Dear friends and co-fighters!

Welcome to the next issue of Positive News.

Let you spread it among your friends and co-fighters in your countries and around the Earth.

We will be glad to receive and publish your positive news from the fields and offices.

Welcome to send us photos of your country's Nature Reserves.

Sviatoslav Zabelin, SEU coordinator

Digest of Socio-Ecological Union International for June 5, 2024. №67

The Kronotsky State Natural Biosphere Reserve is one of the oldest nature reserves in Russia. As the State reserve it was formed 90 years ago, оn June 1, 1934, on the site of the Sable reserve that had existed since 1882. It is located in the eastern part of the Kamchatka Peninsula and covers an area of 1,147,619.37 hectares. There are 8 active volcanoes, the highest of which is Kronotskaya Sopka (3,528 m), thermal lakes, the famous Valley of Geysers, waterfalls.

The brave little fox Wind travels through the amazing nature of the Kronotsky State Natural Biosphere Reserve. Having lost his family after an encounter with a bear, he begins to look for a new home and a new meaning in life. And he succeeds — he meets love, the fox Lava. But the bear returns, and the little fox must find the strength to face his fear.

The New York Declaration on Animal Consciousness. Which animals have the capacity for conscious experience? While much uncertainty remains, some points of wide agreement have emerged. First, there is strong scientific support for attributions of conscious experience to other mammals and to birds.

Second, the empirical evidence indicates at least a realistic possibility of conscious experience in all vertebrates (including reptiles, amphibians, and fishes) and many invertebrates (including, at minimum, cephalopod mollusks, decapod crustaceans, and insects). Third, when there is a realistic possibility of conscious experience in an animal, it is irresponsible to ignore that possibility in decisions affecting that animal. We should consider welfare risks and use the evidence to inform our responses to these risks. Read more

Indonesian environmental activist Daniel Frits Maurits Tangkilisan has had his sentence overturned on appeal, in a case that saw him charged over a Facebook post highlighting illegal shrimp farms operating in a marine protected area. The appeals court held that while the post constituted hate speech, as a lower court had ruled, it was made in defense of the constitutional right to a healthy environment.

Daniel Frits Maurits Tangkilisan has been exonerated in a hate speech case over a Facebook post criticizing illegal shrimp farms operating in Karimunjawa National Park. Image courtesy of Lentera Jawa Tengah.

Three fellow activists face prosecution under the same charges for posting a video of their opposition to the polluting shrimp farms in Karimunjawa National Park, an ostensibly protected area. Read more

Europe's top human rights court ruled on Tuesday that the Swiss government had violated the human rights of its citizens by failing to do enough to combat climate change, in a decision that will set a precedent for future climate lawsuits. The European Court of Human Rights's ruling, in favour of the more than 2,000 Swiss women who brought the case, is expected to resonate in court decisions across Europe and beyond, and to embolden more communities to bring climate cases against governments.

Anton Foley, climate justice activist with Fridays For Future and Aurora, Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg and Rosmarie Wydler-Walti, of the Swiss elderly women group Senior Women for Climate Protection, talk to journalists after the verdict on three climate cases, where applicants have argued that government inaction on climate change violates human rights, case Duarte Agostinho and Others v. Portugal and 32 Other States, case Verein KlimaSeniorinnen Schweiz and Others v. Switzerland, and case Careme v France, at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg, France, April 9, 2024. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann

But in a sign of the complexities of the growing wave of climate litigation, the court (ECtHR) rejected two other climate-related cases on procedural grounds. Read more

Forest clearing detected by Brazil’s deforestation alert system fell to the lowest level in nearly five years. According to data released last week by the country’s space agency, INPE, deforestation registered over the past twelve months amounts to 4,816 square kilometers, 53% below the level this time last year.

12-month-moving average for deforestation alert data from Imazon’s SAD system and INPE’s DETER system. Imazon is a Brazilian NGO that independently monitors deforestation.

The drop in deforestation has occurred despite a severe drought affecting much of the Amazon basin. Read more

For decades, the federal USA government has prioritized oil and gas drilling, hardrock mining and livestock grazing on public lands across the country. That could soon change under a far-reaching Interior Department rule that puts conservation, recreation and renewable energy development on equal footing with resource extraction.

In Wyoming and other states, the Interior Department is trying to transform how public lands are managed. (Kim Raff for The Washington Post)

The final rule released Thursday represents a seismic shift in the management of roughly 245 million acres of public property — about one-tenth of the nation’s land mass. It is expected to draw praise from conservationists and legal challenges from fossil fuel industry groups and Republican officials, some of whom have lambasted the move as a “land grab.” Read more

The state of Pará, Brazil  has created two new conservation areas along the Amazonian coastline, placing almost all of its mangroves under federal protection. The two reserves mean that an additional 74,700 hectares (184,600 acres) have been included in the largest and most conserved continuous belt of mangroves on the planet. The process to create the reserves took more than 13 years and faced several setbacks; the final outcome has been celebrated by environmentalists as a victory for local communities and biodiversity.

On March 21, the International Day of Forests, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed decrees creating two new conservation areas to protect Pará’s mangroves. Image © Claudio Kbene/Agência Brasil.

The new extractive reserves allow resident populations to engage in traditional and sustainable extractive practices such as fishing and hunting, while keeping out big businesses, such as commercial aquaculture or logging. Read more

After more than a decade of community mobilization and resistance, the Brazilian State Department of Environment of Mato Grosso (SEMA) halted this week the environmental licensing process for the proposed Castanheira hydroelectric dam. The decision was taken after the Federal Public Defender’s Office (DPU) and the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office (MPF) called for the project’s suspension over its potential to negatively impact Indigenous communities.

In its decision, SEMA cited the lack of adequate technical studies and failure to provide required information as a grounds for denying the dam project, which the federal government had prioritized under its Investment Partnerships Program (PPI).  SEMA’s decision to deny the license came as the result of tireless work by civil society, which questioned and took legal action against the project. Read more

The world's first cross-border protected natural area for the conservation of wild Far Eastern leopards has been created near the borders of China and Russia. The agreement between the Russian Federation and the People's Republic of China on the creation of the Land of Big Cats Reserve was signed by the heads of relevant departments of the two countries during Vladimir Putin's visit to Beijing. 

Amur tiger. Photo: Land of the Leopard National Park

The new reserve includes the territories of two Russian protected areas: Land of the Leopard National Park and the Kedrovaya Pad Nature Reserve, as well as Northeast Tiger and Leopard National Park of China. The corresponding agreement was signed by the head of the Ministry of Natural Resources of Russia Alexander Kozlov and the head of the National Forestry and Grassland Administration of the People's Republic of China Guan Zhiou. The ceremony took place in the presence of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on May 16. Read more

A first-of-its-kind study that analyzed hundreds of conservation actions around the world has confirmed that efforts toward preserving wildlife are resulting in measurable achievements. The international study, published in the journal Science, sought to assess whether conservation efforts were having any positive impacts on biodiversity.

Least terns are a conservation success story on the islands of Cayo Costa and North Captiva in Florida, where protection from invasive species has led to better nesting rates. ps50ace / iStock / Getty Images Plus

Researchers analyzed 186 studies, including 665 trials, and measured changes to biodiversity. Overall, the researchers found that about two-thirds of the studied conservation actions at minimum slowed biodiversity declines or led to improved biodiversity. Read more

12.04 | В мире   Digest of Socio-Ecological Union International for April 11, 2024. №66

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