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Sviatoslav Zabelin, SEU coordinator

Digest of Socio-Ecological Union International for September , 2022. №54

Gaujas nacionālais parks. Latvia's first and oldest national park, founded on 14 September 1973. It aims to protect the unique natural values of the Ancient Valley of river Gauja and its surroundings while at the same time providing both recreational and nature protection functions in the area. On the banks of Gauja and its tributaries, the devon sandstone outcrops, which are mostly geomorphological monuments of nature, are particularly representative. Highly rich flora and fauna: more than 800 species of vascular plants have been identified, 149 bird species, 48 mammalian species, etc. values. Several lakes have rare oligotrophic lake plants with dortmaine lobliness, ezerens and egalvitis.

Tiwi Islanders have won a landmark case against drilling for gas by Santos in their traditional waters after complaining that the company failed to consult them about the impact of the project. On Wednesday, judge Mordecai Bromberg set aside approval for the drilling, part of Santos’s $4.7bn Barossa project and gave Santos two weeks to shut down and remove its rig from the sea north of Melville Island. He said the offshore oil and gas regulator Nopsema failed to assess whether Santos had consulted with everyone affected by the proposed drilling, as required by the law.

The court heard from traditional owners at Pitjamirra on Melville Island in August. Photograph: Aaron Bunch/AAP

The case was brought by Dennis Tipakalippa, a senior lawman of the Munipi clan, the traditional owners of the northern Tiwi Islands. Tipakalippa told the court the Munipi and other traditional owners have “sea country”, to which they have a spiritual connection, to the north of the islands that extends into the Barossa project area. Speaking after the judgment, he said he was “the happiest man alive”. “We want Santos and all mining companies to remember – we are powerful, we will fight for our land and sea country, for our future generations, no matter how hard and how long,” he said. “We cannot be sidelined or silenced.” Read more

Nearly 88% of participating residents voted against metallic mining in a municipal referendum in Asunción Mita, in southeastern Guatemala. Locals fear the Cerro Blanco gold mining project would pollute soil and water sources, affecting the health of residents and crops.

A resident of Asunción Mita confirms his identity and signature to vote in a school classroom during a municipal referendum on mining. Image by Sandra Cuffe.

Cerro Blanco owner Bluestone Resources, the Guatemalan Ministry of Energy and Mines and a local pro-mining group contest the legality of the referendum. Read more

European Union lawmakers have backed a proposal for a law that would ban the sale in the 27-nation bloc of agriculture products linked to the destruction of forests. MEPs gathered on Tuesday in Strasbourg, France, supported and strengthened a plan from the EU’s executive arm with 453 votes to 57, and 123 abstentions. The EU Parliament will now start negotiations on the final text with EU member states. Once approved, the law would force companies and producers to give assurances that products are “deforestation-free.” Businesses would be forced to verify that agricultural goods sold in the EU have not bee made on “deforested or degraded land anywhere in the world,” the Parliament said. “Acknowledging that the EU is responsible for around 10% of global deforestation, we have no choice but to ramp up our efforts to halt global deforestation,” said Christophe Hansen, the lawmaker in charge of the Parliament’s report. In addition, MEPs proposed that banks and financial institutions should be covered by the law to prevent them from investing in projects linked to deforestation. Read more

It took four years longer than planned, but the European Commission did it. Consistent with the reformed European Deep-Sea Fishing Regulation adopted in 2016 (n°2016/2336), for which BLOOM fought for nearly seven years with partner NGOs, the Commission announced today the closure to all bottom contact fishing gear of 87 areas beyond 400 m depth to protect vulnerable marine ecosystems off the coasts of Ireland, France, Portugal and Spain. Map based on ICES data showing the 87 zones with Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems which will now be closed to bottom fishing below 400 m. Read more

Wolves, brown bears and white-tailed eagles are among the top predators making a comeback across Europe, according to a major report that looks at how some wildlife is rebounding.

An Iberian wolf (Canis lupus signatus), a sub-species of the grey wolf, in the Sierra de la Culebra, Spain. There are now 17,000 grey wolves across continental Europe. Photograph: Pierre-Philippe Marcou/AFP/Getty

Researchers analysed data on 50 wildlife species whose population size and geographical distribution have expanded over the past 40 years to show how effective legal protection, habitat restoration and reintroductions can drive species recovery. “The vast majority have recovered thanks to human efforts,” said Louise McRae from the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), who was one of the authors of the European Wildlife Comeback report, commissioned by Rewilding Europe. The grey wolf has been the fastest to return among carnivores. There are 17,000 individuals roaming almost all of continental Europe, with calls to reintroduce them to Britain too.

A white-tailed eagle hunting off the Isle of Mull in Scotland. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian

There are 12,500 pairs of white-tailed eagles soaring over much of Europe, with growing populations on the west coast of Scotland and the Isle of Wight. Since 1960, populations of brown bears have increased by 44%, driven by better legal protection, although persecution is still a big risk and human-bear conflicts continue. Read more

Poaching is less of a threat to the survival of sea turtles than it once was, a new analysis suggests¹. Illegal sea-turtle catch has dropped sharply since 2000, with most of the current exploitation occurring in areas where turtle populations are relatively healthy. This study is the first worldwide estimate of the number of adult sea turtles moved on the black market. According to the analysis, more than one million sea turtles were illegally harvested between 1990 and 2020.

The shell of the endangered hawksbill sea turtle (pictured) is prized for trinkets and jewellery.Credit: Reinhard Dirscherl/SPL

But the researchers also found that the illegal catch from 2010 to 2020 was nearly 30% lower than that in the previous decade. “The silver lining is that, despite the seemingly large illegal take, exploitation is not having a negative impact on sea-turtle populations on a global scale. This is really good news,” says co-author Jesse Senko, a marine conservation scientist at Arizona State University in Tempe. The research was published 7 September in Global Change Biology. Read more

In 2020 and 2021, some 48 percent of all electricity generated in Kenya came from geothermal — the highest share of any country. And as the world seeks to increase both the quantity and cleanliness of its electricity, it’s a cheap, bountiful and low-carbon option Kenya plans to increasingly rely on.

Geophysicist Nicholas Mariita remembers when Kenya’s geothermal sector wasn’t the high-tech powerhouse it is today. In the early 1980s, he regularly joined teams of scientists on expeditions into the country’s Great Rift Valley to survey for potential sites where the Earth could be tapped for a prime subterranean energy source. They weren’t looking for oil or coal — they were looking for heat, the key resource in geothermal power. The Great Rift Valley was still wild then, so dodging snakes and buffalo was part of the job. “One in a while, we’d be chased by a buffalo and have to climb into a tree, and if it was a clever one, it’d flick urine at you with its tail,” Mariita recalls. “Those were the kind of funny things we went through.” Their risk has yielded results. . Read more. Sent by Christine Eleanor Anderson

… and crypto served up another planet-saving formula. From the great outdoors to the virtual world with the news that a makeover of one of the world’s biggest cryptocurrencies has slashed energy use in the sector.

Image: Ivan Radic licensed under CC BY 2.0

Crypto has faced criticism over its poor sustainability, with notoriously greedy servers proving a massive drain on energy resources. Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency, is responsible for an estimated 70m tonnes of CO2 a year. Runner-up Ethereum has an annual power consumption equivalent to Bangladesh – but henceforth it should be treading so lightly that its carbon footprint will be barely visible. Coding changes to the platform finalised this week mean that vast computing power is no longer needed to complete transactions, slashing energy use by as much as 99.95%. Experts have hailed the move, dubbed ‘The Merge’, as one of the most significant moments in crypto history. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin took to Twitter to proclaim: “Happy merge all. This is a big moment for the Ethereum ecosystem. Everyone who helped make the merge happen should feel very proud today.” Read more

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