By Jeremy Hance
Mongabay.com
In all the discussions of saving the world's biodiversity from extinction, one point is often and surprisingly forgotten: the importance of the world's species in providing humankind with a multitude of life-saving medicines so far, as well as the certainty that more vital medications are out there if only we save the unheralded animals and plants that contain cures unknown. Already, species have provided humankind everything from quinine to aspirin, from morphine to numerous cancer and HIV-fighting drugs.
"As the ethnobotanist Dr. Mark Plotkin commented, the history of medicine can be written in terms of its reliance on and utilization of natural products," physician Christopher Herndon told mongabay.com. Herndon is co-author of a recent paper in the journal Biotropica, which calls for policy-makers and the public to recognize how biodiversity underpins not only ecosystems, but medicine.
"Our dependence today on nature for health has not diminished as significantly as commonly presumed. Over the past quarter century, more than half of all pharmaceuticals brought to market were directly derived from or modeled after compounds from other species," Herndon explains.
Click here to keep reading.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Cuba opens Cuban Bird Banding Centre
On July 17th, 2010, the Johann Christoph Gundlach Cuban Bird Banding Centre (CBBC) was officially opened. The banding centre was opened in commemoration of the Johann Christoph Gundlach bicentenary, a German naturalist regarded as the third discoverer of Cuba ,
The CBBC is located at the Siboney-Jutic¡ Ecological Reserve, managed by the Eastern Centre of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (BIOECO) in Santiago de Cuba .
The main goals of this permanent banding centre are to study Cuban birds moult patterns, postnatal dispersion, sex ratios and life expectancy, to obtain survival estimates and to assess the importance of Cuban habitats for bird migration. We also aim at creating a data base that could help ornithologists and conservationists from Cuba , the Caribbean basin and North America to better preserve this key resource we share: birds.
This initiative is part of the Cuban efforts to implement the Caribbean Biological Corridor together with Haiti and the Dominican Republic , and we expect that in the future the CBBC serves as a training facility for young ornithologists and conservationists from the region. The rings used at the CBBC are the first labelled rings used in Cuba with the name of a Cuban institution (BIOECO) and the name of the country ( CUBA ).
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Feeders & Breeders
In a surprise, extra birdfeed produces fewer chicks.
From Conservation Magazine: That tube of seed in your backyard may not necessarily be helping prop up bird populations. In an unexpected result, British researchers found that feeding some birds through the breeding season actually reduced reproduction rates. The finding could have implications for efforts to aid endangered species by supplementing their diet.
Researchers have be
en studying the impact of bird feeding on wild populations for decades. Few studies, however, have looked at how long-term feeding affects reproduction. To find out, a team led by S. James Reynolds of the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom decided to offer free food to birds living in the Chaddesley Woods National Nature Reserve, a 101-hectare woodland in Worcestershire.
Click here to continue reading article.
From Conservation Magazine: That tube of seed in your backyard may not necessarily be helping prop up bird populations. In an unexpected result, British researchers found that feeding some birds through the breeding season actually reduced reproduction rates. The finding could have implications for efforts to aid endangered species by supplementing their diet.
Researchers have be
en studying the impact of bird feeding on wild populations for decades. Few studies, however, have looked at how long-term feeding affects reproduction. To find out, a team led by S. James Reynolds of the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom decided to offer free food to birds living in the Chaddesley Woods National Nature Reserve, a 101-hectare woodland in Worcestershire.Click here to continue reading article.
Monday, September 20, 2010
Is Brazil planning to turn the Amazon into a series of stagnant reservoirs?
From mongabay.com:
The decision last week by the Brazilian government to move forward on the $17 billion Belo Monte Dam on the Xingu river will set in motion a plan to build more than 100 dams across the Amazon basin, potentially turning tributaries of the world's largest river into 'an endless series of stagnant reservoirs', says a new short film released by Amazon Watch and International Rivers.
The film, narrated by Sigourney Weaver, uses a Google Earth 3-D tour to illustrate the potential impact of the dam. Belo Monte's reservoirs will flood 668 square kilometers, including parts of the city of Altamira, displacing more than 20,000 people. It will reduce the flow of the mighty Xingu to a trickle during parts of the year, reducing water supplies for downstream indigenous populations, blocking fish migration thereby disrupting local fisheries, and likely condemning several aquatic species to extinction. Flooding of forest areas will generate massive amounts of methane, a greenhouse gas 25 times more potent that CO2, and increase the risk of malaria in surrounding areas. Furthermore, if earlier dam projects in the Amazon are any model, Belo Monte will contribute to large-scale deforestation by local people who can no longer earn income from fishing or traditional livelihoods. Electricity grids, transmission lines, and access roads will put further pressure on the rainforest.
Click here to continue reading.
The decision last week by the Brazilian government to move forward on the $17 billion Belo Monte Dam on the Xingu river will set in motion a plan to build more than 100 dams across the Amazon basin, potentially turning tributaries of the world's largest river into 'an endless series of stagnant reservoirs', says a new short film released by Amazon Watch and International Rivers.
The film, narrated by Sigourney Weaver, uses a Google Earth 3-D tour to illustrate the potential impact of the dam. Belo Monte's reservoirs will flood 668 square kilometers, including parts of the city of Altamira, displacing more than 20,000 people. It will reduce the flow of the mighty Xingu to a trickle during parts of the year, reducing water supplies for downstream indigenous populations, blocking fish migration thereby disrupting local fisheries, and likely condemning several aquatic species to extinction. Flooding of forest areas will generate massive amounts of methane, a greenhouse gas 25 times more potent that CO2, and increase the risk of malaria in surrounding areas. Furthermore, if earlier dam projects in the Amazon are any model, Belo Monte will contribute to large-scale deforestation by local people who can no longer earn income from fishing or traditional livelihoods. Electricity grids, transmission lines, and access roads will put further pressure on the rainforest.
Click here to continue reading.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
NEW SPECIES DISCOVERED: The adorable titi monkey
From Conservation International News:
What’s adorable, furry and has never been seen before? Callicebus caquetensis, a new species of titi monkey discovered on a scientific expedition to the Colombian Amazon. Researchers from the National University of Colombia who discovered the new primate consider it to be critically endangered due to rapid loss of the forest where it lives and its small population.
Titi monkeys (or zogui zogui as they are called in Spanish) have one of the most complex calls in the animal kingdom and use it every morning to mark their territory.
"This discovery is particularly important because it reminds us that we should celebrate the diversity of earth but also we must take action now to preserve it," said José Vicente Rodríguez, head of science at Conservation International in Colombia and president of the Colombia Association of Zoology.
Friday, August 6, 2010
Ecuador Launches International Offset Program
By Laura Peterson.
While prospects for an international climate agreement this year dwindle, Ecuador is proposing its own solution to help the developed world offset its carbon footprint: pay the South American country $3.6 billion to keep 20 percent of its oil reserves in the ground.
Ecuadorean government officials signed an agreement yesterday establishing a trust fund for the Yasuni-ITT Initiative that the United Nations Development Program will administer. Donors will receive certificates that guarantee 850 million barrels of oil will not be extracted from pristine tropical forest.
"We don't want to be an oil-exporting country forever and ever," said María Fernanda Espinosa, Ecuador's minister of patrimony. "We really want to be a service economy, a low-environmental-impact economy, and a bio-knowledge society based on our huge biodiversity."
Several European countries, including Germany and Spain, have indicated they will participate but needed a secure donation structure, Fernanda Espinosa said. The trust fund and guarantee certificates create the financial mechanism to implement the initiative, which was first proposed by President Rafael Correa in 2007.
Oil is Ecuador's leading export and accounts for about 25 percent of its gross domestic product. Instead of relying so heavily on oil, the government is trying to generate revenue through carbon offsets. Not drilling the Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tiputini (ITT) oil block would keep 407 million tons of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.
The oil and carbon offsets are valued at $7 billion. Ecuador is asking the international community to compensate it for half of that -- $3.6 billion, over 13 years. The government is expecting to raise $100 million the first year, Fernanda Espinosa said. The money will be used to improve the nation's protected area system; reforest degraded habitat; and invest in renewable energy, science and technology and social development programs.
The proposal would also preserve 750,000 acres of the Yasuni National Park in the northeast region of the equatorial country. The park is designated as a biosphere reserve through the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), with extremely diverse plants and animals. Scientists have counted more species of trees in 2.5 acres of the park than in all of North America. The park is also home to three indigenous tribes, including two that live in voluntary isolation. There is oil drilling in other parts of the Yasuni park, but the ITT block is untouched.
While prospects for an international climate agreement this year dwindle, Ecuador is proposing its own solution to help the developed world offset its carbon footprint: pay the South American country $3.6 billion to keep 20 percent of its oil reserves in the ground.
Ecuadorean government officials signed an agreement yesterday establishing a trust fund for the Yasuni-ITT Initiative that the United Nations Development Program will administer. Donors will receive certificates that guarantee 850 million barrels of oil will not be extracted from pristine tropical forest.
"We don't want to be an oil-exporting country forever and ever," said María Fernanda Espinosa, Ecuador's minister of patrimony. "We really want to be a service economy, a low-environmental-impact economy, and a bio-knowledge society based on our huge biodiversity."
Several European countries, including Germany and Spain, have indicated they will participate but needed a secure donation structure, Fernanda Espinosa said. The trust fund and guarantee certificates create the financial mechanism to implement the initiative, which was first proposed by President Rafael Correa in 2007.
Oil is Ecuador's leading export and accounts for about 25 percent of its gross domestic product. Instead of relying so heavily on oil, the government is trying to generate revenue through carbon offsets. Not drilling the Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tiputini (ITT) oil block would keep 407 million tons of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.
The oil and carbon offsets are valued at $7 billion. Ecuador is asking the international community to compensate it for half of that -- $3.6 billion, over 13 years. The government is expecting to raise $100 million the first year, Fernanda Espinosa said. The money will be used to improve the nation's protected area system; reforest degraded habitat; and invest in renewable energy, science and technology and social development programs.
The proposal would also preserve 750,000 acres of the Yasuni National Park in the northeast region of the equatorial country. The park is designated as a biosphere reserve through the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), with extremely diverse plants and animals. Scientists have counted more species of trees in 2.5 acres of the park than in all of North America. The park is also home to three indigenous tribes, including two that live in voluntary isolation. There is oil drilling in other parts of the Yasuni park, but the ITT block is untouched.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
How Wildlife and People are Faring in the Gulf
Visiting the Gulf: how wildlife and people are faring in America's worst environmental disaster, an interview with Jennifer Jacquet
By Jeremy Hance for mongabay.com, July 29, 2010
"President Obama called it 'the worst environmental disaster America has ever faced.' So I thought I should face it and head to the Gulf"—these are the opening words on the popular blog Guilty Planet as the author, marine biologist Jennifer Jacquet, embarked on a ten day trip to Louisiana. As a scientist, Jacquet was, of course, interested in the impact of the some four million barrels of oil on the Gulf's already depleted ecosystem, however she was as equally keen to see how Louisianans were coping with the fossil fuel-disaster that devastated their most vital natural resource just four years after Hurricane Katrina.
"It seems that the people of Louisiana are a special sub-population of humanity we could call Homo resilius. They have a certain resilience to disaster that probably only exists in challenged regions of the world, like Haiti, for instance," she told mongabay.com, adding that her experience was paradoxical.
"When I was there, I seriously thought parts of Louisiana were like hell on earth. And then I left and I thought everywhere else seemed boring in comparison. Louisiana and the people who live there are really special."
Jacquet says that while the news media is focusing on the obvious effects of the Gulf spill, such as oiled birds, "it seems many of the effects will be more insidious. Scientists I spoke to are particularly concerned about the larval phases of fish and invertebrates, which are planktonic and not able to avoid patches of oil the way free-swimmers might."
Click here to keep reading.
By Jeremy Hance for mongabay.com, July 29, 2010
"President Obama called it 'the worst environmental disaster America has ever faced.' So I thought I should face it and head to the Gulf"—these are the opening words on the popular blog Guilty Planet as the author, marine biologist Jennifer Jacquet, embarked on a ten day trip to Louisiana. As a scientist, Jacquet was, of course, interested in the impact of the some four million barrels of oil on the Gulf's already depleted ecosystem, however she was as equally keen to see how Louisianans were coping with the fossil fuel-disaster that devastated their most vital natural resource just four years after Hurricane Katrina.
"It seems that the people of Louisiana are a special sub-population of humanity we could call Homo resilius. They have a certain resilience to disaster that probably only exists in challenged regions of the world, like Haiti, for instance," she told mongabay.com, adding that her experience was paradoxical.
"When I was there, I seriously thought parts of Louisiana were like hell on earth. And then I left and I thought everywhere else seemed boring in comparison. Louisiana and the people who live there are really special."
Jacquet says that while the news media is focusing on the obvious effects of the Gulf spill, such as oiled birds, "it seems many of the effects will be more insidious. Scientists I spoke to are particularly concerned about the larval phases of fish and invertebrates, which are planktonic and not able to avoid patches of oil the way free-swimmers might."
Click here to keep reading.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
