WILL JUSTICE SUCCEED ON PURSUING AMAZON FOREST DESTROYERS???

N.B.  TWO TABLES WITH RECENT DATA OF FOREST DESTRUCTION IN THE AMAZON ARE SHOWN IN MY OTHER BLOG, IN PORTUGUESE: www.ecologiaemfoco.blogspot.com

Brazil pursues Amazon 'destroyers'

[from BBC News - 27th August 2014]

Last updated 3 hours ago

[N.B. Public lands are Conservation Reservation Areas]

The authorities in Brazil say they have dismantled a criminal organisation they believe was the "biggest destroyer" of the Amazon rainforest.

The gang is accused of invading, logging and burning large areas of public land and selling these illegally for farming and grazing.

In a statement, Brazilian Federal Police said the group committed crimes worth more than $220m (£134m).

A federal judge has issued 14 arrest warrants for alleged gang members.

Twenty-two search warrants were also issued and four suspects are being called in for questioning.

The police operation covers four Brazilian states, including Sao Paulo.

Five men and a woman have already been arrested in Para state in the north of the country, Globo news reported.

'Impunity'

The BBC's Wyre Davies in Rio de Janeiro says details are still sketchy, partly because the police operation is focused on one of the most remote and inaccessible parts of the Amazon region.

Political and police corruption is still rife in Brazil's interior, our correspondent adds.

That problem coupled with alleged ineptitude on the part of the federal government means that loggers and illegal miners are able to operate with impunity, he says.The police announced the operation in a statement: "The Federal Police carried out today Operation Chestnut Tree designed to dismantle a criminal organisation specialising in land grabbing and environmental crimes in the city of Novo Progresso, in the south-western region of Para.

"Those involved in these criminal actions are considered the greatest destroyers of the Brazilian Amazon rainforest."

'Fifty years'

The group members face charges of invading public land, theft, environmental crimes, forgery, conspiracy, tax evasion and money laundering.

They could be sentenced to up to 50 years in jail, although the maximum length that can be served by law in a Brazilian prison is 30 years.

Last year, the Brazilian government said the rate of deforestation in the Amazon increased by 28% between August 2012 and July 2013, after years of decline.

It made a commitment in 2009 to reduce Amazon deforestation by 80% by the year 2020.

Brazil is home to the biggest area of Amazon rainforest, a vast region where one in 10 known species on Earth and half of the planet's remaining tropical forests are found, according to the leading conservation organisation WWF.

BBC © 2014

IN THE BRAZILIAN AMAZON PINK DOLPHIN IS KILLED FOR FISHING VULTURE CATFISH

[Reproduced from http://www.oeco.org.br/reportagens/28580-matanca-de-botos-mais-quatro-meses-de-agonia]

More than 3,500 pink dolphin (Inia geoffrensis)   will die in the Brazilian Amazon during this second semester, before the beginning of  five-year moratorium imposed by the federal Government on fishing the "piracatinga" (Calophysus macropterus) the vulture catfish or zamurito.

To capture the fish, that feeds on dead animals, fishermen use dolphins, an environmental crime which has been denounced for years.

The estimate was made by Vera Silva biologist of the "INPA-Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia", from fishing data of the Secretariat of Rural Production of Amazonas (Sepror) and searches with fishermen.

According to Vera Silva "Every year, we see in the region of the Mamirauá Sustainable Development Reserve, the population of pink dolphin decrease 7.5 percent, an unsustainable situation".

Fishermen prefer young dolphins that often not reached reproductive age. 

"A  male pink dolphin takes 10 years to reach reproductive age and the female between 6 and 7 years.

Gestation takes between 11 and 13 months, moreover, the mother breastfeed the baby for two years. The death of young people who haven't even reproduced has a huge impact on the population", Vera Silva says.

To avoid this catastrophe, the "AMPA-Associação Amigos do Peixe-boi da Amazônia"  (Friends of Amazonian Dolphin Association) performs the campaign Red Alert. The intention is to obtain signatures to try to anticipate the piracatinga fishing moratorium in Brazil and also sensitize authorities of Colombia for the problem, since much of this fish species is exported to the neighboring country.

IN AMAZON: RIVER TURTLE MOTHERS 'TALK" TO YOUNG

Scientists in Brazil have managed to eavesdrop on underwater "turtle talk".

[Reproduced from BBC]

Their recordings have revealed that, in the nesting season, river turtles appear to exchange information vocally - communicating with each other using at least six different sounds.

Listen to recorded sound by accessing http://amazonia.org.br/2014/08/cientistas-decifram-conversa-de-tartarugas-falantes-no-par%C3%A1/

This included chatter recorded between females and hatchlings.

The researchers say this is the first record of parental care in turtles. It shows they could be vulnerable to the effects of noise pollution, they warn.

The results, published recently in the Journal Herpetologica, include recordings of the strange turtle talk. They reveal that the animals may lead much more socially complex lives than previously thought.

The team, including researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and the National Institute of Amazonian Research carried out their study on the Rio Trombetas in the Amazon between 2009 and 2011.

They used microphones and underwater hydrophones to record more than 250 individual sounds from the animals.

The scientists then analysed these vocalisations and divided them into six different types, correlating each category with a specific behaviour.

Dr Camila Ferrara, of the WCS Brazil programme, told BBC News: "The [exact] meanings aren't clear... but we think they're exchanging information.

"We think sound helps the animals to synchronise their activities in the nesting season," she said.

Sounds to guide

The noises the animals made were subtly different depending on their behaviour. For example, there was a specific sound when adults were migrating through the river, and another when they gathered in front of nesting beaches. There was a different sound again made by adults when they were waiting on the beaches for the arrival of their hatchlings.

Dr Ferrara believes that the females make these specific sounds to guide hatchlings to and through the water.

"The females wait for the hatchlings," she told BBC News. "And without these sounds, they might not know where to go."

Since many species of turtles live for decades, the researchers also think that young turtles might learn these vocal communication skills from older individuals.

Follow Victoria on Twitter

BBC © 2014

RURAL ASSOCIATION PRESIDENT AND WIFE ARE DEAD AFTER DENOUNCES AGAINST MILITARY POLICE AND POLITICIANS OF MATO GROSSO STATE

Reproduced from

http://amazonia.org.br/2014/08/presidente-de-associa%C3%A7%C3%A3o-rural-e-esposa-s%C3%A3o-mortos-ap%C3%B3s-denuncia-contra-pms-e-pol%C3%ADticos-do-mt/

Josiah Paulino de Castro, 54 years old, and his wife, Marilyn of Silva Castro, 35 years old, were murdered this Saturday (16), in the District of Guariba in the municipality of Colniza, state of Mato Grosso.

He would have denounced some politicians of the region, by illegal extraction of wood. He also denounced the military police by irregularities in Government agencies by issuing definitive title of irregular land in the region.

"We are dying, we are threatened, the Government of Mato Grosso is conniving, the PM of Guariba protects them, the Federal Government is silent, will I have to be murdered for you to believe and take action," said Josiah on August 5.

ECOSYSTEMS SERVICES: VERY DIFFICULT FOR POLITICIANS' PERCEPTION AND IMPOSSIBLY UNDERSTANDABLE TO "WALL STREET"

Pricing the Priceless: Ecosystem Services Science at USGS

Reproduced from

http://www.usgs.gov/blogs/features/usgs_top_story/pricing-the-priceless-ecosystem-services-science-at-usgs/?from=textlink

[...]

Nature, Inc.

So what other kinds of products and services do ecosystems provide people? There are obvious ones, such as wild fish and game for food, minerals like rare earth elements and copper, fuels like oil and gas, and fresh water for agriculture and drinking. But there are less apparent, yet still extremely important services that ecosystems provide humanity.

Coastal wetlands, for example, often serve as shock absorbers for storm surge created when ocean storms come ashore. Pollinators, such as bees –both native and honeybees –and bats, perform the lion’s share of pollinating fruit trees and other agricultural crops. River deltas like Louisiana’s Atchafalaya Basin provide essential habitat for the seafood that underpins billion-dollar industries.

These products and services are essential not only to the ecosystems that provide them, but also to the people and societies built on them. Factoring their value into cost-benefit analyses is an important part of smart planning. But that raises a new question—how to assign value to ecosystem services?

[Read the article on the link above]

OIL SPREADING IN AMAZON MAY BECOME SERIOUS ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEM!

Amazon oil spill has killed tons of fish, sickened native people

Read complete article by accessing the link:

http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/2014/jul/amazon-oil-spill

This rupture of Peru’s 39-year-old northern crude oil pipeline has terrified Kukama villagers along the Marañón River [a tributary of Amazon river].  People’s complaints of nausea and skin rashes are aggravated by nervousness about eating the fish, concerns about their lost income and fears that oil will spread throughout the tropical forest and lakes when seasonal flooding begins in November. Cuninico, a village of wooden, stilt-raised, palm-thatched houses, is home to about 130 families but several hundred families in other communities also fish nearby.

OLIVE TREES DESTROYED TO FORCE PALESTINIANS TO LEAVE. PUNISHMENT AGAINST...NATURE???

Since 1967, Israeli soldiers and 'settlers' in occupied Palestine have destroyed 800,000 olive trees in an attempt to force Palestinian farmers from their land, writes Megan Perry. 'Our response to this injustice will never be with violence, and we will never give up and leave.'

Olive trees in the Holy Land are a renowned symbol of peace. Known as blessed trees, they are a lifeline for Palestinian subsistence farmers, providing for around 100,000 families.

But more than this, the olive trees provide a tangible link between Palestinians, their ancestors and their land.

Sadly, however, many of these trees are being violently destroyed as a form of collective punishment, in an attempt to force Palestinians from their land. Despite this desecration many Palestinian farmers are using farming as a form of resistance to fight for peace.

Since 1967, the Israeli military and illegal settlers have destroyed at least 800,000 olive trees. Some of these trees are nearly 1,000 years old - they are irreplaceable.

[...]

Soldiers or settlers arrive with little warning and bulldoze or burn the trees, sometimes using chemicals. Anna Baltzer, a Jewish American activist, witnessed this destruction, and describes how, by the time she arrived,

"The owners were hysterical. They kept screaming 'hamil!' as the ancient trees were ripped from the ground by the monstrous machines. 'Hamil' is a word that can be used to describe trees during the time that they bear fruit; it means 'pregnant'."

[...]

[Complete article in http://www.theecologist.org/green_green_living/2481224/bethlehem_no_matter_how_many_olive_trees_they_destroy_will_will_plant_more.html]