3 February 2022 - NPWJ News Digest on Environmental Justice & Human Rights

Articles

‘Very hush-hush’: Borneo’s $80bn carbon deal stokes controversy
Al Jazeera, 02 Feb 2022

A politician linked to wide-scale deforestation in the 1990s and his Panama Papers-named associate, a Singaporean shell company, and the owner of an agricultural consultancy in Australia are among the figures behind a controversial carbon trading deal worth an estimated $80bn in Borneo. The Nature Conservation Agreement (NCA) ostensibly protects 2 million hectares (4.9 million acres) of jungle in the Malaysian state of Sabah from logging for the next 100 years.

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Island States must bolster resilience to existential climate threats
UN News, 02 Feb 2022

The massive volcanic eruption and tsunami in Tonga followed by another earthquake and aftershocks just days afterwards, has highlighted once again the vulnerability of Small Island Developing States (SIDS), a meeting this week convened by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has heard. With around 65 million inhabitants, SIDS account for only one per cent of carbon dioxide emissions, and yet they are most vulnerable to the existential threat posed by the impacts of climate change.

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All coral will suffer severe bleaching when global heating hits 1.5C, study finds
The Guardian, 01 Feb 2022

Almost no corals on the planet will escape severe bleaching once global heating reaches 1.5C, according to a new study of the world’s reefs. Corals bleach when ocean temperatures are too high for too long. Algae that provide corals with much of their food and colour separate from the coral during heat stress. Reefs in areas currently regarded as cooler refuges will be overwhelmed at 1.5C of heating, and just 0.2% of reefs will escape at least one bleaching outbreak every decade, according to the research.

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‘We relied on the lake. Now it’s killing us’: climate crisis threatens future of Kenya’s El Molo people
The Guardian, 01 Feb 2022

Lake Turkana’s shores have been home to the El Molo for millennia but as rising waters swallow homes and sacred sites they face losing everything. A 2021 UN Environment Programme report stated how the climate crisis will lead to heavier rains over the lake’s key river inflows creating a further rise in the water levels over the next 20 years, with more social, cultural and economic impacts for nearby communities such as the El Molo.

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Ecuador oil spill affected protected area in Amazon, government says
Reuters, 31 Jan 2022

A burst pipeline in Ecuador caused an oil spill within a protected area of the country's Amazon rainforest, the environment ministry said on Monday, adding that the pipeline operator will face legal consequences. A rock fall following rains in the Piedra Fina zone caused a part of the OCP heavy crude pipeline to split late on Friday, causing an oil spill which affected flora and fauna in the region, authorities said.

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California redwood forest returned to Indigenous guardianship, conservation
Mongabay, 28 Jan 2022

Ownership of a 215-hectare (532-acre) redwood forest along California’s north coast was returned to Sinkyone tribes and has been renamed Tc’ih-Léh-Dûñ. The InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council is working with Save the Redwoods League, which donated the land, to protect California’s remaining old-growth forest, along with endangered species such as the northern spotted owl and marbled murrelet.

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Displaced and deprived, Indigenous communities suffer from hunger in Nicaragua
Mongabay, 28 Jan 2022

Colonos, or colonists, have been pushing into rural parts of northern Nicaragua for decades, drawn to the potential for unregulated gold mining and cattle ranching. The area legally belongs to Mayangna and Miskito Indigenous communities, who have sustainably managed the area for crop cultivation. But many families have been driven away by the colonos’ threats of violence and destruction of the forests and water sources they depend on for sustenance. With nowhere to go, the Indigenous communities are now experiencing food insecurity and malnutrition as they attempt to grow crops on small plots of unclaimed land.

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Alarming Levels of Mercury Are Found in Old Growth Amazon Forest
The New York Times, 28 Jan 2022

The protected old-growth forest in the Amazon of southeastern Peru appears pristine: Ancient trees with massive trunks grow alongside young, slender ones, forming a canopy so thick it sometimes feels to scientists like evening during the day. But a new analysis of what’s inside the forest’s leaves and birds’ feathers tells a different story: The same canopy that supports some of the richest biodiversity on the planet is also sucking up alarming levels of toxic mercury, according to a study published on Friday.

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