Yann Bigant

Cambodia's new environmental code ignores the rights and specificity of indigenous people, as much as their potential role in protecting nature.

The new code "has excluded terminology that specifically mentioned Indigenous peoples and replaced it with more general terms like “local community.”"

Le braconnage menace la biodiversité des oiseaux en Asie du Sud-Est En Asie du Sud-Est, le braconnage des oiseaux explose, poussé par la pauvreté et une demande croissante de viande sauvage.

Le braconnage menace la biodiversité des oiseaux en Asie du Sud-Est

French version thanks 👌 Le Petit Journal Cambodge

lepetitjournal.com/cambodge/le-...

为何柬埔寨“打鸟”屡禁不止？ 生态保护人士对柬埔寨乃至东南亚地区一场正被忽视的生态危机拉响警报。

为何柬埔寨“打鸟”屡禁不止？

Just found out my story on bird hunting in Cambodia was translated in Chinese by @dialogueearth.bsky.social

All to the point as China is leading the way in dealing with threats to birds in the region.

dialogue.earth/zh/6/60080927/

Large-scale illegal wildlife shops in Laos found scamming Chinese tourists LUANG PRABANG, Laos — “No coffee, no coffee,” repeated the security guard. His smile stood in stark contrast to his faded camouflage fatigues and the machine gun slung over his shoulder. Few cafés in ...

Joint investigation by @mongabay.com & GI-TOC exposes a huge illegal wildlife trade network in Laos.

Secretive shops guarded by armed men cater exclusively to Chinese tourists selling ivory, rhino horn, pangolins & more at inflated prices. We took a look inside..

news.mongabay.com/2025/07/larg...

✊ 2 pétitions citoyennes contre la loi Duplomb ont été déposées à l'Assemblée nationale.

Une fois le seuil de 500 000 signatures atteint, un débat sera imposé aux député·es !

petitions.assemblee-nationale.fr/initiatives/...
petitions.assemblee-nationale.fr/initiatives/...

#LoiPoison #Duplomb

"It’s tempting to discard coexistence as another failed ideal. But doing so would be a mistake. The problem is not with the concept but with its instrumentalization. A more grounded and ethical form of coexistence is still possible. But it must be reclaimed, not romanticized."

When ‘Coexistence’ Is Co-Opted in Conservation Practice Opinion | Coexistence between humans and wildlife is a meaningful goal, but it's being misused or superficially invoked.

"Communities don’t need poetry. They need policy. Wildlife doesn’t need abstraction. It needs security."

Without concrete and effective measures, human-wildlife coexistence, like 'sustainability', risks becoming a watered, catch-all term covering inaction.

undark.org/2025/07/17/o... @undark.org

Can CSI tactics stop a $23 billion poaching industry? From DNA sequencing to fingerprint analysis, forensic scientists are using groundbreaking new tools to stop animal smugglers—one gorilla handprint at a time.

Cutting edge CSI methods are increasingly used in wildlife trade investigations but mass adoption and effectiveness is a long way off. Good overview of the field by NatGeo.

www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/arti...

Nice mapping animation and storytelling of the Whooping cranes migration in North America. #birds

Because everyone always wonders about the China data, yes, as of 2019 (the final year of data in our analysis), China was responsible for only 1% of global emissions in excess of the planetary boundary.
globalinequality.org/responsibili...

A Call to Protect Common Species: Bats as a Case Study The ongoing biodiversity crisis highlights the need for targeted conservation efforts, yet the focus often remains on rare and endangered species. This overlooks the vital role of common species, whi...

"We argue that common species ... are too often neglected and that their conservation is urgent."

This applies well for bird hunting in Southeast Asia, especially as estimates of both populations and hunting rates of common species vary wildly.

doi.org/10.1111/conl... #birds 🌏

"The analysis found that at least 2,552 hornbills were traded in the U.S. between 1999 and 2024, with trade growing an average 3 percent per year."

"hunters in Cameroon are paid just over $5 on average per head, while they are sold to online buyers in Europe for a median of $158."

The Hornbills Left Behind Protecting Asian species may have shifted poachers’ focus to African birds

African hornbills pay the price of the protection of their Asian cousins - @nautil.us

Market leakage occurs whatever the commodity or the impact (hornbills, carbon, deforestation, meat, fish, you name it). We can't afford to cherry-pick individual species for protection.

nautil.us/the-hornbill...

Nature Beat #69 Updates, stories, resources and opportunities

Just published: The new edition of my newsletter for journalists (and anyone else) interested in biodiversity, the ecological crisis and nature-based solutions to climate change. It has news, resources, jobs, great stories, and more. 🌏🧪 thenaturebeat.substack.com/p/nature-bea...

It is high time for countries in Southeast Asia to follow suit. In Cambodia most of merit release is already illegal (selling wild-caught native species, releasing top priority invasive species) but allowed in practice by the authorities.

Let it Go? China Curbs Ritual Releases of Sick, Invasive Wildlife New rules aim to enhance ecological protection by curbing the undocumented release of wildlife — a common religious practice in some parts of the country.

New set of measures in China restricting releases of non-native wildlife and sick animals. This is especially targeted at the release of captive animals to accrue merit in Buddhism, a practice that harms wildlife and ecosystems.

www.sixthtone.com/news/1017220

Pangolins in Nigeria may be hunted for food rather than illicit scales trade The vast majority of pangolin hunting in African forest landscapes is done for meat consumed by people in the region, rather than for scales shipped to East Asia, a new study led by the University of Cambridge suggests.

In Nigeria, most pangolins are hunted for local meat consumption rather than for the international scales trade, with the majority of scales discarded instead of sold.

Deep dive into the many solutions to protect birds from wind turbines. Good news, technological systems deployed to monitor bird migrations can help, and so does a fresh coat of paint.

(wind farms do kill less birds than cats but cats don't kill endangered raptors - wind turbines do) 🌍 #birds

Beautiful place Emiel, where is this - Preah Vihear?

Dawn recording from the Ecuadorian Amazon.

#amazonrainforest #biodiversity #soundscape #fieldrecording

US pioneers restoration of deep water corals damaged by country’s worst oil spill In the twilight depths of the Gulf of Mexico, about as deep down as a football field is long, U.S. Navy divers carefully snip small branches of corals with gloved hands. Their voices crackle through c...

Deep-sea coral restoration by US Navy divers and underwater drones in the Gulf of Mexico after the BP Deepwater Horizon oil disaster. Cool things happen when polluters pay 💸 including the first spawning of deep sea corals in a lab

news.mongabay.com/2025/05/us-p... #coralrestoration

‘People buy a lion and can’t handle it’: inside the farms breeding cubs for TikTok and Instagram likes In Thailand, exotic pets are increasingly popular among the wealthy elite, but few are prepared for a long-term commitment and campaigners say many animals are kept in cruel conditions

“Some of these facilities keep lions in cramped and barren enclosures without sunlight, on concrete substrate, and poor-quality food, resulting in a life of misery.” To meet demand, breeders often separate cubs early to force mothers back into oestrus.

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Bird hunting in Cambodia driven by poverty and lax enforcement Conservationists are raising the alarm on an overlooked crisis across the country and Southeast Asia

Poaching, and in general 'defaunation' in Southeast Asia, is often considered through a standard wildlife trade/law enforcement lens but for birds in Cambodia, this would be neither effective nor even actually relevant. Read on (English) dialogue.earth/en/nature/bi... #wildlifetrade

ការបរបាញ់សត្វស្លាបនៅកម្ពុជាកើតឡើងដោយសារភាពក្រីក្រ និង​ការអនុវត្ត​ច្បាប់​មិនទាន់តឹងរឹង | ខេមបូចា ព័ត៌មាន «យើងដើរដាក់អន្ទាក់ជារៀងរាល់យប់» នេះជាការលើកឡើងដោយកសិករម្នាក់មកពីខេត្តកំពង់ឆ្នាំង។ «បន្ទាប់ពីដាក់អន្ទាក់រួច យើងនាំគ្នាគេងនៅក្បែរមងទាំងនោះ​ ពេលខ្លះគេងក្នុងអង្ ... | Read more at CamboJA News

Khmer version of our story on bird hunting & trade in Cambodia: khmer.cambojanews.com/bird-hunting...

Thanks @dialogueearth.bsky.social for supporting this translation.

​Concerns over declining population of rare duck​ ​Concerns over declining population of rare duck​

A survey by the Cambodian guides from SVC Tours has found only a single White-winged Duck at one of their known locations in the Kulen Promtep Wildlife Sanctuary of Cambodia's Northern Plains. They are now tragically on the edge of extinction in the country
www.phnompenhpost.com/national/con...

Speaking of people doing PhDs in the Russian Far East, the book Owls of the Eastern Ice by @jonathanslaght.com is also super interesting and a lot of fun to read 🦉

Fascinating interview of Allison Skidmore, a wildlife crime expert, investigating tiger poaching undercover in the Russian Far East

Naomi Klein: 'What They Want Is Absolutely Everything' The ‘Shock Doctrine’ author explains the dark logic of Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s path of destruction and why billionaire oligarchs are so angry.

"if Pope Francis was able to change an institution with as thick and rigid a history as the Catholic Church... it shows everybody that we should be doing a hell of a lot more to try to change our own institutions, whether it’s a uni or an NGO. What’s our excuse?" www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...

Thanks @mikeshanahan.bsky.social for sharing our work on the threat of bird hunting in the latest edition of Nature Beat.

If you don't know this newsletter, it's a great round-up on what's happening in the biodiversity, nature and climate space.

Many people to thank: the editors at Dialogue Earth esp @tylerroney.bsky.social, Transparency Intl 🇰🇭, voices @emieldelange.bsky.social at WCS, Ding Li Yong at BirdLife Asia, Bou Vorsak at NatureLife Cambodia, Yoganand K, ex-WWF Greater Mekong, along with everyone who shared info and ofc Vutha Srey!