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Sviatoslav Zabelin, SEU coordinator

Digest of Socio-Ecological Union International for July 14, 2023. №59

The Ustyurt State Nature Reserve of the Republic of Kazakhstan was established on July 12, 1984 on an area of 223.3 thousand hectares to protect desert landscapes on the Ustyurt plateau. Geographically, the territory of Ustyurt is included in the Iran-Turan subdistrict of the Afro-Asian desert region, and the reserve is located at the junction of the Ustyurt and Mangyshlak districts of the southern desert subzone. The highest point of the reserve is located on the Western chink of Ustyurt in the area of the Kugusem well (+340 m above sea level.m.), the lowest is in the northern part of Kenderlisor (-52 m).

The EU must have restoration measures in place by 2030 covering at least 20% of its land and sea areas, say MEPs. Following a debate on Tuesday, Parliament today adopted its position on the EU nature restoration law with 336 votes in favour, 300 against and 13 abstentions. A vote to reject the Commission’s proposal did not pass (312 votes to 324 and 12 abstentions). MEPs underline that restoring the ecosystem is key to combating climate change and biodiversity loss, and reduces risks to food security.

Nature restoration supports the recovery of damaged ecosystems and bring more nature and biodiversity back everywhere. © J. Lund AdobeStock

They stress that the draft law does not impose the creation of new protected areas in the EU nor block new renewable energy infrastructure as they added a new article underlining that such installations are overwhelmingly in the public interest. Parliament highlights that the new law must contribute to reaching the EU’s international commitments, in particular the UN Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity framework. MEPs support the Commission’s proposal to put restoration measures in place by 2030 covering at least 20% of all land and sea areas in the EU. Read more

Community members in Ecuador’s Intag Valley have won a court case to stop the Llurimagua copper mining project, with the court ordering the revocation of mining licenses from Chile’s Codelco and Ecuador’s ENAMI EP. The Llurimagua mining concession is in the Tropical Andes, the world’s most biodiverse hotspot, home to dozens of threatened and endemic species, including two near-extinct frog species. A provincial court recognized that the mining companies violated the communities’ constitutional right to consultation and the rights of nature guaranteed by Ecuador’s Constitution since 2008.

The decision is a significant win for the Intag communities, who have resisted mining for nearly 30 years, and sets an important precedent for protecting constitutional and environmental rights, as well as sends a message to investors that Ecuador is not a safe bet for mining operations. Read more

Brazil’s environmental authority has rejected Petrobras’s request to drill its first well at an offshore oil frontier known as the Equatorial Margin, delivering a major setback to the state-controlled oil company’s exploration plans. Ibama, as the agency is known, highlighted the extreme social and environmental sensitivity of the biologically diverse region that is home to indigenous lands, mangroves, coral reefs and endangered species. It has been a controversial location for drilling and has drawn concern from Brazil’s environment minister, Marina Silva. “There is no doubt that Petrobras was offered every opportunity to remedy critical points of its project, but it still presents worrying inconsistencies for safe operations in a new exploratory frontier of high social and environmental vulnerability,” the regulator’s president Rodrigo Agostinho said in the decision. Read more

It’s a critical time for lion conservation as the species declines across Africa. Globally, the lion population has dropped by 43% over the past 21 years. Lions are classified as vulnerable by the IUCN, with the species facing a high risk of extinction in the wild. In many of the lion’s core ranges across Africa, populations have plummeted due to, among other reasons, habitat fragmentation and poaching.

Zakouma National Park has become a stronghold in Chad for the protection of wildlife, including the iconic lion. Image courtesy of African Parks. 

But some African lion populations are increasing, with the big cats spotted after years of absence in parks in Mozambique and Chad. The reason: the creation of vast protected landscape mosaics, with natural corridors stretching far beyond core protected lands, which consider the large areas lions need to roam seasonally. This strategy entails collaboration between multiple stakeholders and across varied land uses, including state lands and private property not formally protected. These examples are showing that conservation across landscape mosaics is possible in Africa, and offer the promise of wider benefits to ecosystems and people. Read more

A recent census shows that the population of the kipunji monkey (Rungwecebus kipunji) in Tanzania’s Southern Highlands has increased by 65%, while signs of human impacts in its habitat decreased by 81%, over a 13-year period. The increase follows 20 years of intensive holistic conservation efforts by the Wildlife Conservation Society and Tanzanian government partners, including greater legal protection for forests and community engagement.

Kipunji live in montane forests at altitudes between 1,300 and 2,450 meters in groups with an average of 30 individuals. They eat a wide variety of fruits, bark, leaves and more, occasionally coming down from the trees to raid farmers’ fields, which brings them into conflict with people. Image courtesy of Tim Davenport / WCS.

The total population size of the kipunji is estimated at 1,966 individuals in two subpopulations, and the species is classified by the IUCN as endangered. The kipunji has been on the Primates in Peril list of 25 most endangered primates three times: in 2006-2008, 2008-2010, and 2018-2020, but was not on the most recent list. Read more

Colombia deforestation plummets as peace efforts focus on rainforest. Official figures show deforestation fell 26% in Colombian Amazon last year and 29% nationwide. Officials say the 50,000 hectares of forest saved in 2022 are an early result of what is probably the first peace process in history to put the environment at the centre.

A view of the Serranía de Chiribiquete, located in the Amazonian jungle departments of Caquetá and Guaviare, Colombia, in 2018. Photograph: Guillermo Legaria/AFP/Getty Images

“This is just the beginning,” Colombia’s environment minister, Susana Muhamad, told the Guardian while visiting the southern state of Guaviare. “I think that Colombia can [overcome] deforestation in the Amazon and turn this all around.” Environmental experts say deforestation plummeted here on the orders of a dissident rebel faction – and the region’s de facto authority – known as the Estado Mayor Central, or Central Command (EMC). The group, composed of former Farc fighters, has ordered local farmers to stop cutting down trees as a “gesture of peace” in the hope of reaching a peace of agreement with the Petro government. Such talks still have a long way to go, but the moratorium on logging has excited conservationists like Botero. “It’s unprecedented,” he says. “We’ve never had this as the first step in negotiations.” Read more

Brazil's Amazon deforestation dropped 34% in Lula's first six months. From January to June the rainforest had alerts covering 2,650 square kilometers, down from 4,000 square kilometers during the same period last year under former president Jair Bolsonaro.

Trees lie in an area of recent deforestation identified by agents of the Chico Mendes Institute in the Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve, Acre state, Brazil, December 8, 2022. ERALDO PERES / AP

After four years of rising destruction in Brazil’s Amazon, deforestation dropped by 33.6% during the first six months of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s term, according to government satellite data released Thursday, July 6. From January to June the rainforest had alerts covering 2,650 square kilometers (1,023 square miles), down from 4,000 square kilometers – an area the size of Rhode Island – during the same period last year under former President Jair Bolsonaro. This year's data includes a 41% plunge in alerts for June, which marks the start of the dry season when deforestation tends to jump. "The effort of reversing the curve of growth has been reached. That is a fact: we reversed the curve; deforestation isn't increasing," João Paulo Capobianco, the Environment Ministry's executive secretary, said during a presentation in Brasilia. Read more

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