MAP News Issue #583 – Oct 21, 2023

GLOBAL – Climate change is already making a small proportion of tropical tree leaves so hot that their photosynthetic machinery bakes and breaks, according to new research. The study, published in Nature, finds that even when the surrounding air is significantly cooler than the leaves themselves, some 0.01 percent of individual leaves can reach a critical temperature at which the enzymes required for photosynthesis go through a process called denaturation—the same type of irreversible change that egg proteins in cake batter undergo in the oven. “It’s put some really hard numbers to what we already know intuitively: that it is getting too hot for trees and for tropical forests,” says Stephanie Pau, a global change ecologist at Florida State University, who was not involved in the new research. Although only a small proportion of leaves are currently reaching this feverlike state, study co-author Christopher Doughty, an earth systems scientist at Northern Arizona University, says the findings are still starker than he’d expected.

MADAGASCAR – In light of the recently held United Nations SDG Summit 2023 and UN SDG Action Campaign, Feed the Minds’ Programme Support Officer Jaz Counsell shares how one of Feed the Minds’ projects directly contributes to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In partnership with Tanjona Association, Feed the Minds’ project on improving biodiversity and livelihoods for women in Mandrosoa village in Madagascar started in February 2023. 90% of the community relies on the mangrove ecosystem for their livelihoods.

INDONESIA – Indonesia has lost more mangroves than any other country. The importance of mangroves for carbon storage and biodiversity is well recognised, but much less is known about what they contribute to the communities living near them who are called on to protect them. Malnutrition in Indonesia is high, with more than a third of children stunted, partly due to poor diets. Fish are nutrient-rich and are the most widely consumed animal source food in Indonesia, making the relationship between mangroves and fish consumption of great importance. 

INDONESIA – Leaders in the Southeast Asian region agreed to adopt the ASEAN Blue Economy Framework at the ASEAN Summit in Jakarta in September 2023.

For Indonesia, as the ASEAN chair this year, development of the blue economy deserves to receive attention, as oceans constitute three-quarters of its territory. The Ministry of National Development Planning is targeting the blue economy sector to contribute up to 15 percent to the gross domestic product (GDP) in 2045 or to increase by around three folds the current figure of 5.3 percent. To this end, the government is currently striving to develop seven aspects of the blue economy.

GHANA – The West African sub-region annually loses $26 billion to illegal fishing and illicit trade in marine resources, a senior Ghanian official has warned, echoing a recent report by an independent intergovernmental body that globally, nature is declining at rates unprecedented in human history, and species’ extinction is accelerating at an alarming rate. In an address to selected media personnel at a workshop held in Accra that focused on the nature crimes in Ghana, the West African country’s Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel A. Jinapor, said that “on the economic front, Interpol estimates that 38% of global criminal proceeds are derived from nature crimes.”