Gabon counts on visitors to help preserve great apes

by Adrien Marotte

Public observation of Gabon's gorillas is resuming at Gabon's Loanga National Park after

 two years of closure due to Covid.

Around a bend on a narrow trail that runs deep into the forest of Gabon's Loango national park, Kamaya comes into view. The huge silverback gorilla coolly watches visitors arrive, then goes back to his meal.

Perched on a strong branch, the 150-kilo (330-pound) beast greedily pulls more leaves from the tree to his mouth with a slow but powerful movement before lumbering down the trunk. Soon he dozes off calmly.

After two years of a total shutdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the executive secretary of the National Parks Agency (ANPN) has decided to resume public observations of Gabon's gorillas, hoping the iconic species will serve as a "loss leader" to boost niche tourism.

That Kamaya and his family of about 10 individuals are so used to humans is the outcome of long labours by a team of trackers and scientists who also collect data.

They work to win funds to protect a species threatened with extinction and to attract foreign visitors.

Spending one hour with Kamaya and his group costs 300,000 CFA francs, (450 euros, almost 500 dollars), on top of charges for access to the site and accommodation.

Loango Park, which covers more than 155,000 hectares (380,000 acres) of the densely forested country, offers ample reward for a 4-5 hour road journey from Port-Gentil, the second city, followed by the track and a final stage by boat.

The western gorilla population is estimated at 360,000 individuals across six central 

African countries, about a quarter of them in Gabon.

Though steep, the price is much lower than that paid to see the mountain gorillas in Uganda or Rwanda. It also generates income to manage protected areas that provide a safe place for the animals.

'Illegal activities'

"Tourism is a beneficial conservation strategy for gorillas," says Koro Vogt, manager of the Gorilla Loango project. The mountain gorillas of Rwanda and Uganda were almost extinct before funds from tourism helped to double their numbers in three decades, attaining a population of about 1,000 individuals today.

The western gorillas are far more numerous. Their total population is estimated at 360,000 individuals across six central African countries, about a quarter of them in Gabon. The Loango park is home to nearly 1,500 gorillas, some 280 kilometres (175 miles) south of the capital Libreville.

However, scientific studies by the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, which specialises in great apes, indicate that the number of western gorillas is falling by three percent each year due to the destruction of habitat, poaching and disease.

Protected areas such as Loango are theoretically safe for animals, but are home to only 

20 percent of the great apes in Gabon.

These threats are heightened by increased access to remote areas occupied by gorillas, the bush meat trade, corruption and lack of law enforcement.

Protected areas such as Loango, which are theoretically perfectly safe for animals, are home to only about 20 percent of the great apes in Gabon.

"To safeguard the gorillas, our guards patrol the national parks to reduce illegal activities and catch poachers," says Christian Tchemambela, executive secretary of the ANPN.

"This species emblematic of Gabon is also a strong draw for foreign visitors. The development of ecotourism is at the heart of our strategy," he adds. From June 2016 until the beginning of 2020, 845 tourists were able to observe the gorillas on site.

'Gain their trust'

A ray of sunlight pierces the treetops and shines on Mokebo, a 15-year-old female, and the little one she is carrying on her back. Not yet a year old, Etchutchuku stirs, glances at the few people watching him, and hides shyly behind his mother.

It takes years for humans to gain the gorillas' trust.

Close by, a nearly adult male, Waka, approaches the observers out of curiosity. He is unafraid, shows no signs of aggression and settles peacefully a few metres (feet) away.

"This process is very long, it takes years to gain their trust and we are not sure of succeeding," says eco-guide Hermann Landry.

"You have to follow them every day, all year round, relentlessly. Sometimes you lose track of them for several days and that's serious, because they can regain their natural fear of humans," adds Landry, a former poacher who declares that he "fell in love" with gorillas and conservation work.

During an initial habituation phase, gorillas are afraid of humans and run away when approached. In the next phase, they stop fleeing but may react with aggressive charges.

In the final phase, they react calmly and continue their activities without concern about the human presence.

The park authorities are looking to Gabon's great apes to draw in tourists and help 

develop ecotourism.

Today, Gabon is counting on the gorillas to attract new visitors.

There are two family groups in the country accustomed to humans, one in Loango, the other in the Moukalaba Doudou National Park 600 kilometres (370 miles) south of Libreville. However, tourist infrastructure is still almost non-existent.Gabon bans tourists from seeing gorillas over coronavirus fears

© 2022 AFP

China axes 15 coal plants abroad after Xi pledge, but loopholes remain: study

China has vowed to become carbon-neutral by 2060, but its emissions pledges do not 

cover fossil-fuel investments abroad.

More than a dozen Chinese coal power projects overseas were cancelled after a ban last year on funding such plants, but loopholes could allow 18 others to still go ahead, according to a study published Friday.

China is the world's biggest emitter of the greenhouse gases driving global warming. It has vowed to peak carbon emissions by 2030 and become carbon-neutral by 2060, but these do not include its fossil-fuel investments abroad.

It is also the largest public funder of overseas coal plants, and was planning to build 67 in more than a dozen countries when President Xi Jinping announced a ban on financing "new projects" in September.

Since then, Chinese developers have cancelled 15 overseas coal projects as funding dried up and host countries demanded greener alternatives, a study by the Helsinki-based Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) said.

The cancelled projects would have generated 12.8 gigawatts of electricity—or the total power generation capacity in Singapore, the think tank added.

But a lack of clear rules has allowed Chinese developers to continue to build new coal power projects, it warned.

"The key concern is that China will continue to fund or build new coal projects to power industrial parks under the Belt and Road Initiative," said Isabella Suarez, a researcher at CREA, referring to Xi's $1 trillion global infrastructure push.

"The loophole is that because the industrial parks have been years in the making, additional coal on these projects would not be considered new, even if... tenders are happening after the pledge to ban coal funding."

Deadly impact

China's top economic planner issued vague guidelines in March, telling developers to "proceed cautiously" on coal plants that were in the final stages of planning.

These could potentially stop Chinese funding for 32 planned coal plants and prompt the "reexamination" of 36 others that are under way, according to the CREA report.

However, "about 18 coal projects (in the pipeline) that can generate 19.2 Gigawatts of power have already secured financing and permits... and could still go ahead," Suarez said.

AFP has sought comment on the report from the National Development and Reform Commission, China's economic planner.

Most of these projects are in Indonesia, where China is investing billions to mine nickel and other minerals needed to build electric vehicles, according to data from the Global Energy Monitor.

Vietnam and Bangladesh have in recent months requested China to build gas projects instead of the agreed coal projects, according to government notices.

The deadly impact of climate change—from extreme heatwaves to more intense superstorms—is already being felt across the world.

Experts say emissions must be halved within a decade to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius (36 degrees Fahrenheit) or ideally to 1.5C as stated in the Paris climate accord.China will no longer build overseas coal power plants, but what energy projects will it invest in instead?

© 2022 AFP

Scientists scour 'Mexico's Galapagos' for quake, volcano clues

© DOUWE VAN HINSBERGEN

Could a volcanic eruption off Mexico's coast unleash a tsunami like the one that devastated Tonga? What really causes tectonic plates to shift and trigger earthquakes? Scientists visited a remote archipelago in search of answers.


© DOUWE VAN HINSBERGEN

Scientists visited the remote Revillagigedo archipelago to study if a volcanic eruption off Mexico's coast could unleash a tsunami, as well as the causes of earthquakes

Located in the Pacific Ocean several hundred kilometers from the Mexican coast, the Revillagigedo Islands are known as "Mexico's Galapagos" due to their isolation and biodiversity.

One of the archipelago's volcanos, Barcena, last erupted spectacularly in 1953, and another Evermann, in 1993. Both remain active today.

Located on a mid-ocean ridge, the four islands, which were added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 2016, are uninhabited apart from navy personnel, and access is tightly restricted.

Getting there takes about 24 hours or more by boat and few civilians visit apart from scuba drivers lured by giant manta rays, humpback whales, dolphins and sharks.

Last month, an international team of 10 scientists carried out a week-long mission whose aims included trying to determine if -- or more likely when -- there will be another volcanic eruption.

"What we're trying to find is how explosive these volcanos can be and how dangerous," said the group's leader, Douwe van Hinsbergen, a professor at Utrecht University in the Netherlands.

- Challenging convention -

The worry is that something similar to the cataclysmic eruption of the Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha'apai volcano in January could send a tsunami hurtling towards Mexico's Pacific Coast.

"Whenever there are active island volcanos, there are always possibilities of generating tsunamis," said Pablo Davila Harris, a geologist at Mexico's Institute for Scientific and Technological Research of San Luis Potosi.

"What we volcanologists are looking for is when the next eruption is going to happen," using modeling based on previous volcanic activity, he added.

The team also hopes that its analysis of minerals brought up by past eruptions will help to understand the motion of tectonic plates, which cause earthquakes and volcanic activity.

"Plates move over mantle. Is the mantle pushing the plates? Is the mantle doing nothing?" van Hinsbergen said.

According to conventional theory, convection -- the mantle's motion caused by the transfer of heat from the Earth's core to the outer layer -- causes tectonic plates to move and grind against each other.

Van Hinsbergen's hypothesis is that the mantle is in fact "a big lake of rock that is essentially not convecting," which he said would require a complete rethink.

"If that is true, then everything that we see, at least on timescales of tens of millions of years and shorter, is driven by gravity pulling plates down. And that would make the whole system a lot simpler," he said.

The mission received funding from a Dutch program for -- in van Hinsbergen's words -- "ideas that are almost certainly wrong but if they're not they will have big implications."

The samples collected have been taken to Europe for analysis and the results are expected to be known later this year.

dr/mdl

BEZOS WAPO PRO TORY

Opinion:

Canadian Conservatives feel they’ve found the candidate to beat Trudeau

GOOD LUCK WITH THAT


By J.J. McCullough

Global Opinions contributing columnist

WASHINGTON POST
Today 


Pierre Poilievre’s ambition to be Canada’s next Conservative prime minister rests heavily on the assumption that he’s the right person in the right place at the right time.

As far as assumptions about Canadian politics go, it’s not an unreasonable one.

At the moment, much attention has been given to the crowds of thousands showing up to “Pierre for Prime Minister” rallies — a level of political engagement among ordinary Canadians without much precedent. Only Justin Trudeau himself, in his early-2010s incarnation as a fresh-faced critic of then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government, feels parallel: a charismatic politician from the out-party enjoying a “rock star” reception from his frustrated base and, with it, the sort of broad trust necessary to begin assembling a formidable campaign for the country’s top job.

Though Poilievre, a former cabinet minister under Harper, still has to win the leadership of the Conservative Party — with members not voting until September — I’ve yet to meet a serious observer of conservative politics in Canada who does not expect him to triumph easily on the first ballot. His two supposedly highest-profile rivals, Jean Charest and Patrick Brown, enjoy virtually no credibility among conservative pundits or intellectuals and stir no excitement among activists. Their imagined paths to power require persuasive skills they simply don’t have.

“In the existing Conservative membership, Pierre is more popular,” admitted Brown recently, before outlining a strategy both brazenly cynical and embarrassingly optimistic, in which he somehow completely swaps out the existing base of the party before voting day.

Poilievre’s emergence as a unifying figure among Conservatives is a predictable response to a string of failed leaders. Since 2015, the Tories have thrice attempted to deny Trudeau power with often highly condescending messages to the electorate, affecting exaggerated concern that he is “just not ready” or is “not as advertised.” Poilievre, a vastly more cutthroat and combative character, would be the first Conservative leader whose candidacy against Trudeau would be fueled by a fairly unapologetic hatred of a man Poilievre has likened to a “corrupt tinpot dictator.”

On one level, this is a much less “safe” strategy than simply treating Trudeau as a source of disappointment or pity. Conservatives have long been instructed not to frighten the country’s nervous suburbanites with rhetoric that’s too angry or sharp-edged, and a Tory leader with a talent for insults running hard against Trudeau seems likely to further coarsen Canada’s already dark and polarized political culture. Yet it’s also true that, by the time Trudeau is scheduled to seek a fourth term in October 2025, he’ll have been in power a full decade. If there’s an appropriate time to go all-in on a message of sheer irritated exhaustion toward a prime minister whose maudlin personality, pious scolding and penchant for hypocrisy have long tested Canadians’ patience (and never impressed more than 40 percent of the electorate), 2025 will surely be it.

Simultaneously, Poilievre’s rise represents a gamble on a more nakedly ideological pitch than conventional wisdom has long deemed wise.

Harper’s three-term tenure was said to demonstrate the good sense of treating politics as a mostly cautious, transactional enterprise, in which modest policy reforms that appealed to the material interests of the middle class, such as new write-offs in the tax code or cutting the national sales tax, could be exchanged for votes. Yet his two immediate successors as Conservative leader, Andrew Scheer and Erin O’Toole, found little success with similarly pragmatic campaigns in 2019 and 2021. Poilievre’s campaign is accordingly oriented around grander themes: tearing down arbitrary “gatekeepers” and making Canada “the freest country on earth.” Into these rhetorical buckets have been poured a broad spectrum of promises, including making Canada the world’s “crypto capital,” simplifying zoning laws, recognizing immigrant job certifications and rescinding “all” remaining covid-19 restrictions


Because Poilievre’s philosophical pretenses are so sweeping and unsubtle, they will inevitably invite attempts to find blind spots. Poilievre has always been more of a culture warrior than a libertarian, and doubtless the left will highlight instances in which the freedoms of various groups Conservatives do not traditionally care for go conspicuously unaddressed. But the simplicity of his agenda nevertheless makes its relevance easy to intuitively grasp (including by young voters). Whether it is outrage or optimism, Poilievre makes his fans feel something, and communicates his goals clearly — admittedly basic skills of effective politicians that have nevertheless been conspicuously absent in Canadian politics as of late.

In Canada, it’s often treated as a fact of life that political parties will be unimpressive and unambitious, and that Canadians, when they vote at all, will do so more out of rote partisan loyalty than any conviction they’re actually affecting the course of their country. To Conservatives filling his rallies, casting a ballot for Poilievre is a vote to snap out of this cycle, and thus the most exciting vote they’ve cast in years.


Opinion by

  J.J. McCullough is a Global Opinions contributing columnist.

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OPINIONS ABOUT CANADA

Japan Deems Russia’s Occupation of Disputed Islands ‘Illegal’

Isabel Reynolds, Bloomberg News

(Bloomberg) -- Japan reinstated a reference to Russia’s “illegal occupation” of disputed islands in its annual diplomatic report for the first time in 19 years, as relations between the neighbors turn increasingly hostile following the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine. 

The two countries have been locked in a territorial dispute over a group of islands known as the southern Kurils in Russia and the Northern Territories in Japan for more than 75 years. The Soviet Union seized the disputed islands in the final days of World War II, expelling thousands of Japanese residents. 

“The Northern Territories are inherent territories of Japan that are currently under illegal occupation by Russia,” the ministry said in the report, which was published Friday on its website. The “inherent territories” wording had also been absent from the so-called blue book since 2011, the ministry said in an email. 

Japan had played down its claims over the past two decades, in an attempt to bolster ties with Russia and seal a peace treaty that would formally end hostilities. But since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Japan has closely followed the U.S. line on sanctions, expelling Russian diplomats. Tokyo has also frozen the assets of about 500 individuals as well as organizations and financial institutions including Sberbank. 

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has pledged to ban imports of Russian coal, though he hasn’t given any time line for achieving this. Japan also imports oil and gas from Russia. In response to Japan’s sanctions, Russia placed Japan on a list of “unfriendly” countries and ended talks on the islands, which former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said were little more than a “ritual.”

The ministry also expressed strong concern about an increase in joint military activity involving Russia and China in the region surrounding Japan, public broadcaster NHK said.

©2022 Bloomberg L.P.

SINGAPORE

CPR performed on 14 cats rescued from fire in Fajar Road flat, saving lives of all but one

The efforts paid off as 13 of the cats eventually regained consciousness. 

PHOTOS: SCREENGRABS FROM ITSHAMBALI/TIKTOK
Wallace Woon


SINGAPORE - Firefighters on Thursday (April 21) rescued 14 cats from a burning flat and performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on them, saving all but one of the cats.

The incident happened at Block 422 Fajar Road, which is in the Bukit Panjang area.

The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said firefighters had to force their way into the maisonette unit.

They used three compressed air foam backpacks to extinguish the fire, which involved some items in the flat's service yard.

The rescuers then found the cats, which were unconscious, on both floors of the unit.

As some of the firefighters were also trained as emergency medical technicians, they provided oxygen and conducted CPR on the cats.

The efforts paid off as 13 of the cats eventually regained consciousness.

The SCDF added that about 20 people were evacuated from surrounding units as a precautionary measure and that investigations into the cause of the fire are ongoing.

The Straits Times contacted the owner of the flat but she declined to be interviewed, saying she had a lot of things to deal with as a result of the fire.

A video posted on TikTok by user @itshambali shows SCDF firefighters providing the cats with medical attention at a staircase landing at the HDB block.

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Thank You @scdfsg for saving them...... #fire #tiktok #fyp #foruyoupage

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