Rewilding & Conservation News and Discussions

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Inside the Controversial Strategy to Make the World More Wild
by Abe Mussleman
April 21, 2023

Introduction:
(Inverse) The wolves of Yellowstone National Park are perhaps the most recognizable conservation success story in America. Native wolves were exterminated in the park by the 1920s — shot and poisoned as part of official park policy. After decades of conservation campaigns, they were reintroduced in 1995. Since then, they have become a poster child for a sometimes controversial brand of nature conservation called “rewilding” that puts the emphasis on handing the reins over to nature.

But does the return of the wolves represent a return to “nature”?

“The term ‘natural’ — it’s just really hard to get any agreement on what it means,” says Rolf Peterson, an ecologist at Michigan Technological University. Peterson studies wolf populations in Yellowstone and elsewhere in the United States.

Because the wolves prey on large, grazing animals like elk, researchers have attributed the recovery of trees like aspen and willow in some areas of the park to the reintroduction, though a straightforward connection has been hard to prove. As rewilding has gained traction over the past two decades, the concept has also expanded. The term “rewilding” is now sometimes used as a catch-all for efforts to rehabilitate an ecosystem, which dilutes its original intent, says Francisco Santiago-Ávila, a program manager with Project Coyote and the Rewilding Institute, a non-profit dedicated to promoting rewilding as a means of conservation around the globe. Nevertheless, the movement retains a focus on protected areas and large, charismatic animals.

“Rewilding recognizes that nature itself has autonomy — that non-human individuals have agency, and that, therefore, we should limit our control over them,” says Santiago-Ávila.

Read more here: https://www.inverse.com/science/rewild ... orld-wild
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How can rewilding help the economy and the planet?
23 Apr 2023

Rewilding: it’s great for the planet, but what does it bring to humans? Jobs, according to new data given exclusively to this programme.

And in Scotland, the world’s first rewilding centre has just opened to the public.
https://www.channel4.com/news/how-can-r ... the-planet
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Tribe, State and Federal Partners Join to Return Endangered Salmon to Historic Habitat
May 3, 2023

Introduction:
(NOAA Fisheries) The California Department of Fish and Wildlife, NOAA Fisheries and the Winnemem Wintu Tribe signed agreements to restore Chinook salmon to the mountains north of Redding, California, on May 1, 2023.

The agreements support a joint effort to return Chinook salmon to their original spawning areas in cold mountain rivers now blocked by Shasta Reservoir in northern California. The goal is ecological and cultural restoration which will one day renew fishing opportunities for the tribe that depended on the once-plentiful salmon for food and much more.

The tribe signed a co-management agreement with CDFW and a co-stewardship agreement with NOAA Fisheries, reflecting the way the two agencies describe accords with tribes. This three-way collaboration is a historic achievement that advances our common goals.

The agreements call for the agencies to include the tribe in decisions for salmon that have great meaning for the Winnemem Wintu. Three years of drought have taken a toll on endangered winter-run Chinook salmon, which migrate and spawn in the lower Sacramento River. The river can warm to temperatures that are lethal to their eggs.

During the summer of 2022, the tribe joined state and federal agencies in pursuing urgent measures to improve the odds for winter-run Chinook salmon, including transporting 40,000 fertilized eggs to the cold McCloud River above Shasta Reservoir. Many hatched, swimming down the river for the first time since Shasta Dam was completed in the early 1940s. The tribe joined agency staff in collecting the juvenile fish before they reached the reservoir, which is populated with predators. Biologists then moved them downstream around the reservoir to continue to the ocean.

Read more here: https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature ... c-habitat
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US fishing policy is boosting fish populations, not constraining most fisheries, finds research
https://phys.org/news/2023-05-fishing-p ... tions.html
by University of Chicago
Commercial fishing employs 1.2 million Americans and generates more than $165 billion annually. Yet warming waters are threatening fish populations and disrupting fisheries around the world—a challenge set to worsen as climate change advances.

Despite the importance of sustaining fisheries, the reauthorization of the cornerstone policy protecting them in the United States—the Magnuson-Stevens Act—has been stalled in Congress for a decade. The holdup? Some blame the policy for being too stringent and leading to what they call "underfishing," while others argue the policy is not doing enough to rebuild depleted fish populations. Others go so far as to argue that fish populations would have rebounded without any policy.

A pair of studies finds these concerns to be largely unsubstantiated. In analyzing the policy's impact on fish populations, fishing, and industry revenue, they find that it is working essentially as it should. It is rebuilding fish populations, and in most cases it is not unduly holding back fishers from making their catch.

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Biden administration considering national marine sanctuary in Lake Erie

May 18, 2023 / 7:41 PM

May 18 (UPI) -- The Biden administration said Thursday it is considering designating a new national marine sanctuary in Lake Erie, adjacent to Pennsylvania.

The designation would recognize the significance of the water's maritime history and also create more educational, scientific, and recreational resources for visitors.

"The Biden-Harris Administration looks forward to working with local communities to conserve the cultural significance of this special place," U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said in a statement. "The potential designation of a national marine sanctuary in the waters of Lake Erie would help conserve and restore our lands and waters, and increase equitable access to nature for Pennsylvanians and all Americans."

The new sanctuary would conserve archaeological and maritime resources in an approximately 740-square-mile area adjacent to the 75 mile-long shoreline of Erie County.
Read more: https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2023/05 ... 684449211/
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US Fish and Wildlife Certifies Mexico’s Failure to Protect Vaquita Marina
by Cody Copeland
May 26 , 2023

Introduction:
MEXICO CITY (Courthouse News) — President Joe Biden must now consider sanctioning Mexico for noncompliance with an international wildlife treaty after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service certified that country's failure to curb the illegal fishing that is wiping out the vaquita marina.

The illicit fishing operation powering the black market for totoaba swim bladders is threatening the existence of the world’s smallest porpoise, the vaquita marina, which gets caught and drowns in totoaba gill nets.

Prized in traditional Chinese medicine for its alleged salubrious qualities, the totoaba’s swim bladder has been dubbed the “cocaine of the sea.” It averages thousands of dollars per pound on the black market, and financial speculation has been observed to bring that price as high as $45,000 a pound.

This trade “diminishes the effectiveness of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), a treaty for the conservation of endangered or threatened species,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in a pair of letters sent to both houses of Congress Friday. The USFWS is an agency in the Department of the Interior.

Both the totoaba and the vaquita marina are protected under CITES, but the situation is dire for the latter. Scientists estimate that as few as eight could be left.

Read more here: https://www.courthousenews.com/us-fish ... -marina/
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As UN Members Adopt Oceans Treaty, Campaigners Urge Countries to Quickly Ratify Deal
by Julia Conley
June 19, 2023

Introduction:
(Common Dreams) Conservation advocates on Monday urged world governments to "keep up the momentum" and ratify the United Nations global oceans treaty as quickly as possible after U.N. members formally adopted the agreement in New York, bringing the world one step closer to achieving crucial protections for the high seas.

The treaty—formally called the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) Treaty—will protect ocean waters that lie beyond territorial borders, and has been called a key component of achieving the U.N.'s "30x30" goal of protecting 30% of land and sea by 2030.

The language of the agreement was agreed upon in March, and the formal adoption of the treaty was called "a win for all life on this planet" by Chris Thorne of Greenpeace's Protect the Oceans campaign.

"Now those same governments which agreed it must urgently ratify and begin delivering vast ocean sanctuaries on the high seas," said Thorne in a statement. "2030 looms large on the horizon, and the scale of our task is vast."

Greenpeace gave credit to grassroots campaigners who have worked for decades to pressure policymakers to protect the world's oceans and marine life.

Read more here: https://www.commondreams.org/news/ocea ... -ratify
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In Lula's first six months, Brazil Amazon deforestation dropped 34%, reversing trend under Bolsonaro
Source: AP

By FABIANO MAISONNAVE
Published 4:03 PM CDT, July 6, 2023
RIO DE JANEIRO (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.

From January to June the rainforest had alerts for possible deforestation 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.

Capobianco noted that full-year results will depend on a few challenging months ahead. Still, the data is an encouraging sign for Lula, who campaigned last year with pledges to rein in illegal logging and undo the environmental devastation during Bolsonaro’s term. The former far-right leader weakened environmental authorities while his insistence on development of the Amazon region resonated with landgrabbers and farmers who had long felt maligned by environmental laws. They were emboldened, and Amazon deforestation surged to a 15-year high.


Read more: https://apnews.com/article/brazil-amazo ... a641acd65e
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