Wildlife Impact

After years of progress, Indonesia risks ‘tragedy’ of a deforestation spike After years of uneven progress, deforestation in Indonesia is poised to accelerate, owing to widespread logging, expanding plantations and mining. In December, Indonesia’s forestry minister, Raja…

Indonesia’s deforestation is accelerating again. Losses in 2025 were set to match 2024 — the worst since 2019 — as massive projects like the Merauke Food Estate clear millions of hectares.

With Indonesia now the world’s 6th-largest emitter, EU scrutiny of palm oil and other exports is mounting.

Death toll rises in Sumatra flood catastrophe as gov’t moves to protect Batang Toru forest NORTH SUMATRA, Indonesia — Indonesia’s environment ministry on Dec. 6 suspended private sector activity in a crucial high conservation value rainforest as rescuers continued working through three…

Fatal floods in Sumatra have killed nearly 1,000 people. Indonesia has suspended firms operating in the Batang Toru ecosystem, home to the critically endangered Tapanuli orangutan.

Advocates say curbing deforestation is key as responders continue rescue efforts after Cyclone Senyar.

How much of the observed global warming was caused by humans? Science's best estimate: ALL OF IT

It’s the world’s rarest ape. Now a billion-dollar dig for gold threatens its future Tapanuli orangutans survive only in Indonesia’s Sumatran rainforest where a mine expansion will cut through their home. Yet the mining company says the alternative will be worse

Satellite images reveal the Martabe gold mine in northern Sumatra has begun expanding toward key habitat used by the critically endangered Tapanuli orangutan. Campaigners say the mine's expansion could push the ape to extinction. My latest for @theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Good news on okapi from #CITESCOP20: the Parties have elected to put it on Appendix I, the highest level of international protection, which will prohibit all international commercial trade in okapi or their parts as well as sub-products. bit.ly/4rxdDb6 🌍

📣 We did it!

All ten species of manta and devil rays are now protected under CITES Appendix I, the highest level of international protection. This historic vote bans all international commercial trade, including gill plates and meat, giving these marine giants a fighting chance.

= massive deforestation incoming

Colombia bans all new oil and mining projects in its Amazon Colombia will no longer approve new oil or large-scale mining projects in its Amazon biome, which covers 42% of the nation’s territory, according to a Nov. 13 statement by its environment ministry.…

Colombia will no longer approve new oil or large-scale mining projects in its Amazon biome, which covers 42% of the nation’s territory.

Acting Environment Minister Irene Vélez Torres said the entire Colombian Amazon will be made a reserve for renewable natural resources.

Yikes! Please comment if you can, this could have devastating effects on marine ecosystems and areas of cultural significance.

UNESCO biosphere listing raises hope, questions for Malaysia’s Kinabatangan floodplain Malaysia’s Kinabatangan floodplain, home to orangutans, pygmy elephants and proboscis monkeys, has officially joined UNESCO’s global network of biosphere reserves, protected areas of high biological…

UNESCO has declared the floodplain around Malaysian Borneo’s Kinabatangan River a biosphere reserve, linking the Heart of Borneo to the Lower Kinabatangan–Segama Wetlands.

Conservationists warn that the landscape remains heavily fragmented by oil palm plantations and faces persistent threats.

The speed with which salmon have returned to the Klamath - like the Elwha - after dam removal is overwhelmingly hopeful. And in both cases thanks to decades of tireless advocacy by local Tribes.

Trump is using the shutdown to try and gut national parks The government shutdown cut nearly two thirds of National Park Service staff.

"The Trump administration is weaponizing the government shutdown to gut staffing, weaken environmental protections and normalize its ultimate goal of privatizing public lands. The alarm bells are loud, and our response must be louder."

Now, more than ever, we must fight to save our public lands.

In an unprecedented move, Senate Republicans just voted to erase public land plans in AK, MT, and ND, all to benefit corporate polluters. And they're not done yet: similar resolutions have already been introduced. Tell your members of Congress to choose the people over polluters: sc.org/LandsAction

A Case of Sibling Adoption in Wild Orangutans: Accelerated Development of Independence Following Maternal Loss Vanna/Ronnie lost her mother Veli when she was between 4.2 and 5 years old (pictured together on the left). Subsequently, Vanna/Ronnie was seen traveling with and sleeping in the same nest as her old...

This is cool. Adoption of orphaned youngsters in chimps is relatively well documented, but I had not read or heard about this yet in orangs.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Individual with "Not for Sale!" sign in Arizona

Individual with LCV hat backward and wearing "Protect Mountains" flag looking out at natural scene with mountain in background

LCV staff and Oregon Rep. Maxine Dexter stand in front of mountain

Individual with "Not for Sale!" sign at Grand Canyon

There are more than 640 million acres of U.S. public lands that are open for all to enjoy and for wildlife to thrive.

These lands are now under attack, however, by the Trump administration.

Call your member of Congress at 202-224-3121 and tell them to protect public lands. #PublicLandsDay

More Than 99 Percent of Americans Disapprove of Roadless Rule Rollbacks, According to New Analysis A public comment period for the planned rescission of the Roadless Rule ended Friday with more than 99 percent of comments opposing the move.

“It’s clear that the American people are speaking with one voice,” Weiss says. “And this is not a partisan issue. This is not a state by state issue. This is unanimous. Americans are telling the Forest Service: ‘Don’t do this.’”

via @outdoorlife.com

Things are pretty terrible up here, but the other America has a new otter! Otters, science, and free speech are nice things, when you can protect them. Hoping for robust monitoring and protection for the northern neotropical river otter, amongst other things.

Special Areas; Roadless Area Conservation; National Forest System Lands The U.S. Department of Agriculture is initiating an environmental impact statement (EIS) and rulemaking concerning management of inventoried roadless areas on approximately 44.7 million acres of Natio...

Now the Trump Administration is trying to get rid of it.

Public comments are open and will close this Friday. I encourage you to make sure your voice is heard:

Home

We can't let this happen. Send a comment to the US Forest Service telling them that our forests need the Roadless Area Conservation Rule.

Take Action! sc.org/Roadless/Rule

Fig. 3. Estimated mitigation potential from forestation varies with land availability assumptions. (A) Global and regional ecosystem carbon sequestration. BA19 (10), GR17 (8), and Qin24 (24) refer to respective assumptions of land potentially available for forestation. The “committed” assumption considers only national commitments, and “achievable” shows currently achievable land limited by availability defined in Qin24 (see materials and methods section M3). (B) The currently achievable mitigation potential varies among countries and income groups. Country-specific data are available in data S3 (24). Country codes and corresponding income groups can be found in table S6.

The achievable carbon uptake from planting trees is much lower than previous estimates, and even lower than many nations have committed to. New paper by Wang et al. in Science. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... 🧪🌏🌳🌲🌐

Small islands offer big hope for conservation of endemic species, study shows Animals living on small islands are often thought to be more susceptible to extinction compared to those distributed across mainland land masses. Small population sizes, limited habitat availability,…

New research in Indonesia shows that small islands, often considered extinction hotspots, can act as crucial refuges for rare mammals like the anoa and babirusa, which face severe threats from deforestation and poaching on larger land masses.

This is illegal. www.gao.gov/blog/what-po...

Bangladesh retreating from development activities planned in forest lands In the last year, Bangladesh has seen an about-turn from occupying forest land in the name of development activities such as constructing ecotourism parks, football academies, residential and…

In a recent move, the Bangladesh government has canceled allocation of more than 4,000 hectares (10,000 acres) of forest land planned for different development activities.

The move raised hope for the conservationists who criticized earlier decisions taken by the previous government.

Hopeful news, for a change

These rulings don't just have direct effects on the specific grants in question, but they have much larger indirect effects. If every federal grant can now be terminated with no notice for any (political) reason, no awardee can make any long term (> 3 months?) commitment to infrastructure or people.

A collage of photos of Wildlife Impact activities - clockwise from top, (1) a group of 18 people standing outside a building during a monitoring and evaluation meeting, (2) a woman in a blue and white dress presenting a conference talk on responsible wildlife translocation, (3) a circle of seated people - a scientist interviewing local community members about wildlife encounters - with several observers standing nearby, (4) a group of 8 people in colorful clothes standing against a wall with yellow letters saying "Jabatan Hidupan Liar Sabah" (Sabah Wildlife Department) for a meeting on orangutan conservation action, (5) a man and two women are looking at an enclosure holding a primate at a sanctuary in a forested area (part a sanctuary strategic planning workshop), and in the center, a group of 11 children huddling together and smiling for the camera in a village in Maiombe National Park, Angola.

A group of 5 people seated around a table with laptops and binoculars, working on evaluating the cost and conservation effectiveness of orangutan protection interventions, with the occasional bit of birdwatching on the side. Clockwise, Dr. Emily Massingham (Wildlife Impact/University of Queensland), Dr. Marc Ancrenaz (HUTAN), Professor Truly Santika Rintanen (University of Greenwich), Julie Sherman (Wildlife Impact) and Professor Erik Meijaard (Borneo Futures).

Hi, we're Wildlife Impact, a nonprofit of conservation scientists. We do evidence-based analysis of conservation effectiveness & impacts, guidance on responsible wildlife translocation, and participatory stakeholder engagement to improve conservation outcomes. doi.org/10.1371/jour..., bit.ly/41M0Cij

The U.S. has led the world in science since the mid-20th century for two reasons: funding & welcoming students and researchers from around the world. The Trump administration is destroying both advantages (1/2)

"In the for-profit world, firms are accountable to their customers. If customers don’t value their products, the firm doesn’t make a profit. If the firm doesn’t do better, it goes out of business and investors lose their money. Both firms and investors are accountable to the customer. Provide value or die. The nonprofit world doesn’t work like that. The customers—we presume to call them “beneficiaries”—pretty much have to take what they’re given. There’s no meaningful way for them to signal whether the “product” has value for them or not. There are no direct consequences for a failure to benefit the beneficiaries. Meanwhile, the investors—funders of all stripes—are even more insulated from consequences. We can fund whatever ineffective crap we want. Blindly funding stuff that doesn’t work won’t sully your image as a generous champion of the poor (or the environment, or whatever). Your reputation—the one thing funders really care about—doesn’t suffer." from https://ssir.org/articles/entry/funders-do-your-job

You don't hear this called out often. But it should be. Appreciation to @mulagostarr.bsky.social for doing so. Funders holding themselves and their grantees accountable would also force right-sizing of grants and inclusion of dedicated M&E/impact analysis $ as needed.

ssir.org/articles/ent...

See what trail cams captured about Borderlands wildlife - High Country News Alongside stunning footage, scientists found that the border wall deters wildlife.

A new study shows that the border wall between the U.S. and Mexico is a significant barrier to wildlife movement. Researchers monitored animals along the border for two years capturing new data that shows how wildlife avoid border infrastructure.

www.hcn.org/articles/see...

Congress is killing clean energy tax credits. Here's how to use them before they disappear. There are just a few weeks left to take advantage of federal tax credits that make purchasing an EV, heat pump, or solar panels more affordable.

Hey hey-- thinking of getting an #EV or improving your home's efficiency? Now is the time.
grist.org/buildings/co...
@ayanaeliza.bsky.social also talks about this on the latest episode of her amazing "What if we get it right" podcast. ayanaelizabeth.substack.com/p/debriefing... Listen and read!