Wildlife crossing structures and gene flow

Montana State University researchers have shown that wildlife crossing structures can help maintain genetically healthy populations of bears. The study was based on 10,000 hair samples from black bears and grizzlies that were collatedin Baniff National Park, Canada spanning the crossings in the Trans-Canada Highway. There are currently 44 crossings in the park spanning Trans-Canada Highway and this is the most extensive system of wildlife crossing structures on the planet.

WTI scientist Michael Sawaya, who wrote the paper, says “While there have been a lot of studies showing that wildlife are using these crossings, this is the first time anyone has shown that animals using the crossings are breeding often enough to ensure that the populations on either side of the highway are not being genetically isolated.”

Details of the study appear in the British journal “Proceedings of the Royal Society B. 

Global Forest Change Data 2000–2012 Available For Download

The forest change data is now available for download. This has been made possible by the University of Maryland, Google, and other partners. You will be able to create derivative maps, visualizations, and aggregations.

Here is the link

This is the original study which you can utilize in conjunction: Hansen, M. C., P. V. Potapov, R. Moore, M. Hancher, S. A. Turubanova, A. Tyukavina, D. Thau, S. V. Stehman, S. J. Goetz, T. R. Loveland, A. Kommareddy, A. Egorov, L. Chini, C. O. Justice, and J. R. G. Townshend. 2013. “High-Resolution Global Maps of 21st-Century Forest Cover Change.” Science 342 (15 November): 850–53

Book Recommendation

Birds & People by Mark Cocker

Photography: David Tipling

Here is a remarkable book by Mark Cocker -- the UK's finest living nature writer -- and David Tipling -- one of the best bird photographers in the world. The book gives insight in to the relationship between birds and humankind, with contributions from bird enthusiasts from round the world. In his introduction, Cocker states, “This is an unusual bird book, in that it is as much about humans as it is about birds.”

The blurb states “ Part natural history and part cultural study, it describes and maps the entire spectrum of our engagements with birds, drawing in themes of history, literature, art, cuisine, language, lore, politics and the environment. In the end, this is a book as much about us as it is about birds. Birds and People are also exceptional in that the author has solicited contributions from people worldwide. Personal anecdotes and stories have come from more than 650 individuals in 81 different countries. They range from university academics to Mongolian eagle hunters and from Amerindian shamans to some of the most celebrated writers of our age. The sheer multitude of voices in this global chorus means that Birds and People is both a source book on why we cherish birds and a powerful testament to their importance for all humanity”.

Sunday Times described the book like this "A sumptuous encyclopedia of humanity's relationship with birds."

·         Hardcover: 592 pages

·         Publisher: RHUK (1 August 2013)

·         Language: English

·         ISBN-10: 0224081748

·         ISBN-13: 978-0224081740

·         Product Dimensions: 28.4 x 22.4 x 4.6 cm

A World Heritage sanctuary for the world’s most threatened cat

The known history of Doñana National Park goes back over 700 years – the area was once a favourite hunting reserve of several Spanish kings. In 1963, the Spanish Government, in collaboration with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), decided to acquire 7,000 hectares (27 sq miles) of land to create the Doñana Biological Reserve. Six years later, Doñana National Park was born, with its boundaries being extended in 1978 and again in 2004. Since 2006, the park’s management has been the exclusive responsibility of the Autonomous Community of Andalucía’s government.

Today, it is the world’s only protected area that is not only a National Park but also a World Heritage site (designated in 1994), a Ramsar wetland site, a Biosphere Reserve, and a European Community Special Protection Area.

The uniqueness of Doñana is due to the great diversity of biotopes it contains, allowing for the coexistence of a wide variety of plant and animal species. In addition to its marsh ecosystem, which is characterised by high productivity, a set of exceptional environmental units converge here: beaches, fixed and mobile dune fields, scrub woodlands and maquis, and numerous lagoons scattered among the vegetation. The park’s size and strategic location make it one of the most important wetlands in Europe: as a wintering area, it receives more than half a million water fowl each year, and also serves as a stop-over for migratory birds on the route to and from Africa.

Having been inhabited and altered by humans throughout its history, the Doñana region continues as a stronghold for traditional uses such as beekeeping, harvesting of pine cones and agriculture. Important traditional events include the “Saca de las Yeguas”, a livestock event, and the “Romería de El Rocío”, one of the most popular religious pilgrimages in the country.

Info Courtesy: IUCN

WildLeaks -The first, secure, online whistleblower platform dedicated to Wildlife & Forest Crime

A group of organizations fighting wildlife crime have banded together and launched WildLeaks - the first global, secure online whistleblower platform dedicated to wildlife and forest crime.

"Our first priority is to facilitate the identification of criminals and corrupt governmental officials behind the poaching and trafficking of endangered species such as ivory, rhino horn, big cats, apes, pangolins and birds, as well as forest products", said Andrea Crosta, Project Leader of WildLeaks . The platform also has proviso for protecting the people who chose to send them information, not only by providing a state-of-the-art secure system but also by managing and using the information in the correct way. Files are encrypted at every stage.

Click HERE to go to the website of WildLeaks

World Wildlife Day - March 3

The United Nations General Assembly has designated March 3 as World Wildlife Day. This will coincide with the day of the adoption of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. The General Assembly reaffirmed the intrinsic value of wildlife and its various contributions, including ecological, genetic, social, economic, scientific, educational, cultural, recreational and aesthetic, to sustainable development and human well-being. The CITES Secretariat, in collaboration with UN agencies, will implement World Wildlife Day.

CITES Secretary-General John Scanlon said “World Wildlife Day is an ideal opportunity to celebrate the many beautiful and varied forms of wild fauna and flora and raise awareness of the multitude of benefits that conservation provides to people. At the same time, the Day reminds us of the urgent need to step up the fight against wildlife crime, which has wide-ranging economic, environmental and social impacts. We invite all member States, relevant organizations of the United Nations system as well as all other interested organizations and individuals – from airports to museums to schools – to get involved in this global celebration of wildlife.”

The CITES Secretariat has created a dedicated World Wildlife Day Facebook page to share news and stories of the Day, which can be followed at: https://www.facebook.com/WorldWildlifeDay

IUCN World Parks Congress 2014

     Invitation letter from Julia Marton-Lefèvre, Director General of IUCN

  

IUCN and our partners Parks Australia and the New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service extend you a very warm welcome to the IUCN World Parks Congress 2014, and the beautiful city of Sydney.

Taking the theme of Parks, People, Planet – Inspiring Solutions, the IUCN World Parks Congress 2014 will advance an ambitious agenda that will inspire solutions for today's most pressing global challenges. As a prestigious global gathering of protected area leaders and professionals and the wider cross-section of society, with a legacy of collaboration and innovation dating back to the inaugural event in 1961, this World Parks Congress promises to build a dynamic foundation for achieving conservation and development goals for the decade to come.

For the IUCN World Parks Congress 2014, we are particularly inspired by the success of the last Congress, held in Durban, South Africa in 2003. Durban helped develop a new paradigm for protected areas, defining and advancing the roles of governance, sustainable finance, capacity development, social equity and benefit sharing, leading to the Durban Action Plan and Durban Accord, both of which informed the Convention on Biological Diversity's successful Programme of Work on Protected Areas.

Sydney offers the opportunity to build on this success and to go further to confront the new challenges facing the world. Coming at the halfway mark of the 2020 Aichi Biodiversity Targets, agreed by nearly 200 governments in Nagoya, Japan in 2010, this Congress will provide a unique opportunity to report on our progress and take bold new steps. It will enable us to build new alliances, and to respond to what the world needs from protected areas for sustainable development.

In Sydney, our work will build on our collective achievements while drawing inspiration from the next generation of conservation leaders. We look forward to welcoming youth, governments, businesses and indigenous peoples to unite in partnerships from beyond the conservation world, where our shared ambition to provide lasting natural solutions to today's conservation and development challenges will result in tangible and enduring benefits for parks and people worldwide.

Please join us as we embark on this singular journey in support of IUCN's vision of 'a just world that values and conserves nature'.

Registration is open now

Click HERE to register

Kenya imposes lifetime imprisonment for poachers.

In an effort to clamp down on elephant and rhino poaching, Kenya has imposed lifetime imprisonment for poachers. This is in  addition to SH 20 million shilling fine.

The new effort of Kenya is laudatory. More nations should come up with stiffer penalties like this. Right now in many countries, poachers get away with light punishment. 

The new efforts by Kenya have come in for praise by United Nations. 

Be wary of buying Sukam Inverters

If you are planning to buy an inverter, don't go for the brand SUKAM. Their after sales service is atrocious.
I had the misfortune of buying a solar inverter from them. Tall promises were made by them at the time of purchase.

When I contacted the company for rectifying a glitch in the inverter I was requested to register with their phone complaint system This was promptly done by me on 24th evening. Till this day (7/01/14), the company has not bothered to send anyone to repair my inverter. The inverter has a 5 year warranty. Now I have to go through the hassles of going to the consumer court to set things right.

So, guys be wary of buying SUKAM products. You will be shortchanged.

Good omen for elephants - China getting serious about dealing with elephant poaching

At long last China has started doing what we all wished. Chinese Government has started cracking down on poachers. In a significant move Chinese authorities destroyed 6.1 tons of illegal ivory during a public event held in Guangzhou on 6^th January. It indicated a growing commitment of Chinese Government to help end the elephant slaughter in Africa. China is the largest market for ivory.

An elated Douglas-Hamilton, elephant researcher and CEO of Save the Elephants organization said “Excess demand for ivory is the root of the elephant poaching crisis. All other efforts to stop the killing of elephants will be useless if the world doesn't stop buying ivory. China’s leadership could save Africa’s elephants,”

There is all round increased awareness about poaching in China. Recently an ivory poaching story published in Southern Weekly, a prominent newspaper in China , went viral on social media in China. It had 10 million shares

Sunda leopard

Pic Credit: Danau Girang Field Centre. 

Sunda leopard (Neofelis diardi) is Borneo's largest predator, but very little is known about the animal. It is well camouflaged and mostly nocturnal. It was only 8 years back that the animal was discovered.

4th edition of Global Reintroduction Perspectives

Re-introduction is acquiring an increasingly important role in conservation. This latest edition of Global Reintroduction Perspectives from IUCN provides 52 fascinating case studies in reintroduction. It is very useful to conservation professionals and the wildlife managers. Read the report HERE

Powerful software Carnegie Landsat Analysis System developed by the Carnegie Institution for Science is now available at no cost

Hi guys,

             Here is a golden opportunity for you to get to know and become proficient in the use of use Landsat Analysis System developed by the Carnegie Institution for Science. The free online course called CLASlite Classroom trains users how to monitor the extent and condition of the world's forests using satellite imagery. It is designed for both expert and entry-level users. 

John Mitchell, vice provost for online learning at Stanford said "CLASlite Classroom represents a new model of collaborative online learning," "It's a perfect example of how the open source online learning platform, OpenEdX, can be used to support scholarship and teaching that has real-world impact, and help the scientific community enlarge the field of engaged citizenry. People everywhere who want to gain knowledge can take this course and also contribute to an important scientific effort."

For more information and to register for the course, visit the CLASlite course webpage.

Wildlife Comeback in Europe study

                                                       

The Eurasian beaver, European bison and White-tailed eagle are among the species that have made remarkable comeback in Europe. The report ‘Wildlife Comeback in Europe’, describes how, why and where 37 mammal and bird species have recovered over the past 50 years. The report gives lessons for the conservation of these and other species.

Professor Jonathan Baillie, Director Zoological Society of London (ZSL), says: “It is essential that we both celebrate and learn from major successes in conservation.  This study helps us understand the interventions and conditions necessary for a broad range of species to experience similar recoveries”

Read the report HERE

A new book for protected area professionals

Social and Economic Benefits of Protected Areas

An Assessment Guide

Edited by Marianne Kettunen, Patrick ten Brink

Routledge – 2013 – 368 pages

340 pages, 58 b/w illustrations, 34 tables

Paperback | Aug 2013 | #207183 | ISBN-13: 9780415632843

Marianne Kettunen is Senior Policy Analyst at the Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP) and Guest Researcher at the Finnish Environment Institute, Helsinki, Finland.

Patrick ten Brink is Senior Fellow and Head of Office at the Institute for European Environmental Policy in Brussels, Belgium. He is also the editor of the book: "The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity in National and International Policy Making", developed within "The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity" (TEEB) project, administered by the United Nations Environment Programme.

Publishers description

Protected areas (PAs) contain biodiversity and ecosystems of high conservation value. In addition, these areas provide a range of benefits, both direct and indirect, to our societies and economies, i.e. so called ecosystem services. These services include, for example, an ecosystem's ability to regulate floods and climate, purify water, secure the pollination of crops, and create opportunities for recreation, culture and tourism.

This book offers a comprehensive introduction to the socio-economic benefits of PAs and PA networks and provides step-by-step practical guidance on identifying, assessing and valuing the various ecosystem services and related benefits provided by PAs. It also aims to improve the communication of PA benefits to different stakeholders and the general public. It is shown that identifying and valuing the socio-economic benefits of PAs can be beneficial for several reasons. Demonstrating socio-economic importance of a protected site can significantly increase political and stakeholder support for the site and resolve conflicts between different interest groups. This can lead to positive changes in policies and decision-making. Insights on PA benefits are also needed to identify a combination of actions and land use practices that best support the sustainable and equitable utilisation of these benefits, while retaining a site’s conservation goals. Finally, demonstrating different benefits can help to discover alternative and sustainable sources for financing the management of PAs.

Message from IUCN - Masters in Conservation Leadership - Applications and scholarship support for October 2014

Masters in Conservation Leadership - Applications and scholarship support for October 2014

This course is a full-time, one year Masters, aimed at graduates of leadership potential with at least three to five years of experience relevant to biodiversity conservation. The unique feature of the course is its delivery by a collaboration between six University of Cambridge departments and nine leading conservation organisations based around Cambridge, and its focus on issues of management and leadership. A key aim of the course is to build the capacity of conservation leaders from tropical countries. As a result, the first two cohorts have attracted post-experience students from around the world.

IUCN have scholarship funding available for the academic year beginning in October 2014. All applications for October entry and scholarships must be received by the 3 December 2013. Further details of the course and scholarships can be found at:
http://www.geog.cam.ac.uk/graduate/mphil/conservation/

IUCN also encourage applicants to seek scholarship support locally, for example the Chevening Scholarship schemes run by the British Council in their home countries.

Novelist Thomas Pynchon shows that science and art can mesh beautifully

Novelist Thomas Pynchon, in his latest book Bleeding Edge (Penguin) underlines the fact that science and art can mesh with mutually beneficial results. There are few novelists who can claim to successfully unite the two cultures, but Pynchon does it with panache. Pynchon turns to science and engineering as sources of imagery and symbolism

The novel centres on Maxine Tarnow, a mother of two boys and self-described "paid up member of Yentas with Attitude,”. Maxine runs a fraud investigation business called "Tail 'Em and Nail 'Em’. She gets deeply involved in the investigation of a computer-security firm called Hashlingerz. The mysterious techno geek CEO of the firm seems to rake in lot of unaccountable money. The  investigation of Maxine leads her deeper and deeper into the Internet underworld, to a Second Life-like "deep Web" world called DeepArcher, then on to a mysterious underground bunker in Montauk, a drug-smuggling boat on the Hudson, and lot of other places  in Manhattan. Meanwhile September 11 is round the corner and Hashlingerz's activities points to some kind of connection to terrorist groups.

The book is beautifully written and is receiving rave reviews.

 Here is a sample of the description of uptown Manhattan in the rain: “What might only be a simple point on the workday cycle . . . becomes a million pedestrian dramas, each one charged with mystery, more intense than high-barometer daylight can ever allow. Everything changes. There’s that clean, rained-on smell. The traffic noise gets liquefied. Reflections from the street into the windows of city buses fill the bus interiors with unreadable 3-D images, as surface unaccountably transforms to volume. Average pushy Manhattan schmucks crowding the sidewalks also pick up some depth, some purpose — they smile, they slow down, even with a cellular phone stuck in their ear they are more apt to be singing to somebody than yakking. Some are observed taking houseplants for walks in the rain. Even the lightest umbrella-to-umbrella contact can be erotic.”

Read an excellent review that appeared in Nature HERE

2013 Champions of the Earth award winners

Here is the list of, UN's flagship environmental award winners

POLICY LEADERSHIP

Ms. Izabella Teixeira, Minister of Environment, Brazil is recognized for her key role in reversing deforestation in the Amazon and her role on high-level UN panels on sustainable development

Janez Potočnik, European Commissioner for the Environment is recognized for his work advocating a shift from the current global model of intensive resource consumption,

ENTREPRENEURIAL VISION

Brian McClendon, co-founder and VP of Google Earth is recognized for providing a powerful tool to monitor the state of the environment, allowing researchers to detect deforestation, classify land cover and estimate forest biomass and carbon and thus demonstrate the scale of problems and illustrate solutions.

Jack Dangermond, Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) is recognized for his commitment to ensuring that international, research, education, and nonprofit organizations working in the fields of conservation and development have access to the best geospatial analytical and visualization technology.

SCIENCE AND INNOVATION

Veerabhadran Ramanathan, Professor at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UCSD was recognized for his pioneering work on black carbon, which included leading a team that first discovered widespread Atmospheric Brown Clouds (ABCs) and research into how cutting black carbon can significantly mitigate climate change India.

INSPIRATION AND ACTION

Carlo Petrini, Founder of the Slow Food movement is recognized for his visionary work to improve the efficiency and sustainability of the world's agriculture and food supply "one bite at a time".

Martha Isabel Ruiz Corzo, Director of Grupo Ecológico Sierra Gorda is recognized for her work in the Sierra Gorda region of Central Mexico, which demonstrates how a broad range of advocacy, public education and income-generation approaches, can produce support healthy ecosystems and alleviate poverty.

List and details provided by UNEP

The urgent need for transportation biologists in India

In India when a new road or bridge project is planned, there is only perfunctory reference to impact on wildlife. An EIA (Environmental impact analysis), might be done in some cases to meet the needs of the statute books, but there is absolutely no proviso for making the roads and bridges wildlife friendly in its true sense. In several European countries, US, and Canada, in house transportation biologists are an integral part of the whole process of roads and bridges building. They see to it that roads and bridges projects avoid or circumvent sensitive wildlife habitat and help minimize and mitigate environmental impacts to streams, wetlands, and other prime wildlife habitats. Sometime exclusive wildlife bridges (ecoduct) are also built. These wildlife bridges guarantee safe crossing for wildlife in the maze of heavy traffic and cacophony of highways.

In the Netherlands, which has taken a leading role in the field of wildlife friendly roads, there are 600 tunnels to direct wildlife away from highways. Fencing is also resorted to in concert with tunnels, as good option in guiding wildlife to safe crossing structures and prevent crossing in vulnerable areas. In wildlifers’ parlance this practice is called funnelling. Animals’ use of these passages can be optimised by providing plant cover near the entrances. Reducing the plant cover along road curves and increasing it along level stretches has been found to be very effective in bringing down road kills.

I was thrilled to read recently about what Sarah Piecuch,a transportation biologist working with  New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT)  did for otters. While involved in a road a project at Melvin Brook in Clyde, New York, early in the project’s development, Sarah noticed an otter (Lontra canadensis) kill, at a project site. Her inquisitiveness led her to a large culvert in the area which was constantly filled with water. This culvert was interrupting the scent trail of the otters. Scent trail is very important in the biology of otter. The lack of an upland area forced the otters to come out of the water and travel over the road embankment to leave a scent trail. This upland travel made them vulnerable to road traffic and many were inadvertently getting killed. Sarah explained the need and ideal parameters for an upland bench to the engineers. The project engineers were delighted to take up the challenge and came up with an ingenious upland bench below the culvert. It was fruition of great team work of biologists and engineers.  Sarah identified the need and the engineers found a perfect solution. This kind of teamwork is what is needed for our roads and bridges projects and not hastily sewn up EIA.

The transportation biologists have to be involved right from the planning stages. It is easy to find solutions at the early stages.  Providing enough culverts for wildlife, to use as underpasses, could come in very handy, as topography has the greatest impact on road kills. Studies by University of Calgary researchers have found that, small animals were far less likely to get killed on sections of roads that were raised than on sections that were level with the surrounding terrain. Engineers and biologists working as a close knit team could come up with perfect solutions.

Even existing structures can be made wildlife friendly with innovative planning. Species like barn owls and cormorants very effectively use the bridges in urban scenarios. Many other birds use the bridges for perching, nesting and roosting. A transportation biologist can advise the engineer, how to take in to account the needs of the birds while repairing or painting the structures. Bridges can provide suitable day and night roosting habitat for bats.

The avenues of transportation biologists and engineers working hand in hand are multifarious. Road ecology has become an important new branch of science and has made great strides abroad. It is high time we did something along these lines in India also. The time to act is ripe, as India is on a fast track of infrastructure developments. India should not lag behind is this sphere. Mitigating interactions between roads and wildlife is going to be very important in the years to come.

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Friends,
            After several months break, I am back on this blog. I will be blogging on all related matters of wildlife conservation, instead of concentrating on scientific papers alone. I seek your continued support.

Have a nice day