cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/8581709

New wintering habitat has been built for natterjack toads at a Scottish Water wastewater treatment works at Powfoot on the Scottish Solway Coast.

The natterjack toad (Epidalea calamita) can only be found at a handful of locations in Scotland, all on the Solway coast; it is now Scotland’s rarest amphibian. Natterjack numbers have declined dramatically in recent years, largely due to habitat loss caused by sea level rise, coastal erosion, agricultural intensification, urban expansion and commercial forestry.

To help address this decline in habitat, Scottish Water, NatureScot, Amphibian and Reptile Conservation (ARC), and Hoddom and Kinmount Estates have joined together to build hibernacula, specialist structures designed to provide natterjacks safe spaces to shelter in winter. The project has been funded by Species on the Edge, an endangered species conservation programme funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund. The construction of the hibernacula has been carried out by environmental services and ground maintenance company, Ground Control.

Each hibernaculum is built by digging pits into the earth and filling them with large rocks. Sand is packed into the spaces between. The natterjack toad is the only amphibian in the UK with the ability to burrow, and the structure creates a network of cavities and crevices with varying microclimates into which the natterjacks can burrow, shelter and regulate their body temperature during winter.

The design takes inspiration from features of the traditional farmed landscape – such as dry-stone walls and dust baths – which natterjacks once relied on but which have largely disappeared due to the intensification of modern agriculture.

Liam Templeton from Amphibian and Reptile Conservation (ARC) said: “We’re incredibly fortunate to have the iconic natterjack toad on the Scottish Solway Coast. The species was once abundant here, particularly at locations like Powfoot; local residents speak fondly about times when natterjacks could be heard chorusing on warm spring and summer evenings. It is our ambition for the species to return to its former glory so that such experiences can be enjoyed by future generations to come.

By constructing these hibernacula, we are providing a key habitat requirement for the species and ensuring that they have every opportunity to thrive as they have done before.”

Terri Ward, Biodiversity & Natural Capital Leader at Scottish Water, said: “Scottish Water is delighted to be working on this project alongside ARC, NatureScot and Ground Control. Healthy, well-functioning ecosystems are key to supporting the resilience and sustainability of water and wastewater services. These habitat improvements are part of a wider focus on treating nature as a vital asset in responding to challenges such as climate change.”

To find out more visit: www.speciesontheedge.co.uk/natterjack-toad or www.arc-trust.org.

Gallery

Two hibernacula at Powfoot (c) Liam Templeton Amphibian and Reptile Conservation

Powfoot hibernaculum (c) Liam Templeton Amphibian and Reptile Conservation

Natterjack toad (c) Chris Dresh

Male natterjack toad (c) Chris Dresh

About Species on the Edge

Species on the Edge is a multi-partner species conservation programme dedicated to working with communities across Scotland’s coasts and islands to help them secure a future for their local nationally and internationally vulnerable species. Funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, the partnership consists of Amphibian and Reptile Conservation, Bat Conservation Trust, Buglife, Bumblebee Conservation Trust, Butterfly Conservation, NatureScot, Plantlife, and RSPB Scotland. The programme is active across seven landscape-scale areas in Scotland: Argyll and the Inner Hebrides; Outer Hebrides; North Coast; Orkney; Shetland; East Coast; Solway Coast.

About Amphibian and Reptile Conservation

Amphibian and Reptile Conservation (ARC) is a UK based wildlife charity dedicated to two important groups of animals. Its mission is to safeguard healthy populations of amphibians and reptiles and the habitats on which they depend. ARC’s team work to conserve green spaces, enthuse and involve more people in their conservation through its custodianship of over 80 nature reserves, spanning across 2000 hectares. The trust takes forward conservation directly through its team of over 50 employees along with 1000 volunteers. These include governmental and NGO bodies partners to influence others through advocacy, education and increasing awareness. In addition to its work in the UK, ARC also works to make a difference for amphibians and reptiles further afield, across Europe and internationally.

A new review in Conservation Science and Practice, by Michael Kowalski and colleagues, offers a useful stocktake of the field. The authors define participatory mapping as a collaborative process in which participants and cartographers co-develop maps representing local knowledge, experiences and preferences about a place. Their review covers 398 peer-reviewed studies, tracing how the method has been used across conservation science and practice. It also makes clear that a field built around community knowledge still lacks consistent standards for how that knowledge should be gathered, interpreted, protected and used.

This story is bleak.

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/8811078

Archived link

A new study led by UBC [University of British Columbia] researchers has found that lands managed by Indigenous Peoples consistently protect forests, biodiversity and carbon stores at levels equal to or greater than government-designated protected areas—yet most of these lands remain inadequately recognized or resourced.

The paper, published recently in People and Nature, is the largest study of its kind to date. It analyzed 111 peer-reviewed papers examining forest cover, biodiversity, carbon storage, wildfire activity and other conservation outcomes across the Amazon, Asia-Pacific, Africa, Canada and other regions. Three-quarters of those studies found a positive relationship between Indigenous lands and conservation.

“Indigenous Peoples are among the world’s most effective land stewards, yet many are still fighting for basic recognition of their rights to lands they have protected for generations. The science is clear—we need to catch up,” said Dr. William Nikolakis, lead author of the study and assistant professor of Indigenous land and natural resources governance at UBC.

...

Evidence across continents and ecosystems

In the Brazilian Amazon, one study found that between 2005 and 2012, native vegetation loss was 17 times lower on Indigenous lands than on similar unprotected areas. Indigenous lands also consistently had greater biodiversity: in Australia alone, 60 per cent of the country’s 1,574 threatened species were found on Indigenous lands. Carbon storage on Indigenous lands was also strong, with research from the Amazon and Panama finding that these lands preserved carbon stocks at levels equal to or greater than protected areas.

Despite this evidence, serious gaps persist. The authors note that 60 per cent of Indigenous lands worldwide face threats from industrial development and climate change. Many remain legally unrecognized by governments, leaving them vulnerable to encroachment by logging, agriculture and extractive industries. Where legal protections were weak or absent, conservation outcomes declined.

...

The review comes as countries work toward protecting 30 per cent of lands and waters by 2030. Three policy priorities emerged consistently from the literature: securing formal land rights for Indigenous Peoples, funding and resourcing Indigenous stewardship and supporting Indigenous-led governance. Researchers said these approaches work best together—land rights without resources, or resources without governance authority are insufficient on their own.

“If we are serious about conservation in Canada, we need to support Indigenous governance,” said Dr. Nikolakis. “That means secure land tenure, stable funding for stewardship, and enabling Indigenous Peoples to make decisions about their lands without external pressure.”

...

Per acre, these coastal plants can store up to 20x more carbon than forests on land. In fact, 93% of all the world's CO2 is stored in the ocean with the help of marine vegetation, algae, and coral, and losing just 1% of this ecosystem was equivalent to releasing the emissions of 97 million cars.

By continued extraction of fish out of our oceans, you are essentially deforesting our oceans. By not only removing the fish, but the act of removal, the methods of removal, are devastating to habitats, to ecosystems. And it's even more so there, because it's out of sight, out of mind.

Trawling was, by far, the most destructive form of fishing. The largest trawl nets are so big, they could swallow whole cathedrals, or up to 13 jumbo jet planes. The nets drag heavy weights at the bottom, scarring the seafloor that was once abundant with life, leaving nothing but a barren wasteland behind. This was just like bulldozing pristine Amazonian rainforest, except it was much, much worse.

Every year, approximately 25 million acres of forest are lost. This was equivalent to losing about 27 soccer fields per minute. However, bottom trawling wipes out an estimated 3.9 billion acres every year. This was equivalent to losing 4316 soccer fields every single minute. Tallied up across the year, this was equivalent to wiping out the land area of Greenland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, the UK, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Turkey, Iran, Thailand, and Australia combined.

Where are the big environment groups? Why aren't they all over this like a rash? It's so obvious, it's just shouting in our faces: it is the fishing industry that is destroying the fish and the rest of the life in the seas. How much more obvious does it need to be? And yet, for the most part, they are silent; they're not speaking out against it; they are deliberately not engaging with the most important issue of all.

In 2024, a paper in Science led by Kopf introduced the term “longevity conservation,” giving name to a simple idea: protecting wildlife means maintaining the full age structure of populations, including their oldest members. The concept quickly moved beyond theory. Last year, the International Union for Conservation of Nature adopted a resolution on the issue, formally recognizing the importance of protecting older individuals and elevating the concept into conservation policy. And at the recent United Nations Convention on Migratory Species meeting in Brazil, protecting “old and wise” animals was a major talking point.

While other species including gibbons and long-tailed macaques have also been spotted crossing there, "this is a world first for Sumatran orangutans,"

"These canopy bridges demonstrate that human development and wildlife don't have to be at odds. Sometimes, the simplest solutions are the most effective,"

The International Union for Conservation of Nature classifies Sumatran orangutans (...) as critically endangered,

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/45805435

🌊 We must stop eating wild ocean animals, including open‑pen "farmed" saltwater fish such as salmon. https://environment.yale.edu/news/article/exploring-underbelly-chiles-salmon-farming-industry

If you’re not urgently dependent on seafood for survival, simply switch to other options such as land / closed‑system aquaculture or plant based solutions.

I'm not saying everybody needs to become a vegan/vegetarian right now, that is up to each individual, but we should avoid the worst of the worst.

That is, if we want to at least keep a few of the giants of the seas alive. 🦈🐳🦑🐠🐟🐡🐬🦑🪸🦐

Scientists have deployed acoustic monitoring techniques to measure the success of a forest protection mechanism in Costa Rica.

The study

• A palm oil firm has cleared more than 3,000 hectares (7,500 acres) of forest inside a UNESCO biosphere reserve in Indonesian Borneo, threatening areas identified as orangutan habitat.
• The concession overlaps with a wildlife corridor linking two national parks, raising concerns over habitat fragmentation and increased human-orangutan conflict.
• Authorities have acknowledged the presence of the habitat inside the company’s concession, but proposed voluntary conservation measures rather than halting clearing, drawing criticism from environmental groups.
• The case highlights broader issues of weak enforcement, disputed land rights with Indigenous communities, and supply-chain loopholes that continue to allow deforestation-linked palm oil into global markets.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/35220376

• A 4 meter high perimeter wall was built alongside a village bordering Ngezi Forest Reserve as construction to a luxury resort estate has started on Zanzibar’s Pemba island.
• A dirt road cutting through the protected forest has been widened to facilitate the transport of goods.
• Researchers warn that no environmental planning has been done and that animal and plant species could go extinct if the development goes ahead.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/35220230

• This month, officials in Ecuador announced a 2,159-square-kilometer (833-square mile) biodiversity corridor, connecting Llanganates National Park with Yasuní Biosphere Reserve.
• The Llanganates–Yasuní Connectivity Corridor is unique because it allows “altitudinal connectivity” between the high-elevation Andes mountains and the low-elevation Amazon Rainforest.
• Experts say some species could start to move between the ecosystems in response to climate change and habitat loss.

• In the Amazon and Atlantic forests, field research is seeking new ways to understand the behavior of mammals like monkeys and sloths that depend on the treetops to move around and survive in different types of vegetation.
• Using photographic equipment on artificial bridges — whose ropes, nets and platforms are intertwined with trees to protect wildlife — researchers are mapping fauna in both continuous forests and fragmented areas, providing new scientific insights.
• Experts working to reduce the risks of roadkill and species’ isolation in fragmented forest areas say studies are crucial to improving the installation of artificial crossings over highways.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/34967698

• Dozens of protected areas in Cameroon’s anglophone regions, including parks that are home to great apes and other threatened species, have been swept up in a decade-long armed conflict between government forces and separatist militias.
• The ongoing conflict has blocked conservationists’ access to forests, and exposed conservationists, local civilians and the region’s wildlife to violence.
• Displaced people have turned to farming and hunting in forests in order to survive, while militias also hunt and camp in the forest.
• Conservationists have explored new strategies to keep their work alive, including working with local citizen scientists, but say the task of rebuilding organizations in the midst of a humanitarian crisis is huge.

(Note that this article may understate the francophone government's role in the threat to non-human animals.)

Lebialem is a global biodiversity hotspot in Cameroon’s southwest, host to dozens of endemic and threatened species

For anyone who doesn't know, "southwest" in this context refers to the region near the southern end of the border with Nigeria, NOT the southwestern corner of Cameroon near Equatorial Guinea.

Anglophone separatists declared a breakaway state of Ambazonia, comprising the Northwest and Southeast regions

Typo in the article. Not "Southeast" but the same Southwest region mentioned above.

On Jan. 29, the government of Guinea-Bissau issued a flat ban on fish meal production, citing threats to marine ecosystems and food security.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/34758537

The paper is here

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/34758345

“Historically, overfishing has been the main driver of biomass declines in many of the world’s fisheries [and] according to the FAO [UN Food and Agriculture Organization] the proportion of overfished stocks globally continues to rise,” said Ortuño Crespo, who was not involved in the study. “The current challenge is that this overfishing crisis is being further exacerbated by ocean warming and deoxygenation.”

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/34448167

As the Atlantic warms, many fish along the east coast of North America have moved northward to keep within their preferred temperature range. Black sea bass, for instance, have shifted hundreds of miles up the coast.

A doubling of fish biomass along Asia’s longest river shows hope for large-scale conservation efforts and a lifeline for the endangered finless porpoise.