MAP News Issue 390 – May 14, 2016

The Mangrove Action Project – a network of small-scale projects with a large-scale impact

USA – This is the second in a series of blog posts about our exciting new Regeneration initiative. The Mangrove Action Project works around the world to protect and restore mangroves, some of the most important and neglected ecosystems on the planet. You can read the first blog by Catherine Bryan 'What is Regeneration and how does it build biodiversity and support communities?' from our Regeneration series. “Around the world farming, mining, industrial production and many other activities are changing landscapes at an alarming rate. Often the result is a fragmented landscape, with ‘islands’ of forest or mangroves separated by cleared and degraded areas. One way we can look to restore landscapes is to regenerate their natural biodiversity, slowly rebuilding the range of plants and wildlife that should occur naturally. By doing this we learn from evolution, a constant process that has taken place over thousands of years, that has resulted in the range of species that makes an ecosystem diverse and adaptive and unique to its location. Regeneration can often produce multiple benefits. For example, where it re-connects islands of fragmented forests the overall impact re-connects groups of the same species resulting in larger breeding groups and greater genetic diversity for those groups. By creating much larger connected areas it can often result in reduced human-wildlife conflict, as animals do not have to pass through cultivated land to reach food in different fragments of forest.” READ MORE

ASIA

Daytime cooking ban in India as heatwave claims 300 lives

INDIA – With sizzling temperatures claiming more than 300 lives this month in India, officials have banned daytime cooking in some parts of the drought-stricken country in a bid to prevent accidental fires that have killed nearly 80 more people. The heat and the death toll are rising in India. Is this a glimpse of Earth’s future? The eastern state of Bihar this week took the unprecedented step of forbidding any cooking between 9am and 6pm, after accidental fires exacerbated by dry, hot and windy weather swept through shantytowns and thatched-roof houses in villages and killed 79 people. They included 10 children and five adults killed in a fire sparked during a Hindu prayer ceremony in Bihar’s Aurangabad district last week. People were instead told to cook to night. Hoping to prevent more fires, officials have also banned the burning of spent crops and religious fire rituals. Anyone defying the ban risks up to a year in jail. READ MORE

Thai task force raids mudflat restaurants
THAILAND – Police, soldiers and forestry officials on Tuesday raided three seafood restaurants on Samut Songkhram's Don Hoi Lod mudflats to reclaim mangrove forests. The owners of the Khun Lin, Khrae Mai and Thep Nimit restaurants admitted they had no land ownership papers and agreed to return the encroached area to the state, said Thanet Mannoi, the leader of the task force who works for the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources. Mr Thanet said the raid involving more than 100 officers was part of the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources' operation to rehabilitate mangrove forests in Samut Songkhram. He said officials found three restaurants on the Doi Hon Lod mudflats in Muang district encroached on the mangroves. The three premises covered about 12 rai of state land. READ MORE

More forests to be protected
CAMBODIA – Phnon Penh – The Cambodian government would soon list five new forests with a total of about 950 000 hectares in the country's protected forest areas, officials said on Monday. Environment Minister Say Samal said the new five protected areas would be Prey Long forest in Kompong Thom, Kratie and Stung Treng provinces; Kravanh Khang Tbong forest in Koh Kong, Pursat and Kompong Speu provinces; Preah Roka forest in Preah Vihear province; Siem Pang Khang Lech forest in Stung Treng province and Veunsai forest in Stung Treng and Ratanakkiri provinces. “This clearly shows the government's efforts in protecting and preserving forests and biodiversity,” he told a national workshop on the establishment of the five new protected forests. He said that the government had worked on this plan for two-and-a-half years before deciding to register them as protected forests. READ MORE

AMERICAS

Salvadoran Communities to Coordinate Major Investment in Mangrove Conservation

EL SALVADORE – The Fund for the Initiative of the Americas, FIAES, a leading environmental funder and conservation organization in El Salvador, announced last month it would be investing $16.6 million over the next five years in the protection of seven wetland areas and nature reserves across the country. $2.5 million of those funds are destined for conservation work in the Bay of Jiquilisco-Xirihualtique reserve in the Lower Lempa, work which will be defined and implemented by local communities. This represents a major accomplishment for EcoViva and our partners, who have been working for over twenty years to protect crucial ecosystems and improve quality of life for rural residents of the Lower Lempa. FIAES tapped local entities to coordinate these investments. In the Lower Lempa and Bay of Jiquilisco region, they designated the Mangrove Association alongside partners EcoViva and CATIE to convene other local actors and lead the design of a “Plan for Local Sustainable Development.” This participatory process will guide conservation efforts to preserve mangroves and fisheries, and improve land use throughout the Bay of Jiquilisco. READ MORE

Connecting Fish, Rivers and People
USA – The World Fish Migration Day (WFMD) is a one day global-local event to create awareness on the importance of open rivers and migratory fish. This event is celebrated for the second time. Over 1000 organizations around the globe are involved. Participating organizations will organize their own event and outreach communication under the umbrella of the World Fish Migration Day (WFMD). The WFMD partnership will take care of the central coordination, international publicity, and maintain this website. We will send regular updates on the progress and international communication to participants as well as the WFMD logo to be used for communication purposes. The WFMD 2016 is held on May 21, 2016. Organizers of local event, partners and supporters carry out their activities on this day. We would love to hear about how you will be celebrating World Fish Migration Day 2016! READ MORE

Honduran capture allegedly linked to the murder of Berta Caceres
HONDURAS – Four men allegedly linked to the murder of Honduran environmentalist Bertha Caceres were arrested for ten raids in Tegucigalpa, La Ceiba and Trujillo, Colon. They captured by the names of Douglas Geovanny Bustillo, Mariano Diaz Chavez (active member of armed forces), Sergio Ramon Orellana and Atilio Edilson Duarte Meza (ex-military). The spokesman of the Public Ministry, Yuri Mora, told AFP that four people had been arrested for their possible involvement in the murder of Caceres, without going into details. The raids conducted by the Technical Criminal Investigation Agency (Atic) and Military Police also executed in Colonia La Peña and residential Lempira Tegucigalpa, in Divanna Comayagüela colony in La Ceiba in the El Manantial. "Action is being promoted court for the crime of murder against Berta Caceres Flores and murder in their degree of execution attempt against protected witness," a statement from the Public Ministry. LEA MAS EN ESPANOL

The fascinating world of ants
BERMUDA – Bermuda has extraordinarily few ants compared to most places. This comes from scientist and ant researcher Jim Wetterer, who is on the island for the second time observing our ant population. He clarifies: “There just aren’t that many species.” He specialises in island ants, studying all over the Pacific, the Atlantic and, for the past 13 years primarily in the West Indies and has an ant named after him — the Megalomymex Wettereri, a neotropical, parasitic ant. His newest focus is the mangroves. Armed with a handy map that highlights the island’s red mangroves given to him by BAMZ’s Robbie Smith, the scientist has been collecting bags of sticks, hoping to find other undiscovered species hiding in the twigs. “The mangroves appear to be a refuge for the ants to stay away from the dominant ants,” he said. READ MORE

EDITOR’S NOTE: The "Oregon pink shrimp" are a small wild caught shrimp that is often used mixed in salads and served with a shrimp sauce. It is given the "green tag" by Monterrey Bay Aquarium and certified by MRC. Caught in mid-water by small trawlers that do NOT drag the ocean bottom destroying habitat, this shrimp fishery does not cause havoc on wild fisheries via massive by-catch and destructive gear. We need to find more such alternatives to imported farmed shrimp, also avoiding wild caught shrimp caught in destructive trawler nets. For this reason, MAP is endorsing wild-caught shrimp from N. America in our Question Your Shrimp campaign. We also urge N. American consumers to not buy imported farmed or wild caught shrimp as a general rule to avoid further expansions of these destructive industries in the Global South.
US pink shrimp fleet chooses to temporarily delay harvesting
USA – An overabundance of sub-legal sized shrimp has prompted Oregon’s pink shrimp fleet to stand down and suspend harvesting operations for the time being. The suspension, agreed to on 4 May, was prefaced by six years of record catches for the fleet. Expectations had been lowered for the current season considering this winter’s El Nino, which rose to a ‘super’ status; typically, shrimp recruitment is negatively impacted by El Nino. However, those concerns have since been eliminated, according to the Oregon Trawl Commission. Instead, it was a price dispute that delayed the start of the 2016 season for three weeks. Once the Oregon shrimping fleet hit the water following the hiatus, they began to notice a strong year class of one-year-old shrimp. “It looks like we dodged a bullet,” said Newport-based shrimp fishermen Ted Gibson, quoted in the Oregon Trawl Commission’s news release. “The last two big El Ninos in 1982-1983 and 1997-1998 really depressed the stocks, so we’re pretty happy to see that last year’s hatch survived through the winter.” READ MORE

Deforestation and the Territorial Rights of Indigenous Peoples
COLUMBIA -Secure territorial rights of indigenous peoples and traditional knowledge must be central to post-conflict initiatives to save the Colombian Amazon and achieve sustainable development. A new report “Deforestation and indigenous peoples rights in the Colombian Amazon” co-published by social justice and environmental NGO DEDISE and Forest Peoples Programme (FPP) underlines the critical role of secure land and territorial rights and traditional knowledge in sustaining one of the most culturally and biologically diverse forests on the planet.Drawing on grassroots interviews, community workshops and a review of official documents, the study assesses historical and contemporary direct and underlying causes of forest destruction and associated human rights impacts in the region. It finds that current deforestation and associated negative impacts on indigenous peoples are most rampant in Caquetá, Guaviare and Putumayo. Forest loss and rights violations in western and northern areas are driven by expansion of cattle ranching and commercial cultivation of illicit crops. According to the report, deforestation is closely linked to road construction, while mining and oil developments act as poles of colonisation leading to urbanisation, land grabbing, militarisation, conflict and human rights violations. READ MORE

EUROPE

Report provides first comprehensive assessment of world’s plants

U.K. – A report by the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew in England has come up with the first complete assessment of the plants around the world. The assessment has concluded that there are nearly 390,900 plant species science knows, excluding mosses, algae, liverworts and hornworts, out of which around projected 369,000 are flowering plants. The total number will increase. Last year solely, an additional 2.034 species were found, including a tree known as Gilbertiodendron maximum, which grows around 145 feet tall in Gabon's forests; 90 new Begonia's species; 5 new species of onion; and an plant that eats insects, in Brazil. However, the bad news is that the same report has found that 21% of such plants are endangered.Mangroves saw the most notable change, with over one fourth of their area got changed over the time period of the decade, lost mainly to shrimp farms and golf courses, though mangrove growth in other regions in parts offset the losses. Tropical and subtropical coniferous forests experienced changes of nearly 25%. READ MORE

OCEANA

The critical role of nature in climate solutions

COOK ISLANDS – Kia Orana or Greetings. When we say Kia Orana it literally means “may you live long”. This is what we want: a healthy planet to live long. In 2015, the international community agreed to resolve climate change by mobilizing stakeholders to reduce carbon emissions, strengthen societies’ ability to deal with the impacts of climate change, and achieve climate neutrality by the end of the century. On Earth Day 2016, 175 countries signed the Paris climate agreement at a historic ceremony in New York. Immediately afterwards, 15 countries, mostly small island developing states, ratified the agreement. The world desperately needed this historic agreement. Now it’s time for the world to move it into action. Nature stands ready to help. Terrestrial ecosystems, such as tropical forests or peatlands, store three times the amount of carbon found in the atmosphere. Forest and landscape restoration and halting deforestation are integral to protecting forests’ ability to sequester carbon. Marine ecosystems are another excellent example. Ocean vegetation, including mangroves, tidal marshes, sea grasses and sea weed absorb about thirty per cent of all man-made carbon. Protecting and restoring the world’s oceans is critically important for stabilising the climate and achieving food security for the billions of people who rely on fish as their primary source of protein. READ MORE

Five Pacific islands lost to rising seas as climate change hits
SOLOMON ISLANDS – Five tiny Pacific islands have disappeared due to rising seas and erosion, a discovery thought to be the first scientific confirmation of the impact of climate change on coastlines in the Pacific, according to Australian researchers.The submerged islands were part of the Solomon Islands, an archipelago that over the last two decades has seen annual sea levels rise as much as 10mm (0.4in), according to research published in the May issue of the online journal Environmental Research Letters. The missing islands, ranging in size from 1 to 5 hectares (2.5-12.4 acres) were not inhabited by humans. But six other islands had large swaths of land washed into the sea and on two of those, entire villages were destroyed and people forced to relocate, the researchers found. READ MORE

MAP documentary screened at Muddy Mangroves Movie Fest 2016
AUSTRALIA – We at MAP were thrilled to hear that a couple of our videos including our new short documentary was chosen and screened at the Muddy Mangrove Movie-fest during The Australian Mangrove Saltmarsh Network 2016 Conference. The conference promoted communication and collaboration among professional researchers, managers, industry officers, policy makers, environmental consultants and community enthusiasts. Watch our new short documentary – Reducing the Risk of Disaster through Nature-Based Solutions : Mangroves

LAST WORD(S)

Our gratitude above everything for all this mobilization of individuals and organizations who immediately extended their hands and keep them like that to help us to maintain our strength and hope.

The earthquake on April 16th mainly affects the villages all over the line coast of our canton of muisne in the province of esmeraldas. The most extremely affected areas are the parish of muisne with a population of almost 9000 inhabitants.

In the island; and the parish of Chamanga inhabited by almost 4500 people. Most of the people form this two parishes are hosted in six improvised locations which have been built and conditioned, step by step, with the cooperation we have received. People have also settled improvised camps all along the way, covered with plastic. They have managed a way to settle in this camps and feed thanks to the donations they receive. Sanitary and environmental conditions they face living outdoor make this population endure extreme vulnerability conditions. READ MORE

Ruth Cortes Castillo Farias
President at FUNDECOL
Lider Góngora Director at C-CONDEM
More info: Website: www.ccondem.org
Youtube: Manglares C-Condem Fampage
Facebook: C-Condem-Organización Comunitaria