The Campaign to Ban Trophy Hunting (CBTH) has called on the UK government to ban the import of lion hunting trophies immediately following the Mail on Sunday’s front-page lead story about Lord Ashcroft’s ‘Operation Simba’.

The group revealed that Britain came 12th equal in an international ‘league table’ of trophy hunters travelling to South Africa to shoot ‘factory-farmed’ lions.

It also said that lion shooting had become more popular with British big game hunters since the killing of Cecil, and that the majority of lions killed by UK hunters are now shot in enclosures in South African ‘canned hunting’ facilities.

Disgraceful industry

Eduardo Gonçalves, founder of the Campaign to Ban Trophy Hunting, said: “Britain should hang its head in shame over its role in this disgraceful industry. The government promised to ban lion trophies after the Cecil scandal in 2015 but then reneged on its pledge.

“Lion hunting is increasingly popular with British trophy hunters. More than half the lion trophies imported into the UK over the past decade have come in since 2015 – the year Cecil was killed in Zimbabwe.

“It’s time Michael Gove and the government took action to stop trophy imports and help bring an end to this vile industry.

“Killing lions for fun isn’t just despicable, it’s disastrous for their survival. A staggering 10,000 lions have been killed by trophy hunters over the past decade – about half today’s total remaining population. Lion poaching is on the up throughout southern Africa thanks to the lion bone trade.

“Many people assume lion trophy hunting died out with colonialism when in fact it has been growing in popularity. Lion trophy numbers went up 14% globally between 2006 to 2016.”

Criminal network

Gonçalves continued: “The lion factory-farming and canned hunting industry is the most despicable aspect of an unconscionable industry. Lions are exploited from the very beginning, being taken away from their mothers as cubs when just a few hours old so as to make their owners money from tourists through cub-petting.

“Members of crime syndicates involved in the rhino horn trade are now dealing in lion bones too, and South Africa’s government is happy to do business with them.

While the US Dept of State offers rewards of up to $1m for information leading to the dismantling of crime syndicates involved in the rhino horn and lion bone trade, South Africa has issued Lion bone export permits to people known to be involved in the rhino horn trade.

“South Africa, Vietnam and Lao PDR have become the hub of a murky new international criminal network that rivals drugs, arms and human trafficking.”

South Africa’s lion bone industry – which grew out of demand for a substitute for dwindling tiger bones – is now fanning illegal trade in both lion and tiger bones. Tigers and ‘ligers’, as well as lions, are being quietly bred in South Africa, and without any legal protections.

Political support 

Gonçalves added: “Lion skeletons are sold to Chinese dealers in Durban or Johannesburg, then shipped to Asia where the product, once boiled down and bottled, can fetch a market value exceeding US $20,000.

“The South African government says it believes there are over 300 lion captive breeding facilities, but even it doesn’t know. There is simply no oversight or controls. The government there has simply ignored calls by its MPs to close down the industry.

“There are slaughterhouses in South Africa’s Free State Province that exist solely to kill lions for their skeletons in order to sell into the tiger and lion bone trade in SE Asia. At least 400 lions were killed in Free State slaughterhouses in the last year.”

In December 2018, the Campaign to Ban trophy Hunting published an open letter signed by Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn and a number of major public figures and conservationists calling for a ban on trophy imports.

Over 160 MPs of all parties have signed an Early Day Motion supporting a ban and calling for an end to trophy hunting.

This Article 

This article is based on a press release from the Campaign to Ban Trophy Hunting. 

The Congo Basin in Central Africa is home to millions of different endemic species. It’s the world’s second largest rainforest after the Amazon, with more than 220 million hectares of tropical rainforest.

The Congo Basic is still recognized as an important hotspot for biodiversity, and widely considered as the planet’s second lung. But its forests, like many others, face increasingly important threats: the conversion of forests to industrial agriculture, pressure on wood resources to meet energy needs, unsustainable infrastructure development, rapid population growth, widespread poverty, as well as illegal, unsustainable logging.

Sustainable forest management is our best shot at preventing extinction of local wildlife.

Sustainable solutions

Consumers know very little about the sustainable solutions that exist for tropical wood management and instead think any form of logging is detrimental to the wellbeing of the planet.

Megabiodiversity refers to the number and variety of animal species native to an area. The Congo Basin, specifically, is home to 11,000 species of tropical plants, over 1200 species of birds, 450 mammal species, 700 species of fish, and about 280 reptile species.

The endangered Western lowland gorilla, for instance, is a good example of a species native to the Congo Basin and also a large seed-dispersing mammal, as well as a pollinator. Pollinator animals play a key role in the rainforest – they move plant pollen and seeds, bringing about plant fertilisation and thus insuring the longevity of the forest. 

Gorillas specifically need the hot, moist, stable environment of the rainforest to thrive, but its species is seriously threatened. In fact, large apes are often the victims of illegal commercial hunting, which results in their slaughter and shipping around the world as bushmeat and hunting trophies.

But why is forest management so important for the protection of local wildlife? 

Synergistic action

Some parks are run by foundations, such as African Parks, with considerable resources. We want to emphasize here the importance of strengthening the synergistic action between national parks and certified forest companies, because they share the same fauna and share the same objective: to maintain wildlife and the forest.

Indeed, animals are very well protected in managed and certified forests (i.e. FSC or PEFC). In the Republic of the Congo, the FSC-certified IFO concession harbours 70,000 gorillas and 4,000 elephants, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society.

These figures far outweigh those of the neighbouring Odzala-Kokoua National Park, a reserve of similar size.

Each year, IFO takes a rigorously selective approach to harvesting tropical trees in a well-defined area, based on a forest management plan, before returning 30 years later. IFO has put 27 percent of the forest it manages under permanent conservation and protection; in the remaining 73 percent, from which trees are selected, the limited, temporary impact of harvesting continues to allow forest regeneration. 

Thus, most of the concession serves as a breeding ground and food reserve for endangered species.

Fair&Precious

Fair&Precious is an umbrella brand for a communication campaign created at the initiative of the ATIBT with support of France and Germany development agencies. It aims to promote forest certification in tropical regions.

By highlighting the virtues of FSC and PEFC-PAFC certifications, ATIBT aims to educate and inform both local communities and key market players.

It is indeed fundamental that everyone is aware of the virtues of these certifications, particularly in terms of regulating poaching and harvesting trees.

Today, if approximately five million hectares of forests are certified as sustainable management in the Congo Basin, we are convinced that this area can be significantly increased thanks to the Fair&Precious communication campaign and the enhancement of FSC and PAFC-PEFC certifications.

This Author 

Benoit Jobbé Duval is Executive Director of ATIBT (International Tropical Timber Technical Association), founded in 1951 at the request of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Image: Congo Basin. Volcanoes Safaris.

MPs will vote on Wednesday whether to declare an environmental and climate emergency following mass protests over political inaction in addressing the crisis.

Labour will force a commons vote on the issue, one of the key demands of the Extinction Rebellion (XR) movement, whose activists paralysed parts of London in previous weeks.

Jeremy Corbyn said he hoped other countries would follow if the UK parliament became the first in the world to declare a climate emergency.

Emergency

The move was backed by 16-year-old activist Greta Thunberg, who has been nominated for the Nobel peace prize for her campaign to tackle climate change.

XR is calling for Government to “tell the truth by declaring a climate and ecological emergency” setting out the need for urgent change.

Mr Corbyn praised “the inspiring climate activism we’ve seen in recent weeks” and said it was a “massive and necessary wake up call for rapid and dramatic action”.

As part of their protest, which saw key parts of central London occupied by activists, a small group of XR activists targeted Mr Corbyn’s home by using a bike lock on a fence and then gluing themselves together.

Mr Corbyn said: “For young people, the climate emergency is the cause of their generation. And we in older generations must face up to this seriously.

Net zero

“We have to have a much more focused and serious approach towards climate change and the damage we’re doing to our planet. We want a world for those in countries worst affected by and least to blame for climate change and our young people.

“On Wednesday, the UK parliament will have the chance to be the first in the world to declare an environment and climate emergency, which we hope will trigger a wave of action from parliaments and governments around the world.”

Labour’s policy is for the UK to achieve net zero emissions before 2050, an ambition which falls far short of Extinction Rebellion’s call for a 2025 deadline.

The opposition pointed to official figures showing a two percent reduction in emissions last year, suggesting that a level compatible with net zero emissions would not be reached until 2100.

Andrew Gwynne, the shadow communities secretary,  was challenged about the party’s environmental credentials after the Labour-led council in Cumbria backed a new coal mine.

Sparked

On BBC One’s Andrew Marr Show he said “there are technologies to capture the carbon” but added: “We need to make sure there is proper investment in those green technologies going forward.”

“So now I think that yes, dirty forms of energy, it’s a retrograde step,” he said.

XR welcomed Labour’s move and said it hoped the party would “demand the creation of citizens’ assemblies, ending biodiversity loss and reaching net-zero green house gas emissions by 2025”.

The group added: “We ask all MPs and the UK Government to listen to the young people, mums, granddads and scientists who put themselves on the line over the last two weeks to fight for our future and our planet. Now is the time for each and everyone of us to decide which side of history we are on.”

Labour’s actions were praised by Miss Thunberg, the Swedish teenager who has sparked a wave of youth climate protests around the world.

Mass rollout

She said: “It is very hopeful that a major European political party has woken up to propose a declaration of a national climate emergency.

“It is a great first step because it sends a clear signal that we are in a crisis and that the ongoing climate and ecological crises must be our first priority. We cannot solve an emergency without treating it like an emergency.

“I hope that the other UK political parties join in and together pass this motion in Parliament – and that political parties in other countries will follow their example.”

Labour will use an opposition motion to push Parliament to act with urgency to avoid more than 1.5C of global warming, which requires worldwide emissions to fall by about 45% from 2010 levels by 2030, reaching net zero before 2050.

The motion will call for targets for the mass rollout of renewable and low-carbon energy and transport, properly-funded environmental protection measures to reverse the trend in species decline and plans to move towards a zero-waste economy.

This Author

David Hughes is the chief political correspondent at the Press Association.

The government’s fracking tsar has quit the post after just six months claiming policy around the controversial process means there is “no purpose” to her job.

Natascha Engel told Greg Clark, the secretary of state for business, energy and industrial strategy, developing the industry will be “an impossible task” despite its “enormous potential”.

In a resignation letter to Mr Clark, she said environmental activists has been “highly successful” at encouraging the government to curb fracking.

Energy revolution

Ms Engel penned the letter following two weeks of protests by the Extinction Rebellion group, which brought parts of London to a standstill with demands to cut emissions to zero by 2025.

She wrote: “A perfectly viable and exciting new industry…is in danger of withering on the vine – not for any technical or safety reasons, but because of a political decision.”

Ms Engel complained that a traffic light system which halts fracking when a tremor with a magnitude of 0.5 is recorded “amounts to a de facto ban”.

Critics say the amount of water needed for fracking is bad for the environment and claim it releases dangerous chemicals. They also say Governments should focus on renewable energy.

This Author

Lewis Pennock is a reporter for the Press Association.

The lesser-known plight of endangered Asian elephants is gradually unravelling. 

Out-shadowed by their African cousins, the Asian elephant’s fate has been shielded from widespread attention, despite only five percent of their habitat remaining and their numbers dwindling to a measly 10 percent of the population of African elephants.

In three generations, 50 percent of the Asian elephant population has been lost. And now, electrocutions can be added to the exhaustive list of threats contributing to the demise of the Asian elephant. 

Numerous victims

Unprecedented deforestation rates wreck forest habitats, box elephants into confined spaces, and force them to encroach upon human territory for food and water.

Coupling this with the illegal trade of their tusks, meat and even their skin, Asia is a treacherous place for an elephant. 

India has seen greatest loss from electrocution of these beautiful behemoths… 

In September 2015, Kaziranga national park lost a large tusker to sagging power lines; September 2o17, two elephants fell victim to electrocution inside Satkosia Tiger Reserve; October 2018, drooping live wires in Nagaland killed two wandering elephants; October 2018, a group of 13 wild elephants passing through a paddy field in Orissa came in contact with the power line, seven of them were tragically killed – the biggest casualty of elephants in a single incident.

Most recently, in November 2018, a tusker lost his life in the Nambar Nadi tea estate, and another tusker was killed in Sansarasposi village.  

These are a small part of a gathering chorus of incidents in which elephants are massacred at the hand of human negligence.

Unnatural death 

At last count in 2017, 27,000 wild Asian elephants roamed India; a 10 percent decline from the 2012 census.

High-power, low-hanging cables that barbarically dissect India’s forests and wildlife corridors played a notable part in this decline.

11KV lines have been seen as low as 4ft from the ground  and can instantly wipe out these 11ft tall gentle giants. 

Biswajit Mohanty, secretary of the Wildlife Society of Orissa, India, said: “Electrocutions have become the second leading cause of unnatural elephant deaths in Odisha.” 

A shocking 461 elephant electrocutions occurred between 2009 and 2017, of which over a hundred deaths occurred in Odisha. 

Karnataka is another Indian state where electrocutions have overtaken poaching as a leading cause of unnatural death among elephants, with 30 deaths counted in 18 months from 2015. 

Deliberate traps

These figures do not solely represent unsuspecting wandering elephants falling victim to sagging power lines alone.

Rather, poachers have harnessed this force by setting up live wire poaching traps – electrocution tripwires – to kill elephants.

Vengeful villagers, whose crops had been destroyed by the pachyderms, have deliberately redirected live wires to fall in the paths of sauntering herds.

It has been estimated that half of all elephant electrocutions are deliberate. 

To make matters worse, electrocution often kills in its plenty. Whole herds can be wiped out simply because of their intricate social behaviour patterns.

Encountering a threat, an elephant will alert the group with a distinct distress call, initiating a family huddle in the hope to protect them from any impending danger. Instead, the entire dynasty become fatalities of one single hanging powerline.       

Criminal neglect

Authorities are aware, but action is not being taken. Wildlife conservation and energy department officials are at odds.

The energy officials permit the low hanging lines, shrugging off the responsibility that they are the root cause of elephant electrocution. Wildlife conservation teams are powerless.

Despite suggesting several remedies, the pleas are lost in the deluge of other social, political and economic issues that shroud the forests. Ample letters have been written to Chamundeshwari Electricity Supply Corporation officials in the last two years over the severity of the issue, but no action has been taken.

The Forest Department of Dhenkanal has been notified repeatedly about 200 spots in the forest that are endangering elephants with sagging power lines.  Again, to no avail. 

On paper, there are stringent laws protecting India’s heritage animal. Under the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972, persecuting an elephant carries a prison sentence up to seven years. But in reality, the system is defective. It’s criminal neglect.

Mitigation

These deaths could be easily prevented. Improved regulations for maintaining cables is a must.  

Addressing low hanging wires, insulating live wires and investing in stronger, taller poles is required. Shankar Raman, from the National Board for Wildlife, recommends achievable guidelines for a minimum of “6.6 metres above ground on level terrain and minimum 9.1 metres above ground on steeper terrain.”

Monumental pressure from the public needs to be imposed on energy companies. 

Sagging wires have played a pivotal role in the Asian elephant’s demise. With their numbers frighteningly low, every individual counts. 

If electrocution persists unabated, deliberate or accidental, we will have to say goodbye to these majestic creatures. 

Elephant Family

Elephant Family are working to stop the wanton slaughter of these animals.

Through fundraising for various projects in India, such as ‘Human-Elephant Conflict Management’ in the Karbi foothills, local communities are becoming more sensitised to these issues and the prevalence of subsequent violent retaliations against intruding herds is being reduced. 

What’s more, the wildlife protection society of India and the wildlife society of Orissa are working with Elephant Family to invest in a database of all low-hanging wires across the state of Orissa so that they can then be rectified. 

If you wish to help, please donate here. 

This Author

Sophie Pierce is a creative content producer at Elephant Family. She also has her own website and Instagram @conservation.soph where she regularly likes to post about Rewilding or African wildlife. 

Costa Rica’s El Plan Nacional de Descarbonizacion, or National Decarbonization Plan, articulates a path forward that would transform Costa Rica’s largest contributors to green house gasses: agriculture and vehicle emissions.

Claudia Dobles – the first lady and a civil planner by profession – explains the vision behind the initiative’s plan to overhaul the country’s public transportation to zero emissions. 

For Dobles, the decision to set these ambitious goals is “natural”, and “something that is already a part of the DNA of the Costa Rican people. Like when we decided to have a clean hydro-electric energy. When we decided to protect a large percentage of our territory for biodiversity and create national parks.”

Traffic pollution

The question on Costa Rican’s mind is the cost. An overhaul of this magnitude will have an immense cost, one that some Costa Ricans believe should be spent on improving their daily economic needs.

But Claudia Dobles believes that traffic, long commutes, and air pollution are already costing the Costa Rican economy dearly. 

A recent study published by the state estimates that Costa Rica is losing $2,500/person per year as a result of traffic and pollution.

Apart from the economic loss to the nation, Dobles emphasises the “loss in terms of ones’ quality of life when you have to spend three hours of your day in a traffic jam … How much does it cost us truly not to do this?”

Development loans have been seen by some as unnecessary spending by the state but she assures Costa Ricans that it is worth the investment. 

Next generations

While making the decision to go green may be natural, the way forward will require an enormous effort involving international cooperation and banks.

Dobles reminds us: “This is an investment. This in an investment in time with our families.  This is an investment in the competitiveness of our country.”

Dobles  goes on to state that, ambitious as it sounds, making the leap to zero emissions is the most responsible thing to do, “if we desire to leave the next generations a world in which they can really live.”

These Authors

Annika Beaulieu and Renzo Zanelli.

Suddenly climate change is on the front page of newspapers and leading news bulletins. What happened?

Millions of people tuned into BBC One to watch Climate Change: The Facts last week – an hour-long programme presented by David Attenborough that starkly laid out the central dangers that lurk in our near-future. 

The next day, hundreds of thousands of school children continued to strike for climate as part of the global Fridays4Future movement. Saturday saw more cat and mouse played between the Metropolitan Police force and Extinction Rebellion activists on Waterloo Bridge, Parliament Square, and Marble Arch.

On Sunday, London welcomed Greta Thunberg who has become an international leader of climate justice within a matter of months. On Monday she met with MPs and on Tuesday received a round of applause from the House of Commons.

Tipping point

Journalists must be relieved to be free of the immediate pressures of Brexit with the latest deadline kicked down the road to October. But that does not explain the rise of movements and a palpable shift in public opinion.

Is this the fabled tipping point in society which will lead to the rapid phase out of fossil fuels? 

If it is, then interest needs to be translated into actions. The risk is that today’s concern about climate change becomes yesterdays well-meaning fad. Even if there is a sudden shift in political and industrial direction, it will take years of sustained efforts to ensure that we and more importantly our children and future generations are spared from the worst ravages of climate breakdown.

This was my main concern when I began talking to filmmaker Paul Maple of Global Documentary three years ago.

He and I were increasingly frustrated at the almost complete absence of climate change on our screens. And when climate change did break through, it was always as the result of freak weather.

I’ve talked about climate change on the Jeremy Vine show and BBC News, but in both instances the hook was severe wild fires in which climate change was mentioned but was not the main event. 

BBC steps up

So presumably I’m very pleased to see Climate Change: The Facts primetime on BBC One. Yes, but.

The but is that while science took centre stage with wonderful contributions from many of the leading scientists, the proposed ways out of dangerous climate change presented in the final quarter of an hour was something of a let down.

While I understand the need to focus on the potential of new technologies, electric aircraft have nothing really to contribute.

But more fundamentally, the programme completely failed to explain just how radical the transformation to sustainability is going to be. The show quite bravely called-out the fossil fuel industry in their public denial of climate change while their own scientists were telling them the risks in private, but it completely avoided the elephant in the room – the dogma of growth. 

Paul and I were both convinced that any effective documentary about climate change must discuss economic growth.

New film

Our current political paradigm is one in which every policy is judged on the basis of whether it will grow the economy as measured in Gross Domestic Product.

It’s not as if there are individuals and groups that don’t push back on the primacy of economic growth. It’s just we never see them on the BBC or other mainstream TV channels. 

The end result has been The Race is On: Secrets and Solutions of Climate Change, a 39-minute documentary we made about climate change and what we in the UK and around the world can do to address it.

I talk to leading climate scientists who explain how humans are affecting the Earth’s climate. And yes, I talk to pioneers in solar and wind who are steadily transforming the UK’s electricity generating sector.

But I also talk to the community activists and pioneers in new economic thinking that gets to the heart of the matter – how can we turn around infrastructure, policies and most important mind-sets about climate change?  

Film for change

Our film has been something of a labour of love driven by a desire to see the real issues about climate change presented in a way that will have mass appeal and generate real impact.

We were fortunate to collaborate with a wide range of dedicated and inspirational contributors and fantastic researchers.

Much of this work has been channelled into an accompanying website for the film in which specific actions are laid out that anyone can take.

We will be touring the film across the UK. A typical format is a screening of the film in a community centre with a panel discussion or other forum for people to talk about how they can get engaged in climate change solutions. If you would like to book us then please get in touch. The film is released under Creative Commons and there are no charges for viewings. That said, tea and biscuits would be nice. 

In the meantime please visit climateracefilm.org, view the film, like, share, and help us spread the word about both the secrets and solutions of climate change. 

This Author

Dr James Dyke is director of the Global Sustainability Solutions MSc at the Global Systems Institute at the University of Exeter, and presenter of The Race is On: Secrets and Solutions of Climate Change. He tweets at @JamesGDyke.

Climate change activists in London have brought 10 days of  protests to an end with a closing ceremony.

Extinction Rebellion (XR) demonstrators gathered at Speaker’s Corner in Hyde Park on Thursday evening for the event marking an end to the current wave of blockades in the capital.

Skeena Rathor, vision co-ordinator for XR, welcomed the “rebels” to the event and described the crowd of hundreds of people sitting on the grass as “beautiful beings”.

Financial district

She said: “This is our pause ceremony. Welcome to the beginning of our pause.” Ms Rathor invited the eco-protesters to “begin a process of reflection” after the 10-day campaign, adding: “Thank you for what you have done this week.

“It is enormous. It is beyond words. We are here for all of us. And together we are all we need.” Answering a shout from the crowd, she added: “And for all species. Absolutely.”

On their final day, XR members temporarily blockaded the London Stock Exchange by gluing themselves across entrances to the trading hub in the City of London in the morning.

The action came after the group announced on Wednesday it would end blockades at Parliament Square and Marble Arch.

Members of the group targeted London’s financial districts to highlight what they call the business world’s “role in our collective suicide”, on the final day of protests.

Blockade

They were un-attached before being taken away in police vans, with Scotland Yard saying 13 people had been arrested on suspicion of aggravated trespassing. The Exchange said all markets were open as normal.

Elsewhere, six protesters including 83-year-old grandfather Phil Kingston clambered on to the roof of a DLR train at Canary Wharf station in east London, holding signs saying “business as usual = death” and “don’t jail the canaries”.

British Transport Police (BTP) used ropes, ladders and harnesses to remove them before saying six people were arrested on suspicion of obstructing the railway.

In central London, dozens of XR members including drummers and banner-carriers demonstrated outside offices of bankers Goldman Sachs on Fleet Street.

The group moved down the road and blockaded it at intervals, with about a dozen buses seen stuck on either side of the blockade. Police said 13 people were arrested on suspicion of aggravated trespassing in Fleet Street.

Extinction

Protesters later glued themselves to the front of the Treasury in Westminster. The nine protesters, two men and seven women, formed a chain of people preventing others from entering One Horse Guards Road.

An XR spokeswoman said Thursday’s targets were selected because “the financial industry is responsible for funding climate and ecological destruction and we are calling on them, the companies and the institutions that allow this to happen, to tell the truth”.

The spokeswoman added the sign “business as usual = death” was a reference to “the financial sector’s role in our collective suicide”.

XR said the public should expect more action “very soon”. Eco-protesters have urged ministers to declare a climate emergency to avoid a sixth mass extinction of species on Earth.

Emergency

Some 1,130 people have been arrested during the protests which started on April 15, while more than 10,000 police officers have been deployed. The Metropolitan Police said 69 people have been charged, while BTP has charged three people.

The action has seen Waterloo Bridge and Oxford Circus blocked, a “die-in” at the Natural History Museum, and activists gluing themselves to objects.

In a statement on Wednesday announcing the end of its action, XR said: “We would like to thank Londoners for opening their hearts and demonstrating their willingness to act on that truth.

“We know we have disrupted your lives. We do not do this lightly. We only do this because this is an emergency.”

This Author

Catherine Wylie is a reporter with the Press Association.

Climate change activists in London have brought 10 days of  protests to an end with a closing ceremony.

Extinction Rebellion (XR) demonstrators gathered at Speaker’s Corner in Hyde Park on Thursday evening for the event marking an end to the current wave of blockades in the capital.

Skeena Rathor, vision co-ordinator for XR, welcomed the “rebels” to the event and described the crowd of hundreds of people sitting on the grass as “beautiful beings”.

Financial district

She said: “This is our pause ceremony. Welcome to the beginning of our pause.” Ms Rathor invited the eco-protesters to “begin a process of reflection” after the 10-day campaign, adding: “Thank you for what you have done this week.

“It is enormous. It is beyond words. We are here for all of us. And together we are all we need.” Answering a shout from the crowd, she added: “And for all species. Absolutely.”

On their final day, XR members temporarily blockaded the London Stock Exchange by gluing themselves across entrances to the trading hub in the City of London in the morning.

The action came after the group announced on Wednesday it would end blockades at Parliament Square and Marble Arch.

Members of the group targeted London’s financial districts to highlight what they call the business world’s “role in our collective suicide”, on the final day of protests.

Blockade

They were un-attached before being taken away in police vans, with Scotland Yard saying 13 people had been arrested on suspicion of aggravated trespassing. The Exchange said all markets were open as normal.

Elsewhere, six protesters including 83-year-old grandfather Phil Kingston clambered on to the roof of a DLR train at Canary Wharf station in east London, holding signs saying “business as usual = death” and “don’t jail the canaries”.

British Transport Police (BTP) used ropes, ladders and harnesses to remove them before saying six people were arrested on suspicion of obstructing the railway.

In central London, dozens of XR members including drummers and banner-carriers demonstrated outside offices of bankers Goldman Sachs on Fleet Street.

The group moved down the road and blockaded it at intervals, with about a dozen buses seen stuck on either side of the blockade. Police said 13 people were arrested on suspicion of aggravated trespassing in Fleet Street.

Extinction

Protesters later glued themselves to the front of the Treasury in Westminster. The nine protesters, two men and seven women, formed a chain of people preventing others from entering One Horse Guards Road.

An XR spokeswoman said Thursday’s targets were selected because “the financial industry is responsible for funding climate and ecological destruction and we are calling on them, the companies and the institutions that allow this to happen, to tell the truth”.

The spokeswoman added the sign “business as usual = death” was a reference to “the financial sector’s role in our collective suicide”.

XR said the public should expect more action “very soon”. Eco-protesters have urged ministers to declare a climate emergency to avoid a sixth mass extinction of species on Earth.

Emergency

Some 1,130 people have been arrested during the protests which started on April 15, while more than 10,000 police officers have been deployed. The Metropolitan Police said 69 people have been charged, while BTP has charged three people.

The action has seen Waterloo Bridge and Oxford Circus blocked, a “die-in” at the Natural History Museum, and activists gluing themselves to objects.

In a statement on Wednesday announcing the end of its action, XR said: “We would like to thank Londoners for opening their hearts and demonstrating their willingness to act on that truth.

“We know we have disrupted your lives. We do not do this lightly. We only do this because this is an emergency.”

This Author

Catherine Wylie is a reporter with the Press Association.

Climate change activists in London have brought 10 days of  protests to an end with a closing ceremony.

Extinction Rebellion (XR) demonstrators gathered at Speaker’s Corner in Hyde Park on Thursday evening for the event marking an end to the current wave of blockades in the capital.

Skeena Rathor, vision co-ordinator for XR, welcomed the “rebels” to the event and described the crowd of hundreds of people sitting on the grass as “beautiful beings”.

Financial district

She said: “This is our pause ceremony. Welcome to the beginning of our pause.” Ms Rathor invited the eco-protesters to “begin a process of reflection” after the 10-day campaign, adding: “Thank you for what you have done this week.

“It is enormous. It is beyond words. We are here for all of us. And together we are all we need.” Answering a shout from the crowd, she added: “And for all species. Absolutely.”

On their final day, XR members temporarily blockaded the London Stock Exchange by gluing themselves across entrances to the trading hub in the City of London in the morning.

The action came after the group announced on Wednesday it would end blockades at Parliament Square and Marble Arch.

Members of the group targeted London’s financial districts to highlight what they call the business world’s “role in our collective suicide”, on the final day of protests.

Blockade

They were un-attached before being taken away in police vans, with Scotland Yard saying 13 people had been arrested on suspicion of aggravated trespassing. The Exchange said all markets were open as normal.

Elsewhere, six protesters including 83-year-old grandfather Phil Kingston clambered on to the roof of a DLR train at Canary Wharf station in east London, holding signs saying “business as usual = death” and “don’t jail the canaries”.

British Transport Police (BTP) used ropes, ladders and harnesses to remove them before saying six people were arrested on suspicion of obstructing the railway.

In central London, dozens of XR members including drummers and banner-carriers demonstrated outside offices of bankers Goldman Sachs on Fleet Street.

The group moved down the road and blockaded it at intervals, with about a dozen buses seen stuck on either side of the blockade. Police said 13 people were arrested on suspicion of aggravated trespassing in Fleet Street.

Extinction

Protesters later glued themselves to the front of the Treasury in Westminster. The nine protesters, two men and seven women, formed a chain of people preventing others from entering One Horse Guards Road.

An XR spokeswoman said Thursday’s targets were selected because “the financial industry is responsible for funding climate and ecological destruction and we are calling on them, the companies and the institutions that allow this to happen, to tell the truth”.

The spokeswoman added the sign “business as usual = death” was a reference to “the financial sector’s role in our collective suicide”.

XR said the public should expect more action “very soon”. Eco-protesters have urged ministers to declare a climate emergency to avoid a sixth mass extinction of species on Earth.

Emergency

Some 1,130 people have been arrested during the protests which started on April 15, while more than 10,000 police officers have been deployed. The Metropolitan Police said 69 people have been charged, while BTP has charged three people.

The action has seen Waterloo Bridge and Oxford Circus blocked, a “die-in” at the Natural History Museum, and activists gluing themselves to objects.

In a statement on Wednesday announcing the end of its action, XR said: “We would like to thank Londoners for opening their hearts and demonstrating their willingness to act on that truth.

“We know we have disrupted your lives. We do not do this lightly. We only do this because this is an emergency.”

This Author

Catherine Wylie is a reporter with the Press Association.