Highlights

Community-driven development (CDD) programs, which put people at the center of designing their own solutions, are a critical part of the World Banks response to the global COVID-19 crisis.

The Bank is supporting countries in Horn of Africa and in Solomon Islands through CDD programs that are delivering cash and basic services to the most vulnerable.

To tackle a crisis of this magnitude and scale, our countries need an equitable, whole-of-society approach, which lies at the heart of CDD programs.

The COVID-19 pandemic has upended lives across the world. The crisis continues to have devasting impacts on people, with a disproportionate impact on the poor and the vulnerable, who are faced with job and income loss, uncertain food supply, and disruptions in health and education programs.

The most vulnerable lack the essential services they need to prevent or manage an outbreak, including migrants, persons living with disability, women, the elderly, LGBTI, indigenous peoples, and other marginalized groups will struggle. For example, refugees living in camps and settlements already battling overcrowding, limited water and sanitation facilities, and shortages of medical supplies could face disastrous outcomes. Similarly, persons with disabilities will face constraints in accessing basic necessities or critical medical appointments due to reduction of public transportation services.

The World Bank Group recognizes the urgency of the issue and is taking broad, fast action to help developing countries respond to COVID-19. In a health, social, and economic crisis of this scale, no single intervention is enough, and countries need to use every available platform and tool. As part of the World Banks operational response to the pandemic, community-driven development (CDD) programs, which put people at the center of designing their own solutions, have been effective in providing quick, large scale responses to tackle this crisis, including in remote and conflict ridden areas. These programs often complement traditional safety net systems by delivering cash transfers and basic services to the poorest and most vulnerable, including sanitation, water, and food through urban and rural programs that involve hundreds of thousands of communities and local civic leaders. CDD programs also protect the most marginalized by targeting livelihood support for women, persons with disabilities, unemployed youth, refugees, internally displaced persons (IDPs), and returned migrants.

During a crisis like this, trusted community leaders and local governments face enormous demands with limited administrative and financial capacity. In this context, CDD platforms are a critical part of the World Banks response by providing an opportunity to tap into productive partnerships between community groups, civil society, private sector and governments. These partnerships operate on the principles of transparency, participation, accountability, sustainability, and enhanced local capacity all of which are crucial to deliver essential services to people who need it most.

While this pandemic has the potential to fracture societies, it is the resilience, solidarity, strength, and ingenuity of communities at their best that will overcome this. Here are a few examples of World Bank operations are that using community-based approaches to get the vital resources to communities in the Horn of Africa and Solomon Islands.

Horn of Africa: Uganda, Djibouti, Kenya, Ethiopia

As the Horn of Africa was just starting to grapple with the displacement crisis, the largest in recorded history, the COVID-19 pandemic hit. In response to the mass and protracted displacement of over four million refugees, the World Bank began to support Djibouti, Kenya, Ethiopia and Uganda with the Development Response to Displacement Impacts Project (DRDIP) aimed at improving access to basic social services, expanding economic opportunities, and enhancing environmental management for communities hosting refugees.. The DRDIP is a 428 million regional operation that has reached more than 1.5 million beneficiaries, including host communities and refugees. Today, this community-led platform is being adapted to meet the social demands brought on by COVID-19.

For both refugees and their host communities, a common set of challenges have emerged. For one, the relationship between the two can often be fragile and complex. False or misleading information on COVID-19 has the potential to polarize, and further any stigmatization between the two groups. With government lockdowns come the need to effectively and accurately disseminate information related to the virus as many are forced to follow stay-at-home orders and, as a result, may not otherwise come across this important information.

The disruption of informal sector livelihoods, which are a mainstay for refugees and host communities, is also reportedly causing social tensions. Since the lockdown began in several countries, there has also been a marked increase in instances and reporting of gender-based violence (GBV) and violence against children. The pandemic threatens to unravel the important progress made in recent years to improve womens and girls accumulation of human capital, economic empowerment, voice and agency.

In response to the pandemic, the World Bank will scale up the DRDIP project to help mitigate its social and economic risks. The mapping of health and WASH facilities is underway and will inform post-COVID infrastructure investments. Under Ugandas DRDIP, social and water conservation and land clearing activities are being implemented in small groups of five people working in rotation and following new protocols of social distancing. Individual agriculture cultivation and livestock rearing continue. The operation in Uganda is also refocusing its efforts by helping community organizations share prevention and basic hygiene messages through radio, short message services (SMS), and other digital means. The focus has also shifted to providing support to health centers, Water Supply, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) related investments, doubling beneficiary numbers that will participate in LIPW, and increasing funding to support enterprise-based livelihoods like produce and livestock trading, cage fish farming, and grinding mills for women and youth. Furthermore, the operation will also monitor information on GBV and violence against children and support rapid and adequate referral of cases that have increased following COVID outbreak. Approximately 3 million beneficiaries will be reached across the DRDIP countries.

Solomon Islands

Like many Pacific Island nations, the Solomon Islands are home to a strong community-based culture. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the existing CDD project has been adapted to tackle immediate needs, and is already showing signs of progress. The World Bank-financed Community Access and Urban Services Enhancement (CAUSE) project in the Solomon Islands aims to improve the delivery of basic infrastructure and services through the provision of skills training, short-term job opportunities, and income generation for vulnerable populations, including unemployed youth and women, who may not otherwise have any other opportunities for formal employment.

As in the Horn of Africa, social unrest and violence have plagued the Solomon Islands. From 1998 to 2003, the country underwent a period of conflict known as Tensions, with additional periodic violence in 2006 and more recently in April 2019, following the elections. To offset the risk of violence and social unrest, the World Bank is scaling up short-term employment and training activities for vulnerable groups, especially women, youth, the urban poor and the majority of workers in the informal sector who many have lost their main source of income. The World Bank is also supporting the Ministry of Health and Medical Services in their effort to increase prevention and awareness efforts through the sanitation of public areas, construction of public hand washing stations, and training workers and communities on key symptoms and prevention measures.

CDD programs are often chosen because of their ability to adapt swiftly in responding to emergencies and disseminating resources to aid recovery efforts. The agility of the CAUSE project illustrates this point. Amid the government-issued closure of schools and certain businesses, this project is supporting COVID-19 prevention efforts by reinstating critical roads and access for frontline works. It is also delivering additional strategic investments to help stimulate the local economy and protect the livelihoods and incomes of vulnerable groups. The World Bank is coordinating with a range of development partners from the private, public and civil society sectors on investments ranging from the promotion of tourism-enabling infrastructure and services to the construction of markets to help to promote economic activity and create employment.

These are early days in the World Banks response to COVID-19. The operations are drawing lessons from previous pandemics, including the 2014-16 Ebola outbreak, which highlighted the importance of CDD programs in crisis management and recovery to complement medical efforts. In the case of COVID-19, partnerships between communities, healthcare systems, local governments, and the private sector can play a critical role in slowing the spread, mitigating impacts, enhancing ownership and sustainability, and supporting local recovery.

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Community Responses to COVID-19: From the Horn of Africa to the Solomon Islands - World - ReliefWeb

MEADOW GREEN, N.S.

If you are wise enough to find yourself wandering a river under old hardwoods over the coming days, look down.

Because while it is good to be wise, it is better to be lucky.

And if you are both, you will see a wide carpet of flowering blood root.

Out toward the fringe of the flowers, the dutchmans breeches may be swinging on their green line.

The nodding trillium, however, most likely wont be quite yet roused from its slumber to welcome the bees.

Give it another week.

Our man-made hybrids are just clumsy when compared to a wildflower, said Bruce Partridge on Tuesday.

Its like comparing a deer to a cow.

Small flowers are blooming now in our old forests.

It is a display of beauty made all the more precious for its being so fleeting.

A few more warm days and the blood root, which bleeds bright red when cut, and the dutchmans breeches, named by some forgotten soul who saw in their aspect a pair of shorts hung out to dry, will be done with flowering.

Because to be elegant is to be parsimonious in both form and presence.

They are just enough flower to attract the bumbling bees without exposing themselves unnecessarily to wind, rain and frost.

They are with us just long enough to get pollinated.

And their symmetrical beauty is enough to confoundthe arguments of Charles Darwins followers that survival is natures only polestar.

Next to bloom will be the nodding trilliums and the yellow violets, then the blue bead lily and the jack in the pulpits.

Then it will be June and the leaves of the elderly sugar maple and ash trees will be fully formed and stealing the sun.

Down where the East Pomquet River wends through Meadow Green, Antigonish County, the fiddleheads and sensitive ferns will unfurl themselves and grab whats left of the energy produced by a nuclear furnace 150 million kilometres away.

And the floor of this small copse of old forest will be shadowy and damp until winters return.

These are just the lowland flowers, said Partridge.

Theres also the flowers of the upland hardwoods, coniferous forest, the Guysborough bogs. Each has its own florae and each is just as amazing and just as complicated.

Partridge discovered this patch of wildflowers while out walking the Meadow Greens unpaved main three decades ago.

Trained as a botanist in Utah before lifes meandering path saw him building a homestead and raising children and plants in Antigonish County, he recognized the wildflower from a picture in a book.

When the first settlers came they were everywhere, said Partridge.

Theres only the tiniest fraction left after all our land clearing and cutting. Its not really fair to pin blame because hardly anyone pays attention to what their wheels drive over.

They arent just pretty flowers.

They are the now preciously rare signs of an untrammeled ecosystem.

These wildflowers spread primarily by their roots. This patch of blood root on this bend of the East Pomquet River could be a thousand years old.

So could the ferns whose root systems overlay and intertwine with that of the flowers and the towering hardwoods overhead.

Those like Partridge who make a life seeking to understand these places do not walk on the earth.

They walk between a living system for the gathering of water and nutrients and another for the inhaling of light and carbon dioxide.

He tried for years to breed these flowers from seed, failing season after season.

Then watching the ants carry the seeds, that have these fatty flaps to attract them, you realize its something they do or are involved in, said Partridge.

The find on that morning walk led to a rekindling of his fascination with these flowers.

It led him and his wife Mary to start Borealis Wildflowers a mail-order seed catalogue.

Though he survived a long battle with cancer, the company didnt.

And ever since beating the terminal prognosis of the disease, hes seen in these flowers a wisdom.

They are above the earth long enough to do what needs to be done.

They are beautiful while they are here.

And then they are gone.

They know where they stand, said Partridge, 72.

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Something beautiful is happening in Nova Scotias forests - TheChronicleHerald.ca

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Vsir/Icelandic Road Administration

All in all it took four days to break through a thick snowdrift which accumulated over the course of the winter on the road into Mjafjrur. The road is now open again after having been closed since around October.

Foreman at the Reyarfjrur service center of the Icelandic Road and Coastal Administration Ari B. Gumundsson stated on the Administrations website, We started shoveling the snow away last Friday. We continued on Monday and a narrow path, complete with corners to pull over for oncoming cars, and were completed by the middle of the day on Wednesday.

After four days of hard work, the road into Mjafjrur has been opened, though it was not easy to clear through the thick snowdrift previously present there, Frttablai reports.

The road was first closed in October last year. It was cleared around the middle of the month for the emergency services, who had to move in equipment to place fiber-optic cables in Mjafjrur. It was cleared again at the end of November and beginning of December to transport the equipment back out of Mjafjrur. The road was left open just a little longer in order to allow the Minister of Transportation to inaugurate the cables and has been closed since shortly thereafter, until now.

About 14 people live in Mjafjrur all year around, and they have everything they need in Brekkuorp. In the winter the road is often closed, and the only way in or out is by boat, at which time the ferry Bjrgvin sails between Brekkuorp and Neskaupstaur twice a week.

According to locals there was an usually high quantity of snow this year. Work on the tunnel will continue over the next few days, but at first there will only be Jeeps on the road. Four-wheel drives should be able to get on the road by tomorrow, but smaller private cars are likely to pass only after the weekend.

According to Ari, weather conditions will greatly influence when the road in Mjafjrur is cleared. Sometimes when there is little snow, the road is only cleared a few times over the course of the winter. In worse years, the road has to continue to be cleared to allow vans to pass all the way into the fall.

He acknowledges that the population has increased in the last few years to complete the land route. Were a bit behind behind in clearing the road compared to last year, due to both the weather conditions and COVID-19.

These weather conditions differ starkly with the mild temperatures predicted by Vedur.is in much of the country today. Predicted high temperatures include 15C in Reykjavk, 11C in both Egilsstair in the far east and Patreksfjrur in the Westfjords, and 10C in Akureyri.

Note: Due to the effect the Coronavirus is having on tourism in Iceland, its become increasingly difficult for the Grapevine to survive. If you enjoy our content and want to help the Grapevines journalists do things like eat and pay rent, please consider joining our High Five Club.

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From Iceland Four-Day Battle With a Five-Meter-Deep Snowdrift - Reykjavk Grapevine

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Political references aside, the unequivocal answer is 'no'. Inland and coastal swamps - wetlands - are ecosystems that support all life, including us. If rainforests are the lungs of the planet, wetlands are the kidneys. Trapping nutrients from runoff, they are immensely important filters of fresh and saltwater. This makes them extremely rich habitats, supporting fish, birds and other wildlife, which are integral to the food web. They are breeding grounds for fish and molluscs that are in turn, food for us. As human population climbs relentlessly towards 8 billion people and beyond, we cannot afford to undermine food production systems. Wetlands are also supremely good at capturing carbon dioxide. The remaining mangroves that currently cover 14-15 million hectares around the world, trap an estimated 31 to 34 billion kilograms of carbon every year. Researchers at Deakin University believe that this biosequestration is one of the single largest opportunities for reducing CO2 emissions in Australia. While wetlands cover only about 4 per cent of the earth's land surface, they are sequestering up to 33 per cent of the carbon in soils. In mangrove forests, tidal marshes and seagrass ecosystems, carbon is stored in the soil down to 3 metres. By clearing them, we remove the carbon sinks and also make coastlines vulnerable to storm damage. In inland waters, wetlands and healthy riparian zones also trap nutrients and preserve soil. Healthy rivers also store considerably more carbon than unhealthy ones. Concrete drains accelerate runoff, and the increased flow of nutrients exacerbates outbreaks of blue-green algae. These are examples of ecosystem services - work that nature does for us for free. Unfortunately, wetlands also occupy prime waterfront real estate where we like to build houses, hotels, marinas and dockyards. Humanity has an abysmal record of removing wetlands that once covered around 10 per cent of the earth's land surface. In only 50 years, half the world's mangrove forests have vanished. Our attitude to wetlands and other parts of the environment would be different if they were explicitly acknowledged as part of the economy, however, ecosystem services are completely ignored by GDP. In fact, their destruction ostensibly boosts GDP because of the economic activity involved in 'developing' them. Fortunately, many cities have programs to restore urban waterways, making them attractive places while improving the environment. They replace the hard, ugly concrete surfaces with places that are nice to visit. By replacing these, we create natural rainwater buffers, promoting places where amphibians, dragonflies and birds can thrive. The Fuzzy Logic Science Show is 11am Sundays on 2xx 98.3FM. Send your questions to AskFuzzy@Zoho.com Twitter @FuzzyLogicSci Podcast FuzzyLogicOn2xx.Podbean.com

https://nnimgt-a.akamaihd.net/transform/v1/crop/frm/Z4Q6sUEHdcmw72MBPYgZkU/2a2bc265-8742-4521-81c1-429a220b9306.JPG/r13_98_5484_3189_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg

If rainforests are the lungs of the planet, wetlands are the kidneys. Picture: Supplied

Political references aside, the unequivocal answer is 'no'.

Inland and coastal swamps - wetlands - are ecosystems that support all life, including us. If rainforests are the lungs of the planet, wetlands are the kidneys. Trapping nutrients from runoff, they are immensely important filters of fresh and saltwater.

This makes them extremely rich habitats, supporting fish, birds and other wildlife, which are integral to the food web. They are breeding grounds for fish and molluscs that are in turn, food for us. As human population climbs relentlessly towards 8 billion people and beyond, we cannot afford to undermine food production systems.

Wetlands are also supremely good at capturing carbon dioxide. The remaining mangroves that currently cover 14-15 million hectares around the world, trap an estimated 31 to 34 billion kilograms of carbon every year.

Researchers at Deakin University believe that this biosequestration is one of the single largest opportunities for reducing CO2 emissions in Australia.

While wetlands cover only about 4 per cent of the earth's land surface, they are sequestering up to 33 per cent of the carbon in soils.

In mangrove forests, tidal marshes and seagrass ecosystems, carbon is stored in the soil down to 3 metres. By clearing them, we remove the carbon sinks and also make coastlines vulnerable to storm damage.

In inland waters, wetlands and healthy riparian zones also trap nutrients and preserve soil. Healthy rivers also store considerably more carbon than unhealthy ones. Concrete drains accelerate runoff, and the increased flow of nutrients exacerbates outbreaks of blue-green algae.

These are examples of ecosystem services - work that nature does for us for free.

Unfortunately, wetlands also occupy prime waterfront real estate where we like to build houses, hotels, marinas and dockyards.

Humanity has an abysmal record of removing wetlands that once covered around 10 per cent of the earth's land surface. In only 50 years, half the world's mangrove forests have vanished.

Our attitude to wetlands and other parts of the environment would be different if they were explicitly acknowledged as part of the economy, however, ecosystem services are completely ignored by GDP. In fact, their destruction ostensibly boosts GDP because of the economic activity involved in 'developing' them.

Fortunately, many cities have programs to restore urban waterways, making them attractive places while improving the environment. They replace the hard, ugly concrete surfaces with places that are nice to visit.

By replacing these, we create natural rainwater buffers, promoting places where amphibians, dragonflies and birds can thrive.

The Fuzzy Logic Science Show is 11am Sundays on 2xx 98.3FM.

Send your questions to AskFuzzy@Zoho.com Twitter @FuzzyLogicSci Podcast FuzzyLogicOn2xx.Podbean.com

View post:
Ask Fuzzy: Should we drain the swamp? - The Canberra Times

An urgent motion for a moratorium on land clearing on the NSW South Coast is before Shoalhaven City Council as a property developer prepares to raze a local forest.

Manyana residents have been protesting project developer Ozy Homes clearing the forest to make way for nearly 180 housing lots, given so much local bushland has recently burned.

The urgency motion mayor Amanda Findley put to council - which requires a report - was passed 12 votes to one.

If the report is supported at next Tuesday's council meeting urgent representations will be put before Planning Minister Rob Stokes.

Ms Findley says clearing of the forest must be halted because the trees offer a refuge for animals who lost other crucial habitats during the summer's unprecedented bushfires.

"There are animals living in there now that have nowhere else to go because the local forest is so badly burned," Ms Findley told AAP.

Bill Eger, 60, has lived in the area for 35 years and recently helped fight fires that blazed through Conjola National Park.

He said it was hard to think he risked his life alongside emergency services and other members from the local community to save land that would potentially be destroyed by a developer.

"After putting our lives on the line, to save these pockets of ground, to have it then taken out by Ozy Homes ... what's the point," Mr Eger told AAP.

"What are we doing here, why are risking our lives to save these endangered species and little critters, if they're going to be bulldozed a few months later."

Mr Eger is particularly worried about the greater glider possums which had their habitat decimated by the Currowan fire.

"It took 22 years for the gliders to come back to the Conjola National Park, they were making a comeback until the Currowan fire wiped out nearly everything in that park," he said.

Ozy Homes was forced to delay bulldozing about 20 hectares of the Manyana forest following the bushfires for three months and set up fauna boxes to re-home native animals.

"The attempts to try and transfer animals from homes in thriving bushland to burned-out bushland is a ludicrous proposition at this point in time," Ms Findley said.

The council is asking Mr Stokes to halt logging until there is a better understanding of the ecological impacts of the fires in the area.

Protesting residents continued to observe COVID-19 social distancing rules on Wednesday morning by running, cycling and doing yoga in case they needed to physically block workers from entering the site.

Manyana Matters spokeswoman Jorj Lowrey said she understood Ozy Homes was to start clearing land on Wednesday and was pleased those plans had been delayed.

Following yesterday's gathering of more than 100 people, Manyana Matters spokesman Peter Winkler said residents would remain on-site throughout the week.

"The local community will remain vigilant and will launch into action if required," Mr Winkler told AAP.

Comment was sought from Ozy Homes and Mr Stokes.

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Urgent call to halt land clearing in NSW - Yahoo News Australia

Demonstrators were forced to use exercise as a means of protest amid the COVID-19 pandemic on May 4, when New South Wales South Coast residents campaigned against the clearing of forest that had been spared from the catastrophic 2019-2020 bushfires.

Developer Ozy Homes planned to develop a 20-hectare area at Manyana after receiving approval for the project in 2008, according to reports.

However, locals were concerned that the development land had become a last refuge for local wildlife that had lost its habitat during the bushfires.

Social distancing regulations in place across New South Wales to stem the spread of coronavirus had effectively banned mass protests, forcing the demonstrators to use exercise such as yoga and walking as a reason to attend the site.

An estimated 312 homes were destroyed and 500,000 hectares were burnt in the surrounding area by the 74-day Currowan fire in late 2019 and early 2020. The blaze threatened homes and forced resident to evacuate to beaches in the area on New Years Eve.

Record bushfires gripped much of New South Wales in late 2019 and early 2020, with over 11,400 bush and grass fires burning 5.5 million hectares, the equivalent of 6.2 percent of the state of New South Wales. Fires burned across the state for 240 consecutive days between July 2019 and March 2020. Credit: Manyana Matters via Storyful

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Demonstrators Exercise in Protest Against Land Clearing on South Coast During COVID-19 Restrictions - Yahoo News UK

One of the most beneficial trees for wildlife is the oak tree. Oaks offer food, shelter, cover and nesting sites for a number of animals. The branches, nooks, crannies and hollow areas in oak trees afford protection from the elements, a place to rest, escape predators and nesting areas to raise the young.

Many animals feed on the small twigs, buds, shoots and leaves of oaks as well. Oak trees attract hundreds of insects and invertebrates that feed on their foliage. These insects attract insectivorous birds, reptiles, frogs and mammals, developing a very dynamic food web within the forest. Because oak trees attract such a wide variety of insects they are considered to be one of the most important trees for woodland inhabiting birds. Oak trees also produce acorns, which are a very important winter food for deer, fox, bear, squirrels, turkey, wood duck and many birds. Animal populations tend to increase or decrease based on yearly acorn production, a testament to the importance of oak trees. As oaks mature, they typically produce more acorns and develop a large hollow area, which further enhances their value for wildlife.

Oak trees tend to be longer lived, slower growing trees that develop best in full sunlight to moderate shade. Acorns may be able to germinate and develop a small tree in dense shade, but the oak tree will cease growing in shady conditions, waiting until it can exploit a gap in the canopy and continue its development. In this holding pattern, the small oak trees are vulnerable to deer browse or they may eventually succumb to lack of sunlight. Trees such as red maple, black gum, hickory, beech, sugar, maple, black birch and hemlock can develop much better in the shade, and they will overtake the young oaks underneath a dense canopy.

Many of the oak forests we now have are a result of former land clearing and logging practices that created conditions beneficial to oak germination and growth. In the past, large forest fires were also much more common throughout our region, giving rise to more oak regeneration. The thick bark oak tree is more resistant to forest fires and more likely to continue growing when the thinner barked maple, beech, birch or white pine tree may succumb following a forest fire. Oak and oak-pine forests are considered to be fire-dependent communities by ecologists.

Many of our present oak forests contain trees in their golden years, and the understory is full of shade-tolerant maple, birch, gum and beech trees. In ecological terms, an oak forest is considered to be intermediate, while a beech birch maple forest is considered to be a climax forest community. This means that in the absence of disturbances as the older oaks succumb to old age, the forest composition will change and the forest will contain more maple, birch, beech and gum, and less oaks. And, the prevailing trend seen throughout the east is that oak numbers are indeed declining. Along with changes brought about by forest succession, factors such as gypsy moth mortality, oak decline and other diseases, feeding activity of white tail deer, logging operations that remove oak and little else, forest fragmentation and invasive plants that overrun the forest thereby suppressing most native plants are all contributing to the decline of oak trees.

To understand how intricately nature interacts, it has been shown that a reduction in the amount of oak trees is impacting numerous forest interior bird species, including the wood thrush and wood pewee. Many of these species are displaying sustained population declines of 3 to 4 percent per year. Other factors contributing to this decline include loss of habitat from forest fragmentation, increased mortality, nest parasitism, overabundance of deer, cell towers, wind turbines and acid rain.

Recognizing that the gradual loss of oak canopy may impact future wildlife populations, plant diversity, and the forest products industry, many foresters, wildlife managers and forest ecologists, etc., are attempting to encourage the retention of oak forests or the establishment and development of oak tree regeneration where it is suitable.

In the fall of 2019, a prescribed burn was conducted at the Pine Swamp area on the Frederick City watershed. The purpose of this controlled burn was to encourage pitch pine, shortleaf pine and oak development by controlling the thin barked maple, beech and birch trees that had colonized the site while reducing fire danger by eliminating some of the downed fuels that were scattered around the site. The burn was deemed a success. Preliminary evidence suggests that numerous young pine and oak trees are developing in the area that was burned in 2017. Besides these silvicultural practices to encourage oak regeneration, landowners can plant oak seedlings and protect their oak trees from destructive insects like gypsy moth to help maintain this majestic tree on our landscape.

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Nature Notes: The importance of oak trees | Travel And Outdoors - Frederick News Post

Ever since COVID-19 lockdowns put a stop to tourism, wildlife has been thriving in the heart of the Maya Biosphere, Guatemala, a UNESCO recognised reserve.

The reserve covers a fifth of the country, with El Mirador National Park at its heart. With ancient Mayan cities, tropical forests and wildlife, this territory has been the centre of conservation efforts and initiatives to make sustainable tourism the countrys biggest source of income.

El Mirador has been under constant threat from land clearing projects for cattle ranches, as well as narcotrafficking and wildlife poaching. But major efforts have been made to protect the park through ecotourism, with job opportunities in hospitality for local residents who might otherwise have made a living through hunting or logging.

While the current travel restrictions mean a lack of tourism draws resources away from these projects, animals are being seen more frequently, including large mammals like cats, jaguars, and pumas.

"What the coronavirus leaves me with, is that we really do affect the animals. We do affect the forest," says Gabriel Urruela, photographer and park ranger at El Mirador National Park.

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Wildlife is roaming the Mayan forests | Living - Euronews

ATLANTA Georgias annual ban on outdoor burning began Friday in 47 counties. The Georgia Environmental Protection Division puts the restrictions in place during the summer months, when increases in ground level ozone may create health risks.

For seven counties that are normally included in the summer burn ban, restrictions will be activated on June 1, giving them extra time to clear vegetative debris from April storms. Those counties are Banks, Catoosa, Chattooga, Floyd, Gordon, Upson and Walker.

From May until Sept. 1, open burning of yard and land-clearing debris is prohibited in some counties where particulate matter pollutants and chemicals from smoke are more likely to combine with emissions from vehicles and industrial activities, Frank Sorrells, chief of protection for the Georgia Forestry Commission, said in a news release. Thats more likely to occur in cities, where theres more asphalt and concrete than open green space and trees to help cool and filter air. The risk of wildfire also may be high in summer, so our agencies are closely monitoring air quality and weather conditions for the safety of all Georgians.

The 47 counties affected by the ban beginning May 1 are Barrow, Bartow, Bibb, Butts, Carroll, Cherokee, Clarke, Clayton, Cobb, Columbia, Coweta, Crawford, Dawson, DeKalb, Douglas, Fayette, Forsyth, Fulton, Gwinnett, Hall, Haralson, Heard, Henry, Houston, Jackson, Jasper, Jones, Lamar, Lumpkin, Madison, Meriwether, Monroe, Morgan, Newton, Oconee, Paulding, Peach, Pickens, Pike, Polk, Putnam, Richmond, Rockdale, Spalding, Troup, Twiggs and Walton.

May through September is the time of year when people, particularly children, are more likely to be outdoors. Higher levels of ground-level ozone and particle pollution levels are known to contribute to lung problems and heart disease.

Residents in Georgia counties not included in the annual burn ban will continue to be required to secure a burn permit from the Georgia Forestry Commission before burning outdoors. Permits can be secured online at GaTrees.org, by calling 1-877-OK2-BURN or contacting their county GFC office.

During this time of increased focus on safety and respiratory issues in response to COVID-19, the GFC will be particularly mindful about the potential impact of smoke in every area of the state, Georgia Forestry Commission Director Chuck Williams said. The GFC and EPD carefully monitor air quality indices and will continue to do so wherever prescribed fire is permitted.

For more information about the EPD summer burn ban, go to epd.georgia.gov/ and click on Open Burning Rules for Georgia under Popular Topics, or call the EPD district office serving your area. To learn about services of the Georgia Forestry Commission, visit GaTrees.org.

Now, more than ever, the world needs trustworthy reportingbut good journalism isnt free.Please support us by subscribing or making a contribution today.

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Georgia burn ban is in effect for 47 counties - The Albany Herald

We found the first fire without looking, crackling and roaring on farmland beside the busy Amazon highway, the flames consuming a road sign with its name BR-163 lying in the grass. Trucks thundered past, ferrying soya and corn from the agricultural heartlands of Brazils central-west to the ports of Santarm and Miritituba. Nobody was around.

Every year fires roar across the Amazon, and in just a few months they will be here again. But last August the number of blazes reached a nine-year high, and sparked an international crisis for Brazils far-right president Jair Bolsonaro. Months later, their traces hung over the forests in the Amazon state of Par, leaving blackened logs and charred tree stumps where there was once rainforest.

But what happens to the land afterwards, especially in protected reserves? Is anyone punished for burning the forests? Are the forests allowed to grow back? Most of all, what can we expect from this years fire season? Late last year, reporters from the Guardian and investigative site Rporter Brasil spent a week at reserves along the BR-163 to find out.

We started in the hardscrabble settlers town of Novo Progresso in the state of Par, with its plethora of gold shops serving the largely-illegal wildcat mining trade. Police are still investigating Novo Progresso farmers for allegedly coordinating a fire day last August to show Bolsonaro their will to work fires soared by 300% around the town that day. The town sits beside the Jamanxim national forest, a protected reserve of more than 1.3 million hectares (3 million acres) that is one of the most devastated in Brazil. Where better to begin?

The first morning we steered the rented 4x4 along a dirt road out of Novo Progresso, bouncing over potholes as it snaked in and out of the Jamanxim forest. This forest is managed by the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio), a federal environment agency named after the rubber tapper, activist and environmentalist who won international acclaim before being murdered in 1988 by cattle ranchers.

Inside Jamanxims borders, as forest gave way to a sweep of cattle farms, we found more fire: a patch of forest still smouldering in places, trees swiped at waist height, and the felled, blackened trunk of a regal brazil nut tree in the scorched earth. An extensive search of government websites, publicly available information and internal ICMBio documents revealed that this very patch of forest has an emblematic history of environmental offences and fires.

This smouldering land fell inside the 889 hectares of land registered in 2015 by Jair Ferreira de Souza, a Novo Progresso resident, on Par state governments Rural Register (CAR), just inside the borders of the Jamanxim forest. In 2017 and 2018 Nasa satellites spotted fires on this land, and in 2015 and 2019 De Souza was fined more than 500,000 for destroying hundreds of acres within it by environment officials who photographed cattle branded with his initials: JF.

De Souza has appealed the fines, none of which have been paid. He told officials that he needed pasture and denied that one patch of destroyed forest was his. He claimed his family had owned land here for 30 years, arguing that he had cleared only a minimal area he needed to work, and requested one fine be annulled because he was unable to pay it.

Souza did not respond to messages sent to his phone.

But to understand how Jair Ferreira de Souza is able to claim ownership of land within a federally protected forest, we need to step back into the Amazons chaotic and rapacious history of colonisation.

The military dictatorship that ruled Brazil until 1985 often lauded by Bolsonaro - encouraged migration and built highways to force development into the Amazon region, but failed to impose a functioning property system. Instead, it sold off chunks of forest then largely government owned to private investors. It also handed out lots to migrants who had been encouraged to move there from the poorer north-east.

Much of this land was sold on later, often in deals involving unscrupulous notaries in a range of scams that continue until today, aided by the remoteness and lawlessness of the Amazon region. Adding to the disorder, under Brazilian law, improving land you are on can strengthen an eventual ownership claim. And Amazon farmers often argue that previous governments had encouraged them to move to the region, only to plonk a reserve on top of them years later even if they actually squatted the land afterwards.

As long as its confusing, as long its undetermined who owns what, the guys with the lawyers, the guys with the guns and the influence always win, said Jeremy Campbell, an associate professor of anthropology at Roger Williams University in Rhode Island, who specialises in Amazon land conflicts.

Landgrabbers nicknamed grileiros, or crickets, after the tested ruse of leaving fake land titles in drawers full of the insects whose secretions turn them yellow and convincingly old-looking proliferate in the Amazon.

Having some sort of document is key to eventually legitimising stolen land. These days farmers register their own land online as was done for de Souza but often there is more than one claimant for the same area. In Par, there are around three times as many land titles as there is land, state prosecutor Jane Souza said in an interview. In December, Bolsonaro signed a measure allowing grileiros to claim up to 2,500 hectares (6,177 acres) of land squatted before 2018 under certain conditions, such as no environmental fines or embargoes. This needs to be approved by Congress.

The Jamanxim national forest reserve we were in was created in 2006 to slow rampant deforestation. Farms in the reserve were supposed to be repossessed by the government, but that never happened. Commercial agriculture is not permitted there but many local people have never accepted its reserve status.

Paulo Moreira, a federal prosecutor in Par, explained in an interview that protected areas like Jamanxim are attractive to speculators who buy illegally cleared land cheaply to sell on, or deforest it themselves, betting it will be regularised in the future and increase in value. Crime compensates and that makes it attractive, Moreira said.

We spoke to residents of Novo Progresso who clearly saw themselves as hard-working pioneers in a hostile wilderness. Wood, gold prospecting and now cattle made this town, Jadir Rosa told us. The 36-year-old mechanic had moved from Paran state in the south of Brazil and was lunching in the towns market. Rosa supported Bolsonaro and shared his governments scepticism over climate science. Global warming does not exist, he said.

Other residents similarly harboured little sympathy for environment officials. Laudi da Silva, a 72-year-old market stall holder and Bolsonaro supporter, complained that her brothers wildcat mining barge had been destroyed during an operation by environment officials. Theyre always burning things round here, she said. I dont like it.

Agamenon Menezes, the influential president of the towns rural producers union, has been interviewed by police in connection with the fire day investigation, and his computer seized, but he denied involvement during an interview at his unions headquarters. He argued that fire day had been invented by the media to attack Bolsonaro and that there were no more fires last August than in any other year. He denied man-made climate change existed because, he said, 35,000 serious Brazilian scientists had disproved it.

Menezes said Bolsonaro was popular in the region because he was against environmental officials and regulations preventing people working. They have to eat, they have to produce food. So they work illegally, he said. Nobody wants to be illegal as well. They want to work legally. Fires were lit to clear land for pasture that is then turned into agricultural land, he explained. You get an area of dense forest and deforest it, he said. You need to burn this wood.

Environmentalists describe a similar deforestation process. First, landgrabbers and loggers remove the most valuable trees, leaving some cover to make it harder for satellites to spot the damage. The remaining trees are then felled, left to dry and burned hence the fires. Later grass is sown, and cattle put on the deforested land to consolidate possession.

This is the classic cycle we have seen in recent years, said Greenpeace Brazils senior forest campaigner, Adriana Charoux. If the farmer feels confident enough about his ownership of the land, the next stage is soya, she added.

Soya production is growing in the Novo Progresso area, Menezes said, taking pride in the regions improving productivity.

It was striking to see how farming had eaten into the forest on both sides of the BR-163. Cows were everywhere. Wildlife survived as best it could. One morning a white monkey scuttled across a dirt road, followed by a gaggle of forest pigs. Black, blue and orange macaws squawked atop a charred tree trunk, their only perch in a field of cattle. An opportunistic anteater darted across the highway in a gap between the trucks.

All along the highway were signs of logging, including an enormous sawmill at Moraes Almeida and three clapped-out flatbed trucks parked up one morning without licence plates by a smaller sawmill at Vila Izol. Nearby were three swastikas daubed on a bar door. Logging was also evident in the Serra do Cachimbo Springs reserve a 342,000 hectare biological reserve created in 2005, which is also run by ICMBio.

Driving down a dirt road in the reserve one morning we passed a man standing next to a motorbike as a lookout while chainsaws howled in the trees. It was a tense moment: environment officials warned that running into loggers in reserves, who are often armed, can be risky.

When a convoy of government firefighters in 4x4s hurtled past, we followed them into a 6,000-hectare farm registered on the CAR system in 2016 to Andr Ferri. Cattle grazed on pasture littered with old charred logs outside an empty farmhouse, surrounded by a curtain of forest.

All of this was burned, and this is a sensitive area, said one of the firefighters, speaking anonymously because Bolsonaros government has banned environment agency employees from talking to the media.

A few miles from here, a thousand hectares of Ferris farm was embargoed by ICMBio officials in April 2015 after being destroyed illegally and he was fined 3m. Four months later officials revisited the area and found the area had been burned and the area of devastation increased by more than 400 hectares. A satellite image from 2005, when the reserve was created, found no deforestation in the embargoed areas. In 2017, Nasa satellites found fires around the same area. The farms limits have since been modified on the CAR system to exclude the embargoed area.

Ferri has accumulated millions of pounds in fines, some of which were handed out after he broke previous embargoes and none of which has been paid. The neighbouring farm is owned by a transport company run by his brother Edner in Paran state where Andr Ferri is also believed to live. Reached by phone on a Paran number, he refused to answer questions. Brazils justice system has been unable to locate him to formally notify him of any of his fines.

The firefighters headed deeper into the reserve to check an area that had been flagged for deforestation by satellites. Near a patch of houses there were freshly felled trees but no flames yet. They raced off again, passing a charred clump of felled forest, over a rocky ridge and through more cattle farms before parking near a clearing pockmarked with blackened logs and trunks.

Officials first came here last August following a deforestation alert and found a wooden house under construction, which they destroyed. Days later, the area was set on fire. The flames spread for miles and firefighters took days to bring the blaze under control. This is an enormous loss for the environment, one firefighter said. It will take hundreds of years to recover.

As the fires raged, a woman calling herself Nair Brizola drove up to Brazilian reporters and told them that ICMBio officials had started it. Her story was widely circulated by Bolsonaro supporters and the president ordered an investigation. In 2015, nearly 2,000 hectares of land including the scorched clearing where we stood was registered on the CAR system under the name Nair Rodrigues Petry. They are the same person. As Nair Brizola, Petry stood for the council of a town 150km away and had offered a similar plot of land for sale on Facebook for around 500,000.

Brizola/Petry has since been fined 221,000 for destroying 71 hectares of forest using fire. In a telephone interview on the same mobile phone number that appeared on the Facebook land sale advert, Petry said she had documents proving the land had been hers since 2001. When they came and created this reserve, we were already there, she said. Nobody is a crook. She repeated her accusation that ICMBio officials had started the fire, denied offering the land for sale and has not paid the fine.

Petry said she was only just beginning to mess with the land. In the future, the only thing we could do is pasture, she said, meaning more cattle. If I leave there, and leave it all abandoned, someone else will go in.

Brazilian meat companies have complex systems in place to prevent them buying from Amazon farmers facing fines and embargoes, like Andr Ferri. But farmers can avoid those checks by selling cattle to other farms for fattening, who then sell on to slaughterhouses a triangulation process some environmentalists have dubbed cattle laundering. Pressure is growing on meat companies that are largely unable to monitor all their indirect suppliers. In the case of one company, Marfrig, indirect suppliers provide more than half of its cattle supplied from the Amazon.

Research by Holly Gibbs, a professor of geography at the University of Wisconsin who monitors Amazon cattle supply chains, has found that from 20172019 there were at least a hundred properties in the Jamanxim forest raising cattle 68 of them indirect suppliers. Gibbss team found another 27 properties in Serra do Cachimbo involved in cattle production from 20172019, including 25 that were indirect suppliers.

We had our answers: the farms we had managed to reach had illustrated the whole process. Fires three times more common in Amazon cattle farming areas are used to clear forest for pasture. Fragile law enforcement means fines are ignored. And when the loopholes that allow farmers to sell cattle raised on illegally burned or deforested land are taken into account, the future for Novo Progressos forests is not bright. Instead, it is black with smoke.

It was dark when the firefighters convoy left, bouncing back down dirt tracks. A huge fire lit up the night sky: Petrys neighbours burning more trees, the firefighters said. It was dark, and there was nothing they could do. We know why Amazon forests like this burn, but given Brazils current political situation, there are no solutions in view.

More here:
Forest fire season is coming. How can we stop the Amazon burning? - The Guardian