The indigenous Waorani communities that live along the riverbanks of the Ecuadorian Amazon have been mired in a symbolic legal battle to protect their ancestral lands.

The Waorani territory and people have experienced pressures from development and resource extraction. 

The Ecuadorian Provincial Court’s decision in favor of the Waorani permanently protects 500,000 acres of the Amazon Jungle. A sense of victory is felt among the Waorani, and a global symbol resonates for other regions experiencing similar pressures from potential resource extraction.

Not for sale

Luis Muños, the co-founder of the restoration group Amisacho, received an invitation to return to a Waorani community, where he had helped install solar panels one year prior. We travelled to Akaro, one of the most remote Waorani communities. 

Traveling South, we stayed in Puyo, Ecuador. On this day we saw the Waorani march through the city streets demanding the legal right to their ancestral land, and demonstrating the importance that this land embodies for them.

Among them is Memo, one of the Waorani contacts Luis made in the community of Akaro. Memo is the founder and “grandfather” of Akaro. And on this day in Puyo he was joined by some 200 other Waorani, Cofan, and other Amazonian indigenous people, some with spears in hand.

Their voices were strong and message portrayed in chants and signs reading, “La Selva no se vende!” or “The jungle is not for sale”.

The March ended at the Ecuadorian Provincial Court, where members of the Waorani, accompanied by their lawyer, handed over the official legal documents to sue the Ecuadorian government for leasing the Waorani Territory to foreign oil companies.

Storytelling

The area in jeopardy, some 500,000 acres of jungle, received the bureaucratic name of Block 22.

Memo’s community of Akaro is in Block 22. He came out of his community to join others in sharing their message.

Memo accompanied us as we embarked from Puyo on a three-hour dirt road that ended at the banks of a braiding Amazonian river, Rio Villano, where we began a two day canoe trip to the community of Akaro.

Standing tall, with engine throttle in hand, Memo skillfully navigated the canoe loaded with gear and people around the curves of the low flow river. While making our dinner over fire, Memo told stories of his childhood, of the first time he saw an airplane, a time before he had seen a white person or amenities such as metal pots. 

Modern jungle

The next day, some of our party, including myself, walked the second half of the journey through the jungle to Akaro. Memo’s son-in-law, Carlos, accompanied us on a trek into the Waorani territory, harvesting wild cacao and other edible plants along the way.

It was on this hike we were first shown the immense breadth of usable knowledge the Waorani have of plants and animals within the jungle. The traditional techniques that the Waorani use to hunt toucans and other animals is a blow dart gun with poison-tipped arrows. The darts are tipped with poison derived from a lianna that is found throughout this region of the Amazon.

Though as we walk, we are told that traditionally abundant plants, such as the lianna used for the poisoned darts, are becoming more and more difficult to find. 

Early the next morning while at Akaro, Memo enters the living area of the main house with a large sajino, or wild pig, on his back. Memo is one of the best hunters in his community, and without our knowing, he had left earlier that same morning to hunt.

Memo enters the largest house at Akaro with the sajino worn like a backpack, with each of the pig’s lifeless legs tied together with vines around his chest. As a much-welcomed arrival of sustenance, this sajinomakes a weighted entrance as Memo heavily drops the animal on the wooden floorboards next to the cooking area. 

Decisive message

In the following week, while far beneath the jungle canopy and canoeing atop the coffee-colored river, Memo and his family at Akaro imparted a deluge of knowledge regarding the surrounding flora and fauna.

From the depths of the dense foliage and endlessly weaving rivers, it was difficult to assume that a place as remote could have been in such danger.  

On April 27th, 2019, the court verdict came in in favor of the Waorani to permanently protect 500,000 acres of their ancestral lands from resource extraction. However, following this court decision, the Ecuadorian government motioned to appeal and overturn this decision. 

As of July 1, the Ecuadorian Provincial Court upheld the decision to maintain protection of the half a million acres of Waorani land. 

Fostering solidarity

Leading up to this legal victory Memo and many other Waorani have been very active in voicing just how important it is for them to keep their land from being exploited.

Calmly, yet forcefully, sitting atop the floorboards of the same room he dropped the wild pig a few days prior, Memo explained the importance of his cause – that the land his ancestors lived upon and now he and his grandchildren depend on cannot fall into the hands of oil companies.

On our final night in Akaro before disembarking by canoe the next morning, Memo gave us a message to spread, that the Waorani land is not for sale.

By protecting their land, the Woarani have cultivated a symbol of power and potential for motivated individuals to stand up and arise victorious to the pressures of the behemoth oil industry.

Fostering solidarity, this victory of the Waorani can set a precedent for other areas in jeopardy from extraction such as the neighbouring seven million other acres of the Amazon Basin or the distant Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. 

This Author     

Eliot Headley, age 25, lives in Lake Tahoe, California. Working as a tour guide there, he enjoys sharing a deepening connection with nature. 

The CEO of the world’s largest sustainable travel company is calling for Bristol Airport controversial expansion plans to be scrapped.

Justin Francis, CEO of Responsible Travel, believes air travellers should fly less and make sure each journey contributes to conservation and local communities, and that allowing the regional airport to expand to carry twelve million passengers annually – and eventual rise to 20 million the should be vetoed.

Mr Francis said: “Zero tax on aviation fuel and cheap flights are a disaster for the environment. Expanding Bristol Airport to accommodate will vastly add to pollution.”

Tourism impacts

Mr Francis also welcomed the Government inquiry to address tourism problems – a parliamentary scrutiny that is investigating the environmental impacts of tourism in the UK and abroad both of which Mr Francis say will be exacerbated if the regional airport expands.

The inquiry will consider whether the UK government should play a leading role in offsetting the damage caused by the tens of millions of Britons taking holidays abroad and focus on the hefty carbon footprint of aviation and cruise companies.

Mr Francis commented: “It remains to be seen how committed global governments are to taxing aviation, but this is essential if we are to reduce the numbers of that people fly.”

Responsible Travel was one of the first travel agencies to introduce carbon offsetting – allowing supposedly guilt-free flying if you made up for pollution with green deeds.

This policy has now been dropped. “We simply need to fly less – travel by train, take holidays closer to home, or fewer holidays with flights and staying longer, as well as making carbon reductions in lifestyles,” Mr Francis added.

Air pollution

If Bristol Airport is allowed to expand it could mean 97, 373 aircraft movements in a twelve-month calendar period: a flight almost every three minutes and an average of 9,500 extra vehicle movements every day.

To cope with this, permanent airspace change proposals could be set to follow and a greater number of communities across Somerset and Bristol may be flown over by thousands more planes, while millions more cars will pour through the region, widely affecting South West.

Wrington-based environmental consultant, Dr Adrian Gibbs, questioned the airport’s ability to offset its carbon footprint. His website Insomnia.co.uk states that to mitigate the extra emissions of CO2, Bristol Airport would have to reforest an area the size of North Somerset ever four months.

A recent UK landmark study also showed that exposure to air pollution is linked to the stunting of babies’ brain growth during pregnancy. A smaller gestational birth size is associated with conditions later in life, including, coronary artery disease, type two diabetes and asthma.

Study lead, Paediatrician, Professor Steve Turner stated that nobody knows the baseline of the amount of pollution that can cause harm and has called for legislation, taxation and someone to champion cleaner air.

The advisory Committee on Climate Change (CCC) recently stated the UK’s planned increase in aviation needs to be curbed to restrict harmful CO2 levels which contribute to global warming.

This Author

Melanie Greenwood is a freelance journalist. 

Thirty six leading environmental, transparency and other organisations have urged the government to drop a secrecy provision from draft legislation to improve environmental protection after Brexit. 

The organisations say the prohibition on disclosure “is wholly at odds with the public’s right to information” under existing UK legislation.

The draft Environment (Principles and Governance) Bill would establish the Office of Environmental Protection (OEP). One of its functions would be to investigate complaints of serious failure by public authorities to comply with environmental laws. This is intended to replace Europe’s environmental scrutiny functions after Brexit.

Onerous restriction

Although the OEP would normally have to reveal that it was investigating a particular authority or had found that it had breached environmental law, most other information would be withheld:

The OEP would be prohibited from disclosing information obtained from a public authority under investigation unless the authority consented, and the public authority being investigated would be prohibited from disclosing correspondence or formal notices from the OEP unless the OEP consented.

In addition, the OEP would be required to copy its correspondence with a public authority to the relevant minister, but could not disclose the minister’s reply without the minister’s consent.

The OEP could publish its final investigation report if it chose to – but the public would have no right of access to it.

In a joint letter to the Environment Secretary, Theresa Villiers, the 36 organisations say this “would impose a  degree of secrecy which does not apply to any other UK environmental regulator”.

The restriction is “even more onerous” than that applied by the European Commission to information about investigations into breaches of EU environmental laws.

Freedom of information 

The letter points out the public has a right of access to environmental information under the UK’s Environmental Information Regulations (EIR).  These allow information to be withheld if disclosure would ‘adversely affect’ an investigation. But the information must still be released if the public interest favours disclosure.

The authority also has to apply a ‘presumption in favour of disclosure’. The letter says none of these important conditions would apply under the draft bill.

The letter, which has been co-ordinated by the Campaign for Freedom of Information, adds: “If the OEP, public authority or minister (as the case may be) did not wish the information to be released, it would be withheld.

“There would be no need to show that disclosure would be harmful. The public interest in the information would be irrelevant. This would reverse decades of progress in opening up environmental information.”

The 36 organisations call on the government to omit this “damaging and unjustified restriction on the public’s right to environmental information”.

This Author

Marianne Brooker is content editor of The Ecologist.

Signatories 

Amnesty International UK Section

ARTICLE 19

Bat Conservation Trust

Biofuelwatch

Buglife

Bumblebee Conservation Trust

Butterfly Conservation

Campaign for Freedom of Information

Campaign for National Parks

Campaign for the Protection of Rural Wales

Campaign to Protect Rural England

Clean Air in London

ClientEarth

Compassion in World Farming

Friends of the Earth

Global Justice Now

Global Witness

Good Law Project

Greenpeace

Guy Linley-Adams Solicitor

Law Centres Network

MySociety

National Union of Journalists

News Media Association

Open Rights Group

Renewable Energy Foundation

Royal Society for the Protection of Birds

Salmon and Trout Conservation UK

Sustain

The Brexit Civil Society Alliance

The Ramblers

Transparency International UK

Trees for Cities

Unlock Democracy

Whale and Dolphin Conservation

Wild Justice

Dozens of hen harrier chicks have been successfully reared in England this year in what has been a “record” breeding season for the threatened bird.

There were a total of 15 nests, with 15 successful breeding pairs and 47 chicks, outdoing the previous recorded best for England in 2006 of 46 birds, government conservation agency Natural England said.

Tony Juniper, the agency’s chairman welcomed the “better breeding season” but warned hen harrier numbers were still far from where they should be, with the birds of prey victims of illegal persecution.

Satellite

Over the last two years, 81 chicks have been raised to fledging, outstripping the total for the previous five years combined, the figures show.

Chicks have also hatched in a wider variety of areas this year, including in Northumberland, Yorkshire Dales, Nidderdale, Derbyshire and Lancashire.

It marks an improvement from a low point just a few years ago, when there were no successful nests or fledged chicks in 2013, raising fears the bird was becoming extinct as a breeding species in England.

Hen harriers are England’s most threatened bird of prey, as their food source of red grouse chicks to feed their young brings them into conflict with commercial shooting estates.

Many of this year’s chicks have been fitted with satellite tags, which will allow Natural England to monitor what happens to the birds.

Brood

A study released by the agency earlier this year analysing satellite tagging data found young hen harriers suffer abnormally high death rates with illegal killing the most likely cause.

But this year’s breeding season saw 11 successful nests on grouse moors, the figures released ahead of the start of the grouse shooting season show.

Diversionary feeding, in which alternative food is provided for the harriers to prevent them preying on grouse chicks, was employed at six nests.

This year also saw the first trial “brood management scheme” at one nest, in which harrier chicks were removed from their nest to prevent predation of grouse and released back into the area once they could fend for themselves.

The use of brood management has been welcomed by moorland managers as a “vitally important” part of the efforts to bring back the hen harrier.

Majestic

But it has been challenged by the RSPB as “the wrong tool” , with the wildlife charity saying the first step in hen harrier recovery should be the ending of illegal persecution.

Despite the successes, three nests in Northumberland failed, with two washed out by bad weather and one lost to predators.

Mr Juniper said: “While it is very welcome to see this improvement, we must remember that the hen harrier is still very far from where it should be as a breeding species in England, not least due to illegal persecution.

“I will be working with Natural England colleagues to pursue all options for the recovery of this wonderful bird, a creature that inspires and brings joy to so many people.

“It would be a tragic loss for our country, children and grandchildren if this majestic bird was to remain so scarce, or even disappear, in the future.”

Skydancing

Amanda Anderson, director of the Moorland Association, said: “It has been a fantastic year for hen harriers with a year-on-year increase in both the geographical range of the nests and the type of land on which they have successfully fledged, most notably on privately owned grouse moors.

“The collaboration on the ground has been second to none. There is a real commitment to restoring the population among those with rural and conservation interests at heart and we believe that we are beginning to turn a corner.”

Chris Corrigan, the RSPB’s director for England said: “We share Natural England’s joy that 15 nests successfully fledged 47 chicks this year.

“However, this success is tarnished by the clear evidence that illegal killing continues with no sign of it coming to an end.

“By the Government’s own figures we should have over 300 pairs of hen harriers skydancing above the English countryside, and yet the species remains on the brink of local extinction.”

A community group created to oppose a planning application for a spaceport on the island of Uist is urging people to send objections to the local council.

The proposal for the UK’s first vertical launch commercial spaceport was unveiled by local council Comhairle nan Eilean Siar (Western Isles Council) in June. Located at Scolpaig on the north-west coast of North Uist, it would be a base for satellites to be launched into space, for projects such as telecommunications, space-based internet, or environmental monitoring.

The project is a partnership with QinetiQ, who operate the nearby MOD Hebrides Range. Leader of the council Roddie Mackay said that the economic benefits from the project were “immense”, including 50-70 jobs, and that it had the full backing of the council.

Wildlife concerns

A consultation on the application is currently underway and has already generated nearly 500 objections. The North Uist Conservation Group is concerned that the proposal would damage the coastal wilderness of Scolpaig, and tourism from nature lovers who visit the island to see otters, golden and white-tailed eagles, wading birds and the corncrake.

It is also worried about the impact on the nearby North Uist Machair, a designated Special Area of Conservation, and an area of peatland, which is a carbon sink. The RSPB bird reserve at Balranald is five kilometres from the proposed spaceport, it added.

But Mark Roberts, consultant to the project, said that the space port would be around 2km by 1.5km. “We don’t want to harm the local environment, and equally it makes no sense to build more than we need, so it’s quite minimalist.”

This Author

Catherine Early is a freelance environmental journalist and chief reporter for the Ecologist. She can be found tweeting at @Cat_Early76.

I joined the Bristol commuter rush by sitting in the road and gluing myself onto a pink bathtub, early on a Wednesday morning.

We successfully blockaded the A-road leading from Cabot Circus onto the M32, using the bath and several dozen people temporarily stopping the nearby junctions with banners.

The traffic delays piled up for several miles. A year prior, I’d had little awareness of climate breakdown or biodiversity loss. My activism was focussed on disability. Yet here I now was, breaking the law to demand action on the ecological emergency.

Summer uprising

The Bathtub Sixteen – the name now given to the rebels arrested for gluing or locking ourselves onto or around the bathtub – were undertaking this act as part of Extinction Rebellion’s latest wave of action.

This protest, entitled the ‘Summer Uprising’, disrupted central spaces in Bristol, Cardiff, Glasgow, Leeds and London to demand that local councils and the Government ‘Act Now’ on the climate and ecological crises. 

In Bristol, the action had started on the Monday by occupying Bristol Bridge with a pink boat named ‘Jeanette Kawas’ after the Houndarian activist murdered for protecting over four hundred species of fauna and flora. This boat had swiftly become the heart of a vibrant community — featuring a kitchen, family zone, reading area and wellbeing tent.

A full schedule had been planned, with engaged and good-natured debate about the crisis, talks, trainings, workshops and, of course, civil disobedience.

Besides our action with the bathtub, the summer actions included a Critical Mass Bike Ride of more than a thousand people, the youth locking themselves onto a pink car outside City Hall and rebels stripping off inside the building during Mayor Marvin Rees presentation of his belated and flawed plans for the city to go carbon neutral.

Climate grief

My entrance into this world of environmental activism had been sudden. It was early November in 2018 and I had met my daughter for a coffee before a talk that I was due to give at the University of Exeter.

Our conversation was abruptly interrupted as she doubled over with grief at the incomprehensible suffering and injustice of the climate and ecological emergency. I instantly went from being unaware to fully invested and a deep ecological grief settled over me.

There was a period in December where a day didn’t go by without my weeping. Emerging from this state of mourning was a long journey and I experienced every stage of grief.

The eco-psychologist Joanna Macy promotes a framework that guides mourners through gratitude, to honouring our pain, to finding new possibilities through practical actions and it is this process of reclaiming agency through acting that allows many to reach a place of acceptance. 

Science

Though emotions drive me, it is logic that dictates my actions. I’m a mathematician. The way I see it, you have to start with a series of basic decisions. The science is clear — we’re in a situation where the crisis is accelerating exponentially.

The UN’s IPCC report published last October says that we have to cut carbon emissions by 40 percent in the next 12 years if we want a 50 percent chance of preventing ‘catastrophe’. Yet the same year carbon levels went up by 3.5 parts per million (ppm).

Though we’re seeing relatively slow increases in temperatures at present, the change is going to get quicker and the same applies to the loss of species and habitats, the degenerative effect on our soils, the sea levels rising and the release of methane from below melting ice.

The crisis isn’t following a linear, predicative path and there will be a compound effect as these situations catalyse one another. 

Given that we can’t argue with the science, the next step is the question of how we respond. Petitioning and lobbying on this issue has been taking place for 30 years and our situation has only worsened. The normal modes of engaging in political change aren’t the right tactics. This leaves us with non-violent civil disobedience.

Change

By taking to the streets to cause disruption and being willing to give up our liberties we treat the crisis with the urgency it demands.

The people whose day-to-day lives are disrupted are driven to process the crisis in an embodied and emotional manner that scientific facts struggle to inspire. While their emotions in the moment may be annoyance and anger, they will continue to reflect upon the issues and come to understand their importance. 

These tactics work. Since Extinction Rebellion’s International Rebellion protest in London this April, concern about climate breakdown in the UK has never been higher and two-thirds of Britons want faster action on the crisis.

The articles now appearing in mainstream press and the language used by politicians show that the dialogue on ecological breakdown has shifted permanently.

We need more change, we need real action from the Government, and we need it now, but we are prompting people to care. 

Anti-social enterprise

Despite our best efforts, such forms of protest can provoke distress and our actions during the Summer Uprising did face criticism from some areas. It saddens me when our protests cause difficulties, but it’s a question of proportionality.

Our house is on fire —during a summer when temperature records are being broken across the world and wildfires are ravaging the Arctic this is a literal as well as metaphorical statement. When there is a fire, a siren must announce the emergency. Extinction Rebellion is that siren. The noise might not be pleasant, but we don’t need people to love us. We need them listen. 

In an odd twist of fate, the day that my daughter opened my eyes, the talk that I was due to give was entitled ‘Social Enterprise: Business That Saves The Planet’. At the end of the presentation, I asked the audience, “so what’s the opposite of social enterprise?” The reply came, “anti-social enterprise”.

So I responded, “if you’re asking me to say that social enterprise has the responsibility of saving the world, what does anti-social enterprise do?” The reply came, “destroys the world”.

The business-as-usual behaviour that society is currently pursuing is this ‘anti-social enterprise’. Disrupting it through peaceful civil disobedience, far from being anti-social, is the only option that we have left.

Rebel for life

The day of the bathtub action was my third arrest for Extinction Rebellion, so I wasn’t overly concerned.

I was unglued from the bathtub and transferred into the police van without difficulty, though my legal rights were denied to me as a visually impaired person.

On the book-in desk, the police ask you questions and tell you to sign your responses, which I always refuse to do because I can’t read the print-out. As a result, they processed me as ‘detained person refuses to sign’.

They also were unable to provide me with a copy of the police code of conduct that I could read. So I refused to leave custody until my legal rights were honoured.

Afterwards, the arresting officer said, “You’ve really tickled me. In twenty-nine years of policing I’ve never known anyone refuse to leave custody.” I shook his hand and said, “well, get used to it, because you’ll be seeing me again”.

This Author

James Brown is a five-time Paralympian and activist. He is the founder of Mobiloo, a service that allows organisations to rent a mobile accessible changing facility.

Labour is calling for a review of grouse shooting amid warnings it is causes substantial environmental damage to important natural habitats.

With the start of the four-month long shooting season on Monday – the so-called Glorious Twelfth – the party said consideration should be given to “viable alternatives” such as simulated shooting or wildlife tourism.

The move threatens to put the party on a collision course with landowners who argue that shooting creates valuable employment opportunities while helping to protect the environment.

Moors

Grouse moors cover around 550,000 acres of land in in England and Scotland.

However, Labour said that the process of draining the land in preparation for the shooting season destroyed “huge swathes” of plant life while also killing large numbers of animals.

Moors were often burned, increasing the likelihood of both wildfires and flooding while increasing carbon emissions and dramatically reducing their future capacity to absorb carbon.

At the same time, the party said that species such hen harriers – which feed on grouse chicks – and mountain hares were often illegally culled.

But despite such damage, Labour said that the 10 largest English grouse moors received a total of £3 million in annual farm subsidies.

Biodiverse

Shadow environment secretary Sue Hayman said: “The costs of grouse shooting on our environment and wildlife needs to be to properly weighed up against the benefit of land owners profiting from shooting parties.

“For too long the Tories have bent the knee to land owners and it’s our environment and our people who pay the price.

“There are viable alternatives to grouse shooting such as simulated shooting and wildlife tourism. The time has come for a proper review into the practice.”

However Duncan Thomas, a regional director at the British Association for Shooting and Conservation, said he was confident any review would demonstrate the benefits of a well-run grouse moor.

“Grouse moors are biodiverse and the shoots they support create vital employment in isolated rural areas supporting communities,” he told The Daily Telegraph.

Heather

“Effective heather management including burning and cutting creates amazing habitat and of course reduces the fuel load and risk of wildfire.”

Officials said that protecting the moorland environment was a “priority” for the Government, as was the protection of the hen harrier.

The birds were protected from illegal killing under the Wildlife and Countryside Act and the Government had strong penalties in place for offences committed against birds of prey.

Ministers were said to be continuing to work closely with landowners, tenant farmers and sporting interests to sign up to voluntary agreements, including a commitment to stop the rotational burning of heather on bog land.

This Author

Gavin Cordon is the PA Whitehall editor. Image: FieldsportsChannel TV. 
 

An project funded by EU LIFE has tagged birds from the Borders to the Highlands, with the generous support and assistance from of a variety of partners, volunteers, landowners, their managers and staff, and licensed taggers from the raptor conservation community. 

Hen harriers are one of our rarest and most persecuted birds of prey. The satellite tags allow the project to follow the lives of the young birds as they strike out on their own.

he last British Isles hen harrier population survey in 2016 put their numbers at just 575 territorial pairs, an overall significant decline of 24 percent since 2004. Estimates suggest there should be over 1,500 pairs of hen harriers in Scotland alone.

Illegal traps

Before tagging the chicks the project monitors hen harrier nests to understand more about how their breeding success vary year to year and why they sometimes fail. Scotland is the stronghold for these birds in the British Isles with 460 pairs according the 2016 survey.

The information gathered from birds tagged in previous years has revealed important information about how the young birds spend their first few years of life.

Two of the birds tagged in Scotland last summer headed over to Ireland for the winter before returning this spring. One of the chicks tagged this year is the offspring of a female tagged in a previous year by the project, providing an opportunity to follow the species through two generations.

The tags also reveal some worrying turns of events, with some birds either suddenly or inexplicably disappearing or being illegally killed – almost always on or close to grouse moors.

Earlier this year RSPB Scotland appealed for information on the disappearances in areas managed for grouse shooting of two birds tagged by the project – Marci, tagged in 2018 at Mar Lodge and last recorded in the Cairngorms National Park near Strathdon, and Skylar, tagged in 2017 in Argyll who disappeared close to Elvanfoot. Rannoch, tagged in 2017, was found dead in an illegally set spring trap on a Perthshire grouse moor in May.

Natural challenges

Dr Cathleen Thomas, Senior Project Manager for Hen Harrier LIFE, said: “It’s a real privilege to work with and follow the journeys of these incredible birds of prey and the sight of one of them skydancing never fails to take my breath away.

“However, very few people get to experience such a spectacle as the British Isles are missing 80 percent of the breeding hen harriers they could support. These birds face enough natural challenges in their first few years of life trying to avoid predators and learn how to hunt without the added pressure of illegal killing, shooting and trapping by humans.

“With Scotland the stronghold for the British hen harrier population, tagging these young birds here and understanding what is happening to them is crucial for our efforts to create a more secure long-term future for the species.”

An independent enquiry commissioned by the Scottish Government is currently undertaking a review of the environmental impact of grouse moor management and possible options for regulation. RSPB Scotland is calling for licensing of the industry to be introduced to bring an end to the continued illegal killing of birds of prey. 

This Article 

This article is based on a press release from RSPB Scotland. 

Winnie the Pooh is encouraging families to get into the outdoors by joining the world’s largest annual butterfly survey, Disney has said.

The famous teddy bear is taking part in wildlife charity Butterfly Conservation’s Big Butterfly Count, in which members of the public submit their sightings of common butterflies to help track the fortunes of the insects.

Disney has created a short animation in watercolour, hand-drawn by senior principal artist Kim Raymond, depicting Pooh counting painted lady butterflies while sitting outside his house in Hundred Acre Wood.

Count

Experts at Butterfly Conservation have urged people to take part in the count to see if the UK is experiencing a once-in-a-decade wildlife phenomenon this year with a mass influx of painted lady butterflies.

The butterfly is a common immigrant from the continent each summer where its caterpillars feed on thistles, but around once every 10 years there is a painted lady “summer” when millions arrive en masse, and high numbers have already been seen this year.

Butterfly Conservation has created some tips to help families enjoy being in the outdoors and taking part in the count.

They are:

– Get children to make a list of all the places they think could be good for butterflies – the garden, local park, woodland or any other green-space – and pick a new place to visit each day before the Big Butterfly Count ends on August 11;

– Invite friends and neighbours to join in and organise a group Big Butterfly Count while enjoying a picnic or BBQ out in nature;

– Set an alarm for 15 minutes on a phone or watch and see which member of the family can find the most butterflies in that time;

– Families with gardens can do their bit to help pollinators all year round by planting nectar plants for butterflies and food plants for their caterpillars. Without a garden, children can still help plant up pots, create a window box or grow plants up a fence or wall.

– Parents can get the children outside searching for caterpillars and help them rear their own caterpillars.

To take part in the count, which runs until August 11, people just need to find a sunny spot anywhere in the UK and spend 15 minutes counting the butterflies they see, and then submit sightings online at www.bigbutterflycount.org or via the free Big Butterfly Count app.

This Author

Emily Beament is the PA environment correspondent.

Open Cages published undercover footage from Ukraine’s only foie gras farm in April, where an undercover worker used a secret camera.

Numerous UK restaurants responded to the expose by dropping foie gras from their menu. The company operating the farm today announced an ‘End of operations’ following international pressure. This farm is the only facility in Ukraine officially producing foie gras.

The conditions documented include birds being thrown violently from the truck into cages, metal feeding pipes lubricated with engine oil being shoved down the bird’s throats to pump them full of food, and injured and dead birds being left to suffer or rot in piles.

Force feeding

Force feeding is standard practice on most foie gras farms, to fatten the animals’ livers so they swell to ten times their normal size and become diseased. They are then slaughtered and their ‘fatty liver’ sold as foie gras.

The largest Ukrainian poultry producer MHP claimes to have sold 50,000 tonnes of foie gras in 2018.

MHP wrote that they no longer “believe that the production of foie gras is not consistent with the Company’s strategy and policy of being a global leader in E&S and Animal Welfare.” 

Many more UK restaurants are expected to drop the product. As of September, Ukraine will have ceased all foie gras production.

Luxury label

Open Cages CEO Connor Jackson said: “It’s hard to believe that foie gras even exists. Force feeding animals until their liver swells 10 times bigger is simply barbaric, and the product’s ‘luxury’ label is almost laughable.

“We are absolutely thrilled to see this company choose to stand against needless suffering by shutting down. Any UK restaurants still serving foie gras will be taking a hard look in the mirror: animal cruelty is bad business.”

Open Cages is urging Michael Gove and the UK Government to ban the sale of foie gras, post Brexit, as well as calling on eateries to remove the product from their menu.

This Article 

This article is based on a press release from Open Cages.