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Forest & Bird says the Selwyn District Council has done nothing to stop illegal farm conversion at Acheron Terrace.

Conservationists are calling for responsibility for native habitat protection to be taken away from poorly performing local councils.

Forest & Bird has released an image of the Acheron terraces, in inland Canterbury near Lake Coleridge, where it says a swathe of native tussock land has recently been sprayed, cultivated and converted to green pasture.

Canterbury regional manager Nicky Snoyink said she first raised the alarm with the Selwyn District Council in May, but despite following up several times throughout the year the council has failed to require the landowner to stop clearing native plants.

Its really frustrating that councils in the Canterbury region continue to be unwilling to protect rare habitat in the region, despite being provided with photos of clear deliberate damage, she said.

READ MORE:* Forest and Bird urges Timaru District Council action over vegetation clearance* Waitaki District Council criticised over lack of action on indigenous vegetation clearance* Native habitat 'under attack' nationwide as offenders face little consequence, data shows

The Acheron Terrace was a really important and special place because it was part of an intact dry tussock grassland, home to native insects, lizards, and birds.

It is increasingly under threat from development, so I was really shocked to see part of it had been so quickly converted to green grass for more intensive sheep and cattle grazing.

David Walker/Stuff

Forest & Birds Canterbury-West Coast regional manager Nicky Snoyink.

Snoyink said Forest & Bird investigated illegal habitat clearance around the country earlier this year, and found landowners were largely able to get away with damaging native foliage, with very few councils willing to intervene.

This was not the only time she had raised concerns about this with the Selwyn council, she said.

In 2019, more than 40 hectares of mature matagouri shrubland was sprayed along the roadside on private land that was the gateway to Korowai Torlesse Tussocklands Park, Snoyink said.

But the Selwyn District Council is uncertain whether it breaches their rules, so have opted to take an educational approach with the landowner.

Forest & Bird/Supplied

Forest & Bird says 41 hectares of matagouri was sprayed and killed in one incident in 2019. Pictured is matagouri in the upper Waimakariri Basin.

The second site is part of an agreement with Environment Canterbury (ECan) for gorse control, which does allow spot spraying.

Nature in New Zealand is down to the wire, Snoyink said.

If councils are unwilling to put good rules in place or properly enforce the rules they have, then we have to either accept the local extinction of our native species, or give the responsibility for protecting wildlife to an independent, properly funded organisation that can and will do their job.

LUZ ZUNIGA/Stuff

Lindy Kelly drove through Nelson in her ute to raise awareness of her battle to protect historic bush on her farm.

The council's response to Snoyinks complaint about the Acheron terrace landowner said no action was taken because the pasture improvements were in an area previously developed for grazing, albeit through a less intensive process.

There is no doubt that indigenous species have been removed as part of the recent development, however, our operative District Plan rules do allow for this to occur within an area of improved pasture.

Proposed District Plan rule changes would help remedy the situation, the council said, by stopping places with naturally occurring indigenous species falling under the improved pasture definition.

Stacy Squires/Stuff

A Selwyn District Council spokesman says the Acheron terrace land had already been developed for grazing in the past.

In earlier correspondence about the matagouri incident, the council said it had multiple meetings with the landowners, and told them to consult both ECan and the council about any future spraying.

A council spokesman told Stuff due to the timing of Forest & Bird releasing this information, staff involved with handling their complaints were not available to respond.

We do investigate every complaint we receive and work with Environment Canterbury and the landowners to ensure the rules are upheld and achieve a positive outcome in the long-term.

We also continue to work with Forest & Bird on these issues, including providing full responses on what actions we have taken and what we are legally able to do in these cases.

More here:
Canterbury council under fire after native grassland converted to grazing - Stuff.co.nz

This is a country that has a forestry vocation, says Jos Miguel Orozco, professor of forest governance and policy at Bogots Francisco Jos de Caldas District University.

High-altitude Andean forests, low-altitude basal forests, cloud forests, dry forests, mangroves: 52% of Colombias landmass is covered in forest, and it is the second most biodiverse country in the world, home to 58,312 known species. The highest concentrations of biodiversity occur in the Amazon and Pacific regions, which together are home to 80% of the countrys forests.

Indigenous reserves steward 46% of Colombias forests, and Afro-Colombian communal territories account for 7.3%. About 16% fall under the protection of the countrys 59 national parks. These three systems have the highest levels of protection and some of the best conservation outcomes.

And yet, Colombias forests are also being chopped down at an alarming rate.

Colombias Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies (IDEAM) monitors deforestation in the country and shows how deforestation went from 123,841 hectares (306,017 acres) in 2015, soaring to its highest-ever level of 219,552 hectares (542,525 acres) in 2017 before dropping to 158,894 hectares (392,636 acres) in 2019.

In 2016, the Colombian government signed a historic peace accord with the FARC rebels, ending more than half a century of civil war that left 260,000 people dead and 5 million people internally displaced. A consequence of the conflict was that Colombias forests remained relatively well-preserved, with the FARC rebels strictly controlling deforestation so as to conceal their movements and the illegal mines and coca plantations that financed most of their operations. With the groups disbandment, things have changed.

The last five years coincided with the time period denominated as post-conflict, and what we saw at the beginning of this era was the huge increase in the problem of deforestation at the national level, Orozco says.

FARCs demobilization left a power vacuum that is now being fought over by other illegal criminal groups like paramilitaries, ELN guerrillas and FARC dissidents who refuse to disarm.

The highest levels of deforestation are in the Amazon, home to two-thirds of Colombias forests, with 70% this deforestation related to land grabbing driven by illegal groups linked to illicit activities. These activities include illegal logging, mining (especially for gold and cobalt), coca cultivation to make cocaine, and clearing of forest for pasture and land speculation often also done to launder money earned from illicit operations.

Between 2000 and 2018, IDEAM identified 11 high deforestation nuclei (HDN): areas in the country with the highest levels of deforestation, also associated with a lack of state presence, weak socioeconomic indicators, and some of the highest levels of violence and poverty.

According to the National Department of Statistics (DANE), in 2018, Colombias national multidimensional poverty level was 19.6%, rising to 39.9% in rural areas. In the HDNs, it was calculated at 53.1%, increasing to 62.7% in rural areas.

This situation is ideal for fomenting illegal activities, but also for the expansion of other activities in the region that drive deforestation, including agriculture, cattle ranching, mining, and building roads and infrastructure that provide easier access to forests and bring new waves of occupiers.

In 2017, the government defined344 municipalitiesin the country as zones most affected by the armed conflict. These are regions that have experienced the highest levels of violence, criminal activity and displacement. A hundred and twenty of the HDNs fall within these conflict-affected zones, showing how, with the resurgence of violence after the peace accord, many of the drivers of deforestation are linked to regions where the dynamics of violent conflict are still playing out.

These dynamics have also spilled over to affect those protecting the forests and natural resources. Global Witness ranked Colombia as the most dangerous place in the world in 2019 to be an environmental defender, with the most recent casualty being an environmental official, Javier Francisco Parra, who was murdered on Dec. 3 in the Amazon.

Environmental defenders could benefit from the implementation of the Escaz Agreement. This is the first environmental human rights treaty for Latin America and the Caribbean, and was signed by Colombias President Ivn Duque in December 2019, but still needs to ratified by the countrys Congress. Yet this process has stalled as the presidents own party has been pushing back against the agreement, saying it will jeopardize Colombias sovereignty and put the brakes on development projects.

In addition to trying to crack down on illegal activities, the Colombian government, with support from international partners, has identified the need to support the economic empowerment of communities in these rural areas, tying these initiatives into the countrys international agreements relating to forests.

Colombia, as a signatory to the New York Declaration on Forests, aimed by 2020 to halve natural forest loss and by 2030 to reach net-zero deforestation, meaning that any loss of forest will be offset by the replanting of native forest.

But Colombia missed the 2020 target, with deforestation in the first quarter of 2020 exceeding the total for the whole of 2019. Still, in November 2020 the government announced that it would increase its greenhouse gas reductions from its initial target under the Paris climate accord, from 20% to 51% by 2030. The government plans to meet this target by transitioning to clean energy and transport, reducing deforestation and planting 180 million trees by 2022 a commitment made by Duque at the Davos summit in January 2020.

Tropical forests remain one of the most efficient sinks of greenhouse gas emissions, and the REDD+ mechanism was launched to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forest degradation by having industrialized countries pay developing countries to preserve their forests.

Colombia built its REDD+ initiatives on the back of a large-scale program called Visin Amazona, which focuses on the Amazon region and aims to provide jobs, improve environmental governance, and promote Indigenous participation in a region where more than half the forests fall within Indigenous reserves.

Norway, Germany and the U.K. have been supporting these efforts through a payment-for-results agreement called the Joint Declaration of Intent, which has paid $85 million to the Colombian government since 2015 and renewed a pledge in 2019 for an additional $366 million. This agreement became even more lucrative when, in late November 2020, the Norwegian government doubled its payout to $10 per hectare of tropical forest conserved.

Viviana Zamora, technical adviser to the ProBosques project of the German cooperation agency GIZ, says forest conservation in Colombia has been given a major boost thanks to the agreement, as IDEAM received large amounts of funds to improve its monitoring capacity, allowing it to detect changes in forest cover, analyze the causes and agents of deforestation as well as the level of forest emissions that are necessary for payment under REDD+.

Zamora also says that although an international carbon market has not yet been fully established, the REDD+ program has provided a means to support the forest economy through mitigation and adaptation processes, also helping to improve income and employment for communities living in these areas that are threatened by deforestation and more affected by the armed conflict.

Since taking office in 2018, the Duque administration has initiated or bolstered several policies and strategies, including the National Development Plan 2018-2022, to integrate key aspects of the Joint Declaration of Intent.

The government also established an agricultural frontier in 2018 to stop the continued encroachment of farms into wilderness areas; put in place zero-deforestation agreements with the palm oil, dairy, meat and cacao industries through Tropical Forest Alliance (TFA); and implemented a green growth policy that proposes a transition to a model focused largely on the forest economy, green businesses, and the bioeconomy.

Other strategies to halt deforestation, like the military operation Artemisia, launched in 2019 to crack down on illegal miners and loggers, have had mixed results. In September 2020, Fundacin Ideas para la Paz released areportnoting the operation had increased the risk for other environmental defenders such aspark rangers andnoting that it didnt focus on the sophisticated networks and powerful interests behind the deforestation, but rather the vulnerable communities in these zones.

In October 2020, Colombias National Planning Department (DNP) released a draft policy for the control of deforestation and sustainable forest management. While the action plan still needs to be finalized, the document aims to create an interdepartmental approach including the ministries for theenvironment, defense, agriculture, justice and technology, as well as the agencies for land and environmental licenses, stateprosecutors, IDEAM and the National Parks Authority to deal with the multifaceted issue of deforestation while growing the green economy.

The document emphasizes the huge economic potential of the forests in the country. It notes that only about 500 plant and animal species out of the thousands recorded in the country are used for some sort of economic activity. It also estimates that, in 2017, the supply of forest products and their derivatives generated about $1.4 million, or about 0.52% of the countrys GDP. The DNP looks to boost these numbers, noting that the European Unions bioeconomy sector contributed 9% to its GDP in 2014, generating 18.6 million jobs and $2.6 billion in sales.

The environment ministry, working environmental authorities and partners such as the FAO and WWF, are supporting community forestry projects, which combine forest conservation with economic and employment generation for the communities that live in them.

Heart of the Amazon is a Visin Amazona initiative funded by the Global Environment Facility and implemented by the World Bank, which aims to prevent 9.1 million hectares (22.5 million acres) of deforestation in part by supporting community forestry projects in an important transition zone connecting the Amazon and the Andes mountains.

The project has already seen major success with 115 campesino families who were previously involved in planting coca now conserving 21,000 hectares (52,000 acres) of forest and sustainably harvesting Amazonian species as camu camu and asa.

For us a success is that today local communities believe that it is possible through community forestry to resolve social issues, says Luz Marina Mantilla Crdenas, director of the government-backed Amazonian Scientific Research Institute (SINCHI), in an interview with Mongabay.

For decades SINCHI has been doing research to developing ways to cultivate Amazonian plant and animal species economically, with part of its mission now to develop the bioeconomy. The institute has also been an integral part of Heart of the Amazon project, conducting a 20-year study in the region showing how agroforestry and sustainable forestry practices can prevent and control deforestation.

A lot of SINCHIs success in that we connect the dots, we dont commercialize but we look for who can commercialize the products, because we are interested in completing [the value] chain, Crdenas says.

The DNPs policy document tries to be more intersectional, widening its focus and looking at the long-term and structural issues, says Rodrigo Botero, director of the Amazon-focused Foundation for Conservation and Sustainable Development (FCDS). However, he says it is more focused on the economists vision that the problem is in searching for the productivity of the forests, rather than placing sufficient emphasis and effort on how to resolve the issues of access and rights to the land and the forests in these areas.

Colombia remains one of the most unequal countries in the world, where less than 1% of the population owns more than 50% of productive land. This was the primary issue that fueled the civil war, and rural land reform and access to land were key aspects of the peace accord that ended it. Yet, according to a 2020 KROC Institute report, only 3% of the 104 rural reform and access-to-land commitments have been completed, while 34% have not yet been started, 52% have begun minimally, and 10% are partially done.

Manuel Rodrguez, a professor, former environment minister and founder of the National Environmental Forum, told Mongabay in an interview that there is a lot of potential to develop the economy sustainably, especially in terms of agriculture and ecotourism. But Colombia, like most of Latin America, still has profoundly extractivist development plans, with most of the countrys GDP coming from mining and oil, he said.

A 2020 article in the Journal of Political Ecology argues that the government appears to be embracing REDD+ and international financial support to protect forests and build peace, yet simultaneously supporting natural resources extraction in the form of mining, infrastructure and industrial agriculture. This, it says, creates contradictory policies that incentivize environmental degradation. It cites as an example how 18 protected areas overlap with 29 oil blocks currently in operation, and another 12 reserved and 15 available oil blocks.

All this ultimately puts Colombia at risk of missing its climate and conservation targets. Rodrguez says that if Colombia really wants to make its sustainable development agenda more than rhetoric, the country will need a much more ambitious forest policy.

Banner image caption: Red passion vine flower in the Colombian Amazon. Image by Rhett Butler/Mongabay.

See more here:
Colombia's forests lurch between deforestation and the hope for a sustainable future - Mongabay.com

Kristi and Brian Anderson have some thoughts about how the first year of Californias get-tough-on-utilities approach to preventing wildfires is going: Badly. Very badly.

The Andersons, who live in Bonny Doon, nestled in the mountains near Santa Cruz, lost their home four months ago in the CZU Lightning Complex fires.

But their plight only got worse after the fires were out. They returned to their property to find that Pacific Gas and Electric crews had felled 20 trees on their 2-acre lot, toppling 100-foot Douglas firs and leaving them where they fell.

In an attempt to clear vegetation from around power lines, the workers cut down old-growth redwoods, and in some cases simply sawed off the tops of the beloved giants, creating a horrid Dr. Seuss kind of tree, Kristi Anderson said. It makes us sick to our stomachs.

Worse, after spending weeks clearing away the remains of their incinerated home, Brian Anderson arrived at his property to find a huge pile of trees atop a new trailer pad where he and his family were planning to live while their new home was being built.

Facing a potential bill for tens of thousands of dollars, the couple are wondering who is going to pay for the cleanup after PG&E left the piles of timber and woody debris that are themselves fire hazards.

Utility companies are carrying out numerous tasks to prevent wildfires, from ramping up line inspections to replacing antiquated equipment. But critics say that PG&E and other electricity providers should be focusing less on the cheap stuff, like cutting trees, and more on upgrading its thousands of miles of old lines and aging equipment.

Its been a long-standing problem with PG&E, instead of doing the responsible thing and investing in their infrastructure, they want to just do vegetation management, said Assemblymember Mark Stone, a Monterey Bay Democrat whose district includes Santa Cruz.

This is just a shortcut. Its part of their approach, taking the easiest path possible by cutting a bunch of trees and looking like they are doing something, while avoiding the bigger issue of infrastructure improvement.

PG&E this year managed vegetation along 1,861 line-miles at a cost of almost $500 million, the company says. More than half of PG&Es area is in high fire-threat zones, with 5,500 line-miles of electric transmission and 25,500 line-miles of distribution equipment.

PG&E this year also added 43 safety devices along transmission lines, upgraded 62 substations and replaced poles or covered lines along 370 miles, according to the company. That leaves no documented plans for upgrading thousands of miles of lines, poles and other equipment in the coverage area, although some projects will be completed over the next 40 years.

The companys combined fire mitigation costs this year are an estimated $2.5 billion.

Upgrading equipment, such as burying power lines, is significantly more costly for companies, so vegetation management is an appealing alternative. Burying lines costs more than $2 million a mile.

In previous years, the crews removed downed trees. But now contractors working for PG&E tell homeowners they have to leave larger trees on the ground because the timber is the residents property and may have commercial value.

You just dont see someone doing a project and leave all the logs on a site. Thats just not normal, said Angela Bernheisel, a Cal Fire division chief in the Santa Cruz area.

The Andersons said they were still putting out small flareups from the wildfires hot spots during the time the trees were left on their property.

A PG&E spokeswoman said that U.S. Forest Service research categorizes log stacks as posing a low fire risk.

But the practice, known as Whack and Stack, contributed to the 2007 Angora Fire around Lake Tahoe, according to research by Timothy Ingalsbee, executive director of the Oregon-based group Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics and Ecology.

They are little fire bombs waiting to ignite. They can burn for hours, said Ingalsbee, a former federal firefighter and wildland fire ecologist.

The plight of the Santa Cruz County residents is not the outcome that the Legislature envisioned last year when it created the Wildfire Safety Division within the Public Utilities Commission to review and approve the fire-mitigation plans of state electric providers.

With 1 in 10 wildfires caused by utility equipment, it was clear that companies needed to do more to prevent fires.

The new division is trying to hold utilities accountable, but herding large, powerful companies that cling to old practices is daunting. The Wildfire Safety Division approved most of the utilities plans this summer with some modifications. And, like a long-suffering teacher attempting to soften the blow, the agency sent along this report card: Most utilities demonstrate a need for improvement.

Caroline Thomas Jacobs, director of the new Wildfire Safety Division, is overseeing a department that did not exist before 2019.

The reality is it was a massive task to undertake. Theres been lots of opportunity to trip up. The proof will be in the pudding, she said.

Thomas Jacobs said it was clear that most companies plans leaned heavily on vegetation management, but the utilities havent fully explained why.

We told them, You guys have to get together and develop a study, and tell us why enhanced vegetation management is the way to go here. They need to better articulate how they think through all the alternatives before they decide on a specific mitigation activity. They have to think it through and not just pick the easy button and the cheapest approach, she said.

In other words, for the first time, the state will require utilities not only to do more robust fire mitigation work, but also to document what benefit each project would bring.

Because the companies plans lack clear metrics for determining their chances of success, the PUC on Thursday extended the companies deadline to June for providing the information.

PG&E officials declined to comment about the concerns that they are relying too heavily on cutting trees and delaying the more expensive equipment upgrades.

Other companies also are focusing heavily on fuel reduction projects around their equipment.

Southern California Edisons plan, for example, set a 2020 goal to inspect 75,000 hazardous trees for possible removal, check vegetation growing along 3,000 circuit-miles, clear brush from around 200,000 poles and expand buffer zones around some equipment in high fire-risk areas.

Santa Cruz County officials call the PG&E crews tree-removal work reckless, worrying that it increases the risk of erosion and mudslides when winter rains begin.

We are in the midst of serious debris flow preparation. There is high potential for people whose homes didnt burn to now be in a danger zone. The water supply for Santa Cruz County is at risk, said county Supervisor Ryan Coonerty. If they had worked with the county, Cal Fire and property owners, we could have done this in a safe and effective way. But they have made the fire hazard worse.

As residents called to complain, Santa Cruz County reached out to the state for help. Cal Fire sent letters to PG&E. noting hundreds of violations of the state Forestry Practices Act, which could lead to millions of dollars in fines.

And in late November, the California Coastal Commission sent the company a notice of violation for unpermitted work clearing about 6 miles of trees in the coastal zone. The agency is working with PG&E so it can obtain the proper permission to construct erosion control measures and stabilize roads damaged by its heavy equipment.

The utility maintains it does not need permits to remove vegetation for fire mitigation work that is mandated by state law.

PG&E disagrees with the characterization that our tree removal work is illegal. We understand the County, agencies and community concerns regarding this emergency hazard tree removal work and are committed to continuing to address these items with all stakeholders while prioritizing public safety, prompt restoration of electric service and environmental stewardship, PG&E spokeswoman Mayra Tostado said in an emailed statement.

The company is not alone in running afoul of state agencies while performing fire mitigation work. In November the Coastal Commission fined the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power $1.9 million for similar transgressions.

Much about firefighting is harsh on a landscape. Apart from the fires annihilation, bulldozers and other heavy equipment used to combat fire can reshape and scrape soils and clog waterways, often leaving lasting impacts. Post-fire work also can leave a trail of damage.

Some of these guys on the powerlines are going for overkill, with minimum supervision and no ecology, former firefighter Ingelsbee said.

The companies are allowed to pass on the costs of equipment upgrades to ratepayers.

There is little evidence that clearing vegetation is the most cost-effective approach. They are charging Cadillac prices for a jalopy, said Loretta Lynch, former president of the Public Utilities Commission.

Its not just PG&E all the wildfire mitigation plans are about their bottom line, not what will mitigate wildfires. The record is really clear: Its an environmental catastrophe.

Adding to heartbreak and stress Lad Wallace thought himself lucky: There were 51 homes in his Bonny Doon neighborhood before the fire, and his was one of only 13 that survived. But the privately maintained road leading to his property was destroyed by trucks operated by PG&Es tree crews, the same crews that came on his property without his permission and left his land strewn with felled trees.

A couple of years ago PG&E did some tree removal, Wallace said. In those cases, they removed everything they cut. This time they cut it and left it where it lay. Getting rid of trees is not an insignificant cost.

PG&E is mucking it up and making things worse, said Pat Veesart, an enforcement supervisor with the Coastal Commission, which regulates activities in the coastal zone. Historically, they have cleared 65 to 75 feet (from power lines). In this case they have cleared as much as 200 feet, exceeding what would be considered normal power line maintenance. We are very concerned about damage to creeks and erosion.

Crews told the Andersons that their trees had commercial value, but no local buyers want Douglas fir, especially since the company short cut the logs. The old-growth redwoods they cut were dropped and left in a messy stack, Brian Anderson said.

Meanwhile, the couples misery mounts. They were grinding their teeth at night and now wear mouth guards. Their doctor prescribed medication for sleep and stress.

This whole tree issue comes on top of heartbreak and stress from the fire, Kristi Anderson said. Its fighting and bureaucracy all the time, it takes a lot of energy. There is no pocket in anybodys insurance policy that covers tree debris removal. We cant afford to move. We have a mortgage. Im a public school teacher how do I feel right now? Not great.

Julie Cart writes for CalMatters a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.

See the original post here:
Whack and stack: PG&Es toppling of trees creates new hazards - San Francisco Chronicle

News from the front desk, issue 510: If youre a greenwash spin-cycle merchant of high order and you think 2020 was hard on the bones, get set for an even tougher year ahead.

From what we can tell from the tea leaves shaping up at the end of the year from hell (for most of us), 2021 will be the year that patience, excuses and moderation will be thrown out the window or at the very least made to perch precariously on a ledge at great altitude.

At close of year, we had one of the most admired sustainability architects on the planet, Norman Foster, forced to uncouple his studio from Architects Declare. The studio was a founding signatory.

The shock waves of this, from the agitation of younger radical architects forming a sub set or breakaway from the official AD, is a neat summation of whats going on here.

Like the biography of Jim Morrison (The Doors) says No-one gets out of here alive.

There is no excuse. If we dont pull out fingers out, we will end up with Morrison in a Parisian graveyard, dead from causes not quite specified.

This is serious.

Its the young people talking and quite frankly they dont care about the convenience or uniquity of our travel bug. They dont care about glamour or position or prestige or tradition. They just want to have a life, preferably one as close as possible to that of the older folk now defending their past habits of indulgence with a touch of indignant affront.

If its starting to look like the #MeToo moment for architecture and development, you might be right.

There are a thousand reasons to love and defend the work of Foster + Partners. And its not really about that studio at all.

This is about all of us and the decisions we each need to make. As the Australian arm of AD said, its about a journey we all need to take together and a conversation. As the British AD said, its not about berating anyone. We need to talk about sustainability.

In a recent survey of companies in the Asia Pacific, Sandpiper Communications and PublicAffairsAsia found a massive 74 per cent of corporate reputation managers face internal pressure to overpromote sustainability and ESG achievements, placing them at risk of mispresenting how sustainable they are.

Dont for a minute think that the greenwash police wont be watching closely.

Like most of us, Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility director of climate & environment Dan Gocher is happy to see the back end of 2020.

But from a government climate action perspective, its hard not to see momentum coming from the international commitments out of Japan, China, South Korea and now the US under President-elect Joe Bidens ambitious climate regime.

Gocher suspects resistance from the Australian government on a net zero target wont last much longer given these external pressures.

On the corporate side, theres been a wealth of companies committing to net zero, including the usual suspects such as Santos and Origin Energy. This is a promising development but the absence of short-term commitments to reduce emissions is a problem.

Many companies have declared where the finishing line is but not offered details about how they might iteratively get there.

From investors, Gocher expects more major investors to follow the lead of AwareSuper by divesting from carbon intensive companies. The unique move by the super giant last month slashed its emission by 40 per cent overnight by divesting from 60-odd companies.

I think youll see more of that from bigger investors. Weve already seen that from smaller funds, Future Super and the like, but [AwareSuper] is the first genuinely large investor.

But what exactly are our plans for avoiding temperatures so high it will be hard for humans to survive? In some tropical climates, for instance, even at moderate temperatures, high humidity can stop the human body from self-cooling by perspiration. Some wit in the New Scientist named this thermogeddon.

According to Rod Simpson who recently completed his term at the Greater Sydney Commission and is now running Simpson + Wilson architects, focused on work in Western Sydney, there are great plans for more trees to cool the vast districts, but we need to go further.

Trees might lower ambient temperatures by around 2 degrees, but in an area that experienced 50 degrees last summer at Penrith and 47 degrees last month in November at Badgerys Creek, that wont exactly turn the tide.

Its the impact on peoples health and on liveability that concerns Simpson most.

We already know about the food deserts in the sprawling western suburbs where there is take away food at one end, a megalithic shopping centre at the other, and pretty much nothing in between.

There needs to be a resilience plan, Simpson says. Does your building have battery backup if the grid fails? We need human emergency response plans to help vulnerable people.

Is there a cool refuge within walking distance, as in some countries, if your house fails to protect you? Maybe a pool.

Theres also the need for better insulated houses. So many vulnerable people live in houses built in the 60s that have poor insulation and are expensive to heat and cool.

Landcom earlier in the year brought out an encouraging and creative guide for cooling cities, covered in this article, Landcoms patterns for cooling the commons in Western Sydney. Among a range of ideas was the notion that outdoor activities could be refocused around cooler evening hours.

On the commercial front, Craig Roussac from Buildings Alive has been saying during the year and again this week that while the ambition from property companies to set net zero targets is impressive, clear pathways is what we need now.

Hes keen to see buildings and cities themselves to become part of the grid scale solution. That is using buildings to use most of their energy precisely when the sun is shining.

Point Advisory NSW managing director Alan Dayeh says 2021 will be the year where property companies might start taking a long cool look at their tenants and their connection to carbon intensive sectors.

How might this risk might affect rental streams and returns?

Dayeh reckons leaders will keep nudging into the tenant space to manage emissions profiles, which has not traditionally been an easy source of emissions to control.

Something else that will be watching with interest is how climate-ready asset portfolios will be valued going forward. His bet is a growing appetite to buy climate ready or resilient assets.

Another big watch factor is how property will contribute to the circular economy.

The sector has done well to ensure that construction waste is not going to land fill, that has been really good, the next frontier is the operational base, and how property companies are helping with that part of the puzzle.

Can we get material near to where we construct developments? Can we get waste materials used in road base? Can we use remanufactured materials for developments?

He also expects to see more businesses finding ways to make recycling and reuse a financially savvy option.

Matt Kean, fresh from his pinup status in the TFE offices for his great work on energy as the NSW energy and environment minister, has now been redeployed to lend some brand reconstruction to LNP stablemate John Barilaro, leader of the NSW Nationals.

The job seems to be to cobble up a koala rescue package along the lines that farmers will be paid to not chop down trees that these cuddly things need to survive (and hopefully to not shoot any more environmental officers trying to stop land clearing).

But what if the farmers soon decide that they will chop down all the trees unless paid not to? Its these kind of twist to a well meaning idea that we need to be careful of.

The alternative is to simply stop people chopping down trees.

But where would this leave a political agenda that refuses to impose any rules on anything unless its to stop the banks avoiding fossil fuel investments?

This kind of dilemma is not one faced by NSW Building Commissioner David Chandler, who says that for now hes posting photos of shoddy work he comes across in his inspections online.

Next year, he will publish the names.

Chandler, in case youve been asleep for a few years, is the man whos single handedly starting to reverse the shoddy building practices that have plagued consumers since they removed council building inspectors and allowed the cowboys of the industry to self-regulate.

We say single handedly because any number of previous government inquiries or ministers or government officials have failed to shift the dial even a fraction on this issue. And Chandler is starting to have real impact.

In a recent social media post, Chandler pinged what should be unpingable peoples toilets. Yes, he did folks. He went into a site in eastern suburbs sanctuary for the elite Bellevue Hill to photograph site toilets and dumpsters. Why? Because it tells him so much about the attitude of the builders.

Builders who do not care about their workforce are unlikely to care about compliance with design and Australian Standards, he says.

Readers should be in no doubt about how forcefully I expressed my dissatisfaction with the amenities present on this site. All were paraded through both portaloos I inspected. Most wonder why I go straight to site amenities and rubbish dumpsters to form my initial and mostly, lasting impression of a site. When site facilities are offered in this condition guess?

In this instance there was no water for hand washing, and in the other toilet the waste tank was full.

Was it unseemly or unfair to point out one bad site among many?

Get used to it, says our next contender for the pinup board.

At the Green Building Council of Australia theres a positive expansionary mood afoot.

Davina Rooney who took the reins as CEO in June 2019 is well on the way to throwing open the doors of sustainability to housing and the consumer market. A big focus is making tools easier to access and when we spoke to her last week shed just concluded a partnership agreement with Microsoft to digitalise the back end of Green Star.

During the year, she said there was demand for more urgent action on climate change and if we want to grow at scale, we need to take everyone with us.

The big questions are how to broaden things and make offerings more relatable.

Especially in a time when so many people are talking about healthy buildings. Its about reaching the consumer through the broad scale housing mark and Rooney for one is excited to be involved in the consumer side of sustainability. Which essentially means taking the friction out of participation and making things easier for everyone, she says.

Children and schools will be a bigger focus. Can we expect better homes and better schools when people spend 90 per cent of their time indoors?

We should be setting up a future where things are better, Rooney says.

In the new year this will include a television show, which will clearly make green buildings even more aspirational.

If you read the global tea leaves, the big question is where is sustainability going globally and how does that relate to Australian pathways?

Personally, were looking at you, PM Scott Morrison.

ClimateWorks Australias CEO Anna Skarbek is another keen observer whos finishing the year more upbeat than she expected.

Theres good momentum in the finance sector, she says, after sitting on the steering committee for the Australian Sustainable Finance Initiative, which delivered the Australian Sustainable Finance Roadmap last month.

This includes great recommendations such as transforming remuneration to align with sustainable long-term outcomes, implementing product design principles and improving climate risk disclosure.

It will be useful resource that follows the lead of other jurisdictions around the globe, Skarbek says.

Shes also hopeful about decarbonisation given every sector has the technology it needs to get to net zero,including the built environment.

What technology needs is a bit of market momentum and then it can keep going.

Theres already consumer sentiment, where they do prefer a carbon neutral option, and the theres a net zero emission option in every sector.

So the task now is to normalise it, and make it widespread. That will take some proactive buyer and policy settings in the coming few years.

She might be optimistic but shes still realistic about the scale and urgency of the challenge.

If we miss this moment, weve really locked in more emissions than is safe, so if we can get that moment converted into serious momentum, Im actually quite optimistic.

To those who point to the cost of saving the planet, we say this. After the financial tsunami of losses caused by the pandemic on the earths inhabitants and that of the GFC, you are hereby silenced.

What was the impact? Not much. We learned to print money and woke up to the magic (it must be said) of modern monetary theory (MMT) and wondered why no-one thought of it earlier.

Just make sure youre printing the money yourself, not borrowing from some pugilistic nation with lots of guns, make sure you have a robust central bank with firm control of the interest rate levers to stem inflation if it should rear its ugly head. And make sure you control the script writers of the hieroglyphics of debt formulae.

As one economist told The Fifth Estate on the eve of the GFC, debt, in theory, can be extrapolated out to hundreds of years if not infinity.

Think about it: whats stopping us doing that, if people lender and borrower can each live, be housed, clothed and fed, and can then be free to spend the bulk of their energy and creativity defending the planet.

Santa, all we want for Christmas is some MMT.

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On why 2020 was just practice for the 2021 greenwash police and better news - The Fifth Estate

Cars

Published on December 25th, 2020 | by Johnna Crider

December 25th, 2020 by Johnna Crider

The folks over at Tesla Magazine,a France-based news site that covers all of Elon Musks companies, recently got to experience and test drive the Ford Mustang Mach-E. Armand Taeb, CEO of Tesla Magazine, told me that their full review will be out next month, but was delighted to share a sneak preview with CleanTechnica as well as his thoughts on Fords newest electric vehicle. (Side note: We missed an opportunity to test drive the vehicle in California and are in the process of arranging a test drive in Florida.)

The car has a unique interior. The arrangement of the door handle to enter the vehicle is striking because of its particularity: you have to press a button which unlocks the door the small handle is only used to pull the door. Inside, Ford has tried to minimize buttons, but not as much as Tesla in its Model Y. Most of the controls are through the large center display in the center of the dashboard, with fabric accents on top, Taeb told me in an email.

The quality of the finishes is clear nothing to complain about on that side. In addition, the driving position of this model is lower than an SUV, which gives the impression of driving a bigger car. Finally, with an average consumption of 23 kWh per 100 km, the 88 kWh battery would give a range of 382 kilometers.

Taeb also spoke about some of the nuance of the vehicle. Fords Mustang Mach-E allows you to drive with just one pedal, limiting the use of the brakes, as you can with a last-generation Nissan Leaf an interesting option, which can be turned off. Just like the sound produced by the car: in Unbridled mode, a synthesized engine sound is heard when you accelerate. It can be off to appreciate the silence of electric driving.

Earlier this month, our own, Steve Hanley shared his thoughts on Autoblogs experience with Ford Mustang Mach-E, pointing out that even though it could be considered a worthy competitor for the Tesla Model Y, it probably wont suck sales away from Tesla in a notable way. On the other hand, if Ford produced enough, it could really cut into the sales of some gasoline-powered crossovers, like the Ford Edge.

All photos, including the featured image, are courtesy of Tesla Magazine and are used with permission.

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Tags: Ford, Ford Mustang Mach E, Ford Mustang Mach-E Reviews, Tesla Magazine

Johnna Crider is a Baton Rouge artist, gem and mineral collector, member of the International Gem Society, and a Tesla shareholder who believes in Elon Musk and Tesla. Elon Musk advised her in 2018 to Believe in Good. Tesla is one of many good things to believe in. You can find Johnna on Twitter at all hours of the day & night.

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Early Test Drive Of The Ford Mustang Mach-E From Tesla Mag - CleanTechnica

The Trump administration doubled its orders from Pfizer and Moderna this month to 200 million doses each. But both vaccines are given as two doses per person, meaning the U.S. supply will only cover 200 million of the nation's 250 million adults. Authorizing more vaccines for emergency use could immediately increase that stockpile, and also help ensure sufficient vaccine when inoculation is allowed for teens and children.

Johnson & Johnson is preparing to release the first efficacy data on its shot, which is given as a single dose, in January. AstraZeneca could also release more data as early as next month from its late-stage trials, officials with the federal government's Operation Warp Speed said recently. (The company said in a statement that it has "no further updates on the US specific trial.")

An early frontrunner in the global vaccine race, AstraZeneca has sold more shots worldwide than any other manufacturer. Between agreements with the World Health Organization, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness and Innovation and the Serum Institute, a mass manufacturer in India, the British drugmaker has promised nearly 1 billion shots to other countries not including the 300 million it pledged to the U.S.

AstraZenecas vaccine is vastly cheaper than others and much easier to ship and store than vaccines such as Pfizers, that require ultra-cold freezers or dry ice. That makes it an appealing option for hard-to-reach areas in the U.S., as well as lower-income countries with less advanced infrastructure.

But the outlook for the company's vaccine is hazy after AstraZeneca reported last month that nearly 3,000 trial volunteers in the U.K. were accidentally given a half-strength first dose. The regimen proved 90 percent effective in early data, beating the 62 percent efficacy of two standard doses. Some vaccine experts think the lower dose's success could be a statistical fluke, since 3,000 people is a small slice of the tens of thousands of people enrolled in the company's trials; others say it could indicate a clearly better option.

AstraZeneca would still have to fully test the lower dosing regimen before applying to the Food and Drug Administration for emergency-use authorization. The agency is also requiring that drug companies follow at least half the trial volunteers for two months after their last dose.

A company spokesperson said that there is "nothing to share on U.S. filing plans at this time."

But the FDA's minimum criteria for seeking authorization do not tell the full story of a vaccine's value, said Peter Hotez, a virologist and dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine.

Initial efficacy over the first two months is only one of several aspects that requires consideration," said Hotez, who is also developing a potential coronavirus shot with partners in India. Other vaccines may offer advantages in terms of durability of protection, tolerability, safety, suitability for children or adolescents, and for that well require additional vaccines.

Pfizer and Moderna only recently started studying their vaccines in children as young as 12 years old, and no manufacturer has begun trials in children even younger. Regulators have also called for more data in pregnant women and for certain risk factors like heart disease, diabetes and other illnesses that could affect the immune system. Health experts say that a vaccine that may only work moderately overall may be best for key subpopulations, such as pregnant women.

The latest news in health care politics and policy.

And some of the vaccines still in development may prove easier to manufacture, transport or administer than the Pfizer and Moderna shots.

Both of those authorized vaccines use relatively new messenger RNA technology to instruct cells to make a protein found on the virus, which revs up the body's immune system. J&J and AstraZeneca use a more traditional method, in which small bits of DNA from the coronavirus are edited into a weakened version of another virus called an an adenovirus. When the adenovirus enters cells, they read its DNA and produce a protein found in the coronavirus.

One theory about the AstraZeneca dosing confusion is that a full dose of the adenovirus triggered too big of an immune response so the body didnt have time to learn much about the coronavirus it was meant to protect against, said Rasmussen. There is still value in having that information, because maybe [AstraZeneca] can start assessing that half-dose regimen.

But the AstraZeneca data could present a quandary for FDAs independent vaccine advisory panel, which has been meeting publicly to discuss each candidate in a bid to boost transparency and public confidence. The company has said that combined results so far from its Phase III trials show its vaccine to be 70 percent effective. But the two dosing regimens tell different stories: 90 percent is basically comparable with the existing vaccines; 62 percent is not.

You cant reasonably combine data from two different dosing strategies, two different dosing intervals and two different placebo groups, Paul Offit, a vaccine expert at the University of Pennsylvania who sits on the FDAs expert panel, the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee.

It also presents a sticky situation for the largest national vaccination plan in history. While the two vaccines authorized now have nearly identical efficacy and safety profiles and use the same technology, having a more varied roster of vaccines would be harder to distribute fairly.

There are obvious ethical issues: If one vaccine is more effective than the others, who gets what, right? said Philip Landrigan, director of the global public health program at Boston College, who stressed the importance of clear federal planning if that happens. Transparency and openness have another benefit beyond just ensuring that the system works well it could persuade people who are reluctant to get the vaccine.

Read more:
The first Covid vaccines were triumphs. What if the next are only OK? - POLITICO

Coronavirus has changed lives and industries across the UK, accelerating fundamental shifts in behaviour and consumption that were already on their way. Debates about home working, preserving local high streets and the ethics of air travel were bubbling away before coronavirus rampaged across the world, but the consequences of the worst pandemic in more than a century have either settled those arguments or boosted the momentum behind certain lifestyle changes. Here we look at how those debates have been changed or resolved by Covid-19.

Coronavirus wont kill cinema, but it will forever change the movie-going experience. This year the global box office is likely to be just a quarter of the record $42bn (31bn) set in 2019 and UK cinema admissions are set to hit their lowest level since records began.

At the start of the pandemic theatre owners were confident that once the virus had been tamed, the blockbusters and their fans would return. However, Hollywood studios, fearful of empty seats making for box office flops, spied an unprecedented chance to bypass cinemas and make films available via streaming services. This has broken the sacrosanct tradition of months of big-screen exclusivity, outraging theatre owners who rely on that model to make their businesses viable.

Warner Bros has said its entire slate of 21 films, from Dune to The Suicide Squad, will debut on its streaming service, HBO Max, at the same time as in US cinemas next year. The same thing has already happened to Wonder Woman 1984, which was simultaneously released to US theatres and living rooms on Christmas Day. A precedent has been set over separating cinema release from streaming availability.

Cinema still has a role to play. The economics of blockbusters, which cost hundreds of millions to make and distribute, means films of such scale need the multimillion-dollar returns from the big-screen global box office. But in the future it is likely that movie fans will no longer have to wait endless months before streaming the latest blockbuster from their sofa. Mark Sweney

Rail was regarded as a privatisation too far even by Margaret Thatcher, before her Conservative successors went ahead in 1994. Then state spending on the industry vastly increased after Railtrack collapsed and the infrastructure behind it was brought under government control as Network Rail, although the franchise owners who operated the trains remained privately controlled.

Private train operators liked to take credit for the passengers who flocked back in record numbers; but most voters still backed nationalisation, polls showed. Even though a decade of intermittent franchising troubles showed reform was desperately needed, and the government had to step in twice to take over the east coast mainline, only Labour under Jeremy Corbyn gave a full-throated commitment to return the rest of rail into public hands.

But Covid-19 and lockdown restrictions meant passengers all but disappeared for parts of 2020. Following years of unresolved debate and inquiry over the best format for the industry, franchises were summarily scrapped overnight in March. Emergency contracts are more or less embedded until 2022: the industry now runs on Treasury cash, and is likely to do so for some time to come. British Rail may be history but nonetheless, by July the Office for National Statistics had reclassified the industry as, de facto, renationalised. Gwyn Topham

At the start of the millennium the Labour government concluded expansion of Heathrow was the answer to airport capacity constraints, granting planning permission which was overturned by the coalition in 2010. After another commission re-examined all the options, a third Heathrow runway was again approved by MPs in 2018.

A legal challenge to the policy on environmental grounds was first rejected, then upheld on appeal, before finally being dismissed by the supreme court this month.

In the long term, the climate crisis arguments might indeed prove the most compelling. But for now it is coronavirus that has all but swept aside the arguments for expansion. At its peak, Heathrow was constrained to its maximum permitted movements: a plane taking off or landing every 45 seconds, and passenger numbers growing beyond 70 million a year only through bigger, fuller planes.

Yet Novembers traffic figures showed only a tenth of the usual number of passengers passing through, leaving the airport using only one runway. Given the potential for a permanent decline in long-haul and business travel since the world turned to Zoom, the airport may struggle to present a compelling business case for expansion for some time to come. Gwyn Topham

The tumbleweed bowled down high streets this year as home working supercharged the growth of online shopping, with Debenhams and Topshop-owner Arcadia among the big casualties. And the shift is clear. In the third quarter of this year, 27% of retail sales were online compared with 18% the year before, according to the Office for National Statistics.

The pandemic pressed fast-forward on the painful restructuring process of an industry where fewer stores are needed to meet the needs of shoppers in the internet age. With each year more clothing, homeware and food will be bought online. This will create jobs for delivery drivers and in warehouses but not in shops, which employ around 3 million people across the UK.

What will happen with these empty stores? Rents have fallen sharply as landlords adjust to the post-pandemic reality, and changed working patterns show how neighbourhoods can blossom when people live and work nearby. This creates opportunities for businesses with the right offer and cost base. For instance, empty department stores are being converted into flats, food halls and crazy-golf courses. The high street is dead, long live the high street but not as we knew it. Zoe Wood

Technology rode to the rescue for British businesses when they had to send their staff home in the spring. High-speed internet, video-conferencing, chatrooms: everything required to work remotely was already widely available.

As a result, the year of working from home has generally been considered a great success. Banks are leading the drive for a permanent shift with Lloyds Banking Group and Barclays reviewing the amount of office space they use and Standard Chartered permanently shifting to flexible routines. Google and Facebook, which have substantial workforces in the UK, will embrace partial homeworking permanently.

But working from home isnt without its challenges. The impact on creativity, loss of interaction and serendipitous conversations, and lack of support for younger staff, are all cited as good reasons to return to offices. Workers juggling childcare and their job, and employees living in cramped flats, have also missed their desks.

Nonetheless, it appears that home working has been a bigger hit in the UK than elsewhere. British office workers were spending an average of 2.7 days per week at home in November, according to the US bank Morgan Stanley, compared with 2.1 days in France and Italy, and slightly less than that in Germany and Spain. Research found that UK workers spent just over a third (39%) of their working hours in the office in November, lagging the European average of 56%. The trend looks set to continue, with UK employees expected to request flexible working for 2.3 days per week, more than in the other four European nations. Joanna Partridge

Any lingering doubt that the UKs wind turbines and solar farms can provide a backbone for the electricity system were cast aside during the pandemic as renewable energy set new records through the year.

The collapse in energy demand following the lockdown of office blocks, schools and restaurants combined with the UKs bright, breezy weather helped renewable energy make up almost half of all electricity in the early months of the year. New records for solar power and wind generation followed in June and December respectively.

Stephen Stead, a director at energy provider SSE, said the low electricity demand levels in 2020 gave us an unprecedented peek at a future electricity market dominated by renewables and we learned that we can do it.

Wind and solar power will be able to play an even greater role in the future as investment in battery storage and flexible energy use becomes the norm. But in 2020 renewables proved they are already prepared to exceed expectations. Jillian Ambrose

The move to cashless payments accelerated this year, partly because so much spending moved online, and partly because of fears of infection through notes and coins. The contactless limit was raised to 45 and many outlets went cash-free.

According to the ATM provider Link, in the first full week of the spring lockdown withdrawals fell by 57% in value compared with the same week in 2019. Numbers went up as restrictions were eased, but by October the value of cash withdrawals was still down by 30% year-on-year.

However, throughout the year there have been queues outside banks, and the Bank of England has reported that the value of notes in circulation has increased since March, to approaching 80bn. In the days prior to Novembers lockdown, cash withdrawals surged.

There is still a core of people who use and depend on cash, and holding physical money seems to be a safety measure for some. Early on in lockdown, a Link survey found 14% consumers were keeping more cash at home in case of emergencies. The decline of cash as a payment method has been speeded up, but there is still a long way to go before we give it up. Hilary Osborne

Read more here:
Future shock: how will Covid change the course of business? - The Guardian

The mountainous forests of northern Madagascar are biodiverse beyond measure, containing plant and animal species found nowhere else on the planet. Other forests in Madagascar have been lost in recent centuries and decades, but these have stood the test of time and remained relatively unscathed. They are difficult to access, and some have been officially protected since the 1920s. And yet their protected status is no longer enough: satellite data show they are now being cut down at an increasing rate.

In May, Mongabay reported on the dire situation in Tsaratanana Reserve. Since then, deforestation has continued apace, both in Tsaratanana and a neighboring protected area called COMATSA. Levels of deforestation have spiked since September, according to satellite data from the University of Maryland (UMD) visualized on Global Forest Watch. The dry months of September and October are normally peak season for slash-and-burn, and sources say the clearing is especially severe this year due to economic pressures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Experts say the forests are being burned and cleared primarily to make space for fields of marijuana, vanilla, and rice. The scale of the biodiversity loss is immeasurable, conservationists add.Many of the forest areas are so remote that their flora and fauna have not yet been surveyed.

[This] is a loss for everyone, Brian Fisher, an entomologist at the California Academy of Sciences who has worked in the region, told Mongabay after looking at satellite images that show the deforestation. It hurts my heart to see these patches. It hurts because I know that the value of the forest as a forest is so much more.

Tsaratanana, which means good place in Malagasy, has a certain mystique among scientists. Its a magical forest the most mysterious place in the entirety of Madagascar, Maria Vorontsova, a botanist at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, who has worked in the reserve, told Mongabay.

Its now unclear how long the reserve will remain in good health. Tsatanananas river valleys, where species richness is especially high, are being stripped of their forests, more so than in past decades, when they did face some threats. Meanwhile, at higher altitudes, once-continuous forest is being threatened for the first time as clearing advances upward; Mongabay has identified several recently deforested areas at elevations higher than 1,600 meters (about 5,200 feet), which researchers say marks the threshold for habitat that is particularly important for the regions endemic, endangered wildlife.

The change did not come overnight. Deforestation levels in Tsaratanana inched up in recent decades, then exploded in the last few years. Between 1996 and 2006, Tsaratanana lost only about 0.1 % of its forest cover to deforestation per year; things got worse from 2006 to 2016, when the level of deforestation increased to about 0.5 % per year, according to a three-volume compendium of Madagascars protected areas published by the University of Chicago Press in 2018. Since 2016, the rate has been 1.3% or higher every year, according to Madagascar National Parks (MNP), a semi-public agency that manages the reserve. Government data for 2020 is not yet available, but preliminary satellite data from UMD visualized on Global Forest Watch indicate the deforestation rate in 2020 may be higher than in years past.

The double whammy of deforestation and climate change could have a severe impact on wildlife populations, scientists warn. Tsaratananas elevational range makes the area suitable for a diverse set of plants and animals, including, for example, four genera of endemic bamboo (Hickelia, Oldeania, Sokinochloa and Nastus) and 15 species of tenrec (family Tenrecidae), a shrew-like animal. The reserve also provides crucial habitat for several threatened species found nowhere else in the world, including at least four endangered frog species: Rhombophryne guentherpetersi, Rhombophryne ornata, Rhombophryne tany and Cophyla alticola.

Many species will likely have to shift upslope as the area warms. Indeed, the warming is already pronounced the protected areas average temperature increased by 2.4 Celsius (4.3 Fahrenheit) between 1985 and 2014, according to the compendium and some species have already shifted. If their habitats become fragmented by deforestation, they may have nowhere to go to escape the heat.

The primary cause of deforestation in Tsaratanana is marijuana cultivation, according to MNP. The area is reportedly attractive to marijuana growers and smugglers because of its remoteness. Marijuana cultivation is illegal in Madagascar, regardless of protected area status, and Tsaratanana is one of only two major production areas.

Some of the marijuana product is exported via Nosy Be, a coastal city in the northwest, to nearby Indian Ocean islands. It fetches high prices in the island of Mauritius: an average of about $67 per gram, according to a forthcoming report from the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime. Marijuana is also consumed in Madagascar. The price there is low about $0.03 per gram but its still considered a profitable domestic business.

To stop the clearing and burning, MNP is partnering with law enforcement, forming what it calls mixed brigades that descend into the depths of the forest. According to MNP, the brigades have conducted five missions this year, during which they arrested 13 people, destroyed dozens of camps and shelters, and incinerated several tons of marijuana that had already been packaged in bags and cans; they also destroyed 35 hectares (86 acres) of marijuana fields.

UMD satellite data show significant deforestation since September. When first contacted for this article, in October, MNP representatives indicated that the data were misleading that many of the recent tree cover loss alerts were showing deforestation from previous years. However, following brigade missions over the last three months, MNP has confirmed to Mongabay that many of the alerts from the satellite system reflect recent deforestation. Satellite imagery of locations corresponding with the alerts also confirms that much of the deforestation is recent, particularly in upland areas.

Tsaratanana is not the only protected area in the region facing deforestation pressures due to shifting agriculture. COMATSA, a protected area that abuts Tsaratanana to the east, has also seen an increase in deforestation this year and a spike in the last three months, especially in the east of the protected area.

In COMATSA, people are clearing the forest mainly to plant vanilla or rice, and there is also a very small amount of marijuana cultivation, according to Maeva Volanoro, a technical officer for WWF, which manages the protected area.

For many years, COMATSA was somewhat well protected, with deforestation rates at just 0.3-0.5% of the protected areas forest cover per year, according to WWF. But that has changed in the last three years.

Some of the change has been due to fluctuations in international commodities prices. Madagascar produces roughly 80% of the worlds vanilla, and much of it cultivated in the northeast. In 2018, vanilla prices were especially high, and this led to a demand for more land to grow the beans. Consequently, deforestation rates in COMATSA increased to 1.7%, which amounted to 4,224 hectares (10,438 acres) of forest lost that year, about one-third of which was in the hard-core zones designated to protect primary forest. As the vanilla price dropped, pressure on the forests went down by about half in 2019, but deforestation is on the rise again this year, despite low vanilla prices, Volanoro said.

The regional outpost of the environment ministry has attempted to control the spate of slash-and-burn in COMATSA, with three patrols since August. Its work on the ground has confirmed what the Global Forest Watch data show.

Like weve seen in the satellites, the situation is bad, Volanoro told Mongabay.

As in Tsaratanana, the deforestation poses a threat to COMATSAs biodiversity. Its one of the only homes of the critically endangered silky sifaka (Propithecus candidus), a large lemur with white fur. Its also a crucial link in the chain of mountainous forests running across northern Madagascar. Indeed, the name COMATSA is short for corridor Marojejy Tsaratanana; it was designed to connect Marojejy National Park in the northeast with Tsaratanana Reserve in the northwest. It became a fully fledged protected area in 2015. Officially, its two protected areas, COMATSA north and south, with slightly different conservation rules in each.

Unlike Tsaratanana, COMATSA has a mixed-use status that permits local people to pursue livelihoods such as farming and to use resources in the protected area (except in the hard-core zones that have stricter rules). Community groups from villages near the protected area help manage and patrol it, with support from WWF.

Despite the more flexible rules, all of the clearing detected in COMATSA is illegal: even in sections of the protected area where human activity is allowed, deforestation is not. Moreover, slash-and-burn farming violates national law unless a permit is issued.

The uptick in deforestation since September coincides with the regions dry season, which is normally the peak period for slash-and-burn activity. Fires are easier to set in the dry conditions, and cultivation isnt possible then, so people have time to clear the forest in preparation for the rainy season, which begins in November or December.

Economic pressures caused by this years global recession are exacerbating the seasonal trend, local conservationists say. A lack of tourism in Madagascar has rippled through the entire economy, leaving people who live near the forests with less money, and thus more need to exploit them. Meanwhile, MNP has missed out on nearly all of the revenue it earned from ticket fees at the 46 protected areas it runs: it took in $1.84 million in ticket fees in 2019, but only about 5% of that this year.

These multilayered conservation challenges will not be easy to solve, but the singular nature of the problem in Tsaratanana does lend itself to possible solutions. Conservationists told Mongabay that if marijuana cultivation laws were changed, a more transparent farming and management system could be put in place and people would have little reason to farm the crop in the depths of the forest. Madagascars environment ministry did not respond to a request for comment for this article, including a question about whether such reforms are being considered.

Madagascars marijuana laws are a remnant of French colonialism and, perhaps, subject to change. Many countries around the world have reformed their marijuana laws in recent years, and a 2019 op-ed in La Gazette, a Malagasy newspaper, called for Madagascar to do the same. The author argued that legalizing the trade would benefit farmers, medical users, and the public purse. It might also help the tenrecs in the countrys northern forests.

Banner image of a silky sifaka adult and baby in Marojejy National Park by Jeff Gibbs via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Editors note:This story was powered byPlaces to Watch, a Global Forest Watch (GFW) initiative designed to quickly identify concerning forest loss around the world and catalyze further investigation of these areas. Places to Watch draws on a combination of near-real-time satellite data, automated algorithms and field intelligence to identify new areas on a monthly basis. In partnership with Mongabay, GFW is supporting data-driven journalism by providing data and maps generated by Places to Watch. Mongabay maintains complete editorial independence over the stories reported using this data.

Feedback:Use this formto send a message to the editorof this post. If you want to post a public comment, you can do that at the bottom of the page.

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A Madagascar forest long protected by its remoteness is now threatened by it - Mongabay.com

London leavers bought 73,950 homes outside the capital in 2020, as the coronavirus pandemic led the biggest exodus from London in four years.

People from London bought homes worth a collective 27.6bn over the course of the year the largest amount spent since 2007, according to research by the estate agent Hamptons.

The dash for property outside the capital was partly driven by a desire for larger homes with more space for home offices and gardens sparked by life under lockdowns. The same trend was experienced in other big cities across the country.

Sevenoaks, Windsor and Maidenhead, and Oxford were the three areas that experienced the biggest increase in the share of homes bought by Londoners, compared with 2019.

The stamp duty holiday, suspending payment of the tax on the first 500,000 of all property sales in England and Northern Ireland until April 2021, also helped to boost house sales.

Despite Covid-19 closing the housing market for seven weeks, the number of homes bought by Londoners outside the capital has risen to the highest level in four years, said Aneisha Beveridge, head of research at Hamptons.

While leaving London has been a rite of passage for many, often families reaching life-stage milestones, the effects of lockdown and the desire for space seems to have heightened this drift.

Meanwhile, the lure of a stamp duty holiday acted as an impetus for more buyers to bring future planned moves forward. The prospect of homeworking more regularly has also meant that London leavers are moving further than ever before. The average London leaver moved 10 miles further than in 2019 as buyers favour space over commutability.

The research found that the average distance moved by a Londoner buying outside the capital hit 40 miles for the first time in more than a decade, up from 28 miles during the first three months of the year.

This means the average person leaving London from May onwards travels as far as Cambridge to the north, Colchester to the east, Brighton to the south or Didcot to the west.

Hamptons said first-time buyers tended to stay closer to London than those selling up their capital home for a lifestyle change. Since May, the average first-time buyer leaving the capital bought 26 miles away.

Conversely, someone selling a home in London tends to sever their ties more deeply by moving much further, the agency said. The average person selling their London home to buy outside the capital travels 41 miles, 57% further than a first-time buyer. These numbers are reflected in the sorts of homes leavers buy, with someone buying a two-bed property moving an average of 34 miles, while someone buying a four-bed travels 43 miles.

This year, 62% of homes in Sevenoaks were bought by a Londoner, 39% higher than in 2019. Windsor and Maidenhead (+27%), Oxford (+17%) and Rushmoor (+15%) in Hampshire followed.

In the first half of 2020, London leavers bought 6.9% of homes sold outside the capital, equating to 24,480 sales. However, in the second half of 2020, this figure rose to 7.8% and twice as many sales (49,470). In the final six months of 2020, Londoners bought 18.4bn worth of property outside the capital, more than in any full year between 2008 and 2013.

Beveridge said she expected the outmigration trend to continue next year. But usually as prices in the capital begin to flatline, which we forecast to happen in the second half of 2021, more Londoners decide to stay put, she said. Even so, given the housing market has been anything but normal since the onset of Covid, we expect to see the total number of homes bought by London leavers next year to hit 2016 levels.

The average price of a UK home started the year at 239,927, according to the mortgage lender Halifax, dropped to 237,00 after the first lockdown, then rocketed to 253,243. Between the end of June and the end of November, prices experienced the fastest five-month gain since 2004.

The pandemic triggered some clear changes in what people wanted in a home. The website Zoopla analysed searches by buyers and found that open-plan living was sharply down in popularity as more people worked from home while a home office or study and gardens became the priority. Detached, rural and secluded became Zooplas fourth, fifth and sixth most common search terms, as greater numbers of people shunned metropolitan living.

Sevenoaks: 39% increase.

Windsor and Maidenhead: 27% increase.

Oxford: 17% increase.

Rushmoor: 15% increase.

Eastbourne: 15% increase.

Wokingham: 13% increase.

Stevenage: 12% increase.

Luton: 10% increase.

Epsom and Ewell: 10% increase.

Brighton and Hove: 10% increase.

Excerpt from:
Covid led to huge London property exodus, says Hamptons - The Guardian

President-elect Joe Biden gave a sobering year-end message, particularly about the challenges remaining in the Covid-19 crisis and in the impact of the massive cyberattack on U.S. government agencies.

Biden said that there was hope with a new vaccine, which he received on Monday, but that the virus is still raging out of control, with more than 3,000 deaths per day.

Here is the simple truth: Our darkest days in the battle against covid are ahead of us, not behind us. So we need to prepare ourselves, to steel our spines. As frustrating as it is to hear, its going to take patience, persistence and determination to beat this virus.

The major news networks and NBC and ABC carried the remarks. CBS streamed the remarks on CBSN.

Related StoryUnemployment: Benefits End For Millions, Future Stimulus Funding Uncertain

Biden praised Congress for working together to pass another Covid-19 relief bill, but said that additional measures will be needed, including money for vaccine distribution and additional stimulus checks to boost the economy.

He criticized President Donald Trump for his response, or lack of response, the the cyberattack. Ive seen no evidence that suggests its under control, Biden said, adding that the Defense Department wont even brief us.

Biden said that Trumps failure will land on my doorstep, and he cited comments from some members of the administration, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Attorney General William Barr, who have said that Russia likely was behind it. Trump, though, has cast doubt on that assessment and pointed to China as a culprit.

The truth is this, the Trump administration failed to prioritize cybersecurity, said Biden, adding that Trump has been engaged in an irrational downplaying the seriousness of the hack.

Asked whether he thought that he would get a honeymoon period when he takes office, or a period in which politicians of both parties tone down their rhetoric and work together, Biden said, I dont think its a honeymoon. I think its a nightmare that everybodys going through, and they all say, Its got to end. Its not a honeymoon. Theyre not doing me a favor.

After he took a series of questions, Fox News Peter Doocy asked Biden whether he thinks the stories about his son, Hunter Biden, that came out during the campaign were Russian disinformation and a smear effort.

Yes, yes, yes, Biden said. God love you. Youre a one-horse pony.

He added that his Justice Department will be totally on its own in making judgments about how they should proceed.

Hunter Biden revealed earlier this month that he was under a federal investigation of his taxes.

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Joe Biden, In Year-End Message, Warns That Our Darkest Days In The Battle Against Covid Are Ahead Of Us - Deadline