Positive Wildlife News 2024

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One of Earth’s biggest freshwater fish is bouncing back, a rare ‘win win’

The 10-foot-long arapaima was quickly disappearing in Brazil until local communities stepped in to save it—and themselves.

Giant freshwater fish are among the most endangered animals on Earth. But in the lush waterways of the Amazon, one leviathan is swimming against the current.

Meet the arapaima, a fish capable of growing up to 10 feet long and weighing up to 500 pounds. Just over a decade ago, this popular seafood species faced extinction, its numbers ravaged by overfishing. But conservation efforts spearheaded by local communities have turned things around for the arapaima, with populations increasing dramatically across the Amazon.

One of Earth’s biggest freshwater fish is bouncing back, a rare ‘win win’
 
Leap forward for red squirrel reintroduction on Scotland’s west coast

Red squirrels could return to the entire northern coastline of Scotland’s west coast Morvern peninsula and flourish again on neighbouring Ardnamurchan following reintroduction of the species by Trees for Life.

The rewilding charity has this spring released six red squirrels into broadleaf woodland on the remote Drimnin Estate overlooking the Sound of Mull, with backing from the landowners.

The arrivals will help bolster Morvern’s existing population of reintroduced reds, which has been growing since Trees for Life released 21 squirrels at Lochaline two years ago.

Leap forward for red squirrel reintroduction on Scotland’s west coast - Inside Ecology

 
Biden-Harris Administration designates new national marine sanctuary in New York state

Eastern Lake Ontario to become 16th marine sanctuary in iconic system of marine protected areas.

Today, the Biden-Harris Administration announced that it is designating a 1,722-square-mile area in eastern Lake Ontario as America's 16th national marine sanctuary. Lake Ontario National Marine Sanctuary 一adjacent to New York’s Jefferson, Oswego, Cayuga and Wayne counties 一 will celebrate the region’s maritime cultural history and provide new opportunities for research, education, recreation and maritime heritage-related tourism in local coastal communities and the broader Great Lakes region.

“President Biden is leading the most ambitious conservation agenda in history through the America the Beautiful initiative, and today’s marine sanctuary designation is another key milestone in that effort,” said White House Council on Environmental Quality Chair Brenda Mallory. “For generations to come, families will be able to learn about our nation’s maritime history and the rich cultural heritage of Lake Ontario.”

Biden-Harris Administration designates new national marine sanctuary in New York state
 
A Brazilian city restores its mangroves to protect against climate change
  • A broad coalition of organizations is working to conserve and restore mangroves in the Greater Florianópolis area on Brazil’s southern Atlantic coast.
  • Mangroves are critical tropical ecosystems that dampen coastal erosion, serve as nurseries for aquatic species, and store more carbon per hectare than terrestrial forests.
  • These properties make mangroves a key part of coastal cities’ strategies to mitigate climate change and adapt to its consequences, such as rising sea levels.
Red, white and black mangroves are tropical ecosystem trees that exist between sea and river, in a unique condition of brackish water — the halfway point between freshwater and saltwater. In this transition zone that’s subject to tides, the plants have adapted by developing their own structures to breathe underwater and better cling to the muddy soil by using prop roots. Mangrove forests can be found along almost the entire Brazilian coast.

Considered nurseries for marine life, species that eventually migrate out to sea, mangroves are key to the fishing supply chain, both small-scale and industrial.

Just like any other ecosystem, mangroves provide natural services that people benefit, from such as carbon sequestration — up to 15 times more than forests on a hectare-for-hectare basis — and protection against the impact of sea waves, which can cause erosion in places where the native vegetation has been stripped away. However, these biodiverse areas are increasingly threatened by urbanization, invasive exotic species, sewage disposal, fires, and climate change.

Due to the inevitable rise in sea levels and the increase in the frequency and intensity of storms, coastal cities need investments and adaptation measures focused on reducing risks and minimizing the impacts caused by extreme weather events.

According to projections by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), sea levels are expected to rise by 20 centimeters (8 inches) by 2050 if the increase in the global average temperature remains below 2° Celsius (3.6° Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels.

It may seem a small increase, but it will cause greater coastal erosion problems and indicates that future flooding will reach higher places that historically have never flooded, affecting more people and causing more damage. Rising sea levels are associated with ocean warming, which in turn interferes with rainfall, causing stronger weather events.

A Brazilian city restores its mangroves to protect against climate change
 
Following a three-year hunting ban in France, Spain and Portugal, the European turtle dove population in Western Europe has increased by 25% - an increase which equates to an additional 400,000 breeding pairs.

The success of the temporary hunting ban, which began in 2021, has provided impetus for all three countries to continue the ban.

More information can be found in the link below:
European Turtle Dove increases dramatically following hunting ban - BirdGuides
 
DesertRhino150 said:
Following a three-year hunting ban in France, Spain and Portugal, the European turtle dove population in Western Europe has increased by 25% - an increase which equates to an additional 400,000 breeding pairs.

The success of the temporary hunting ban, which began in 2021, has provided impetus for all three countries to continue the ban.

More information can be found in the link below:
European Turtle Dove increases dramatically following hunting ban - BirdGuides
Click to expand...
That is an absolutely insane figure for a 2-year initiative, if accurate.
 
A new protected landscape area (CHKO Krušné Hory) will be created next year in Czechia. It will cover 1200 km2 of terrain along Saxony border. There is currently only 1 or 2 last municipalities that have not reached an agreement with our ministry on local rules and zoning and thus have not agreed to be included yet.

Krušné Hory (Erzgebirge) is a mountain range historicaly known for heavy exploatation - be it large-scale metal mining since 12th centrury, logging, agricultural use and dirty industry. People of my generation associate it with dead forests killed by acid rains of 1970s/1980s.

But nature slowly finds way back. It now has several wolf packs, otters, beavers, a few wild cats, lynx just started to be reintroduced, it has breeding common cranes, white-tailed sea eagles, black grouse, black storks, high density of roe and red deer. Osprays will return soon. (My dream would be return of lesser spotted and golden eagles.)

The most valuable local habitats are peat-bogs, flowery meadows and last pockets of ancient beach forest (with few beach trees almost 500 years old).

Source
 
Lula announces two protected areas and recognizes resistance to environmental actions

Measures were announced on Environment Day, along with deforestation data and a new model for recognizing traditional territories.

This Wednesday (5/6), in a ceremony at Palácio do Planalto for Environment Day, the government took stock of its results and announced a set of measures on the environmental agenda, including the creation of two protected areas. Most of the announcements were about the launch of programs and changes in the structure of official bodies and instances (Find out more in the table at the end of the report.).

The decrees formalizing the São Desidério Caves Natural Monument (BA), with 16 thousand hectares, and the Sauim-de-Coleira Wildlife Refuge, with 15,3 thousand hectares, in Itacoatiara (AM) were signed. One hectare roughly corresponds to the length of a football field.

The last time the federal administration created Conservation Units (UCs) was in March. With the two announced now, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva adds six new UCs and the expansion of three more, totaling 607 thousand hectares, in his third term.

The performance is considered below expectations by civil society organizations and social movements, although the task of making protected areas official has become increasingly difficult in recent years, due to the unfavorable correlation of forces in Congress and within the governments themselves.

Em off, a source in the federal administration says that the processes for establishing new UCs, under the responsibility of the Ministry of the Environment (MMA), are being returned to the department by the Civil House, under the justification that negotiations had not been carried out to obtain approval of the governors of the states where the area is intended to be implemented - despite there being nothing in the legislation providing for this. The same has happened in the case of the recognition of Indigenous Lands (TIs).

At the event at Palácio do Planalto, President Lula defended conservation actions, but admitted that they face political resistance. “All these decrees were greatly applauded here, but you know that there are people who get angry when we make a decree like that. You know that. There are a lot of people who think it was necessary to use a chainsaw and destroy this forest to plant anything,” he said.

https://www.socioambiental.org/en/s...ed-areas-and-recognizes-resistance-to-actions
 
Bangladesh declares Naf estuary a protected area. Will it preserve endangered marine life?

The declaration aims to preserve endangered species like pink dolphins, sharks, rays, sea turtles, sea birds, corals, seagrasses, and algae.

The government has declared the Naf estuary area near Teknaf as the Naf Marine Protected Area to preserve biodiversity, manage fisheries sustainably, and enhance the blue economy.

An area covering 734.17 square kilometres of sea up to 46 metres deep is under conservation, according to a notification issued by the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock on May 28.

The declaration aims to protect biodiversity and habitats, including globally endangered species like pink dolphins, sharks, rays, sea turtles, sea birds, corals, seagrasses, and algae, said Sayeed Mahmood Belal Haider, secretary at the ministry.

Bangladesh declares Naf estuary a protected area. Will it preserve endangered marine life?
 
Restoring Indigenous aquaculture heals both ecosystems and communities in Hawai‘i
  • The loko i’a system of native fishponds in Hawai‘i has for generations provided sustenance to Indigenous communities, supported fish populations in surrounding waters, and generally improved water quality.
  • These benefits, long understood by native Hawaiians, have now been supported by scientists in a new study that looked at the restoration of one such fishpond.
  • Unlike commercial fish farms, loko i‘a thrive without feed input and need little management once established — aspects that highlight the holistic thinking and values-based management behind them.
  • The study authors say the finding is another step toward communicating Indigenous knowledge to support governmental decision-making, part of wider efforts across the archipelago to weave Indigenous and Western ways of knowing to heal both ecosystems and communities.
For generations, native Hawaiians have understood that their aquaculture systems, fishponds known as
loko i‘a, serve as nurseries that seed fish populations in surrounding waters. For the first time, a team of scientists from the Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB) have modeled this feat of Indigenous science in a study.

“We are using science to translate ‘ike kupuna, or Indigenous knowledge, into policy,” said study co-author Kawika Winter, an ecologist at HIMB and He‘eia National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR). “The value of this paper is that it’s one of the first, if not the first, to really show that there are ways to do aquaculture in ways that benefit the system around it.”

In partnership with He‘eia NERR and Paepae o He‘eia, a nonprofit organization dedicated to stewarding the He‘eia loko i‘a, an ancient Hawaiian fishpond enclosing 36 hectares (88 acres) of brackish water, the team simulated different restoration scenarios in Kāne‘ohe Bay on O‘ahu Island based on a simplified food web. The study found that restoring more of the bay into fully functional loko iʻa would grow fish populations not just within the ponds, but across the bay.

Restoring Indigenous aquaculture heals both ecosystems and communities in Hawai‘i
 
South Africa: new Drakensberg nature reserve will protect ancient rock art, wildlife, livelihoods, grasslands and water

South Africa’s Drakensberg mountains have a new 6,500 hectare nature reserve. The new Northern Drakensberg Nature Reserve is working with communities and will preserve ancient rock art, vital grasslands and water sources for millions of people. It connects a neighbouring world heritage site to another nature reserve, expanding a huge transnational protected area from South Africa to neighbouring Lesotho.

Most importantly, it will open a new and important wildlife migration corridor. Migratory animal populations will be able to recover as they’ll no longer be isolated and fragmented.

It took six years for landowners and conservationists to get the new park formally declared, much faster than it usually takes to have land declared protected. It was only possible due to a high degree of consensus among landowners that a commitment to conservation was the best way to manage their land for future generations.

I research how land and ecological systems are governed across boundaries. I believe the new reserve takes forward a commitment made by South Africa at the COP15 biodiversity conference in 2022 that it would protect 30% of its land (including mountains) and oceans by 2030.

South Africa: new Drakensberg nature reserve will protect ancient rock art, wildlife, livelihoods, grasslands and water
 
New Bearded Vulture reintroduction site in Spain: Sierra Nevada National Park

The dream to restore the Bearded Vulture (Gypaetus barbatus) to its former distribution grounds in Spain and Europe is one step closer to becoming a reality with the expansion of the Andalusian reintroduction project to the Sierra Nevada National Park.

We are excited to announce that Sierra Nevada National Park has been selected as the latest release site for our successful Bearded Vulture reintroduction programme in Andalusia. This initiative aims to accelerate the Bearded Vulture’s comeback across Andalusia, after the return of the species in Cazorla, where a successful reintroduction has already established a breeding population (currently totalling 10 territorial pairs, of which 5 bred this year).

Sierra Nevada has been chosen to continue the reintroduction of this species in Andalusia because it is the second largest mountain massif in this autonomous community, where there is a lot of food available (both wild ungulates – there is a very large population of Iberian Ibex and domestic livestock) and, furthermore, it is an area that is already frequently visited by the Bearded Vultures released in Cazorla and Castril.

New Bearded Vulture reintroduction site in Spain: Sierra Nevada National Park - Vulture Conservation Foundation
 
Important bird habitat in RM Trench now protected

Breeding birds and elk among wildlife to benefit from conservation project

Grassland-reliant species in the Rocky Mountain Trench now have more protected habitat thanks to a new conservation area near Cranbrook.

The Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) recently announced its acquisition of 270 hectares in the Skookumchuck Prairie, which lies within the traditional territories of the Ktunaxa Nation and the Secwépemc (Shuswap Band). The Skookumchuck Prairie Conservation Area protects vital valley-bottom grasslands, open forests and wetlands.

This project falls within the Skookumchuck Prairie Key Biodiversity Area and is adjacent to three Provincial Wildlife Habitat Areas, which protect habitat for the at-risk long-billed curlew and Lewis’s woodpecker.

Important bird habitat in RM Trench now protected | Cranbrook, East Kootenay, Ktunaxa Nation
 
Canada Authorities Find Narwhals No Longer At Risk

The species was one of 12 whose statuses were being reconsidered

Canadian officials say the narwhal is no longer considered at risk after researchers found the iconic species’ Nunavut population appears to be stable.

Famous for long tusks extending from their heads, the narwhal (Monodon monoceros) faces a number of threats, including the loss of sea ice and increasing boat traffic.

Canada authorities find narwhals no longer at risk - The Wildlife Society

 
Governor Hochul Announces Protection of 275 Acres of Open Space in Cayuga County

Governor Kathy Hochul today announced that New York State, in partnership with The Nature Conservancy, permanently protected two environmentally sensitive parcels of open space in Cayuga County: a 203-acre addition to Fillmore Glen State Park in Moravia and 72 acres of forested wetlands in Venice. Both projects were funded through the State Department of Environmental Conservation’s Water Quality Improvement Project program, which supports projects that directly improve water quality or aquatic habitat, promote flood risk reduction, restoration, and enhanced flood and climate resiliency, or protect a drinking water source.

“The Finger Lakes region is home to some of New York's most extraordinary wonders, and expanding the footprint of the protected wetlands is a promise we make to their long-term wellbeing,” Governor Hochul said. “We are preserving our natural environment and ensuring New York continues to be a recreational and economic asset for future generations.”

Governor Hochul Announces Protection of 275 Acres of Open Space in Cayuga County
 
This new provincial park is the largest created in British Columbia in a decade

The greatly expanded Klinse-Za/Twin Sisters Park will protect nearly 200,000 hectares of habitat for endangered caribou in B.C.’s northeast

A significant stretch of endangered caribou habitat in northeast B.C. has been permanently protected in the newly expanded Klinse-Za / Twin Sisters Park, First Nations and the B.C. and federal governments announced today.

The announcement comes more than four years after West Moberly First Nations, Saulteau First Nations and the provincial and federal governments agreed to work together to recover caribou herds teetering on the brink of extinction. The deal included a commitment to create a park to protect crucial caribou habitat in the mountainous area northeast of Mackenzie and west of Hudson’s Hope and Chetwynd, in the heavily industrialized Peace region.

“We’re showing that when we work together collaboratively — not just say we’re going to work together, but we actually sit down and start applying the principles of working together — we can do some amazing things,” Chief Roland Willson of West Moberly First Nations told The Narwhal.

This new provincial park is the largest created in B.C. in a decade | The Narwhal
 
Giant pangolin rediscovered in Senegal after quarter century

The species was believed to be extirpated from Niokolo-Koba National Park

A large-scale camera trap survey in Senegal has revealed the first confirmed sighting of a giant pangolin since 1999. Researchers in Niokolo-Koba National Park found camera trap images of the giant pangolin (Smutsia gigantea) in 2023 during a larger study in the area.

Giant pangolins rediscovered in Senegal after quarter century - The Wildlife Society
 
Panther Breeding Area Expands in Partnership With Citrus Producer, G Road Grove LLC 

The southwest Florida conservation easement protects habitat for endangered Florida panthers and other wildlife species

The Nature Conservancy in Florida and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) have partnered to purchase a conservation easement at G Road Grove, an active citrus grove and tree nursery in Florida panther habitat.

G Road Grove expands the protected area within the Florida Panther Dispersal Zone, a 30,000-acre corridor in Hendry and Glades counties that helps connect the panthers' current breeding population in areas south of the Caloosahatchee River to suitable habitat north of the river. G Road Grove is also part of the designated 18-million-acre Florida Wildlife Corridor, a network of connected lands and waters that span the state. With this conservation easement, TNC and NRCS are creating and supporting large areas for wildlife to feed, breed and roam. G Road Grove joins nearby conserved lands in this corridor, including the Spirit of the Wild Wildlife Management Area, Okaloacoochee Slough State Forest and several conservation easement lands, such as Black Boar Ranch, Lone Ranger Forge and Chaparral Slough.

Florida panthers rely on a network of protected, connected public and private lands to hunt and breed. They use this mosaic of lands, including ranch lands and other agricultural lands such as the citrus groves and tree nursery found on G Road Grove, as safe movement pathways and sources of food and water.

“Florida panthers help balance our ecosystems. The health of this species helps ensure we have stable wildlife populations and functioning natural areas,” said Wendy Mathews, Senior Conservation Projects Manager with The Nature Conservancy in Florida. “Florida panthers could be on the brink of extinction, surviving on less than 5% of their historic range. But by working with state and federal partners and private landowners to protect land, we can give panthers a chance at recovery. It’s critical that we urgently act to protect the lands panthers need to survive."

The Florida panther population declined due to a loss of habitat, habitat fragmentation and human activities. State and federal agencies have stepped in to help manage the population, which mainly breeds in available habitat south of the Caloosahatchee River in southwest Florida. Successful management and land protection efforts have helped the population recover to approximately 200 panthers.

Panther Breeding Area Expands in Partnership with Citrus Producer, G Road Grove LLC
 
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