Papua New Guinea has announced its commitment to creating 7,500 square kilometers of marine protected areas in the Bismarck Sea by 2021. The government of Papua New Guinea (PNG) made the announcement at the 5th annual Our Ocean Conference in Bali, Indonesia with the support of two conservation NGOs: the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Marine Protected Areas Fund and Oceans 5. The PNG government has pledged to triple the coverage of its current marine protected area (MPA) network, and this new 7,500-square-kilometer (nearly 2,900-square-mile) commitment will achieve that goal. According to WCS president and CEO Cristin Samper, the new MPAs will also help the country meet its Aichi Target goal of protecting 10 percent of its territorial waters and coastline by the year 2025. Lavongai islands. Photo Credit: Elodie Van Lierde. The new MPA network will encompass 2,500 square kilometres of coastal areas around Tikana and Lavongai islands, including key coral reef systems, in the Bismarck Sea, as well as 5,000 square kilometres of offshore areas identified as high priorities for marine conservation in New Ireland Province. We applaud the Government of Papua New Guinea for its recently announced commitment to protect an enormous expanse of one of the worlds natural wonders: the Bismarck Sea, Samper said in a statement. Papua New Guinea is already well known as a land of great cultural diversity and home to the famous birds of paradise; what is less known is that the countrys marine riches are just as spectacular, and the Bismarck

Little by little, the ocean floor of Chapaco Bay is being blanketed in sludge. Hctor Zuleta is no longer able to harvest shellfish from among the caves, ridges and woodlands of the bay because everything is clogged up. Recently, fishers and shellfish gatherers have had to go and find other places to work. Zuleta attributes the reduction in marine resources to the activity of a local iron processing plant, but hes only confirming what the authorities already suspect. Compaa Minera del Pacfico (CMP), a member of the mining and steel conglomerate CAP (Compaa de Acero del Pacfico), has been discharging its mining waste into the sea in the port city of Huasco in northern Chile since 1978 dumping it directly on the beach initially, before piping it out into the bay from 1993 onward. Huasco sits on a patch of the most arid desert in the world, and in 2012 it was declared a sacrifice zone due to its high pollution levels. Huasco, Atacama region, Chile. Image by Claudia Pool/Oceana. That mining waste is being dumped in the bay has long been an open secret. However, what the inhabitants were not aware of was that CMP, the main iron ore producer on the western coast of South America and the largest steel manufacturer and processor in Chile, was doing so without environmental authorization. When the marine conservation organization Oceana submitted complaints to the environment superintendent in August 2017, the latter sanctioned the company for 20 regulatory infringements. Today, CMPs

HO CHI MINH CITY The European Union has signed an agreement to support Vietnams forest governance improvement goals, aimed at ensuring that the timber it imports from the Southeast Asian country is legally sourced. The Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) on Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) was signed Oct. 19 in Brussels by Federica Mogherini, the EU high representative for foreign affairs, and Nguyen Xuan Cuong, Vietnams minister of agriculture. The implementation of the VPA will involve multiple steps, according to Bruno Angelet, ambassador of the EU delegation to Vietnam. Currently timber and timber products exported to the EU from Vietnam are subject to the due diligence requirements of the EU Timber Regulation (EUTR), which prohibits placement of illegally harvested timber on the EU market, Angelet wrote in an emailed response to Mongabay. They [Vietnam] will remain under the EUTR regime even after the ratification of the FLEGT-VPA until such time that Vietnam develops and implements the Vietnam Timber Legality Assurance System (VNTLAS) foreseen in the VPA. Vietnam now has to draft legislation to establish the VNTLAS, after which it and the EU will set up a committee to monitor implementation of the VPA. Phuc Xuan To, a program analyst with Forest Trends, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit, said he was hopeful about the impact of the agreement, but cautioned that major challenges remained. Vietnam imports 4-5 million cubic meters [141 million to 177 million cubic feet] of timber from more than 100 countries every year, consisting of 150-170

China has backtracked on a recent decision to legalize the controlled use of rhino and tiger parts for cultural and medicinal use. In an announcement on Oct. 29, the Chinese government said it would permit the use of rhino horn and tiger bone, obtained from farmed animals, for medical purposes, and the use of powdered forms of the products in traditional Chinese medicine by qualified doctors in qualified hospitals. Trade in rhino and tiger parts that qualified as cultural relics would also be allowed. But the implementation of these regulations has been postponed after study, Ding Xuedong, deputy secretary-general of Chinas State Council, the countrys highest goverining authority, said in an interview published in state media on Nov. 12. China had previously banned the trade in tiger bone and rhino horn in 1993, removing both products from the list of medical ingredients in traditional Chinese medicines pharmacopoeia and curriculum. Despite the ban, illegal trade in parts of the two endangered species has continued in the country. The October circular relaxed some of these restrictions, prompting criticism from conservationists. But even with the ban restored for now, activists remain worried. Its critical that a clear message is sent about the acceptability of animal parts in Traditional Chinese Medicine, Peter Knights, chief executive of WildAid, a U.S.-based nonprofit environmental group, said in a statement. With effective alternatives available, opening the door to some uses only muddies the water, and puts every wild rhino and tiger in jeopardy. WildAid hopes the ban reversal will be

Honduras has committed to protecting part of the tropical rainforests found in the Moskitia region, a move that conservation groups say will protect the regions rich wildlife, carbon stocks and indigenous groups from recent incursions by ranchers. The Moskitia is Central Americas second largest rainforest, one of the last wild places in the region, and contains expansive areas of primary forest, Chris Jordan, who heads the Central America and Tropical Andes program for the NGO Global Wildlife Conservation, said in a statement. Putting a stop to deforestation in the Moskitia will change the course of history for Honduras. A river flowing through the Moskitia region. Image by John Polisar/WCS. President Juan Orlando Hernndez announced the program SOS Honduras on Nov. 8, aimed at ridding the Ro Pltano Biosphere Reserve in the Moskitia of cattle and livestock ranching. The U.S.-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) says illegal ranching has caused 90 percent of the deforestation in the 21,000-square-kilometer (8,100-square-mile) Moskitia. Also beset with wildlife trafficking and the looting of its archaeological sites, the Moskitia has lost 30 percent of its forests in the past 15 years, WCSs research shows. As a state, we have taken actions to protect Ro Pltano, but the problem is so serious and delicate that it is necessary to redouble efforts to guarantee that it remains one of the most important protected areas of Honduras and at the same time a UNESCO World Heritage site, the Institute of Forest Conservation, a government agency, said according to the statement.

A meeting of the ruralista group major supporters of agribusiness with then candidate Jair Bolsonaro at center in white shirt. Tereza Cristina, to the right of the new president, is Bolsonaros choice as Minister of Agriculture. The Bolsonaro administration takes office in January. Photo: FPA / Flickr. Throughout his campaign, now victorious presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro pledged that he would abolish Brazils Ministry of Environment (MMA) and fold its functions into the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply (MAPA) a very controversial position. Two days after winning the race, the former army captain announced the fusion of the two ministries as part of a plan to reduce Brazils current 29 cabinet posts by half. His explanation, given in a March interview, seemed to be based on his blame of the environmental ministry for economic harm: The MMA manages to do damage to what should not be done, he declared. In comparison, Bolsonaro sees agribusiness as paramount to Brazils wellbeing, as seen in an October speech: We need a president who will not get in the way of the rural producer. We will not have any more conflicts in that area. Bolsonaros reasoning is supported by an outspoken and extreme group within the ruralist agribusiness faction mostly cattle ranchers represented by Luiz Antonio Nabhan Garcia, president of the Ruralista Democratic Union (UDR). Garcia was a frequent figure seen alongside the candidate during Bolsonaros campaign and also in the first round of official acts as president in Brasilia last

Alarmed by the entry of poachers who illegally cut down and stole the oldest trees from their territory, members of the Shawi indigenous community organized an assembly this past August to decide how to take action against the loggers. The trees were taken out on the only road that connects the Shawi community, in the northwestern Peruvian Amazon, to Balsa Puerto, the nearest district. After the road was destroyed by the heavy trucks that the loggers used to carry the cut sections of the trees, the Shawi created a roadblock and checkpoint to stop them. They accomplished what the Peruvian government has been unable to: control timber trafficking routes. But it led to a series of violent threats against the leaders of the Shawi community. It wasnt the first time traffickers had threatened indigenous leaders. In September 2014, one of those threats was carried through to its grim conclusion: A group of illegal loggers murdered Edwin Chota, Leoncio Quinticima, Jorge Ros and Francisco Pinedo, all members of the Saweto indigenous community in Ucayali, a region of Peru close to the Brazilian border. Chota, the communitys president, spoke out against timber trafficking for 12 years before his murder, but authorities have yet to begin a serious investigation. Nobody has been sentenced for the murders, and law enforcement hasnt improved safety measures for other leaders being threatened, or reduced logging in prohibited areas. The trees cut down from these forests continue to feed into the sophisticated, multimillion-dollar timber trafficking industry in Peru.

NUSA DUA, Indonesia The Indonesian government is set to make consumer goods manufacturers more responsible for managing the waste from their product packaging, in a bid to tackle one of the worst plastic trash problems in the world. The regulation, expected before the end of this year, is part of a wider effort to cut Indonesias waste output by 30 percent by 2025 from current levels, according to Rosa Vivien Ratnawati, the environment ministrys head of waste management. The so-called extended producer responsibility (EPR) regulation will oblige producers and retailers to redesign their product packaging to have a higher proportion of recyclable material. It will also require that they take greater responsibility for the management of waste from their products. Those affected will include makers of processed foods and beverages, who rely heavily on plastic packaging for their products. Retailers such as supermarkets and convenience stores will also be subject to the EPR requirements in terms of the packaging options they offer customers, as will food and beverage outlets that currently use plastic utensils, plates and cups. The roadmap addresses the way [producers carry out] waste reduction, especially for plastic, Vivien told reporters on the sidelines of the recent Our Oceans Conference in Nusa Dua, Bali. Indonesia is one of the worlds producers of plastic waste, much of which ends up in the sea. Image by Tommy Apriando/Mongabay Indonesia. Vivien said an EPR requirement already exists under the Waste Management Act of 2008, but it hasnt been easy to