Land brokers who have allocated themselves huge tracts at the Yala swamp will have to share part of their portions with vulnerable members of the public, Siaya Deputy County Commissioner, Joseph Sawe has said.

Sawe at the same time ordered an immediate stop to cultivation in the swamp at night and told the management of the Lake Agro Limited not to allow unknown people into the wetland.Speaking to the media after a fact-finding mission in the wetland, the deputy county commissioner said that the 2,000 acres that the investor had allowed the locals to temporarily till should benefit the local villagers to enable them produce food for their families.He said it was a pity that a few individuals had allocated themselves huge tracts of the public land which they were leasing out to outsiders at colossal amounts at the expense of the landless locals.The public land is under lease to Lake Agro Limited, a subsidiary of the West Kenya Sugar company and it has allowed the locals to use a portion of it temporarily.Those who think that they want everything will lose. Let them share so that everyone gets something, said Sawe who was accompanied on the fact-finding tour by Siaya sub county police commander, senior superintendent Justus Kucha and the central Alego ward member of the county assembly, Leonard Oriaro.The DCC called on the residents around the Yala swamp to use the resources in harmony and avoid wrangles, warning that the government will be forced to chuck them out of the wetland on security grounds should they fail to keep order.Addressing the media, Central Alego MCA, Leonard Oriaro hailed the national government for its timely intervention in the matter and expressed hope that the ordinary citizens, who have been at the mercy of the tycoons, will finally get a share of the wetland.Oriaro said that the controversy in the swamp was occasioned by moneyed brokers who invaded the swamp with tractors and took over the small parcels that belonged to the villagers, merging them with portions that they were clearing.These people are sourcing for people from outside Siaya who pay them as much as Sh 20,000 per acre of land, said Oriaro adding that in the quest to mint more, the grabbers have been displacing the elderly, widows and other vulnerable members of the society.Oriaro said that some of the grabbers have as much as 200 acres where they have planted sugarcane and other crops.He said that villagers who dared to question the forceful acquisition of the small parcels that they had cleared have been threatened by hired goons sent to intimidate them.The MCA blamed the rising tension in the swamp on the outsiders whom, he added, should be locked out for sponsoring animosity.He welcomed the suggestion that individuals should not be allowed to own more than five acres of land in the swamp, adding that a few people must not be allowed to get richer at the expense of others.The fact-finding mission was occasioned by a protest match to the county headquarters by a group of elderly men and women who sought government intervention, accusing land grabbers of forcing them out of the land they have cultivated for decades.

By Philip Onyango.

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No tilling in the swamp at night, government orders. - Kenya News Agency

NSW EPA

Thirteen Local Aboriginal Land Councils have been awarded a total of $1,092,270 for community waste projects that clean up and prevent illegal dumping on their land, the NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) announced today.

Cowra, Dubbo, Worimi, Illawarra, Mindaribba, Wanaruah, Ngambri, Tibooburra, Amaroo, Cobowra and Menindee Local Aboriginal Land Councils have been awarded a total of $692,270 from the Aboriginal Land Clean Up and Prevention (ALCUP) program.

Cleaning up a heritage property, developing a bush tucker garden, revegetating a historic campground, preventing damage from feral goats, building fences, removing asbestos waste and stopping illegal access to dumping hot spots are among the planned ALCUP projects and clean-up activities.

Moree, Amaroo and Walgett Local Aboriginal Land Councils have been granted a total of $400,000 under the Aboriginal Communities Waste Management Program (ACWMP).

The three ACWMP projects receiving funding will tackle bulky waste and litter in a variety of unique ways, including cleaning out a dam to restock with fish, removing damaged cars, clearing demolished house materials, removing dumped waste from riverbanks, unblocking drains, planting native grasses, growing bush tucker medicines and starting vegetable gardens and chicken-keeping.

Aboriginal community members will be employed by some land councils as rangers or to undertake the work.

EPA Executive Director Regulatory Operations Regional Carmen Dwyer said many Aboriginal communities faced barriers to disposing of waste and rubbish due to lack of services, resources and limited access to waste management facilities.

This funding will help Local Aboriginal Land Councils tackle issues in their areas, Ms Dwyer said. Illegal dumping of waste is a common problem and these grants will help make a big difference to local communities.

The projects have been awarded grants for the positive impact they will have on each individual community. All of the grant recipients look forward to restoring and protecting their land and creating a safer and cleaner environment for their community.

Already $726,181 has been awarded to 21 recipients of ALCUP, funded through Waste Less, Recycle More.

Ms Dwyer said the program encourages community education and partnerships and incorporates cultural activities to reduce and prevent the occurrence of illegal dumping.

Previously the program has funded clean-up work, surveillance cameras, deterrence signage, education and awareness programs, and bush regeneration. Since 2006 the program has seen 6,108 tonnes of waste cleaned up, 1,344 tonnes of waste safely disposed of at landfills and 1,706 tonnes of materials recycled.

The $4 million Aboriginal Communities Waste Management Program is funded for four years until 2021.

Ms Dwyer said the successful programs had already had a positive impact on protecting cultural and natural resources from illegal dumping.

The EPA recognises the difficult and diverse challenges faced in many remote Aboriginal communities and is committed to helping local land councils improve their environment and create long-term change.

/Public Release.

Excerpt from:
More than $1 million to clean up and tackle illegal dumping on Aboriginal land - Mirage News

High court to hand down George Pell verdict, water flows into the Menindee Lakes and Victoria renews logging

As Australias coronavirus outbreak continues but with the cautious optimism of a slowing rate of infection a lot of important news has slipped under the radar.

Here are the stories you may have missed over the past week.

The high court will hand down its judgment in George Pells final appeal on Tuesday in Brisbane.

The final arguments from both sides finished up in March, and we will find out at 10am on Tuesday whether his conviction on five counts of child sexual abuse will be upheld or overturned.

The Sydney to Melbourne train that derailed in February, killing two people, was travelling at more than 100km/h in a section limited to 15km/h.

That section was part of a diversion, introduced that afternoon, from the normal route with a speed limit of 130km/h, according to the preliminary report on the crash, which came out on Friday.

Read the full story here.

Chris Dawson formally pleaded not guilty on Friday to murdering his then wife on Sydneys northern beaches nearly 40 years ago.

The former teacher and Newtown Jets rugby league player has repeatedly claimed that Lynette Dawson is still alive and several people have seen her since her disappearance in January 1982. The matter is scheduled to return to court on Wednesday.

Read the full story here.

The oldest known skull of Homo erectus was discovered by Australian researchers on Friday. The fossil has been dated at two million years old 200,000 years older than the previous record.

Read the full story here.

Late on Wednesday night, the federal and Victorian governments decided to extend five regional forest agreements that exempt the logging industry from conservation laws.

Environmental groups immediately criticised the move, given the summers devastating bushfires will already have deforested large swathes and impacted wildlife.

Read the full story here.

You may remember Alek Sigley, the Australian student (and lover of Korean literature) who was arrested in North Korea over nine harrowing days in 2019. After days of diplomatic wrangling, he was released, but wouldnt share the details of what happened.

Now, writing for Guardian Australia, he has.

I saw the black Mercedes-Benz, which had a black plastic bag covering its licence plate. Fuck, youre in deep shit now, I thought to myself.

Read the whole article here.

One in five of Australias biggest polluting sites actually increased their greenhouse gas emissions last year, above the government limit.

Under the safeguard mechanism, companies that breach their limit have to buy carbon credits or pay a penalty. But the Australian Conservation Foundation found that 729,000 tonnes of emissions went unpunished.

Read the full story here.

A year-long inquiry has concluded that Queensland should legalise voluntary assisted dying. On Tuesday, the states health committee found a majority of Queenslanders are in favour of voluntary euthanasia for terminally-ill adults.

Read the full story here.

In good news, water has flowed into the drought-stricken Menindee Lakes, the site of infamous mass fish kills last year.

For the first time in years, significant flows and water releases are under way, meaning the lower Darling River will finally reconnect with the Murray.

Read the full story here.

The New South Wales government has approved the extension of coalmining under the Woronora reservoir.

Its the first approval in two decades for coalmining directly beneath one of greater Sydneys reservoirs, and environment groups say it could affect the quality of drinking water.

Read the full story here.

An Aboriginal man, aged 30, died in Victoria last week after he was arrested and taken to a regional police station.

Police said the man was arrested on Thursday last week in Horsham. When he was taken to the police station, his condition deteriorated, and he died in hospital on Sunday.

Read the full story here.

The annual Australias Environment report came out on Monday, finally confirming something we may have already seen coming.

Unprecedented bushfires, record heat, record low river inflows, dry soil, low vegetation growth and the 40 new species that were added to the threatened species list meant that 2019 was the worst year since 2000.

Read the full story here.

In other environmental news, land-clearing approvals in NSW increased 13-fold since the Coalition government changed laws in 2016, according to a secret report provided to the state cabinet.

In an exclusive obtained by reporter Luke Henriques-Gomes, we revealed the government will refund hundreds of millions of dollars under the botched robodebt scheme.

Confidential government advice obtained by Guardian Australia revealed that the government has already privately admitted that 400,000 welfare debts worth $550m were wrongly issued.

Read the full story here.

Last Thursday, the perpetrator of the Christchurch massacre suddenly changed his plea from not guilty to guilty, after being charged with the murder of 51 people.

The shock announcement meant that Australian Brenton Tarrant was immediately convicted of all charges. He had originally been set for trial on 2 June, but that has now been called off. He will be sentenced later this year.

Read the full story here.

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Australian news: stories you may have missed during the coronavirus crisis - Brinkwire

A Mar. 2020 International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) study found that at least 5,000 koalas (12% of the population) died in New South Wales (NSW) during the 2019-2020 Australian wildfires. The report notes that the estimates are conservative and many more koalas likely died.

The report found that up to 66% of the past three generations of NSW koalas have been lost to droughts, bushfires, and man-made causes.

Josey Sharrad, IFAW Wildlife Campaigner, stated, "Koalas were already living on the brink before these fires, with populations declining in many areas due to excessive land clearing, disease and roadkill and local extinctions already known to have occurred. This disaster and the ongoing nature of the threats could push koalas over the edge. This is a koala emergency. Koalas must be immediately up listed to Endangered on an emergency basis and a moratorium on all harmful activities impacting koalas enforced to allow surviving populations some breathing space while their capacity to recover is further assessed."

The New South Wales Rural Fire Service tweeted on Mar. 2, 2020, "For the first time since early July 2019, there is currently no active bush or grass fires in #NSW. Thats more than 240 days of fire activity for the state. #nswfires #nswrfs"

A World Weather Attribution study found that climate change increased the likelihood of wildfires like those in Australia by at least 30% since 1900. An increase of 2 degrees Celsius could make similar fire conditions at least four times more likely to occur.

2019 was the hottest and driest year on record in Australia. The wildfires burned over 12.6 million acres in NSW and 44.5 million acres country-wide (an area equivalent to the size of England and Wales), killing at least 34 people and about one billion animals, and destroying approximately 6,000 buildings.William Reville, emeritus professor of biochemistry at University College Cork in Ireland, said that other factors contributed to the Australian wildfires, such as the "failure to regularly reduce 'fuel load' in bush and forests," an insufficient supply of firefighters, and arson.

Sources:

International Fund for Animal Welfare, "IFAW Calls for Emergency Uplisting of NSW Koalas to Endangered after Report Reveals True Impact of Bushfires," ifaw.org, Mar. 3, 2020

Center for Disaster Philanthropy, "2019-2020 Australian Bushfires," disasterphilanthropy.org, Feb. 17, 2020

Drew Kann, "The Climate Crisis Made Australia's Wildfires at least 30% More Likely, Study Finds," cnn.com, Mar. 4, 2020

New South Wales Rural Fire Service, twitter.com, Mar. 2, 2020

William Reville, "Australian Bush Fires Were Not Caused by Climate Change Alone," irishtimes.com, Feb. 20, 2020

Tracey Shelton, "Australians Open Wallets, Hearts for Fire-ravaged Communities," aljazeera.com, Jan. 25, 2020

World Weather Attribution, "Attribution of the Australian Bushfire Risk to Anthropogenic Climate Change," worldweatherattribution.org, Jan. 10, 2020

Read more here:
Australian Wildfires Killed 12% of Koalas, Prompting Extinction Worries - ProCon.org

Karachi - Sindh Chief Secretary Syed Mumtaz Ali Shah has formed a Committee to carryout survey of the areas where the underpasses and the flyovers are to be built for clearing the track of Karachi Circular Railway (KCR).

He formed the Committee in a meeting on Monday when it was informed that roads have been built over the KCR tracks in the city and in order to clear the tracks, at least 24 underpasses and flyovers are needed to be built.

Mumtaz Ali Shah directed the Committee to submit its survey report latest by March 20. He also directed the secretary transport for undertaking the work of fencing at the land on both sides of Right of Way of railway and inviting tenders for this purpose within three days.

The concerned officers were also directed to submit detailed report to the transport department about the railway land cleared of all the encroachments so that fencing work could be started.

The meeting further discussed the matters relating to the plying the buses from stations to markets connecting the KCR to the main market places of metropolis. It would be pertinent to for the success of KCR in terms of increasing its ridership to introduce bus system from stations to market places, Mumtaz Shah said.

Chief Secretary directed the Chairman, Planning & Development Board to get prepared schemes for improving the roads and other infrastructures in the surroundings of KCR stations.

When the Divisional Superintendent of Railways pointed out that encroachments still exist at Urdu University and Karachi University Stations of KCR, the Chief Secretary directed Additional Commissioner Karachi to get the encroachments removed and submit the report.

Chief Secretary convening the next meeting on March 20, directed all the concerned to accomplish the tasks assigned to them including survey and submit the reports in next meeting.

Chairman, Planning & Development Board Muhammad Waseem, Advocate General Sindh Salman Talibuddin, Secretary Transport Ghulam Abbas, DS Railways Nasar Ahmed Memon and others attended the meeting.

Read the rest here:
Committee formed for survey of underpasses and flyovers - The Nation

Cody Coombs eased his Ford pickup along a rough dirt road in the Egan Mountains of eastern Nevada, a path once used by the Pony Express to negotiate these remote reaches of the Great Basin. We emerged from a rugged canyon strewn with mine debris into a ravaged landscape of stumps and severed limbsthe remnant of a once-thriving pion and juniper forest.

If I hadnt known where I was, I might have thought I was looking at an industrial clearcut. But Coombs, the fuels manager for the Bureau of Land Management district in Ely, Nevada, assured me that what we were looking at was undertaken in the service of conservation. Wed entered a small fragment of the Egan and Johnson Basin Restoration Project, which, over the next decade, will remove 25,000 acres of pion and juniper forest. This is but one of a host of projects aimed at eliminating vast stretches of these native forests, which, some claim, are encroaching across vast swaths of the Great Basin and the Colorado Plateau at an unprecedented clip.

We continued on, with the November sun blazing overhead, and passed through a valley filled with cattle into an area of low hills covered in a dense stand of pion trees. The temperature dropped noticeably. The pions, some of them 30 or 40 feet tall, were covered in seed-heavy cones. Beneath the trees grew a variety of native plants, which sprouted from a robust layer of cryptobiotic soila vital crust of microorganisms that holds moisture within desert soils and prevents erosion.

Rather than a healthy, mature pion forest, Coombs saw something else entirely. As [pion and juniper] become more dense, we lose the shrub, grass, and forb understory, Coombs explained. It doesnt provide all the functionality we need for animals as well as infiltration of water. He added that dense stands of trees like this also pose a serious fire risk, though it was hard to see, more than 20 miles from the closest town, exactly what was being threatened.

In the upcoming months, Coombs explained, two bulldozers would drag a massive chain through this stand, tearing out trees and scouring the soil in order to open it up for sagebrush. His argument was the same as the one Ive heard time and again from BLM range managers: Native pion and juniper trees, which provide habitat for dozens of plants, native birds, reptiles, insects, and mammals, pose an existential threat to sage grouse. Thus, the trees must be eliminated.

*

In recent years, the greater sage grousea chicken-size bird known for its exuberant mating dancehas had an ostrich-size influence on land policy across the American West. According to the Audubon Society, the sage grouse has lost 90 percent of its historic habitat to oil and gas development, habitat fragmentation, and overgrazing

The BLM has responded by destroying hundreds of thousands of acres of pion and juniper forests. According to the BLM, between 2013 and 2018, the agency spent close to $300 million treating and restoring 2.7 million acres of sagebrush-steppe habitat across the West. It should be noted that treating and restoring (along with the equally vague conifer removal) are euphemisms for chaining, cutting, poisoning, and burning pion and juniper forests.

Indeed, sage grouse protection has become virtually synonymous with the razing of huge tracts of arid land forests. Take, for example, the Bruneau-Owyhee Sage-Grouse Habitat Project, which calls for the elimination of 726,000 acres1,110 square milesof juniper forest in the remote Owyhee Mountains straddling Idaho, Oregon, and Nevada in the coming years. Removing encroaching juniper, reads a BLM press release, will improve conditions for greater sage grouse and many other species that depend on a healthy sagebrush-steppe ecosystem.

Critics arent buying its purported benefits to grouse and instead see the destruction of pion and juniper forests as the perpetuation of old policies of destruction couched in the new buzzwords of ecological stewardship. Whileagenciesspend huge sums committing ecocide against native forests, the cattle and the oil and gas and mining industries continue to destroy the birds habitat, said Katie Fite, public lands director of Wildlands Defense, an Idaho-based environmental group.

Mass removal of pion and juniper forests is nothing new. The forests, for example, were cleared across vast stretches of the Great Basin to provide fuel for smelters during the Gold Rush. In the mid 20th century, millions of acres of pion and juniper woodlands were, in the parlance of federal land agencies, eradicated and converted to sprawling pastures planted with crested wheatgrass and other exotic grasses. The cutting of native forests as a means to protect threatened species is a far more recent development, Fite said.

The BLM and the Forest Service used to openly admit they were destroying P-J forests to get more cattle forage, Fite said. Then, ashazardousfuels and sage grouse funds flowed,the same chaining, cutting,burning deforestation schemes were touted as fire prevention and grouse conservation.

Many large pion-juniper removal projects currently underway can be traced to 2015, the year that thenInterior Secretary Sally Jewell announced an ambitious cooperative plan in an effort to keep sage grouse off the endangered species list. That year, the BLM established 14 sage grouse recovery plans in an effort to conserve 35 million acres of federal lands in 10 states.

The hope, says Brian Rutledge, Audubon vice president and director of the Sagebrush Ecosystem Initiative, is that a collaborative rather than punitive approach would be better to restore sage grouse, which he described as the avian equivalent of the bison in the sagebrush sea of the West. The SEI, founded in 2010 as part of the United States Department of Agricultures Working Lands for Wildlife program, has been a key player in the 2015 plan. It is a diverse and disparate coalition made up of industry and environmental groups, including the Audubon Society, the Nature Conservancy, Conoco-Phillips, and the National Cattlemens Beef Association, which, according to the groups tagline, supports wildlife conservation through sustainable ranching.

The SEI was created to slow the decline of sagebrush and the species that depend on it, explained Rutledge. The USDA responded by working with ranchers and with gas developers to slow the disturbance and to actively try to return some of the habitat to its historical carrying capacity.

But under the Trump administration, Rutledge says, science and collaboration has been abandoned in favor of a blatantly pro-corporate agenda. Last March, for example, the BLM reneged on the 2015 sage grouse plans, eliminating more than 80 percent of the 10.7 million acres designated as vital habitat. In addition, the BLM loosened rules requiring buffer zones around mating sites. It also made voluntary the compensatory mitigation requirement, which forced energy companies to replace damaged habitat with restored habitat elsewhere.

*

Back in the Egan Range, Coombs drove to a so-called lek site, where, during mating season in spring, male sage grouse perform elaborate mating dances to woo females. Hundreds of trees had recently been cut from the area and its vegetation was reduced to little more than a thin beige stubble by grazing cattle.

Not only was the lek free of trees, but it was also conspicuously devoid of sagebrush. Coombs assured me that the lack of cover is no impediment to the birds. Sage grouse love heavily grazed areas, he said. It allows the males to display without any kind of obstruction. They seek these areas out.

Rutledge of Audubon says that clearing trees to create sage grouse habitat is not a panacea, but that in places it should be undertaken on a site by site basis in order to aid grouse recovery. Every vertical structure to a sage grouse is a potential roost for an eagle or a hawk, said Rutledge.

Other ecologists I spoke with, however, disputed the idea that pion and juniper forests are death-traps for grouse. Laura Cunningham, California director for the environmental group Western Watersheds, says that evidence shows the birds thrive in a mosaic of sagebrush and coniferous forest.

Cunningham, who worked for many years as a field biologist for the US Geological Survey, says that ravens, not raptors, pose the greatest threat to grouse. The wide-scale transformation of pion-juniper forest to exotic grasslands (like those found throughout the valleys of the Egan Range) has given ravens a decisive advantage. Ravens dont perch on trees to hunt, she said. Cunningham notes that sage grouse are highly susceptible to raven predation in these artificial grasslands, particularly in heavily grazed areas, because there is virtually no cover. [Ravens] are a flight predator, and they see the chicks from the air.

Katie Fite concurs, adding that it is not grouse or sagebrush ecosystems but grazers, miners, and oil developers who are benefitting from the BLMs relentless campaign against the Wests arid-land forests.

Cheatgrass is exploding and grouse populations are hurtling toward extinction, Fite said. Extinction, of course, ultimately benefits industry.

Original post:
Is Pinon-Juniper Clearing Really the Answer to Sage Grouse Protection? - Sierra Magazine

It can be impossible to keep all the dietary buzzwords straightvegan, pescatarian, flexitarian, paleofruitiarian? So where does "plant-based" eating fit in?

First of all, unlike some of these other concepts, plant-based eating is not a diet, and its definitely not a passing fad. Its simply a new label for an eating style that has been around forever, says nutritionist Wendy Bazilian, Dr.P.H., R.D.N. Its a guide, a road map to help you move toward health, while allowing for a lot of flexibility.

Plant-based covers a lot of dietary ground. Bazilian points out that a while a vegan diet is certainly plant-based, so is a lifestyle in which you eat vegetarian most of the time, but indulge in turkey on Thanksgiving, or your mothers pot roast during Sunday dinner. In fact, some of the worlds most popularand healthiestdiets, are plant-based by nature, while still including small amounts of meat. The Mediterranean diet, widely considered to be one of the healthiest eating styles in the world, includes fish, chicken, some low-fat dairy, and the occasional bite of red meat.

Some of the worlds most popularand healthiestdiets, are plant-based by nature.

The American diet has long featured a big hunk of meat in the center of the plate, with a few vegetables scattered on the side as an afterthought. Plant-based simply means switching that equation around. Food grown from the earth, such as vegetables, fruits, beans, nuts, and whole grains, are front and centerbasically, the A-listers of your platewhile food derived from animals, such as beef, poultry, fish, and dairy, play more of a supporting role. Its not all-or-nothing, says Bazilian, who is also an ambassador for California Walnuts. You dont have to go entirely meat-free to be more plant-based. Plant-based also means eating more whole foods, while cutting down on processed foods.

Henrik SorensenGetty Images

As Bazilian points out, not all plant-based diets are equal. You can eat potato chips, white rice, and carrot cake and call it plant-based, but it will not do much for your health or weight. In fact, one large study found that while a plant-based diet focused on whole grains, fruits, and vegetables significantly lowered the risk of cardiovascular disease, a "plant-based" diet that included high-sugar, high-fat, processed foods such as sweets and soda, as well as refined grains and potatoes, had the opposite effect.

But if you stick with the plant-based foods you know are actually healthy, the benefits can include:

A lower risk of developing type-2 diabetes

A lower risk of heart disease

A lower risk of developing cancer

A lower rate of cognitive decline

A potentially higher rate of fertility

Even more important: If you're concerned with the increasingly alarming news about climate change, switching to a plant-based diet can help the planet by reducing global greenhouse emissions, reducing land clearing, and helping preserve the habitats of endangered species.

Because "plant-based diet" is such a broad term, there is no clear answer about this, but everything points to yes for weight loss, says Bazilian. Vegetables are high in nutrients and low in calories, she explains. Plus they have higher satiety, so you dont have those energy highs and lows, and you dont get as many cravings. In one study, overweight and obese subjects who followed a low-fat, whole-food, plant-based diet (with no calorie restrictions) for six months lost an average of 26 pounds.

Henrik SorensenGetty Images

Though it takes a little more planning, you can get all the protein you need from plants. In fact, Bazilian points out that several world-class athletes, including the most powerful of them all, Serena Williams, thrive on vegan or plant-based diets. Here are some protein-packed plant-based options:

Tofu, 13 g protein per 3 oz. (try Hodo Moroccan Tofu Cubes)

Walnuts, 4g protein per 1/4 cup. (try this Walnut Balsamic Spinach Salad recipe)

Tempeh, 16g protein per 3 oz (try Lightlife Organic Tempeh)

Edamame, 12 g protein per 2/3 cup (try this Edamame Hummus recipe)

Chickpeas, 7g per 1/2 cup (try Banza Chickpea pastas)

Black beans. 7g protein per 1/2 cup. (try this Santa Fe Corn Salad recipe)

Peanut butter, 7g protein per 2 Tbsp (try Justin's Classic Peanut Butter)

Steel Cut Oats, 4g protein per 1/2 cup (try Bob's Red Mill Organic Steel Cut Oats)

Quinoa, 8g protein per 1/4 cup (try Lundberg Organic Tri-Color Quinoa)

Start by adding more plants to meals you already love, Bazilian suggests. "There are 21 meals in a week, so start by adding add fruits or vegetables to one a day. For example, if you eat eggs and toast for breakfast, add salsa, spinach, or avocado. If you add a soup or salad to your lunch or dinner every day, you'll be getting nutrient-dense vegetables."

As for your main dishes, Bazilian points out that while the popular new meatless meats, such as the Impossible Burger and Beyond Meat, are plant-based, they are also highly processed. You can get that meaty satisfaction from foods that are inherently healthy and not processed, like burgers made from mushrooms, or chorizo made from walnuts and black beans, she says.

"Transition to a plant-based diet step-by-step, and its easy," says Bazilian. "Its a no-risk proposition."

Like what you just read? Youll love our magazine! Go here to subscribe. Dont miss a thing by downloading Apple News here and following Prevention. Oh, and were on Instagram too.

Read more here:
Here's Exactly What You Can and Can't Eat on a Plant-Based Diet - Prevention.com

THE celebrated Australian inventors behind the Flow Hive have launched an online education platform to save beekeepers endless hours of trawling through forums and videos.

Flow Hive has invested nearly $500,000 and two years creating the online portal to help educate novice backyard beekeepers and encourage conservation.

The portal features contributions from leading academics, researchers, educators, scientists, and authors.

Some of the experts who have contributed to TheBeekeeper.org website are: Professor Dave Goulson, a Professor of Biology at the University of Sussex, who specialises in bumblebee ecology and conservation; Doug Purdie, co-founder of The Urban Beehive, an initiative that maintains more than 80 beehives on city rooftops, balconies, backyards and in community gardens around Sydney; and James Dorey, a photographer who is currently completing his PhD at Flinders University in Adelaide, looking at the evolution, taxonomy and ecology of Australian and Fijian native bees.

Flow Hive's co-inventor, Cedar Anderson, said while his journey started as an apiarist and quickly turned to the problem-solving task of creating the Flow Hive, bee knowledge had increasingly become a bigger a part of his life.

"The bee knowledge started from keeping hives as kid, but I learnt more as I started a commercial apiary," he said.

Flow Hive continues to take the world by storm.

"I've learnt so much from so many beekeepers from around the world, and talked to so many beekeepers, and to new beekeepers, researching things to answer their questions.

"We have this new product TheBeekeeper.org and we are learning very in-depth information that is fascinating.

"It (beekeeing) is a never-ending learning journey and that's the wonderful thing because it never gets boring."

There isn't a lot of information out there for beginners wanting to access accurate and high quality information when starting out, Mr Anderson said.

"But any beekeeper, regardless of experience, has a responsibility to be acutely aware of the myriad of pests and diseases that the commercial industry is working to protect the industry from," he said.

"It's often said that if you ask two beekeepers one question, you'll get three different answers.

"Beekeeping practices vary greatly in every region, which is why it's so important that beginners have access to expert beekeeping support so they can maintain healthy bees and develop into knowledgeable beekeepers."

Half of the profits made via the online education platform will support habitat regeneration and advocacy for the protection of pollinators.

Flow Hive continues to take the world by storm.

One of the first projects to be funded will see the natural habitats of the green carpenter bee replaced.

These creatures were once prolific from northern NSW down to Kangaroo Island.

Now, the bees are only found in scattered areas after years of land clearing and bushfires destroyed many bee nests.

Flow Hive has also released another new product which is the Flow Hive 2, with seven frames in a western cedar wood.

"It's very popular in North America and Australia," he said.

"That's their favourite wood type for beehives over there and it has been a popular request for some time."

See original here:
This website has the latest buzz from beekeeping experts - Northern Star

IJM Corp Bhd(March 9, RM1.84)Upgrade to hold with a lower target price of RM1.93: IJM Corp Bhds current construction order book is at RM4.5 billion 32% of which constitutes buildings, infrastructure (11%) and roads (56%) declining from RM5.1 billion in the second quarter ended Sept 30, 2019 (2QFY20). Its outstanding tender book is about RM4 billion consisting of domestic projects equally split between infrastructure and building jobs, excluding The Light City project in Penang and the East Coast Rail Link.

For the Light City, terms are being finalised with joint-venture partner Perennial Real Estate Holdings Ltd and an award worth about RM650 million to RM700 million of external construction works could materialise in 1QFY21. The management is confident in maintaining construction profit before tax (PBT) margins at between 6% and 9%, with material prices remaining conducive at the current levels. The construction PBT margin dipping to 5.9% in 3QFY20 was mainly due to higher finance costs concerning a highway project and is not expected to recur.

IJM Corp remains on track to achieve its sales target of RM1.6 billion for the financial year ending March 31, 2020 (FY20) after hitting sales of RM1.2 billion for the cumulative nine months of financial year 2020 (9MFY20). Sales have been mainly driven by projects such as Shah Alam 2, Seremban 2 and Rimbayu. For the first half of 2020 (1H20), IJM Corp is planning to launch projects with a cumulative value of about RM1.4 billion anchored by Rimbayu and Riana Dutamas.

Separately, the management revealed the Royal Mint project in London with a gross development value of 200 million was handed over to buyers in 4Q19 with a take-up of 90%. For the companys property segment, a comfortable PBT margins of above 10% are anticipated.

Its throughput at Kuantan Port remains healthy amid the Covid-19 outbreak. We understand from the management that Alliance Steel (M) Sdn Bhd with an estimated throughput of seven to 10 metre freight weight tonnes per annum is unaffected so far.

Prospects for a sustained throughput growth are intact with new Malaysia-China Kuantan Industrial Park investors such as Maxtrek Tyres for the land clearing phase and NewOcean Energy pending an environmental assessment. Recent investors such as ICP and Camel Power (M) Sdn Bhd started operations on Aug 19 and Oct 19 respectively.

The highway remains a drag on IJM Corps bottom line as at 3QFY20, with share of associate losses of RM27.3 million, bringing the 9MFY20 sum to -RM73.8 million against 9MFY19s RM30.8 million. The quarter saw sections 5, 9 and 10 of the highway opened in September and on Dec 19 respectively, in addition to section 8 opened on May 19, resulting in interest being expensed off (it was previously capitalised).

We gathered all the opened sections began collecting toll fees in January and on March 20 upon which an amortisation recognition starts.

Based on our understanding, sections 1, 2, 3 and 6 of the Selangor stretch are slated to open in 2021 and where we expect a pickup in the overall traffic volume. For the near term, we anticipate a widening loss contribution as a significant volume pickup is unlikely until the Selangor stretch opens.

Our FY20, FY21 and FY22 earnings forecasts are cut by 6.6%, 18.1% and 17.2% after factoring in widening losses from the share of associates offset by increasing our replenishment assumptions for FY21 from RM1 billion to RM1.7 billion after accounting potential wins from the ECRL and The Light City. Hong Leong Investment Bank Research, March 9

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IJM Corp expected to remain on track to meet FY20 sales target - The Edge Markets MY

(CNS): Despite continued calls from the Department of Environment to stop the clearance of mangroves on sites without planning permission, developers are still ripping up these critical species. The Central Planning Authority considered an application for after-the-fact land clearance in Prospect on Wednesday, after a developer removed several acres of mangroves, which were part of an important drainage system, in order to dump soil and store materials to support a nearby condominium development.

Developers behind the Grand Palmyra, a luxury condo development project in the Grand Harbour area, simply removed the partially seasonally flooded mangroves on Block 23C Parcel 233, land which has no planning application history or permissions for development of any kind.

The DoE discovered the latest assault on these critical species during a site visit to the area in late January. Researchers found that the mangroves had been cleared from the interior of the site, using access off the former Prospect Point Road and out of view from the more public Hurley Merren Boulevard.

Not all of the mangroves have been removed and the DoE has insisted that those that remain must be retained. But the clearance was done in such a way that it appears the developer was hoping it would not be seen. Whether that is so the materials expected to be stored there as well as piles of soil would not cause complaints or because the developer was hoping no one would notice is an unanswered question.

However, regardless of the motivations of the developer, the DoE made it clear that this practice has to stop.

This continues the extremely worrying trend of illegally clearing mangroves which the Department of Environment has raised to the Department of Planning on a number of occasions, the department stated in its submissions to the Central Planning Authority, highlighting another seven recent cases of mangrove clearance without any planning permission.

The DoE explained that the missing mangroves at this site had provided critical drainage for the surrounding area and an extremely important buffer for Hurley Merren Boulevard from the sea. They said there was a lot more vacant land in the area that could have been used for storage, as they noted the lack of any consideration for stormwater management on the site, which has now been cleared and filled.

Illegal clearing removes the opportunity for reviewing agencies to provide constructive comments and feedback on best management practices and recommendations for retention of ecologically valuable flora to be retained, which may prove beneficial to the landowners and wider area. In this case, the mangroves provide important drainage for the area. Illegal clearing undermines the consultation process and the planning process, the DoE said.

Once again, the DoE experts urged the planning department to take appropriate measures to avoid illegal clearing, adding that its environment conservation officers cannot intervene in these cases until the Species Conservation Plan for Mangroves has been approved by Cabinet, which has still not been done, leaving this important plant increasingly vulnerable.

We recommend refusal of this application, the DoE told planning. Clearing and filling important drainage areas prior to any imminent development is not a practical approach to stormwater management.

The developers request to planning for after-the-fact permission was brief, giving no indication that the developers had grasped the negative significance of removing the mangroves.

The application for the land clearing on the parcel was intended for the material storage and dump area of the dug-out soil from the construction of Grand Palmyra Development located on Block 22E Parcel 382 which was owned by the same developer, K&B Ltd stated in the application. The land clearing will also be done in purpose for the preparation of the future mixed use development to be built on the lot. We hope that the CPA board would find this application to be acceptable.

The limited justification given to the CPA may be because no sanctions have been given to other developers who unlawfully remove mangroves and undermine the Cayman Islands already limited coastal defences.

See this and all of the other planning applications considered by the CPA on Wednesday in the CNS Library (scroll down to Grand Palmyra development)

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More mangroves illegally cleared - Cayman Islands Headline News - Cayman News Service