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TOP STORY
INTERVIEW: Amazon bioeconomy investment facility takes aim at illegal activity
A Brazilian think tank is creating a facility to enable investment around Brazil and the Amazon Basin, tackling nature-damaging illegal activity while exploring biodiversity credits, Carbon Pulse has learned.
MARKET
New compliance markets needed to scale nature investments in the UK, think tank says
New and broader compliance nature markets are needed in the UK to meet the 2030 biodiversity target, as voluntary schemes and existing regulations are not sufficient to drive business investment, a London-based think tank has said.
BUSINESS & FINANCE
Coalition launches ocean fund to protect marine biodiversity in Southeast Asia
A group of three organisations have launched an ocean fund to enhance efforts for protecting 30% of Southeast Asian seas by 2030, seeking to catalyse conservation actions in one of the world’s most biodiverse marine regions.
Report flags surge in corporate nature-related reporting in 2024
Corporate nature-related reporting significantly increased this year among large companies, with disclosures aligned with the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) more than doubled compared to 2023, a new report has shown.
Marine drone startup raises $2 mln to advance seagrass restoration
A San Francisco-based marine drone startup has raised $2 million in pre-seed funding to develop its technology aimed at advancing seagrass restoration.
TOOLS & GUIDANCE
Chinese protected areas cover just half of priority conservation sites, study says
Approximately half of China’s protected areas (PAs) overlap with priority sites for species preservation, indicating high potential for enhancing conservation efforts across the country, according to a new paper.
POLICY
English region releases country’s first local nature strategy, eyes nature markets
A regional government in England has launched the country’s first local nature recovery strategy, eyeing nature markets to mobilise private financing towards biodiversity conservation and restoration activities.
PROJECTS
Environment Bank launches large-scale restoration project under its nature shares system
UK-headquartered conservation company Environment Bank has announced a 30-year restoration and rewilding project within over 178,000 hectares of low-yielding land in North Yorkshire, England.
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BITE-SIZED UPDATES FROM AROUND THE WORLD
MARKET
$100-mln expansion – Two investors on Monday announced they had put an additional $100 mln into a Colombian project to earn carbon removal credits from restoring degraded land. Global commodities trader Trafigura and Singaporean investor GenZero, a subsidiary of state-owned Temasek, will double the project size of Brujula Verde in Colombia to 20,000 ha, they said in a press release. “The Brujula Verde project marks an important effort in restoring one of Colombia’s most biologically diverse areas,” said Hoon Ling Min, GenZero’s director of investments. (Carbon Pulse)
BUSINESS & FINANCE
Skinks and fairies – New Zealand’s government has partnered with the New Zealand Nature Fund to advance biodiversity conservation across the country. Under the initiative, the NZ Nature Fund will be tasked with attracting financing, with an initial target raising NZ$4.6 mln ($2.7 mln) for the three projects – designed to protect the Alborn skink, limestone ecosystems, and the fairy tern bird. More than 4,000 native species are threatened or at-risk of extinction in the country, according to the government.
Planet scorecard – Non-profit Planet Tracker has released the third update of its Nature Scorecard, expanding it to include over 1,500 companies. The list ranks companies involved in nature-related frameworks such as TNFD, SBTN, and Nature Action 100. For the first time, Planet Tracker incorporated Morningstar Sustainalytics’ biodiversity stewardship programme of 50 companies across the agricultural value chain. Financial institutions are increasingly introducing nature roles, but this sector is excluded from the scorecard, Planet Tracker said.
POLICY
Bottom trawling ban – The EU and 20 neighbourhood countries adopted 17 decisions on the sustainability of fisheries and aquaculture, including 12 binding recommendations, during the 47th session of the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, which took place in Rome over Nov. 4-8. The most important one is the creation of the first shared EU-Albania fisheries restricted area in the Otranto Channel, in the Adriatic Sea. Bottom trawling activities will be banned in order to protect vulnerable marine ecosystems and essential fish habitats.
61 more – The Vietnamese government has approved the creation of 61 new protected areas (PAs) within its National Biodiversity Conservation Plan for the period 2021-30. Under the plan, the government will also increase the total area of the country’s protected sites to approximately 6.6 mln ha, local media reported.
Wildlife protection – Costa Rica has announced a plan aimed at improving the resilience of protected ecosystems to shifting climate conditions. Led by the Ministry of Environment and Energy and the National System of Conservation Areas, the initiative will focus on 10 protected wildlife areas, including three private national wildlife refuges, three state-owned parks, and four mixed-protection areas.
Extinct – Seven plant species in Bangladesh were found to be regionally extinct, according to a national assessment published on Monday. The Plant Red List of Bangladesh, developed under the Sustainable Forests and Livelihoods programme of the Forest Department, also categorised five species as critically endangered, 271 as threatened, 395 as vulnerable, 127 as endangered, and 263 as near threatened. For 256 species, there was insufficient data available, according to the assessment.
SCIENCE & TECH
Fantastic Mr Species – To celebrate the 60th anniversary of the IUCN Red List, Alipay Ant Forest and IUCN are launching a campaign to engage over 100 mln people in biodiversity and climate action through Alipay Ant’s platform. The first phase of the initiative includes two “fantastic species” on ocean and forests, spotlighting rare flora and fauna from the Red List. The ocean series alone attracted 15 mln participants in less than a week this month, IUCN said.
March of the penguin – An emperor penguin has been found malnourished in Australia, over 2,000 miles from its home in the Antarctic, reported news outlet KJCT. The adult male was discovered on Nov. 1 on a beach in southwest Australia, according to a statement from the Western Australian government. Experts did not know why the penguin had travelled so far, and its return home was an option being worked through, the article said.
Firestarter – Wildfires burned through 97% of the Serra das Araras conservation area in Brazil’s Cerrado savanna earlier this year, reported Mongabay. Nearly all of the 28,700-hectare reserve, an area twice the size of San Francisco, burned around September, said the article, citing national parks agency ICMBio. The reserve was a refuge for species including jaguars, maned wolves, and white-cheeked spider monkeys. Fires are often started in the area to illegally clear land.
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