[In a difficult year, species were brought back from the edge of
extinction; new protected areas were created; and Indigenous women
leaders got long-overdue recognition. Mongabay looks back at some of
the top positive environmental stories from 2020.]
[[link removed]]

A DIFFICULT YEAR FOR SO MANY, BUT POSITIVE ENVIRONMENTAL STORIES
EMERGED.  
[[link removed]]


 

Liz Kimbrough
December 30, 2020
Mongabay
[[link removed]]


*
[[link removed].]
*
[[link removed]]
*
* [[link removed]]

_ In a difficult year, species were brought back from the edge of
extinction; new protected areas were created; and Indigenous women
leaders got long-overdue recognition. Mongabay looks back at some of
the top positive environmental stories from 2020. _

Nemonte Nenquimo, a leader of Ecuador’s Indigenous Waorani nation,
was one of a few Indigenous women recognized for their leadership in
the fight for environmental and social justice in 2020., Goldman
Environmental Prize

 

All told, this was a pretty bleak year. The COVID-19 pandemic brought
tragedy and confusion; fires razed parts of Australia, the Amazon, and
the Western U.S.; and the world is still barreling headlong into the
sixth mass extinction of species.

But even in 2020, positive stories
[[link removed]] and
trends emerged: species were brought back from the edge of extinction;
interest in renewable energy surged; new protected areas were created;
and a few Indigenous women leaders got some long-overdue credit and
recognition.

Here, in no particular order, we look back at some of the top positive
environmental stories from 2020.

THE WORLD’S AWAKENING TO ‘ONE HEALTH’

The idea that the health of the planet and health of people are
inextricably linked is not a new one, but this year’s COVID-19
pandemic, brought about by zoonotic disease
[[link removed]], threw that
connection into stark relief. This year, as more people began to
connect the dots between environmental destruction, agriculture,
livestock, wildlife trade and human disease, the “One Health
[[link removed]]”
approach came into vogue, being reported on by news outlets such
as _Forbes
[[link removed]]_ and
promoted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

In response to the pandemic, China established new restrictions
[[link removed]] on
wildlife trade and consumption as early as February 2020, and public
opinion
[[link removed]] has
shifted toward favoring stricter animal protections.

INDIGENOUS WOMEN’S LEADERSHIP GAINS GREATER RECOGNITION

Indigenous women have long been leaders in the fight for environmental
and social justice. This year, a few of those women were given some
much-deserved and well-overdue credit, attention, and recognition for
their work and leadership.

_Time_ magazine named Nemonte Nenquimo
[[link removed]],
a leader of Ecuador’s Indigenous Waorani nation, one of the 100
most influential people of 2020
[[link removed]]. In
2019, Nenquimo filed a lawsuit against the Ecuadoran government and
successfully protected 202,000 hectares (500,000 acres) of Indigenous
territories and Amazon rainforest from oil exploration and extraction,
setting an important legal precedent.

Leydy Pech, a Mayan beekeeper, was also awarded the Goldman
Environmental Prize
[[link removed]] (along
with Nenquimo) for spearheading a coalition that prevented
agrochemical giant Monsanto from planting genetically modified
“Roundup ready” soybean crops in seven states in southern Mexico.

In the U.S., New Mexico Representative Deb Haaland has been nominated
by president-elect Joe Biden to head the Department of the Interior.
She would become the first Indigenous cabinet member in U.S. history.

Mongabay’s Global Forests
[[link removed]] series reported on
Indigenous women leaders in the world’s tropical forests, including
women who organized and took leadership after one of the largest oil
spills recorded
[[link removed]] in
the Peruvian Amazon; Nazareth Cabrera
[[link removed]],
a leader of the Uitoto Indigenous people in the Colombian Amazon
jungle who played an important role in blocking the entry of mining
companies; and Noemí Gualinga
[[link removed]],
Ecuador’s “mother of the jungle.”

SPECIES BACK FROM THE BRINK OF EXTINCTION

Amid the troubling trend of biodiversity loss, researchers and
conservationists have carried out ambitious rescues and
captive-breeding programs, bringing several species back from the
brink of extinction in 2020.

A captive-breeding and reintroduction program has helped boost the
wild population of the black stilt or kakī (_Himantopus
novaezelandiae_), a critically endangered wading bird from New
Zealand, by 30% over the past year. The program released 104
captive-bred birds
[[link removed]] into
the wild this August.

After their rescue from a vanishing stream in northern Chile, the last
known 14 Loa water frogs (_Telmatobius dankoi_) produced 200 tadpoles
[[link removed]] this
October.

Burmese roofed turtles
[[link removed]] (_Batagur
trivittata_), once considered extinct, were reared in captivity in
Myanmar. The captive population grew to nearly 1,000 turtles this year
and the species is in little danger of biological extinction.

Several species believed to be extinct were “rediscovered” this
year. The New Guinea singing dog
[[link removed]],
thought to exist only in captivity, was found in the wild using eDNA
sampling. On an expedition in Bolivia
[[link removed]] researchers
found a devil-eyed frog (_Oreobates zongoensis_) and a satyr butterfly
(_Euptychoides fida_) not recorded for 98 years. In northwestern
Madagascar, a chameleon not seen in more than 100 years, _Furcifer
voeltzkowi_, was found in a hotel garden
[[link removed]]. 
Also more than 100 years after its last recorded sighting, a
plant, _Olax nana_, has been rediscovered in Gujarat
[[link removed]] and
the village now fights to protect it.

INTEREST UP FOR RENEWABLE ENERGY, DOWN FOR FOSSIL FUELS

Demand for renewable energy technologies such as solar, wind, smart
grids, and electric vehicles has surged. Wind and solar generation
accounted for one-tenth of global energy production
[[link removed]]in
the first half of 2020. More businesses, cities and countries have
pledged to meet 100% of their energy needs through renewable energy.
Improvements in technologies such as global power grids and energy
storage systems, and more efficient devices and vehicles make these
ambitious goals increasingly attainable. Renewable energy, primarily
wind and solar, is poised to overtake coal as the top global power
producer of energy [[link removed]] in
the next five years.

As interest in renewable energy rose, demand for fossil fuels fell.
After 92 years, ExxonMobil has lost its place on the Dow Jones
Industrial Average. Pledges to ban sales of new gasoline- and
diesel-powered cars over the next 10 to 15 years have been made by
governments from California to the U.K. Global fossil fuel companies
found it more difficult to get financing for projects as financial
institutions
[[link removed]] came
under pressure for their role in driving deforestation, fires and
biodiversity loss.

The incoming administration of U.S. president-elect Joe Biden is
predicted to be a boon to renewable energy, and to increase pressure
on coal. A stricter environmental regulatory landscape under Biden, as
well as increased climate action, are predicted
[[link removed]]to
impact global power markets.

MORE CLIMATE COMMITMENTS MADE 

This year, more governments and companies committed to reaching
net-zero carbon emissions in the coming decades. The world’s largest
emitter of greenhouse gasses, China, announced its intention to be
carbon-neutral by the year 2060. Japan, Hungary, Canada, South Africa
and South Korea committed to similar goals by 2050. With its Green
Deal, the European Union aims to become carbon neutral by 2050. The
U.S. is expected to rejoin the Paris Agreement under president-elect
Joe Biden’s administration.

Among large companies, tech giant Microsoft made the most ambitious
commitment
[[link removed]],
announcing it would commit to restoring more land than it uses and
would zero out all of its historical emissions dating back to its
creation in 1975. Oil companies such as ExxonMobil, BP, and Royal
Dutch Shell also pledged to reduce emissions.

NEW CONSERVATION AREAS CREATED AND FINANCED

The creation of a protected area can be an important first step toward
safeguarding biodiversity. This year, several new areas were
established.

Myanmar officially protected
[[link removed]] 156,000
hectares (386,00 acres) of remote, high-altitude forest that is home
to the critically endangered Myanmar snub-nosed monkey (_Rhinopithecus
strykeri_) and the red panda (_Ailurus fulgens_).

Spanning a combined area one-third larger than New York City, two new
protected areas have been established in Nepal’s Himalayas
[[link removed]].
At nearly 106,000 hectares (262,000 acres), they mark a step toward
protecting critical wildlife corridors from Nepal’s lowlands up into
the high mountains where animals such as Indian pangolins (_Manis
crassicaudata_), snow leopards (_Panthera uncia_), and Himalayan black
bears (_Ursus thibetanus laniger_) live.

Nigeria’s Ekiti state established a small conservation area
[[link removed]] where
about 20 Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes ellioti), the
most threatened chimpanzee subspecies in the world, are believed to
survive.

The Ivory Coast has announced the creation of a
2,600-square-kilometer (1,000-square-mile) marine protected area
[[link removed]],
the first in the nation. The protected area will cover pristine waters
home to threatened shark and turtle species.

The U.S. Congress passed the Great American Outdoors Act
[[link removed]], which
dedicated resources to national parks and permanent funding for the
Land and Water Conservation Fund.

INDIGENOUS PEOPLE’S ROLE IN ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION INCREASINGLY
RECOGNIZED

The idea that Indigenous people and local communities play a key and
central role in stewarding natural resources and protecting the
environment is not news. But this year, there were more academic
papers and advocacy campaigns around the issue, as well as more media
coverage.

Increasingly, the world is awakening to the importance of securing
Indigenous communities’ land rights
[[link removed]] as
an equitable, low-cost, and effective way to protect the environment:
an estimated 36% of ecologically intact forests
[[link removed]] and 80%
of the planet’s biodiversity
[[link removed]] are within
Indigenous peoples’ territories.

A study
[[link removed]] published
by political scientists in August concluded that Indigenous people
were the best stewards of the Amazon, but only when their property
rights were assured. Others found that large, legally protected
territories are necessary
[[link removed]] for
Indigenous peoples in Brazil to maintain their culture as well as
local biodiversity. A new study
[[link removed]] conducted
by the Rights and Resources Initiative urges decision-makers to adopt
rights-based approaches to conservation because they are equitable,
effective, and economical.

ADVANCES IN ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING TECHNOLOGY

As high-resolution satellite imagery, remote sensing, and monitoring
technologies improve, we are better able to view Earth from above,
noting changes over time. Three well-established satellite monitoring
technology groups — Kongsberg Satellite Services, Planet and Airbus
— partnered to make high-resolution satellite imagery of the
tropics
[[link removed]] free
and accessible to all. NASA launched a new platform
[[link removed]] making
use of state-of-the-art technologies to better monitor global fires.
And citizens in Sri Lanka
[[link removed]] and
various areas within the Congo and the Amazon
[[link removed]] used
mobile applications to report environmental crimes such as illegal
logging.

Using a modern multibeam-sonar-equipped vessel to map the ocean floor,
researchers from the Schmidt Ocean Institute discovered a massive
coral reef
[[link removed]] one
and a half times as tall as the Eiffel Tower within the Great Barrier
Reef Marine Park in Australia_._ It is the first standalone reef to
be discovered in 120 years.

On the smaller side of tech, new devices were developed and deployed
to protect and track animals. A small camera equipped with artificial
intelligence
[[link removed]] was
developed and trained to recognize animals in the field, alerting
scientists to rare species or preventing villagers from coming into
conflict with animals such as elephants. A tiny backpack-like
tracking device
[[link removed]]was
used to monitor bats with high accuracy. In Costa Rica, decoy turtle
eggs
[[link removed]] were
planted in sea turtle nests to track poachers.

CAMERA TRAPS BROUGHT US CLOSER TO NATURE

Camera traps, which trigger automatically based on movement, have
allowed us to peer into nature, spying on animals as they go about
their daily lives. Mongabay’s new video series, Candid Animal Cam
[[link removed]], launched this
year. The series explores camera trap footage from around the world
and talks to the scientists who study this footage. Candid Animal Cam
takes us into the hidden lives of leopards, tayras, chimps, lemurs,
wombats, chimpanzees, capybaras, and the African wild dog.
[[link removed]]

In the Amazon, camera traps revealed a wild short-eared dog
[[link removed]] (_Atelocynus
microtis_) scavenging on an armadillo carcass. Camera traps confirmed
the presence of wild western lowland gorillas
[[link removed]] (_Gorilla
gorilla gorilla_) in the jungles of central mainland Equatorial Guinea
for the first time in a decade. The first known images
[[link removed]] of
the world’s rarest gorillas, the Cross River gorillas (_Gorilla
gorilla diehli_) surfaced this year. Images from camera traps set high
up in trees in Rwanda’s Nyungwe National Park gave us a glimpse
of 35 different mammal species
[[link removed]] living
in the forest. And through the lens of a strategically placed camera
in Thailand, we watched tigers bathe in a “Jacuzzi-sized watering
hole
[[link removed]].”

OTHER STORIES

Many other positive stories came to light in 2020: a palm plantation
was reforested
[[link removed]] in
Malaysian Borneo; the permit for a controversial pebble mine in
Alaska was denied
[[link removed]];
the problematic Atlantic Coast Pipeline, set to transport oil in the
Eastern U.S. was canceled
[[link removed]];
a restoration project
[[link removed]] is
underway in the Brazilian savannah; hundreds of elephants returned
[[link removed]] to
Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo; ribeirinhos
(traditional riverine people) pushed out by the Belo Monte dam won
the rights
[[link removed]] to
their Amazon homeland;_ _and on Rosebud Indian Reservation of the
Lakota people in the U.S. state of South Dakota, the iconic bison
(_Bison bison_) are returning home to the range
[[link removed]].

READ MORE OF MONGABAY’S HAPPY AND UPBEAT NEWS STORIES HERE.
[[link removed]]

_[__Liz Kimbrough is a staff writer for Mongabay. Find her on
Twitter __@lizkimbrough
[[link removed]]. Mongabay is the world’s most
popular rainforest information site and a well-known source of
environmental news reporting and analysis._]

*
[[link removed].]
*
[[link removed]]
*
* [[link removed]]

 

 

 

INTERPRET THE WORLD AND CHANGE IT

 

 

Submit via web [[link removed]]
Submit via email
Frequently asked questions [[link removed]]
Manage subscription [[link removed]]
Visit xxxxxx.org [[link removed]]

Twitter [[link removed]]

Facebook [[link removed]]

 




[link removed]

To unsubscribe, click the following link:
[link removed]