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A Major Sea Turtle Nesting Site, on Bijagos Islands, Is Worlds Away From Crowds

News Feed
Monday, April 22, 2024

Sign up for the Travel Dispatch newsletter.  Essential news on the changing travel landscape, expert tips and inspiration for your future trips. Each year, thousands of baby green sea turtles clamber across a beautiful, white-sand paradise that is one of the largest hatching sites of this species in the Atlantic, adorably making their way to the sea. There’s one noticeable absence: people.The spectacular hatching events take place between August and December on Poilão Island, a tiny, uninhabited speck off the coast of Guinea-Bissau in West Africa. It is the southernmost island of the 88 that make up the Bijagós archipelago, a UNESCO biosphere reserve. Last year, turtles laid more than 44,000 nests on its 1.4 mile-long beach.While the masses of turtles seem to have little trouble finding the spot to lay their eggs — some swim more than 600 miles across the North Atlantic — it’s hard to imagine somewhere more challenging for human turtle-lovers to reach.The country’s tourism minister, Alberto Demba Touré, said that access is a main challenge. “We want to increase the tourists who go to the Bijagós,” he said. Last year, UNESCO declared its support for the Bijagós Islands to seek World Heritage List status, which, if successful, would increase its visibility and strengthen its environmental protections.Turtle conservation programs have become a staple of resorts in many popular destinations, including in Hawaii, Mexico and throughout the Caribbean. Guinea-Bissau may like to capture a meager sliver of that pie, but it would be with steep challenges.Politically fragile Guinea-Bissau has very little infrastructure and is one of the world’s poorest and least touristed nations. Most flights to Bissau, the country’s sleepy capital on the mainland, require a connection in Lisbon or Dakar, Senegal. Then, from Bissau, it’s a bumpy one-hour drive to the coast, and five to seven hours in a speedboat (depending on the route) to Poilão Island.Subscribe to The Times to read as many articles as you like.

Green sea turtles swim hundreds of miles to nest on a spectacular West African archipelago. Getting there is quite a journey for humans, too.

Sign up for the Travel Dispatch newsletter.  Essential news on the changing travel landscape, expert tips and inspiration for your future trips.

Each year, thousands of baby green sea turtles clamber across a beautiful, white-sand paradise that is one of the largest hatching sites of this species in the Atlantic, adorably making their way to the sea. There’s one noticeable absence: people.

The spectacular hatching events take place between August and December on Poilão Island, a tiny, uninhabited speck off the coast of Guinea-Bissau in West Africa. It is the southernmost island of the 88 that make up the Bijagós archipelago, a UNESCO biosphere reserve. Last year, turtles laid more than 44,000 nests on its 1.4 mile-long beach.

While the masses of turtles seem to have little trouble finding the spot to lay their eggs — some swim more than 600 miles across the North Atlantic — it’s hard to imagine somewhere more challenging for human turtle-lovers to reach.

The country’s tourism minister, Alberto Demba Touré, said that access is a main challenge. “We want to increase the tourists who go to the Bijagós,” he said. Last year, UNESCO declared its support for the Bijagós Islands to seek World Heritage List status, which, if successful, would increase its visibility and strengthen its environmental protections.

Turtle conservation programs have become a staple of resorts in many popular destinations, including in Hawaii, Mexico and throughout the Caribbean. Guinea-Bissau may like to capture a meager sliver of that pie, but it would be with steep challenges.

Politically fragile Guinea-Bissau has very little infrastructure and is one of the world’s poorest and least touristed nations. Most flights to Bissau, the country’s sleepy capital on the mainland, require a connection in Lisbon or Dakar, Senegal. Then, from Bissau, it’s a bumpy one-hour drive to the coast, and five to seven hours in a speedboat (depending on the route) to Poilão Island.

Subscribe to The Times to read as many articles as you like.

Read the full story here.
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Related News

Readers respond: Protect Owyhee Canyonlands’ diversity

Letters to the Editor can be submitted to letters@oregonian.com with full name and place of residence.

As an avid lover of Oregon’s natural wonders, I was thrilled to read the travel article about Oregon’s environmental diversity, (“14 Oregon spots that look like they’re from another planet,” May 8). Oregon truly is a treasure trove that never fails to inspire awe.While these surreal locations deserve our admiration, we must also remember the importance of conservation efforts to safeguard the unique beauty of our state. Right now, a broad coalition of Oregonians is working diligently to protect the Owyhee Canyonlands, the largest remaining conservation opportunity in the American west. This Oregon treasure is home to 200 species of wildlife and 28 plants not found anywhere else in the world. From the colorful canyons to the seas of sagebrush, this ecological haven stands as an expansive, intact natural wonder. We need to maintain and preserve this special place before it suffers irreparable damage and degradation.

Conservation

Logging Threatens Costa Rica’s Caribbean Wildlife Refuge

Residents of the southern Caribbean denounced the logging of trees in the Gandoca-Manzanillo National Wildlife Refuge. They reported that the activity commenced on April 20, and trees were cut on a property 150 meters west of the Colibri Lodge, on the road from Manzanillo to Puerto Viejo. The trucks with the logs began to leave […] The post Logging Threatens Costa Rica’s Caribbean Wildlife Refuge appeared first on The Tico Times | Costa Rica News | Travel | Real Estate.

Residents of the southern Caribbean denounced the logging of trees in the Gandoca-Manzanillo National Wildlife Refuge. They reported that the activity commenced on April 20, and trees were cut on a property 150 meters west of the Colibri Lodge, on the road from Manzanillo to Puerto Viejo. The trucks with the logs began to leave in the early morning of May 9. Five years ago, the Constitutional Court ordered the National System of Conservation Areas  (SINAC) to definr 188 hectares of forest area within the refuge, which has not yet been done. Marta Castro, president of the Natural Resources Oversight Committees (CORIVENAS) of the Southern Caribbean, expressed her concern and denounced SINAC’s inactivity. “That land is within the 188 hectares that SINAC has to demarcate. Five years have passed in which SINAC has destroyed, bled, and given permits within the refuge and have not demarcated those 188 hectares,” she said. SINAC granted a logging permit for species such as pilon, panama, gavilan, jobo, sura, guacimo colorado, indio desnudo, sangrillo, guacimo, and javillo. This is a coastal forest within a protected area, and the species are indicative of a wetland zone. Following complaints from environmental groups, SINAC mentioned that “it is important to emphasize that the logging has been carried out in accordance with the Law and its regulations.” “The logging projects comply with all the requirements established in the regulations, specifically Decree 38863-MINAE and Forestry Law 7575, which was corroborated prior to the authorization of the logging permits, by means of an office review and a field visit,” SINAC stated. They also mentioned three monitoring visits have been made to the farm where the activity is taking place, to ensure everything is being done correctly. In addition to the destruction of the ecosystem located in the maritime-terrestrial zone, the impact on the corals is of concern. Ana María Arenas, from the Coral Commission of the Embajadores y Embajadoras del Mar Community Diving Center, explained the importance of preserving this forest. “It is essential to conserve that part of the refuge because the corals depend a lot on the biodiversity in the maritime-terrestrial zone and this balance is being broken,” she noted. Arenas pointed out that the wetland and forested area protect the corals from sedimentation and sewage, and it is already noticeable that the lack of planning is causing sewage from new construction from Cocles to Manzanillo to flow directly into the sea. The post Logging Threatens Costa Rica’s Caribbean Wildlife Refuge appeared first on The Tico Times | Costa Rica News | Travel | Real Estate.

Conservation
Forests
Resources

Looking for lichen: Church of England launches search for life on gravestones

Church asks people to record species found in local graveyards, which can provide good habitat for complex life formThe still calm of graveyards invites visitors to think about the dead, but now the Church of England is asking people across the country to look for surprising signs of life within them.Graves are a haven for lichen, with more than 700 of the 2,000 British species having been recorded in English churchyards and cemeteries so far. According to surveys by the church, many sites have well more than 100 species on the stonework, trees and in the grassland. Continue reading...

The still calm of graveyards invites visitors to think about the dead, but now the Church of England is asking people across the country to look for surprising signs of life within them.Graves are a haven for lichen, with more than 700 of the 2,000 British species having been recorded in English churchyards and cemeteries so far. According to surveys by the church, many sites have well more than 100 species on the stonework, trees and in the grassland.This summer, the church is running a nature count in burial grounds across the country. From 8-16 June, they are asking people to visit their local graveyard, record which species they find and send it in to the church.A lichen is a complex life form, made up of a stable symbiotic association between a fungus and algae or cyanobacteria. They are very important as habitat for small invertebrates, and they stabilise soil pH as well as carrying out water and nutrient capture and cycling. They play a crucial role in the environment but many of their preferred habitats, including ancient trees, are under threat.The different rocks and building materials in churchyards and cemeteries provide good habitat for many species of lichen. Because graves and stonework in the graveyards are left untouched for many years, the lichen can grow in peace. Because of the slow ageing of the gravestones and differing ages of the stonework, the surface varies from rough to smooth, shaded to exposed, damp to dry, horizontal to vertical. All of these provide different niches for lichens.Graham Usher, the bishop of Norwich and the Church of England’s lead for environmental affairs, said: “I hope many congregations will take part … Last year, I particularly enjoyed finding out about some of the colourful rare lichens that grow on gravestones. These wonderful species are all part of God’s rich creation, reminding us that churchyards are places of the living, not just the dead.”Those running the scheme hope that this year people will hunt for and find particularly rare lichens.Harriet Carty, the director of the charity Caring for God’s Acre, said: “During Love Your Burial Ground Week, people have recorded over 80 species of lichen with lovely names such as common orange lichen, netted shield lichen, crab’s eye, and dark crottle. Old churchyards and cemeteries are particularly important for lichen conservation, especially in areas with few natural outcrops of rock. Some grow very slowly – sometimes less than half a millimetre per year. An individual lichen may be almost as old as the stone it is growing on.skip past newsletter promotionOur morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it mattersPrivacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.after newsletter promotion“To spot them, look on stonework, branches of trees and even old noticeboards. To submit records during the week, the easiest way is to use a free app called iNaturalist and join the Beautiful Burial Grounds project. The app enables you to take a photo and it helps with identification.”

Conservation
Nature
Water

Fire management in Victoria amounts to de facto native logging industry, conservationists say

Campaigners accuse Forest Fire Management Victoria of ‘knowingly’ killing endangered wildlife after greater glider found deadGet our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcastThe Victorian government has been accused by conservationists and a leading ecologist of allowing a de facto native logging industry to emerge under the guise of fire management just months after closing down the industry.Environmental lawyers said the state government agency, Forest Fire Management Victoria (FFMV), was acting “with impunity”, and conservationists and the Victorian Greens called on state and federal ministers to step in.Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup Continue reading...

The Victorian government has been accused by conservationists and a leading ecologist of allowing a de facto native logging industry to emerge under the guise of fire management just months after closing down the industry.Environmental lawyers said the state government agency, Forest Fire Management Victoria (FFMV), was acting “with impunity”, and conservationists and the Victorian Greens called on state and federal ministers to step in.Logging in Victoria’s native forests ended at the beginning of this year, but Prof David Lindenmayer, a forest ecologist at Australian National University, said: “There’s a de facto logging industry now emerging under the guise of fire suppression.“To me, when you cut down big trees and put them on a truck and take them to a sawmill … that is logging.”On Thursday conservationists and the Victorian National Parks Association (VNPA) expressed shock after discovering a dead greater glider in an area where trees had been felled by FFMV.Blake Nisbet, of campaign group Wildlife of the Central Highlands, said: “This is endangered wildlife culling. We specifically told the government that greater gliders were nesting in this tree. Instead of stepping in, they chose to knowingly kill endangered wildlife. This is disgraceful, and has to stop.”Greater gliders were given national endangered species status in 2022, only six years after first appearing on the threatened species list as vulnerable.VNPA said it had told FFMV, the state environment minister Steve Dimopoulos and his federal counterpart, Tanya Plibersek, that scores of old hollow-bearing trees were being destroyed along 250km of fire breaks in the Yarra Ranges national park.‘This is disgraceful, and has to stop’: Members of campaign group Wildlife of the Central Highlands. Photograph: Wildlife of the Central HighlandsThis was critical habitat, the association said, for threatened species including the gliders, Leadbeater’s possums, gang-gang cockatoos and swift parrots.Lindenmayer said he had similar concerns with the removal of old trees – which are vital for many species – in the Wombat state forest.FFMV and the state’s conservation watchdog – the Office of the Conservation Regulator – are housed in the state government’s department of energy, environment and climate action.Lindenmayer said he was currently working on advice commissioned by the department on how to save greater gliders, which would include retaining old trees.“One part of the same government department is trying to work out how to stop the greater glider going extinct while another is pushing it to extinction,” he said.“The broad-scale impact on animals is colossal and makes a mockery of the government’s biodiversity strategy and a mockery of their process of supposed environmental regulation. There are some deep systemic problems here.”skip past newsletter promotionSign up to Afternoon UpdateOur Australian afternoon update breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it mattersPrivacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.after newsletter promotionHe added that there was growing evidence thinning and logging in native forests could make them more flammable, not less.Matt Ruchel, executive director of VNPA, said the Office of the Conservation Regulator should be moved to another department, which would allow it to regulate the forest fire management work – a suggestion echoed by the leader of the Victorian Greens, Ellen Sandell.Sandell said any logging and storm “clean-up” works should be immediately halted and the OCR should be “empowered” to investigate.Environmental lawyers acting for conservationists have written to the state and federal environment ministers asking them to step in.Danya Jacobs, special counsel at Environmental Justice Australia, said destroying hollow-bearing trees and killing greater gliders was “clearly illegal” under state and federal laws.“Forest Fire Management are acting with impunity and must be reigned in by the regulators,” she said.Questions to the federal environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, were referred to her department, which said in a statement: “The department is making enquiries to determine whether national environment law is being complied with.”Guardian Australia sent questions to the Victorian environment minister and the state department of energy, environment and climate action.

Conservation
Forests
Government

How the flooding in Southeast Texas got so dire

Since Sunday, multiple rounds of rainfall have soaked the region, causing rivers and creeks to swell and rise out of their banks.

Subscribe to The Y’all — a weekly dispatch about the people, places and policies defining Texas, produced by Texas Tribune journalists living in communities across the state. HOUSTON — Southeast Texas is used to heavy spring rains — but the widespread flooding that the region faced this week stands out because of just how much the rivers have risen. Back-to-back storms drenched the area that includes Polk, Montgomery, Liberty and Harris counties, causing flash-flooding from heavy rain. That rain also filled creeks, rivers and reservoirs, creating a compounding, dangerous problem of too much water with nowhere to go but back out of the riverbanks. Operators for three major reservoirs on rivers in the area have been on high alert as they deal with the slugs of water flowing into the man-made lakes. Part of their job is to calculate how much water to release downstream to protect the dams from failure, which would cause an even worse catastrophe than the swollen rivers. Lake Livingston, a reservoir located in the East Texas Piney Woods; Lake Houston, a reservoir on the west fork of the San Jacinto River, 15 miles northeast of downtown Houston; and Lake Conroe, a reservoir located north of Houston in Montgomery County, were all at capacity and releasing water downstream. The Trinity River’s water feeds into Lake Livingston. Meanwhile, the West Fork of the San Jacinto River contributes to Lake Conroe, which then feeds into Lake Houston, as does other runoff. All eventually empty into the Gulf of Mexico. Lake Livingston operators said at one point they were releasing more water than they did during Hurricane Harvey, a disastrous storm that hit Texas in 2017 and dropped unprecedented amounts of rain across the Greater Houston region. Lake Conroe was releasing high amounts too — but not quite as much as during Harvey. Related Story Updated: 2 hours ago While some dams are designed for flood control, these three are not. Instead, they serve as sources of drinking water. As the rivers swell with the reservoir releases and with other rainfall draining into them, low-lying neighborhoods are going underwater. “You're affecting people's livelihoods downstream,” said Rick Davis, assistant project manager at the Trinity River Authority, which manages the Lake Livingston dam. “But with every release, you can only hope that the water levels coming into the reservoir stabilize and can start tapering back the releases of water and hopefully give folks some relief.” Here’s how we got here and how this system is designed to work: What is a reservoir? A reservoir is a man-made lake formed by the construction of a dam across a river. The dam and gates control the amount of water that flows out of the reservoir. Reservoirs are built to hold back a certain amount of water because the amount of water in a river can vary over time. There are different types of reservoirs; the most common are for flood control and water conservation. Lake Livingston, Lake Houston and Lake Conroe essentially serve as big pools of water that hold drinking water for the city of Houston and the growing region. How can reservoirs contribute to flooding? Reservoir operators control how much water gets released downstream. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Without a dam, all the water draining into the river might flow downstream even quicker, said Katie Landry-Guyton, a senior service hydrologist with the National Weather Service Houston/Galveston office. But reservoirs can contribute to flooding when lakes reach capacity and operators must release the water to make sure the dam can keep operating safely. Rick Warner, a superintendent with the Coastal Water Authority, which operates the Lake Houston dam, said that when operators see the weather forecast alerting people of potential rainfall, they can open the dam’s gates to release water before the storm hits. Opening the gates helps lower the lake’s water levels and creates room for more water. He said these so-called controlled pre-releases will hopefully alleviate flooding that can occur with rainfall. “This gives us a little head start on releasing water before the flood water comes down to the reservoir,” he said. Warner said that any opening or closing of the dam’s gate has to be directed by the city of Houston, which owns the lake. That calculation might be harder for a reservoir farther north, like Lake Conroe. If the rainfall prediction is off, and neighborhoods to the south of the lake get hit with hard rainfall at the same time the river swells with an early release, that can create a major problem. Hydrologists and engineers set guidelines for monitoring and matching inflows into the reservoir and rates of release. Each reservoir has a unique set of rules and they are based on historical river data, floods and droughts, said Davis, the assistant project manager at the Trinity River Authority. With some dam and reservoir designs, such as Lake Conroe, when there’s heavy rainfall, lakes can begin to reach higher capacities and run the risk of overflowing. If water is not released, the dam could break. “It could cause catastrophic damage when lakes were allowed to get too full,” Warner said. According to the Association of State Dam Safety Officials, hundreds of dam failures have occurred throughout U.S. history and they’ve caused severe property and environmental damages and have taken thousands of lives. How did the weather lead to flooding this week? The flooding disaster unfolding across parts of Southeast Texas began days earlier, on Sunday, when the first rounds of heavy rain drenched the region and started to drain into lakes that were already full. The Trinity River too was elevated from the start, said Landry-Guyton, at the National Weather Service. Another round of heavy rain on Wednesday and Thursday added even more water to roughly the same areas, meteorologists said. Over the past week, 15 to 20 inches of water fell on the area that drains into Lake Livingston, and 10 to 15 inches on the area that drains into the East Fork of the San Jacinto River and Lake Conroe, Landry-Guyton said. More fell in some isolated spots. That’s a whopping amount of water. Meteorologist Matt Lanza, who helps run the much-watched Space City Weather website in Houston, said he was used to seeing 10 inches of rain falling overnight on occasion. But to see heavy rain spells twice in one week was “problematic,” he said. By Wednesday, as the rain was still falling, Lanza realized the region couldn’t take any more water. “This is not a normal type of spring flood,” Lanza said. “This is more of an extreme type of spring flood.” Polk County Office of Emergency Management officials warned residents Monday that the Trinity River Authority of Texas, an agency that oversees Lake Livingston and its dam, would discharge water from the lake into the area. Officials asked residents to evacuate immediately. By 3 p.m. Thursday, the amount of water coming out of Lake Livingston reached 124,000 cubic feet per second — equivalent to releasing 124,000 basketballs per second. This is the highest water release for the lake in its history. For context, during Hurricane Harvey, operators were releasing 110,000 cubic feet per second at the most. Carlos Nogueras Ramos contributed to this story. We’ve got big things in store for you at The Texas Tribune Festival, happening Sept. 5–7 in downtown Austin. Join us for three days of big, bold conversations about politics, public policy and the day’s news.

Conservation
Water

Suggested Viewing

Earthfile - Elephant Protection

How many elephants are there across Nigeria? Some Nigerian conservationists estimate that there are only 300, others believe the number is less than that. In recent years there have been many reports of hunters killing elephants across the country. A combination of climate change (which has reduced amounts of fresh water the elephants need), poaching, human-elephant conflict and deforestation is a major challenge. ‘Elephant Protection’ is a 30minute documentary featured on ‘Earthfile’- Channels Television’s environment and Development Programme. It focuses on the current problem climate change has caused for the elephants, in terms of habitat loss and the cause of the human-elephant conflicts in Nigeria. It also looks at the efforts of conservationists (trained professionals and those without formal education) in the protection of the elephant population. It talks about their successes and failure, and how humans can live in harmony with the elephants. For this story, Omo Forest, Ogun state, Southwest Nigeria and Yankari games reserve in Bauchi state in Nigeria's NorthEast were visited.

Animals
Conservation
Documentary

Birdwatchers

Illustrating the wide array of birds that live in and around the city of Toronto, the film features passionate birdwatchers who have devoted most of their lives to discovering these birds. In the process, these dedicated people promote Toronto as an international location for birdwatching, which also leads to conservation efforts to protect animals and green land.

Animals
Conservation
Culture

Ser Manguezal

Ser Manguezal, created by Eliseu Cavalcante, was inspired by Josué de Castro's book "Of Men and Crabs" from 1967. De Castro was a Brazilian geographer, physician, writer and activist against world hunger. In his book, Castro envisions men as crabs, learning to walk in the mangroves. This relationship between them seems to unify and blend all together making the human being part of that specific biome. This film is part of an ongoing project that examines those who depend on the mangrove ecosystem to survive, and the delicate relationship between humans and this particular ecosystem. It seeks to recognize the hard-working crab hunters of the mangroves and make their work more visible, and to bring awareness about the importance of mangroves to the environment. Worldwide, 3,400 square kilometers (1,300 square miles) of mangrove forests were lost between 2000 and 2016, or about 2% of the global mangrove area (NASA). About 62% of the losses were due to direct human causes such as agriculture and aquaculture. Mangrove degradation is greater than the average for tropical and subtropical forest loss.

Water
Conservation
Plants

Protecting the River Krupa

With Western Europe’s waterways clogged by thousands of dams, Balkan countries are rallying to protect the continent’s last free-flowing rivers—before it’s too late. In Croatia's popular tourist region of Dalmatia, The Nature Conservancy and its partners helped protect the Krupa River in perpetuity, one of the first conservation wins of its kind in the region.

Water
Land Use
Conservation

The Cost of Sand

The Cost of Sand highlights the potential destruction of a crucial bio-link on the edge of the Ramsar wetlands from proposed expansion of sandmining in Bass Coast, Victoria. It features interviews with scientists and conservationists about the significance of preserving the last remnant coastal bushland in the region and the vulnerable wildlife and ecosystems it supports.

Water
Resources
Conservation

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