Category: Habitat destruction

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Sea grasses appear to have another use: they sieve microplastics from the sea

Sea grasses once carpeted much of the worlds oceans at depths that suit them. In many places such as the UK destructive fishing practices have been allowed, such as bottom sea dragging. This has also severely damaged the UK cold water coral reefs, but that is a story for another day.

Neptune balls have the capability of sieving plastics from the sea

This latest information, may well give us a reason to replant them (aside from the benefits to biodiversity and the huge amount of carbon they take up).

Continue reading “Sea grasses appear to have another use: they sieve microplastics from the sea”
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The number of wild deer in the UK is soaring because no one is eating them: bring back wolves?

Over the last half a century, the number of deer that live in the UK has climbed pretty much continually.

Red and roe deer numbers are increasing rapidly, as well as the many non-native species that now call the uk their home

In many parts of the country, the number of deer are controlled by regular culls. However, during the pandemic these have not happened, and that now means that 2 culls in a row have been missed.

Continue reading “The number of wild deer in the UK is soaring because no one is eating them: bring back wolves?”
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HSBC is voting on stopping funding coal? about time, but not action for 19 years

Over the last few years it has become increasingly clear that conservationists approach to fossil fuel companies were not working.

The problem is that there is a great deal of money to be made from fossil fuels. Companies like tesla hint at a world where this ceases to be the case, and the speed that the electric car market is growing, is incredibly fast. Indeed many people have commented on the fact that the growth curve of electric cars is clearly following the curve of many other disruptions from computers to mobile phones.

Continue reading “HSBC is voting on stopping funding coal? about time, but not action for 19 years”
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The Rwandan president Paul Kagame intends to make conservation his countries next battle

In many parts of the world, conservation is an afterthought. After looking after your human population, if there is any money left then alright do conservation but not before. However, this does not work. There are many positive benefits of wildlife , and if these are not allowed to thrive it will damage the local people – by thinking of this last you end up damaging the local people.

Countries such as Rwanda are also heavily dependent on the money that tourism brings to their country.

This new aim, is to grow the economy and improve the lives of Rwandans while at the same time protecting the natural environment and keep as much forest standing as is possible.

Currently, Rwanda gets 15.1% percent of GDP from tourism, however back in the year 2000, this was just 4.7%. That gives an annual growth of this sector at more than 7%, far above all other areas. #

Importantly, tourism is a great leveller. Anyone who lives around wilderness can set up their own business. As a result, this can be a way to lift poorly served communities out of poverty.

I hope in the future that this site can assist in that process.

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Nigeria is becoming the clearing house for poached animals from throughout west Africa: they must stop it

Between 2015 and 2019 30 tonnes of ivory and 167 tonnes of pangolin scales were seized. This equates to roughly 4400 elephants dead, and 167,000 pangolins. As in other places, the illegal wildlife trade tends to bring in crime, with the same gangs handling humans drugs minerals and weapons..

Continue reading “Nigeria is becoming the clearing house for poached animals from throughout west Africa: they must stop it”
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Liberia has huge areas of intact rainforest: some of the last in west africa. Now its under threat

After the civil war, the Liberian government made a sensible decision in giving communities control to conserve the rainforests around their villages.

Despite this exploration companies have started turning up with permits to explore. These are often dubious, but it is quite common that by the time a permit has been proved false, it is too late.

Continue reading “Liberia has huge areas of intact rainforest: some of the last in west africa. Now its under threat”
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Lion population expected to half in the wild during the next 15-20 years

While increasing amounts of land is given to wildlife in southern Africa and the lion population grows, unfortunately in east and central Africa the opposite is happening.

Unfortunately in west and central Africa, the lions (many of these lions are orphaned relict populations of the Asiatic lion, and therefore highly important) tend to live in fragmented and small groups cut off from others of their kind. If humans can reconnect these populations then the dramatic decline that is expected in this region, could be halted.

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Synthetic palm oil brewed like beer? Bill Gates investing in the possibility

Palm oil is a wonder material. Being used in a vast range of different products, it is almost impossible to avoid it in the west. Why should we try? because it has been the cause of much of the rainforest destruction on Sumatra, Borneo and lately even in the last great rainforests of west Africa.

Could we have all the palm oil we want, while at the same time replanting the rainforests which were lost?
Continue reading “Synthetic palm oil brewed like beer? Bill Gates investing in the possibility”
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It seems that the mara river is threatened as well as the ecosystem

There are many threats to the Serengeti mara ecosystem, from roads crossing to global warming and more. Unfortunately fish in the river are now being driven to extinction as well – putting the livelihoods of millions of people in jeopardy.

Could sites like this become a thing of the past?

From farming deforestation mining illegal fishing and invasive species, there are many different factors damaging this population.

Continue reading “It seems that the mara river is threatened as well as the ecosystem”
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The palm oil giant Wilmar is making clear its deforestation commitments mean nothing

An area of around 1500 football pitches has been cleared on an oil palm plantation during last year. The concession is managed by PT Medcopapua Hijau Selaras a supplier to Wilmar. Wilmar is the worlds largest palm oil trader, and includes amongst their customers huge companies such as Kelloggs nestle and unilever.

Rather than denying the deforestation occurred, Wilmar has claimed that less land was cleared than is claimed (this is a foolish claim to make as we have satellite pictures from before and after), and then claims that they are not responsible anyway and that the clearing was done by smallholder farmers.

Continue reading “The palm oil giant Wilmar is making clear its deforestation commitments mean nothing”
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