Fracking has begun in Britain for the first time since drilling caused earthquakes seven years ago.

Shale gas operator Cuadrilla confirmed the move at its Preston New Road site in a statement. “Hydraulic fracturing of both horizontal exploration wells is expected to last three months after which the flow rate of the gas will be tested,” it read.

The company’s operations outside Blackpool were given the final nod from government in September.

Tokenistic event

A last-ditch attempt to prevent it was launched by local resident Robert Dennett, who won an interim injunction against Lancashire County Council on the grounds that its emergency planning was inadequate. But on Friday, the High Court rejected the injunction.

More than 40 activists from campaign group Reclaim the Power also attempted to stop drilling by blockading the site with a van during the early hours of the morning. The erected a scaffold structure on top with a banner reading, “Stop The Start. Don’t Frack the Climate”.

Charlie Edwards, from Reclaim the Power said: “Today the government launched its ‘Green Great Britain’ week – a tokenistic attempt to hide a series of climate wrecking decisions such as expanding Heathrow airport and forcing fracking on the local communities.”

The government was heavily criticised by Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and the Green Party for maintaining its support for the industry, despite warnings from climate scientists last week that time was running to keep global temperature rises within 1.5C.

It was also hypocritical in the light of energy minister Claire Perry’s request to its climate change advisers for advice on reducing the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions to net-zero, they said.

This Author

Catherine Early is a freelance environmental journalist and chief reporter for The Ecologist. She was formerly the deputy editor of the Environmentalist. She can be found tweeting at @Cat_Early76.

Experts at the Tree Conference will highlight the vital role trees and reforestation can play in limiting climate change – in response to the new Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report urging for global warming to be kept within 1.5C.

Suzi Martineau, the conference organiser, said: “At our 2018 Conference next weekend, our pool of amazing speakers, tree experts, scientists, environmentalists, project leaders and partners will be demonstrating that there are practical methods and solutions for working with trees that will support the world’s ecosystems and help to keep global temperature rise within 1.5C.

“We will be presenting very clear strategies for supporting the reforestation of our planet, for regenerating habitats for wildlife, and for putting an end to deforestation.”

Exploring stories

Speakers at the event include, Isabella Tree author of Wilding, the No. 1 bestselling environmental book of 2018, which tells the remarkable story of the rewilding of her Knepp Estate in West Sussex.

Tree said: “The success of Knepp, where habitats are created by free-roaming animals, is changing the way people are thinking about nature conservation. It demonstrates, among other things, how trees can regenerate without human intervention and how important this kind of dynamic, open wood pasture system is for our native wildlife.” 

Dr Martin Bidartondo, a scientist from Imperial College London, will explain the damaging effect of excess nitrogen (fertilisers) on soil fungi and its implications for the health of our trees.

Award-winning writer Mary Reynolds Thompson will explore our capacity to re-write our human story of “superiority and separateness from nature” and how we can change our global narrative through education for the benefit of the next generation. 

Thompson will be joined by Wendy Davis, Founder of Andover Trees United, who helped 40 primary schools plant a woodland. And Andy Egan and Teresa Gitonga from International Tree Foundation, will present the charity’s work implementing sustainable, community forest projects in Africa and the UK.

Lively discussion 

Peter Macfadyen, author of Flatpack Democracy and former Mayor of Frome, will host an afternoon slot highlighting the work of The Gaia Foundation and introducing leading-edge tree projects from around the world.

He will talk to Somerset-based Julian Hight, author of World Tree Story about his work reviving Selwood Forest; to Ayana Young, host of the For the Wild podcast about her millennial-run 1 Million Redwoods Project in California; and finally, to special guest forest defenders from the Sarayaku tribe of the Amazon, Mirian Cisnoros and Yaku Gualinga, about their Living Forest Declaration, a pioneering approach for using International law to halt deforestation.

Peter Macfadyen said: “From Frome to California via Ecuador: at a certain moment people take power into their own hands and find ways to plant trees. Our Gaia Foundation slot looks at three projects where ‘just do it’ is not a strap line for a shoe brand but a mantra that’s led to real change at a meaningful scale.”

During the event’s networking time, partners of The Tree Conference, including TreeSisters, Royal Forestry Society, Woodland Trust, The Tree Council, Resurgence & Ecologist and Hawkwood Centre for Future Thinking will be available to support and inform Conference participants.

And to round off, a lively panel discussion will debate the themes of the day, including the effects of the HS2 rail network and 5G mobile network, large scale planting, education, and other issues arising.

This Author 

Marianne Brooker is a contributing editor for The Ecologist. This story is based on a press release from Conscious Frontiers. Tickets for the event are selling fast, so be sure to secure your seat in advance from The Tree Conference website.

Experts at the Tree Conference will highlight the vital role trees and reforestation can play in limiting climate change – in response to the new Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report urging for global warming to be kept within 1.5C.

Suzi Martineau, the conference organiser, said: “At our 2018 Conference next weekend, our pool of amazing speakers, tree experts, scientists, environmentalists, project leaders and partners will be demonstrating that there are practical methods and solutions for working with trees that will support the world’s ecosystems and help to keep global temperature rise within 1.5C.

“We will be presenting very clear strategies for supporting the reforestation of our planet, for regenerating habitats for wildlife, and for putting an end to deforestation.”

Exploring stories

Speakers at the event include, Isabella Tree author of Wilding, the No. 1 bestselling environmental book of 2018, which tells the remarkable story of the rewilding of her Knepp Estate in West Sussex.

Tree said: “The success of Knepp, where habitats are created by free-roaming animals, is changing the way people are thinking about nature conservation. It demonstrates, among other things, how trees can regenerate without human intervention and how important this kind of dynamic, open wood pasture system is for our native wildlife.” 

Dr Martin Bidartondo, a scientist from Imperial College London, will explain the damaging effect of excess nitrogen (fertilisers) on soil fungi and its implications for the health of our trees.

Award-winning writer Mary Reynolds Thompson will explore our capacity to re-write our human story of “superiority and separateness from nature” and how we can change our global narrative through education for the benefit of the next generation. 

Thompson will be joined by Wendy Davis, Founder of Andover Trees United, who helped 40 primary schools plant a woodland. And Andy Egan and Teresa Gitonga from International Tree Foundation, will present the charity’s work implementing sustainable, community forest projects in Africa and the UK.

Lively discussion 

Peter Macfadyen, author of Flatpack Democracy and former Mayor of Frome, will host an afternoon slot highlighting the work of The Gaia Foundation and introducing leading-edge tree projects from around the world.

He will talk to Somerset-based Julian Hight, author of World Tree Story about his work reviving Selwood Forest; to Ayana Young, host of the For the Wild podcast about her millennial-run 1 Million Redwoods Project in California; and finally, to special guest forest defenders from the Sarayaku tribe of the Amazon, Mirian Cisnoros and Yaku Gualinga, about their Living Forest Declaration, a pioneering approach for using International law to halt deforestation.

Peter Macfadyen said: “From Frome to California via Ecuador: at a certain moment people take power into their own hands and find ways to plant trees. Our Gaia Foundation slot looks at three projects where ‘just do it’ is not a strap line for a shoe brand but a mantra that’s led to real change at a meaningful scale.”

During the event’s networking time, partners of The Tree Conference, including TreeSisters, Royal Forestry Society, Woodland Trust, The Tree Council, Resurgence & Ecologist and Hawkwood Centre for Future Thinking will be available to support and inform Conference participants.

And to round off, a lively panel discussion will debate the themes of the day, including the effects of the HS2 rail network and 5G mobile network, large scale planting, education, and other issues arising.

This Author 

Marianne Brooker is a contributing editor for The Ecologist. This story is based on a press release from Conscious Frontiers. Tickets for the event are selling fast, so be sure to secure your seat in advance from The Tree Conference website.

Experts at the Tree Conference will highlight the vital role trees and reforestation can play in limiting climate change – in response to the new Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report urging for global warming to be kept within 1.5C.

Suzi Martineau, the conference organiser, said: “At our 2018 Conference next weekend, our pool of amazing speakers, tree experts, scientists, environmentalists, project leaders and partners will be demonstrating that there are practical methods and solutions for working with trees that will support the world’s ecosystems and help to keep global temperature rise within 1.5C.

“We will be presenting very clear strategies for supporting the reforestation of our planet, for regenerating habitats for wildlife, and for putting an end to deforestation.”

Exploring stories

Speakers at the event include, Isabella Tree author of Wilding, the No. 1 bestselling environmental book of 2018, which tells the remarkable story of the rewilding of her Knepp Estate in West Sussex.

Tree said: “The success of Knepp, where habitats are created by free-roaming animals, is changing the way people are thinking about nature conservation. It demonstrates, among other things, how trees can regenerate without human intervention and how important this kind of dynamic, open wood pasture system is for our native wildlife.” 

Dr Martin Bidartondo, a scientist from Imperial College London, will explain the damaging effect of excess nitrogen (fertilisers) on soil fungi and its implications for the health of our trees.

Award-winning writer Mary Reynolds Thompson will explore our capacity to re-write our human story of “superiority and separateness from nature” and how we can change our global narrative through education for the benefit of the next generation. 

Thompson will be joined by Wendy Davis, Founder of Andover Trees United, who helped 40 primary schools plant a woodland. And Andy Egan and Teresa Gitonga from International Tree Foundation, will present the charity’s work implementing sustainable, community forest projects in Africa and the UK.

Lively discussion 

Peter Macfadyen, author of Flatpack Democracy and former Mayor of Frome, will host an afternoon slot highlighting the work of The Gaia Foundation and introducing leading-edge tree projects from around the world.

He will talk to Somerset-based Julian Hight, author of World Tree Story about his work reviving Selwood Forest; to Ayana Young, host of the For the Wild podcast about her millennial-run 1 Million Redwoods Project in California; and finally, to special guest forest defenders from the Sarayaku tribe of the Amazon, Mirian Cisnoros and Yaku Gualinga, about their Living Forest Declaration, a pioneering approach for using International law to halt deforestation.

Peter Macfadyen said: “From Frome to California via Ecuador: at a certain moment people take power into their own hands and find ways to plant trees. Our Gaia Foundation slot looks at three projects where ‘just do it’ is not a strap line for a shoe brand but a mantra that’s led to real change at a meaningful scale.”

During the event’s networking time, partners of The Tree Conference, including TreeSisters, Royal Forestry Society, Woodland Trust, The Tree Council, Resurgence & Ecologist and Hawkwood Centre for Future Thinking will be available to support and inform Conference participants.

And to round off, a lively panel discussion will debate the themes of the day, including the effects of the HS2 rail network and 5G mobile network, large scale planting, education, and other issues arising.

This Author 

Marianne Brooker is a contributing editor for The Ecologist. This story is based on a press release from Conscious Frontiers. Tickets for the event are selling fast, so be sure to secure your seat in advance from The Tree Conference website.

We’re all staring down the barrel of a gun — and Brazil’s hand is on the trigger.

On 8 October, Brazil’s right-wing presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro received 46 percent of the country’s votes. Not enough for an outright win, but enough to make him the clear favourite for the second round on 28 October 28.

Much has been made — and rightly so — of Bolsonaro’s sexism, racism and homophobia. This is a man who said he wouldn’t rape a particular member of Congress because she is “ugly” and “not [his] type”. He would “prefer [his] son to die in an accident than show up with a man.” He has reportedly described black activists as “animals” who should “go back to the zoo.” He is also pro-torture.

Human rights

The media have said less of his equally shocking plans for the environment, which is surprising given that the majority of the Amazon rainforest falls within its borders. Added to that, Brazil has sixth largest greenhouse gas emissions in the world, and wields environmental decision-making power that ricochets around the world. 

So here it is. First off, Bolsonaro plans to open up the Amazon for agriculture and mining. According to him, there will “not be an inch demarcated for indigenous reservation or quilombola. The minorities [should] either adapt or simply vanish.”

Not only is this a grave attack on the human rights of Brazil’s indigenous groups, but also on their ability to continue acting as the best defenders of the world’s forests. We need all the forest we can get, to capture carbon from the atmosphere and keep it locked away. In fact, scientists agree that halting deforestation is just as urgent as reducing emissions.

Bolsonaro’s approach is best summed up by his intent to undermine Brazil’s Ministry of Environment by proposing a merger with the Ministry of Agriculture. 

Environment Minister Edson Duarte said: “It is the same as a ruler saying he will remove the police from the streets. The increase in deforestation will be immediate. I am afraid of a gold rush to see who arrives first. They will know that, if they occupy illegally, the authorities will be complacent. They will be certain that nobody will bother them”.

Global community 

In light of this week’s IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) report, threats to forested land are all the more worrying.

Limiting warming to a challenging 1.5°C — instead of the existing goal of 2°C — will save 10.4 million people from severe flooding, allow 10 percent of coral reefs to survive, and leave half as many people without drinking water. Current policies will take us above 3°C; Bolsonaro’s would take us higher.

And it goes without saying that Bolsonaro will follow in the footsteps of his apparent role model, Donald Trump, and whip Brazil out of the Paris Climate Agreement faster than you can say “it’s cold today, perhaps we could use a little bit of that good old global warming”.

A Bolsonaro-led Brazil will change everything. Not just the lives of Brazilian citizens, but our chances, as a global community, of maintaining a liveable planet beyond 2030.

So put 28 October in your diary: that’s when Brazil will decide for us all. 

This Author 

Becca Warner is a freelance journalist and copywriter, focusing on environmentalism and the future. She writes regularly for Atlas of the Future and for sustainability projects at Futerra. She has also written about environmental justice for charities If Not Us Then Who and Size of Wales.

This article was first published on Rantt Media. 

When ships reach the end of their operational life they are taken apart to recover the steel. Recycling valuable materials makes economic and environmental sense, as long as the recycling in itself doesn’t cause any harm.

But today more than 80 percent of the obsolete ships strand in three major toxic hotspots: Sitakundu beach in Bangladesh, Alang beach in India and Gadani beach in Pakistan.

Higher social and environmental protection standards in Europe, Japan and Taiwan have shifted the business of ship recycling to areas where the legal framework is weak or corrupted.

Hazardous materials 

At the hundreds of shipbreaking plots that operate on the three South Asian tidal mudflats, little care is given to worker safety and the protection of the environment. Unskilled migrant workers, some of them children, are deployed by thousands to break down the large ships manually, without proper protective equipment.

Accidents kill or maim workers each year. The toxins released by the shipbreaking activities ravage sensitive coastal ecosystems. They already killed dozens of aquatic species and destroyed the livelihoods of surrounding fishing communities.

Ships are full of hazardous materials: asbestos dust, lead, organotins (e.g. the extremely toxic TBT), polychlorinated organic compounds (PCB), by-products of combustion (e.g. PAHs), dioxins and furans. These are just a few of the harmful substances that were found both on the yards and in the workers’ sleeping quarters close by.

These pollutants affect the growth of marine biodiversity and permanently alter the physiochemical properties of the coastal habitat.

Safe and clean alternatives to the beaching yards exist. Yet, facilities with the necessary infrastructure for this heavy and hazardous recycling industry are not used.

No accountability 

Ship owners prefer to sell their ships to yards that use low-cost methods because it increases their profits by millions.

They give priority to high scrap prices at the detriment of human lives and the environment. The shipping industry spends more money on greenwashing the beaching practices than on establishing partnerships with proper facilities.

Ship owners are not used to being held accountable for their substandard practices. Whilst global shipping transports as much as 90 percent of our goods around the world, it falls much under the radar when it comes to its negative social and environmental impacts, such as CO2 and sulfur emissions, the precarious treatment of seafarers, and its deplorable shipbreaking practices.

It is extremely easy for the shipping industry to circumvent existing laws that aim to protect developing countries from toxic waste dumping. It will also be easy for ship owners to circumvent the new laws at the European and UN level that flag states are meant to uphold.

Indeed, unscrupulous scrap dealers, known as “cash buyers”, re-flag the vessels on their last voyage to flags known for their poor implementation of international maritime laws.

Peer pressure

The European Union is however publishing a list of global facilities that comply with high environmental and occupational health and safety standards, and they are increasing the pressure on ship owners to use that list.

Shipbreaking Platform, a global coalition of environmental and human rights organisations, is closely following that process. They advocate to reverse the current shipbreaking scandal and to achieve responsibility upstream from states and from the shipping industry.

Working with progressive industry stakeholders and policymakers, whilst at the same time revealing illicit business practices, the Platform is seeing traction for its call for reforms.

New European laws, that aim to divert an increasing number of ship owners towards safe and clean ship recycling, will become applicable on 1 January 2019.

Peer pressure from investors, financers and the clients of shipping is increasing, and they are expressing clear support for the Platform’s human rights and environmental objective to end the dangerous and polluting practice of breaking ships on tidal beaches.

Criminal charges

As a result of the Platform’s revelations, and for the first time, criminal charges are being pressed in the Netherlands against a ship owner for having traded vessels for dirty and dangerous scrapping.

Similar cases are being investigated in Norway, Belgium, Germany and the UK, involving well-known shipping companies and the largest cash-buyers – scrap dealers specialized in selling ships to the beaches.

It is high time that the shipping industry is held accountable for the harm that it causes when vessels come to the end-of-life stage. It is also high time that policy makers make serious efforts to boost better practices.

This Author 

The EnvJustice research project studies and contributes to the global environmental justice movement. The EnvJustice team includes Sofia Avila, Daniela del Bene, Federico Demaria, Irmak Ertör, Juan Liu, Joan Martinez-Alier, Sara Mingorria, Grettel Navas, Camila Rolando Mazzuca, Brototi Roy, Arnim Scheidel, Julie Snorek (Institute of Environmental Science and Technology, Autonomous University of Barcelona) and Nick Meynen (European Environmental Bureau).

A year into US President George W. Bush’s reign and the fruits of ExxonMobil’s labours were already being felt.

The US had crippled Kyoto by pulling out of the global agreement and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) had lost its most outspoken communicator when Robert Watson was ousted by Bush at Exxon’s request.

Nonetheless, the administration were not feeling confident of their ground. A leaked 2002 memo from leading Republican consultant Frank Luntz warned that the party had nearly “lost the environmental communication battle” and urged the party to exploit the public’s uncertainty on the scientific consensus in order to further their agenda.

“Should the public come to believe that the scientific issues are settled, their views about global warming will change accordingly,” wrote the pollster, “You need to continue to make the lack of scientific certainty a primary issue in the debate.”

The proud wordsmith advised: “As Republicans, we have the moral and rhetorical high ground when we talk about values like freedom.”

Internal Memos

One threat to the environmental battle was a forthcoming report being produced by Christine Whitman, head of the USEnvironmental Protection Agency (EPA), who had lost her battle with Bush on CO2 regulation a year before.

Whitman was having a hard time getting her work approved. A Climate Action Report was to be submitted to the UN in May 2002. But, internal EPA memos complained of the heavy editing that the report underwent from Bush’s staff.

The White House had removed the report’s summary on why “Climate change has global consequences for human health and the environment,” and EPA employees complained that, in the edits, “emphasis is given to a recent, limited analysis [which] supports the administration’s favoured message,” so that the report “no longer accurately represents scientific consensus on climate change.”

Climate Cogs

Despite the editing, the published report forecast major impacts on the continental United States, called for action to minimise harm, and stated that the impacts would no longer be preventable only through emissions reductions.

Though not in any way controversial, the Climate Action Report was a devastating result for the denial machine. But it had other cogs in motion.

In June 2001, Bush had appointed a young lawyer as chief of staff to the White House Council on Environmental Quality. Phil Cooney, as well as having no formal scientific training, was a 15-year veteran of the American Petroleum Institute (API), where he had risen through the ranks to become head of the API’s “Climate Team”.

The API were the Exxon-funded industry lobbyists who were the masterminds of the leaked 1998 Climate Action Plan, which acted as a blueprint for the industry’s activities to combat climate action over the years.

Deep Concerns

Amongst the other free market thinkers involved in the Action Plan was Myron Ebell, who was then working for Frontiers of Freedom (FoF) – a think tank whose mission was “to promote conservative public policy based on the principles of individual freedom, peace through strength, limited government, free enterprise, and traditional American values as found in the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.”

However, Ebell left FoF shortly after and moved to the Koch-funded Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI). It was thought to be through Ebell’s reputation that CEI became ExxonMobil’s Libertarian think tank du jour. In 2003, the oil giant’s donations made up 16 percent of their budget.

Cooney was deeply concerned by Whitman’s EPA report, and enlisted Ebell from the CEI to help him deal with the report.

“Thanks for calling and asking for our help,” Ebell responded to Cooney in an email dated 3 June 2002. After insisting that the administration must publicly condemn the report, Ebell discussed damage limitation strategies. 

He suggested that “the fall guy (or gal) should be as high up as possible… Perhaps tomorrow we will call for Whitman to be fired.”

Fact Editing

When Cooney later came to trial in March 2007, a House hearing on interference in global warming research found that, while at the White House, Cooney had edited out hundreds of fact-based findings in government reports.

Similar activity was recorded at the US Department of Energy around this time. Several recommendations from energy industry representatives were written into the White House’s national energy report and into an executive order signed by President Bush.

In one case, the API submitted a proposed draft executive order on energy policy concerning government regulations affecting energy supply. Two months later, Bush signed an executive order that the council’s lawyers said was nearly identical in structure and language to the trade group’s proposal.

This Author

Brendan Montague is editor of The Ecologist, founder of Request Initiative and co-author of Impact of Market Forces on Addictive Substances and Behaviours: The web of influence of addictive industries (Oxford University Press). He tweets at @EcoMontague. This article first appeared at Desmog.uk.

The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) is calling for urgent action to stop wildlife trafficking and increase protection for some of our most iconic and threatened species.

World leaders, private companies and others gathered in London this week for the opening of the UK Government-hosted Illegal Wildlife Trade (IWT) conference.

Elephant populations have been decimated by the ivory trade, with elephants being slaughtered at a rate of around 20,000 each year, just so their tusks can be made into trinkets and carvings which nobody needs. Many other endangered species are at a tipping point because of demand for their parts or due to trafficking for the live pet trade.

International marketplace

With mounting evidence showing that traffickers are switching from physical markets to virtual ones, wildlife cybercrime was a key aspect of the conference.

IFAW’s recent research into wildlife cybercrime highlighted the vast quantity of live animals and their body parts available for sale online.

Tania McCrea-Steele, International Project Manager, Wildlife Crime, with IFAW said: “The internet provides wildlife traffickers access to a vast international marketplace – one without borders that is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, where wildlife cybercriminals exploit the anonymity afforded to them online.

“Many online marketplaces and social media platforms are working hard to stop this but we all have a part to play. If we don’t buy, they don’t die.”

Over just six weeks in four countries, IFAW identified advertisements for 11,772 endangered and threatened specimens worth more than £3m.

Hi-tech innovation

IFAW research has uncovered thousands of wildlife products and live animals for sale, from ivory tusks and rhino horn products to live big cats, orangutans and gorillas, available just by tapping a smart phone.

To combat the threat posed by online wildlife traffickers, it is critical that public and private sectors unite to find solutions.

With the UK ivory bill progressing through Parliament, there is increasing pressure for the EU, Japan and other key countries to follow suit and close their domestic ivory markets to protect elephants.

IFAW believes ivory should only be valued on a live elephant. More than 500 ivory items, from carvings to whole tusks, have been handed over by members of the public in recent months in response to IFAW’s latest UK ivory surrender to put ivory beyond use.

McCrea-Steele added: “As organised criminal gangs are using ever more sophisticated means for trafficking ivory, we too are using pioneering methods to stop poaching and wildlife trafficking, from community involvement to hi-tech innovation. We need to create a network to defeat a criminal network.”

This Author 

Marianne Brooker is a contributing editor for The Ecologist. This article is a based on a press release from the International Fund for Animal Welfare. Follow them on Twitter @Action4IFAW.

European ivory sellers on eBay are using the same code words in different languages to covertly advertise items for sale, potentially making it easier for law enforcement agencies to uncover such activities by reducing the number of phrases they have to track, according to a new report. 

Sara Alfino and Dr David Roberts from the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology within the School of Anthropology and Conservation at the University of Kent examined 19 different code words and phrases that have been identified as representing ivory products on sale across four of eBay’s European websites: the UK, Italy, France and Spain.

They found that despite eBay’s ban on ivory sales there were 183 ivory items on sale by 113 sellers during their research window between 18 January and 5 February 2017.

Breaking regulations

Not only did these sales violate eBay’s trading conditions but some broke regulations under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and EU regulations regarding the sale of ‘unworked’ ivory.

Despite the use of codes to hide sales and the problems this could pose law enforcement agencies working in different languages, the researchers found that the majority of items on offer – around 80 percent – were grouped around six code words across the four eBay sites monitored.

This suggests the sales of ivory items online between traders is standardising around set code words, even when using different languages, as globalisation and market forces affect their business like any other.

This could help narrow the scope within which law enforcement agencies have to search for the sale of ivory items and allow machine learning tools to be focused on key terms too, helping improve identification of illegal sales.

However, the researchers say further work will be required to monitor sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Craigslist to see what terms are used. These sites have different ways in which items are presented for sale and therefore it is not known to what extent these code words are not only shared between languages, but also across these online sales platforms.

Digital fingerprint

Nonetheless, if a ‘digital fingerprint’ could be identified for the sale of ivory items or other wildlife trade items that spanned platforms, languages and countries, the global monitoring of wildlife trade could potentially be made easier.

Dr Roberts said: ‘It is clear that identifying illegal online trade in ivory is a challenge for law enforcement agencies.

“However, the research shows that there are ways in which they can take advantage of market conditions that are forcing traders to standardise on code words to try and find buyers for their goods.”

The paper, Code word usage in the online trade in ivory across four EU member States, has been published in the Oryx-The International Journal of Conservation Fauna & Flora International.

This Author

Marianne Brooker is a contributing editor for The Ecologist. This article is based on a press release from the University of Kent. 

Bankwatch has proven in court that Romanian government permits issued to Oltenia Energy Complex (OEC) – a state-owned company – are illegal.

The OEC has often found itself in situations where its actions were inconsistent with environment legislation – going back to its establishment in 2012 through the merger of decade-old power plants and coal mines.

Romania joined the global effort to limit global warming below two degrees Celsius by committing to a transition to a low emission economy. But OEC still decided to expand its lignite mines and increase coal production.

Public utility 

The mines neighbour villages, agricultural lands and forests. When the company’s expansion plans stalled as owners refused to sell land, or complex permits were required to develop further, state institutions removed the obstacles that had blocked these processes.

In the village of Runcurel, where the government decreed the Jilț Nord mine expansion a project of ‘public utility,’ direct negotiations with land owners were eliminated, and the state became the owner of the land overnight.

More than one hundred households will be expropriated for the expansion of Jilț Nord mine, and similar decisions were issued for the nearby Jilț Sud and Roșia mines.

The Government Decisions against property rights were just the beginning. The expansion required the removal of hundreds of hectares of forest, some neighbouring Natura 2000 sites, a network of protected areas created for the long-term protection of wild plant and wildlife species and the habitats in which they are located.

According to the Forestry Law, deforestation of areas measuring less than a hectare require just a decision of the Territorial Inspectorate of Forest and Hunting (TIFH, now the Forest Guard), but for areas of more than ten hectares, a Government Decision is needed.

OEC interpreted the provisions of the law in their favour, slicing the land needed for the expansion of the lignite mines into plots of less than one hectare to avoid environmental and social impact studies and the issuance of a Government Decision.

Legal timeline

In 2014 Bankwatch Romania initiated a series of lawsuits for the annulment of these documents.

In 2015, the deforestation decisions for the expansion of Pinoasa and Roșia mines were annulled, and in 2016 the decisions for the Roșiuța mine were annulled in the first court.

Not all cases proceeded as smoothly, however. Some of the actions have been declined to different courts, while others have been rejected. Different rulings were made on almost identical complaints concerning similar situations.

• January 2012 – September 2013: TIFH Râmnicu Vâlcea issues over 100 deforestation decisions for Roșia, Roșiuța, Pinoasa, Rovinari, Jilț Nord, Tismana 2, Jilt Sud mines
• February – November 2014: Bankwatch Romania files lawsuits for the annulment of deforestation decisions for Roșiuța, Roșia, Pinoasa, Rovinari mines
• November 2014: contested Jilt Sud
• December 2015: Deforestation decisions for Roșia mine are definitively annulled
• June 2016:Deforestation decisions for Pinoasa mine are definitively annulled
• September, 2016: Bankwatch Romania asks the Ministry for Environment to send the Control Unit to verify the TIFH’s activity
• November, 2016: The Ministry of Environment replies, requesting additional information from TIFH Râmnicu Vâlcea
• March 2017: Deforestation decisions for Jilt Sud mine definitively annulled
• June, 2017: Deforestation decisions for Roșiuța mine are definitively annulled
• August, 2017: A new message from the Ministry of Environment: the TIFH inspection is included in the 2017 Programme for thematic controls
• December, 2017: The decisions for Jilț Nord are annulled in the first court; the Court does not accept a Bankwatch Romania lawsuit against the Tismana 2 decisions
• March, 2018: Deforestation decisions for Rovinari mine are definitively annulled; Bankwatch Romania asks the Ministry for Environment for an update
• August, 2018: The Control Unit sends its inspection report to the criminal investigation bodies after finding irregularities at TIFH

Continuing the fight 

The slow evolution of the lawsuits allowed some areas to be deforested before the trials were finished, as the decisions were not suspended. This was the case for the Roșia mine.

OEC issued a statement to explain that “those areas were deforested in compliance with the TIFH decisions” and that the final sentence of the court “has no effect on the continuation of OEC’s activity”.

To avoid repeating such situations in the future, Bankwatch requested that the Ministry for Environment send the Control Unit to verify the Forest Guard’s activity.

After almost two years of delays, the Control Unit performed a thorough analysis at Râmnicu Vâlcea’s Forest Guard in spring this year. The control revealed irregularities in the definitive removal of land from the Romanian Forestry Fund in order to extend OEC’s mining exploitations. For this reason, the inspection report was sent to the competent criminal investigation bodies.

Finally, there is hope that someone will be held accountable for the illegal permits that led to the destruction of hundreds of hectares of forest. Six years after the local authorities that are meant to protect the environment did the opposite, a criminal investigation began.

This law was changed in the meantime, however, enabling large-scale deforestation for projects of ‘public interest’ by removing the mandatory Government Decisions. The fight goes on.

This Author 

Marianne Brooker is a contributing editor for The Ecologist. This article is based on a press release from Bankwatch.