Digest of Socio-Ecological Union International for November 18, 2024. №71

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 November 18, 2024. №71

Banner image: The Carpathian Biosphere Reserve was established on November 12, 1968 in Ukraine, and was included in the UNESCO network of Biosphere Reserves in 1992. It occupies a total area of 57,880 hectares, of which the area of the protected area is 31,995 hectares. Protected areas are located at altitudes from 180 to 2061 meters above sea level in the western, central and eastern sectors of the Ukrainian Carpathians. This territorial structure of the reserve almost completely represents the landscape and biogeographic diversity of the Eastern Carpathians. It presents intact and practically untouched by human activity oak forests of the foothills, mountain beech, mixed and spruce forests, subalpine and alpine meadows with pine-alder woodlands and rocky lichen landscapes. The Valley of daffodils is the largest growing area of the narrow–leaved narcissus in Europe.

Less than two months after the removal of dams restored a free-flowing Klamath River, salmon have made their way upstream to begin spawning and have been spotted in Oregon for the first time in more than a century.

Biologists with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife announced that they found a single fall-run Chinook on Oct. 16 in a tributary of the Klamath River upstream of the spot where J.C. Boyle Dam was recently dismantled. State biologists in California have also been seeing salmon in creeks that had been inaccessible since dams were built decades ago and blocked fish from reaching their spawning areas. “It’s amazing,” said Ron Reed, a Karuk Tribe member and traditional fisherman. “That’s what we’ve prayed for.” Read more

The Civil Court of Loreto issued a ruling this week that upholds the rights of the Marañón River, marking a significant victory for environmental justice and Indigenous rights in Peru. Originating in the Andes and flowing into the Amazon, the Marañón is critical to biodiversity and Indigenous communities, particularly the Kukama people who have long defended it against contamination and exploitation. Despite appeals from Petroperú and state agencies, the court reaffirmed this week an earlier ruling that recognized the Marañón and its tributaries as legal rights-holders, establishing protections for their ecological health. This legal affirmation is the first of its kind in Peru – a recognition of the river’s right to exist, flow, and remain free from harm.

This landmark decision is a testament to the advocacy of the Huaynakana Kamatahuara Kana Federation, a Kukama women’s organization that has tirelessly fought to safeguard the Marañón from repeated oil spills and environmental degradation. The ruling also sets critical legal precedents by mandating that Petroperú take immediate, comprehensive measures to protect the river from further contamination, and by establishing watershed councils to oversee sustainable river management.  Read more

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the Room to Roam Act into law on Friday, setting measures that will promote wildlife movement across the state. Assembly Bill 1889 directs cities and counties to minimize the disruption of wildlife movement and offers development guidelines such as incorporating wildlife-friendly fencing and lighting.

Adult male mountain lion. Photo credit: U.S. National Park Service

“California is finally moving away from the land-use mistakes that have trapped our wild neighbors and made it hard for them to find food, shelter and mates,” said J.P. Rose, Urban Wildlands policy director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “I hope these sensible guidelines inspire local governments across the nation to improve wildlife connectivity in their communities. If we’re going to curb the extinction crisis and the climate emergency, we need everyone from planners to politicians working to preserve the natural world for the next generation.” Poorly planned development not only makes it hard for wildlife to thrive, it also makes it hard for them to survive. Read more

The Azores, an autonomous Portuguese archipelago, has approved legislation to create the largest marine protected area network in the North Atlantic Ocean. Spread across 287,000 square kilometers (about 110,800 square miles), the new marine protected area network covers 30% of the ocean surrounding the archipelago. Half of the MPA network is “fully protected,” while the other half is “highly protected.” In the “fully protected” parts of the network, extractive or destructive activities like fishing are not allowed, while activities such as diving, swimming and marine tourism are regulated, said Luis Bernardo Brito e Abreu, adviser to the president of the Azores government. In the “highly protected” half, “only activities with low total impact,” such as pole and line fishing, are allowed, Brito e Abreu told Mongabay via email.

“The goal was to maximize conservation efforts, minimize the impact on fishing, and create opportunities for economic growth through tourism and other blue economy sectors.” Read more

The Brazilian Amazon experienced its smallest amount of yearly deforestation in nearly a decade, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's government reported Wednesday, in line with its promise to combat forest loss. Deforestation fell by 30.6 percent in the year-to-year period beginning in August 2023, according to the National Institute for Space Research (INPE). During that time, 6,288 square kilometers (2,427 square miles) of forest were destroyed, which INPE Director Gilvan Oliveira said was "the lowest result in the last nine years." Read more

The EU Commission has adopted a delegated act establishing measures in the Bay of Biscay by 2025 to prevent incidental catches of dolphins and other small cetaceans in fisheries. Unless the European Parliament or the Council objects within the next two months, it will enter into force to close the Bay of Biscay to fishing vessels over eight metres from 22 January to 20 February 2025 as around this period it’s a high-risk time for incidental catches of small cetaceans. The specific types of fishing vessels include pelagic and demersal trawls, seiners, and netters. These measures were the subject of a joint recommendation by Belgium, France, Portugal, and Spain and include the mandatory use of acoustic deterrents and a year-round monitoring programme for small cetaceans using observers and on-board cameras which will help monitor the situation closely next year and assess whether additional measures are needed. In response, the fishing sector and Member States are actively investing in research and trials of new technologies to minimise interactions between fishing vessels and small cetaceans, allowing fishing activities and cetacean conservation to go hand in hand. Although we welcome any move to reduce dolphin deaths, where there is fishing gear, there will always be dolphins (and whales) getting entangled and dying –  it’s estimated around 9,000 dolphins die in the Bay of Biscay each year after being caught in fishing gear, some years the numbers even higher.  Read more

The mother of a nine-year-old girl who became the first person in the UK to have air pollution cited on their death certificate will receive an undisclosed settlement from the government in compensation for her daughter’s untimely death. Settling a legal case, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the Department for Transport and the Department of Health and Social Care issued a statement expressing sincere condolences to the family of Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debrah, from south-east London, who had a fatal asthma attack in 2013 after being exposed to excessive air pollution. In an inquest in 2020, a coroner ruled that exposure to air pollution had “made a material contribution” to her death.

Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debrah died in 2013 after a fatal asthma attack. Photograph: Family Handout/PA

Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah has been campaigning to raise awareness of the dangers of air pollution, and issued legal proceedings against the three government departments earlier this year for compensation for personal injury arising from the illness and premature death of her daughter. Read more

After decades of lithium-ion batteries dominating the market, a new option has emerged: batteries made with sodium ions. Scientists have been researching alternatives to lithium for years. Much of the world relies on this kind of battery, but the mining and processing of its materials can be harmful to workers, local communities and the environment. Sodium has recently emerged as one of the more promising options, and experts say the material could be a cheaper and more environmentally friendly alternative to lithium. Read more

20.10 | В мире Digest of Socio-Ecological Union International for October 20, 2024. №70

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