A new scientific paper highlights research underlying Belize’s mangrove protection and restoration commitments, a key feature of the country’s carbon-emissions-reduction plans. The paper, published in the journal Nature in June, calculates the economic benefits of mangrove forests alongside their impact in reducing carbon emissions. It quantifies the benefits to fishing, tourism, and coastal resilience as mangrove stands are protected and restored. The research examined in the paper helps underpin the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC), or voluntary carbon-emissions-reduction commitments, Belize has made under the Paris Agreement. In a 2021 update to its NDC, the government pledged to almost double the area of mangroves under protection, adding 12,000 hectares (about 46 square miles) by 2030, and to restore 4,000 hectares (15.5 square miles) more. Katie Arkema, a University of Washington researcher and coauthor of the paper, says Belize’s model can guide countries employing “blue carbon” strategies, which involve...
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The International Whaling Commission (IWC) has issued its first-ever extinction alert for the vaquita, the small porpoise that lives in the northern reaches of the Gulf of California. Scientists fear only about 10 vaquitas remain, although a recent survey expedition offered hope that the population has stabilized and breeding continues. (See "Recent vaquita count creates rare sense of optimism" —EcoAméricas, June 2023.) The IWC’s scientific committee highlighted the urgency to act now to save the vaquita (Phocoena sinus), warning that its plight shows why other threatened marine mammals need prompt protection before their numbers fall too low. “This group of around 200 world-leading scientists have recently reached the somber conclusion that a new mechanism is needed to voice extinction concerns for an increasing range of cetacean species and populations,” the IWC said on Aug. 7. Vaquitas have...
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Mexican President Andrés Manual López Obrador’s flagship infrastructure project, a railway linking coastal cities on the Yucatán Peninsula, has drawn heavy criticism from the International Rights of Nature Tribunal, a civil-society initiative that promotes the personhood of nature. The so-called Tren Maya, under construction since January 2018 and slated to be inaugurated in December, follows a 1,500-kilometer (930-mile) circular route serving both sides of the peninsula, the goal being to spur tourism, large-scale agriculture and other commerce. The project has long been criticized for scant impact review and negative environmental and socio-cultural effects such as deforestation and damage to some 100 caves and cenotes. Lawsuits filed by civil-society groups on these issues have prompted several Mexican judges to order work suspended, but the project has continued unabated under strong pressure from the president. The latest to weigh in with objections is the International...
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A key challenge for Brazil in the coming years will be to increase agricultural production while curbing deforestation, the leading source of its CO2 emissions and biodiversity loss. That means simultaneously making agricultural land use more efficient and environmentally friendly, a goal experts say will be furthered by a recent Brazilian government policy move and a newly issued study. The policy step, taken June 27 by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, rewards sustainable agriculture practiced by participants in a government loan program created to boost farm output and curb food insecurity. The program—called Plano Safra, or Harvest Plan—has given low-cost credit to farmers and ranchers since Lula launched it in 2003 at the outset of two consecutive presidential terms he served through 2010. On June 27, nearly six months after taking office for a third term, he announced a 28% increase in the program’s budget. The...
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