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FLORA AND FAUNA
'Shocking' report lists devastation to Australia wildlife
By David Williams
Sydney (AFP) July 19, 2022

Malaysia seizes animal parts worth $18 mn
Port Klang, Malaysia (AFP) July 18, 2022 - Malaysian customs officials said Monday they seized a stash of rare animal parts worth $18 million thought to have come from Africa, including elephant tusks, rhino horns and pangolin scales.

The Southeast Asian nation is a hub for wildlife trafficking, with animal parts shipped through the country to lucrative regional markets.

Authorities foiled a smuggling attempt on July 10 when they uncovered the illicit cargo in Port Klang, on Malaysia's west coast, hidden in a container along with timber.

The shipment included an estimated 6,000 kilograms (13,200 pounds) of elephant tusks -- Malaysia's biggest single seizure of elephant ivory, said customs department chief Zazuli Johan.

There were also 29 kilograms of rhino horns, 100 kilos of pangolin scales, and 300 kilos of animal skulls and other bones, he told a press conference.

The seizure had an estimated value of 80 million ringgit ($18 million), he said, adding it was believed to have come from Africa, without giving more details.

Zazuli said Malaysia was not the shipment's final destination, but did not say where it was heading.

Animal parts such as elephant tusks and pangolin scales are popular in countries where they are used in traditional medicine, including China and Vietnam.

There have been no arrests over the seizure.

Kanitha Krishnasamy -- Southeast Asia director at wildlife trade monitoring group Traffic -- hailed the "significant seizure".

"This medley of threatened species in a single seizure is concerning, and it certainly verifies the suspicion that criminals continue to use Malaysian ports to move contraband wildlife," she said.

Australia's unique wildlife is being devastated by bushfires, drought, habitat loss and global warming, a government report said Tuesday, warning that more species are headed for extinction.

The five-yearly State of the Environment report prompted calls for dramatic action to reverse the "poor and deteriorating" state of flora and fauna depicted by scientists on land and at sea.

The damage is being hastened by a climate that has warmed Australia's average land temperature by 1.4 degrees Celsius since the early 20th century, the report said.

A failure to manage the pressures "will continue to result in species extinctions," scientists warned in the report.

Australia's environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, said it was a "shocking document".

"If we continue on the trajectory that we are on now, we will see more threatened species, we will see drier rivers, we will see degraded landscape, we will see reefs dying," she told journalists.

"The path we are on is not sustainable."

Plibersek, a member of the centre-left Labor Party that came to power in May elections, criticised the previous conservative government for failing to publish the report, which it had received in December 2021.

She promised to carve out more of Australia's land and oceans for protection, pursue "fundamental reform" of environmental laws and empower a new environmental protection agency.

- 'Ecological bomb' -

Australia's 2019-2020 "Black Summer" bushfires burned more than eight million hectares of native vegetation and killed or displaced 1-3 billion animals, the report found.

The fires were an "ecological bomb ripping through southeastern Australia", Plibersek said.

Marine heatwaves caused mass coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef in 2016, 2017 and 2020, scientists said in the report. Since then, a government report in March found the reef had again suffered mass bleaching.

Millions of hectares of primary forest had been cleared since 1990, the report said.

More than seven million hectares of habitat for threatened species were cleared between 2000 and 2017 without being assessed under Australia's environmental conservation laws, it found.

In five years, more than 200 plant and animal species of national significance had been added to the list of threatened species under Australia's environmental laws.

"Australia has lost more mammal species than any other continent," the report said, with the number of new species listed as being under greater threat up by eight percent in five years.

- 'Heartbreaking' -

Australia's cities are also growing at a rapid clip, scientists found, raising urban heat, pollution and waste while stretching water and energy resources.

"Sydney has lost more than 70 percent of native vegetation cover through development," the report said.

Sydney Habour's stormwater drains also created hotspots of pollution with concentrations 20 times higher than when the harbour was pristine.

"The findings of this report are heartbreaking, and the leadership failures that have led to loss at this scale devastating," said WWF-Australia acting chief executive Rachel Lowry.

"If we ignore the warnings of this report then iconic species like koalas across eastern Australia, or our largest gliding mammal, the greater glider, will disappear forever on our watch."

WWF-Australia said the report should be a "turning point" that lead to greater investment and stronger laws to protect Australia's wildlife and wilderness.

Lowry urged the new government to act quickly, condemning existing environmental legislation for "failing miserably" to protect threatened species.

The "devastating" new report showed coasts and marine environments were deteriorating, the Australian Marine Conservation Society said.

"We need to do more now, or we put at risk everything we rely on our oceans for -- our health, wellbeing, livelihoods and our culture," said the society's chief executive, Darren Kindleysides.


Related Links
Darwin Today At TerraDaily.com


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FLORA AND FAUNA
Social life helps orphaned elephants overcome loss: study
Paris (AFP) July 16, 2022
Orphaned elephants manage to overcome the loss of their mother by living in a herd, highlighting the importance of a social life for the species, according to a study. Scientists investigated the consequences of a mother elephant's death on her child by examining the level of stress hormones in the excrement of 37 young elephants in Kenya between 2015 and 2016. Among the young elephants, 25 had lost their mother between one and 19 years before from poaching or drought. Of the 25 orphans, 20 ... read more

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