Creating new standard metrics of intactness to raise awareness of the importance of forest quality and help target action to those areas most intact Embedding the intact forests concept in the UN Frameowrk Convention on Climate and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Special Reports to ensure the Paris Agreement’s commitment includes the protections of intact forests Supporting local and global policies which limit road expansion, regulate hunting, extraction and development on the one hand; and to help secure indigenous communities’ land tenure rights and invest in restoration and protected areas on the other Support efforts which restore and make degraded forests more productive, and conserve the intact systems which are at risk, rather than opening them up to activity We need to start cherishing our forests and caring for them all.  They look after us; we need to look after them.

    

5. 664,484 acres protected in Bolivia

   Posted on 9:00pm Monday 26th Feb 2018

   There's good news from Bolivia. The World Land Trust and Nature and Culture International have jointly funded the creation of Heroes del Chaco Historical and Wildlife Municipal Reserve. This is protection a whopping 664,484 acres of Dry Chaco forest in Bolivia! The project was given community support, and on the ground, it's Natura Bolivia who run it.    World Land Trust says the plains of Gran Chaco extend from the base of hte Andes across Northern Argentina, western Paraguay and south east Bolivia. It is ihome to the largest Dry Forest in South America, and has swamps, savannahs, marshes, salt flats and scrubelands. It supports about 500 species of birds, 150 species of mammals, 120 species of reptiles and 100 species of amphibians, so it's a very important area for wildlife.  Threats to the area are deforestation, hunting and unsustainable cattle farming.   Natura is working with locals in the area to develop a conservation model which works for both wildlife and people in the area.   For instance, the govenrment has given support for conservation incentives.    This is very exciting, especially the work to develop conservation models which work for people and wildlife and it will be interesting to see how the project develops.   Meantime, it's great to think that over 664,000 acres are being protected.