It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Monday, February 13, 2023
Royal Canadian Mint temporarily lays off 56 workers at its Winnipeg facility
Story by The Canadian Press • Yesterday
WINNIPEG — The Royal Canadian Mint says it's temporarily laying off 56 employees at its Winnipeg facility. Royal Canadian Mint Winnipeg facility
In a statement, the Mint says "prolonged effects of the pandemic and ongoing geopolitical instability" are disrupting global markets, which it says is limiting demand for coins it makes for other countries.
It says it believes the disruption is temporary and that the foreign circulation business will return as global markets reopen.
There were 351 people working at the Mint's Winnipeg facility before the layoffs announcement late last week.
The statement says the Mint "has made every effort to avoid layoffs and is doing so only as a temporary measure" and that the affected employees will be offered transitional support.
The Mint's website says the Winnipeg facility was established in 1976 "as a high‑tech, high‑volume manufacturing facility," and that every single Canadian circulation coin is produced there, as well as circulation coins for countries around the world.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 12, 2023.
The Canadian Press
Twilio plans to lay off 17% of staff, internal email shows
The company is also reorganizing to create new business divisions.
Twilio plans to cut 17% of its staff, according to an email CEO Jeff Lawson sent to employees on Monday.
"This is upsetting to be sure, so I want to share with you the reasons for making this tough decision, as well as some other changes," Lawson wrote. "As we've refined our strategy over the past several months, it's become apparent we need significant structural changes to better execute our strategy. Employees were expecting big changes after Lawson scheduled an unusual meeting with other top executives of the tech company about an hour before the Super Bowl started on Sunday.
The company is also reorganizing to create new business divisions: Twilio Data & Applications, led by Elena Donio, and Twilio Communications, led by Khozema Shipchandler. Both will include sales, research and development, and operational resources, according to the email.
Lawson's email said affected employees would be notified within three hours of the announcement via their personal addresses. Severance is 12 weeks of base pay, plus one week for every year of service and the full value of Twilio's Feb. 15 stock vesting.
The company did not respond to a request for comment.
Twilio's business boomed during the pandemic when demand for its communication services soared, and it hired thousands of new staff. The stock jumped, making Lawson a billionaire on paper.
Now that COVID-19 restrictions are looser, Twilio's fortunes have dimmed and investors are pressing the company to cut expenses and become profitable. The shares have plunged from over $400 to about $60 now. In September, Twilio announced layoffs of 11% of its workforce.
Do you work in tech or have insight to share? Contact the reporter Ashley Stewart using a nonwork device via the encrypted messaging app Signal (+1-425-344-8242) or email (astewart@insider.com).
UPS plans to lay off some of its controversial weekend drivers, union reps say, as delivery companies downsize for post-pandemic life
UPS is beginning to lay off some weekend drivers, according to online posts from two local chapters of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters union, which represents drivers and package handlers at the company.
Teamsters Local 174 in Washington state said UPS representatives raised the layoffs at the bargaining table with a joint council negotiating a part of their master contract, which expires July 31.
The affected position, according to the union, is the "22.4" driver, named for the section of the contract that created the position. These drivers work Tuesday through Saturday and top out at $30.64 per hour, while regular drivers can reach $42. The Teamsters see these drivers as "second class" and now regret that the position was approved in their controversial 2018 contract.
Teamsters Local 804 further reported layoffs in three New York locations: Suffolk, on Long Island; Foster, in the southern tier; and Laurelton, in Queens.
Under the existing contract, affected drivers have the right to work from another location or work two weekly shifts handling packages inside UPS buildings instead of driving, and no so-called Regular Package Driver can be laid off before a 22.4 driver, according to the 804's post.
UPS and the Teamsters Union did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
UPS's higher-paid, unionized workforce gave it an advantage during the pandemic when competitors were forced to out-bid each other to contend with a labor crunch. Now that package volume has slowed from pandemic highs, many logistics companies are re-evaluating the size of their workforce.
UPS-rival FedEx contracts with small delivery businesses for its largest round delivery service and therefore can downsize its workforce more easily. (Its FedEx Express business does employ delivery personnel.) FedEx announced layoffs in February, affecting management staff and not operations workers.
This reevaluation is more complicated for UPS's 350,000 union employees — especially since the existing contract expires this year.
The American labor force looks different today than it did before Covid-19 slammed into the global economy. Duration 4:52 View on Watch
Story by Brian Cheung • NBC News
Labor force participation among women between the prime working ages of 25 and 54 has virtually made a full recovery, according to government data released last week. At 76.9%, the share of women in that age group who were working or actively looking for work in January was essentially back to its pre-pandemic level of 77%.
The rebound comes after 13.6 million women, or 18% of the entire U.S. female population, lost their jobs during the depths of the pandemic. Those losses were steeper than for the 11.9 million men who lost their jobs, or 14% of the U.S. male population, over the same time period.
Men of prime working age, by contrast, have yet to experience a full recovery. While labor force participation among 25- to 54-year-old men outstripped the rate among women in the same age group, at 88.5% in January, it was still shy of February 2020’s level of 89.2%, according to federal data.
Overall labor force participation for all workers older than 16 remains below pre-pandemic levels, largely due to a wave of retirements as the workforce continues to age. (Experts say deaths during the pandemic and immigration policies have also contributed.) And while many older workers have rejoined the workforce in pursuit of income as the economy recovers, federal policymakers and economists anticipate that millions of recent retirees may never reverse course and return to the job market.
But among women in their prime working years, employment gains appear to be strong. The Center for American Progress, a center-left think tank, estimated this month that 993,000 more mothers were working in December 2022 than the year before, underscoring the role that women with relatively younger children are playing in the recovery. Once kept home by limited child care options and other factors, more women have returned to work amid school reopenings and the availability of Covid vaccines for children.
Beth Almeida, a senior fellow at CAP, said women’s labor force participation had already been trending upward before the pandemic, suggesting a pent-up eagerness to return to work as the health crisis ebbed.
“Women, after really fighting for a lot of the gains and having opportunities in the workplace, weren’t just going to kind of walk away from that,” she said.
Another major factor in the rebound: a hot economy packed with employers looking for workers in most corners of the job market. The number of job openings remained well above pre-pandemic levels into the end of 2022, as government data showed employers looking to fill some 11 million positions, leaving roughly 1.7 jobs for every person hunting for work. As of last month, the overall unemployment rate was 3.4%, a low not seen since 1969.
But women’s recent job gains haven’t been spread evenly, and those with less education continue to face disproportionate obstacles in finding work.
While the number of employed women with four-year college degrees is above pre-pandemic levels, CAP found that there were fewer women without college degrees at work today than in February 2020. Less educated women were also more likely to have suffered job losses during the pandemic, given the impact of economic shutdowns on lower-wage, service workers.
Almeida said the high cost of child care is the biggest burden for low-wage earners. “If you’re not able to attain child care that’s affordable, even if there’s plentiful jobs, you can’t work in one,” she said. Women with higher-earning jobs may be less likely to face that trade-off.
However, as CAP noted in its February report, “Regardless of age or parental status, women were a staggering five to eight times more likely [than men] to experience a caregiving impact on their employment in 2022.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
Infamous Native Clothing is now on permanent display at Red Deer Museum + Art Gallery (MAG).
(ANNews) –
In an interview, its CEO VJ Curry talks about his brand. His message is simple, he explains. He created his line to break into generational trauma and become a positive role model for Afro-Indigenous youth and others.
Curry’s branding is unconventional. While several other brands promote culture, and educate on indigenous politics and social justice, Curry draws from his learning experiences and self-discovery as part of his branding.
Infamous Native Clothing encompasses his journey, as a survivor of street life and poverty in his youth and of Canada’s Child and Family Services.
Curry has changed his life to give back to the community. He does this by hiring local Indigenous artists such as Cody Lighting and supporting Cree artisans from central Alberta.
Never would Curry have envisioned coming back to his homelands, the Sovereign Four Nations of Maskwacis (formerly known as Hobbema), and becoming Maskwacis’ most popular clothing brand, with his clothing prominently featured on permanent display at the prestigious Red Deer MAG.
Curry’s branding is a hybrid culture where he pulls from the solidarity between his Black and Cree heritage and their commonality of facing oppression. His marketing and branding are geared toward Urban Culture, and infused with Urban Indigenous, Black Urban Culture, and Latino Culture.
According to Amnesty International, “In a country built on white supremacy, it is a threat to the order of society for oppressed people to work in solidarity with each other because this poses a real challenge to power. A common tactic of those in power is to pit different groups against each other as if each were the problem.”
“I experienced racism my whole life and lateral violence,” explained Curry. “I still deal with it today; everyone’s always like, oh, the Black guy…I’m Native enough for them.”
“I’ve also had older generations in my family who were racist towards me.”
He adds, “It’s time for us as Native people to take back our pride and show people that we’re still here and we’re not going anywhere.”
Bless the Dead is one of his most popular clothing designs, which The Red Deer Museum + Art Gallery (MAG) collections purchased from the Infamous Native Clothing Streetwear brand.
MAG states, “We’re proud to be part of the community and to offer a meaningful opportunity to explore all that has been preserved through the years…In 2022, after reading an article in the September issue of Alberta Native News, the MAG purchased this hoodie and sweatpants set from the Infamous Native Clothing Company.
“The owner, VJ Curry, is committed to breaking his intergenerational trauma by using his company to honour his family members who passed away from tragic circumstances. The Bless the Dead design honours VJ’s mother, who was murdered when he was six years old.”
“I try to use my designs to show people the adversity we as Native people face in our daily lives,” said Curry. “Some of us have broken those cycles and are just trying to leave something behind for our kids…I came from nothing and grew up in the street life. I’ll do whatever I [can] to make sure my kids don’t get to live that kind of life.”
“We can achieve our dreams even when the system doesn’t want us to win,” he added.
“I am proud that some of my designs have made it to a permanent display in the Red Deer art museum as a representation of Urban Native American Culture…We’re here to show Canada, that Natives are still here, and we won’t be treated as second-class citizens on our land.”
That is why Curry created a new design called “Solider Edition,” which highlights “the struggle” of Urban people living in poverty. It encompasses the “fight” for fundamental human rights, two spirit inclusion, Indigenous-led housing, food, water, winter clothing, and being treated like a human being. He has also expanded to include a new shoe line called “War.”
Through his clothing line, Curry is encouraging people to support each other.
He ends the interview by reaffirming that his brand is geared towards acknowledging the hardships of poverty, and his logos highlight his lived experiences of growing up with nothing and surviving street life.
He wants all Urban Youth to be proud of themselves, to know that their dreams are valuable and worthy and to wear “Infamous” with pride.
Curry is available to give talks on Indigenous entrepreneurship. Contact him at vj.curry1981@gmail.com or on Facebook: Infamous native clothing company.
Chevi Rabbit, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Alberta Native News
MANITOBA
Exhibit in South River details how colonialism decimated bison population in North America
Story by The Canadian Press •
An exhibit depicting how Europeans colonizing the New World virtually wiped out the bison population kicks off an annual festival at the New Adventures in Sound Art (NAISA) studio in South River.
The exhibit 'Forced Migration' is this year's launch to the 22nd annual Deep Wireless Festival of Radio Transmission Art. Forced Migration was created by Michelle Wilson, an artist from London, Ontario. Wilson's sculpture is a framed, woolen fabric that resembles a land mass in Canada and the United States that stretches from the NorthWest Territories to Texas.
Wilson says “biological historians tell us this would have been the original range of North American bison”.
Embroidered bright orange threads run throughout the fabric and Wilson says these “are the lifeblood of the land and represent the waterways” in both countries. And positioned in key areas on the fabric are grey threads.
Wilson says each of the threads represents the lives of each bison as it was forced to move from one location to another over many decades in both countries. Occasionally there are broken threads and these represent the bison that died at various points during the forced migrations thereby ending any further generations of future bison.
Wilson's story of the forced migrations and depopulation of bison herds comes to life through the threads.
Wilson says touching the threads triggers a sound recording of her voice recounting specific segments of the migration during the 19th and 20th centuries. Touching the thread a second time turns off that particular audio segment.
Wilson's partner Angus Cruickshank put together the exhibit's music and sound design. Wilson's threads tell numerous stories about the bison which numbered between 20-million to 60-million before European contact. Visitors can follow the audio by picking up a poster at NAISA which has a transcription of Wilson's bison story.
Wilson has a Phd in Visual Arts from the University of Western Ontario. It was while carrying out an artist residency at Riding Mountain National Park in Manitoba during 2016-17 that she was inspired to create the exhibit people can now see at NAISA.
“I was recording the bison as a way to know and understand them,” Wilson said.
Afterwards she talked to the park employees, community members and First Nations people to get a better understanding of how the national park came to be and how the bison ended up there “after being (almost) eliminated”.
What Wilson learned was that bison living today in conservation herds can trace their ancestry to a handful of calves that were collected after a hunt.
“My sculpture attempts to simplify a story that shows we can follow a bison through their familial lineage to a hunt that took place on the Saskatchewan Plains near North Battleford,” Wilson said.
Wilson says around 1870 a Metis leader named James McKay brought back five calves after a hunt and raised them on the outskirts of Winnipeg. At the time of McKay's death the bison population had grown to 12 and his estate was bought by the Warden of the Stony Mountain Institution during the 1870s and the bison lived on the prison grounds.
Wilson said it's while on the prison grounds that the bison population begins to grow a little more. The threads on her sculpture depict this growth starting with the thread count at the McKay property.
Related video: More than 100 bison from Yellowstone National Park transferred to Fort Peck Tribes (KBZK Bozeman, MT) Duration 0:52 View on Watch
There are actually six threads at the beginning because McKay brought back six calves but one died so one of the six threads is cut to represent the death of one bison.
Later the bison are moved from the prison to Kansas and again the exhibit depicts this migration with more threads where some again are cut.
Rancher, hunter and conservationist, Charles Jesse “Buffalo” Jones was the buyer of the Warden's bison. Jones also acquired the bison in the Texas Panhandle to form one herd.
Wilson said at one point Jones went bankrupt and the bison found their way to the Flathead Reservation in Montana where the herd thrived and the exhibit depicts that with dozens of threads.
Over time Canada acquired the herd but the question was where to put the bison.
In 1908 the federal government created Buffalo National Park southwest of Wainwright, Alberta and in 1912, Wilson says 748 bison arrived at the new site. By 1922 there were nearly 6,800 bison in the park but the land's resources became strained as the bison shared the area with large populations of deer, moose and elk.
Wilson said the land quality degraded under the strain and tuberculosis broke out among the bison.
The Canadian government began to slaughter thousands of bison to preserve the land quality.
Wilson said the slaughtering ended when the public intervened and the remaining bison were relocated to Wood Buffalo National Park which straddles the Alberta and Northwest Territories border.
It's from here that the bison at Riding Mountain National Park came.
In 1931, 20 bison were taken from the Alberta park and reintroduced in Manitoba.
Today Riding Mountain National Park, where Wilson's story starts, has about 40 bison in an area known as the Lake Audy Bison Enclosure.
In a small way the story has a happy ending in that Wilson says the remaining bison are “nurturing new herds of bison on ancestral land” and that the “free-ranging bison are re-establishing their ecological relationship with the land and other species”.
But Wilson adds today's bison population is a far cry from the original numbers only several hundred years ago.
The exhibit is on display until April 3rd.
'Forced Migration' is one of two attractions at NAISA during the sound festival.
Darren Copeland, NAISA's Artistic Director, says on February 18th at 7:00 pm, Geronimo Inutiq of Montreal will perform an audio experience using a laptop and other electronic devices.
Then on February 16th Inutiq will hold roundtable talks at NAISA at 2:00 pm and at the Capitol Centre in North Bay at 7 p.m.
During the roundtables Copeland says Inutiq will listen and record people's conceptions of home and how their surroundings help form that conception.
He will then collect the recordings and turn them into an audio collage of multiple voices as people describe what home is for them. Rocco Frangione is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of the North Bay Nugget. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.
Local Journalism Initiative, The North Bay Nugget
Inuktitut should be official language: Makivik president
Story by The Canadian Press •
Inuktitut should be an official language of Canada, according to Pita Aatami, president of Makivik Corp.
Aatami made the call during a wide-ranging keynote speech Friday as part of the Northern Lights conference and trade show in Ottawa.
“There are two official languages in Canada, French and English, as we all know,” he said.
“Why not make Inuktitut an official language? If I do get my own government one day, that will be our official language.”
Aatami’s remark was followed by a round of applause across the room. In the audience were several Inuit organization and business leaders.
Aatami compared the struggle to protect Inuktitut to provincial measures implemented in Quebec to preserve the French language.
Rather than pin one cause against the other, he said both Inuit and Quebecois should work together.
“Like the French, we don’t want to lose our language,” he said.
“If you don’t want to lose your language, we’re the same.”
Ian Lafrenière, Quebec’s minister responsible for relations with the First Nations and Inuit, said last month he plans on tabling an Indigenous language protection bill later this year.
Lafrenière travelled to Nunavik and Nunavut in January to begin discussions on the topic, ahead of further consultations to come later.
“I can see that we’ve got so much in common in terms of protecting language, culture, in terms of building issues, construction issues; I see that as promising for a partnership,” Lafrenière said, about building a new partnership with the Government of Nunavut.
Aatami’s keynote speech touched on several other topics, including mining consultations, the state of the two Makivik-owned airlines Canadian North and Air Inuit, and improving Inuit rights under the James Bay Northern Quebec Agreement.
He called Nunavik an open door for investors from the south; however, he wants to see those investments go back to improve communities and support the people of the region.
Above all, respecting Inuit as equal partners is key, Aatami said.
“I might have a brown face but I still cry and laugh like you, so let’s be equal,” he said.
“I don’t want to be controlled anymore. As a people, we want to start controlling our own destiny, our own future.”
Jeff Pelletier, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Nunatsiaq News
Yukon celebrates 50th anniversary of watershed self-governance meeting
Story by The Canadian Press •
WHITEHORSE — For Peter Johnston, Grand Chief of the Council of Yukon First Nations, the history of the territory's modern self-government agreements runs in his blood.
On Feb. 14, 1973, his father — Sam Johnston, former chief of the Teslin Tlingit Council — was part of a delegation of Yukon First Nations leaders who flew to Ottawa to present then-prime minister Pierre Trudeau with a document laying out both grievances and a proposed plan to for the future.
Five decades later, it was Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who flew across the country, coming to Whitehorse as part of a weeklong celebration marking the anniversary of the historic meeting.
The document, titled Together Today for Our Children Tomorrow, launched decades of negotiations that culminated in the territory's Umbrella Final Agreement in 1993, a landmark moment in Canadian Indigenous rights, and individual self-government agreements for First Nations.
"We now have the jurisdiction, the autonomy, the ability now, to rewrite our own policy based on our own value system — our own priorities — and the way we see it as First Nation people," Johnston said.
"And that's the beauty of what Together Today for Our Children Tomorrow provides us now."
Self-government agreements allow, among other powers, for First Nations to enact laws in respect of their lands and citizens, to tax and to manage or co-manage lands and resources.
“We want to take part in the development of the Yukon and Canada, not stop it,” reads Together Today for Our Children Tomorrow.
“But we can only participate as Indians. We will not sell our heritage for a quick buck or a temporary job.”
Trudeau told a dinner for First Nations leadership Sunday that first meeting with the delegation "set the path for so much of what we refer to as reconciliation today."
"That vision that they had shapes not just the Yukon, it shapes our whole country. That meeting helped lay the foundations for modern treaties that have benefited First Nations across the country," he said.
"Five decades later, modern treaties have provided Indigenous ownership of 600,000 square kilometres of land — that's about the size of Manitoba — capital transfers of about $3.2 billion, participation in land and resource management decisions, self-government rights, political recognition, and of course protection of traditional ways of life."
In a statement, Yukon Premier Ranj Pillai called Together Today for Our Children Tomorrow a "forward-looking document articulated a vision for a fair and just future where First Nations people would be equals in Yukon’s society, economy and governance."
Johnston said he feels a responsibility that comes with his connection to Yukon history.
"When we look at the opportunity for me to now meet the prime minister in my capacity, I think things come full circle and we have to honour the fact that he has taken the time and recognizes the significance of today," he said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 13, 2023.
Ashley Joannou, The Canadian Press
After more than five years, inquiry into Innu children in care begins in Labrador
Story by The Canadian Press • Today
SHESHATSHIU, N.L. — A long-awaited inquiry into the treatment of Innu youth in provincial care has begun in Sheshatshiu, N.L., one of two Innu communities in Labrador.
The Inquiry into the Treatment, Experiences and Outcomes of Innu in the Child Protection System will include examinations of Innu history and the systemic barriers they face.
It will also investigate several cases of Innu children who died in the care of the Newfoundland and Labrador government.
Commissioner Anastasia Qupee said today in her opening statement that Labrador's Innu children and communities have long borne the effects of the foster care system.
The government first announced a memorandum of understanding with the Innu Nation in 2017 to pursue the inquiry.
The latest census data shows that Indigenous youth compose more than one-third of all children provincial care.
The Innu Nation's website says there are around 3,200 members in Labrador, most of whom live in Sheshatshiu, about 40 kilometres north of Happy Valley-Goose Bay, and in Natuashish, which sits along Labrador's north coast.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 13, 2023.
'We’re stuck in two worlds’
Story by The Canadian Press • TODAY
The Innu of Labrador have waited six years for a promised inquiry to take place into their experiences with the province’s child-protection services.
That day has finally arrived.
The Inquiry into the Treatment, Experiences and Outcomes of Innu in the Child Protection Systems gets underway Monday in the community of Sheshatshiu. The first two weeks will be devoted to the history and culture of the Innu, and will be live-streamed for the public to see.
Other segments of the process will take place throughout the spring and summer, and involve investigative testimony as well as private and community truth-telling sessions.
A report is expected in October.
Lawyers for the commission held a technical briefing for reporters Friday, Feb. 10, to explain the complexities of the inquiry stemming from both its sensitive subject matter as well as the broader impact of colonialism in general.
Some names will be subject to a publication ban unless consent to disclose identities is given.
Contacted Friday, a spokesperson for the Innu Nation said leaders will offer reflections on the inquiry on its opening day.
Residents of the Innu communities of Sheshatshiu and Natuashish share a common ancestry as descendants of Indigenous caribou hunters, but arrived in their current locations through separate paths.
Sheshatshiu is the longest-established reserve, whereas Natuashish was built in 2002 when the Mushuau Innu moved out of Davis Inlet.
Their traditional language is Innu-aimun, although there is some variance between the two groups.
As a people who traditionally lived a nomadic existence following the migratory routes of caribou, the Innu have struggled to adapt to the stationary lifestyle imposed on them by European encroachers.
During the launch of a provincewide suicide prevention initiative in 2021, former Sheshatshiu band chief Anastasia Qupee explained how her people have more recently tried to recapture their traditional way of life by getting children out of the classroom and out on the land as part of their education.
“That’s where people are the happiest. Kids are happy. We need to do more to support those kinds of initiatives and to support our culture and language, and to make the youth feel strong,” she said.
Innu and Inuit communities experience some of the highest rates of suicide, in some cases as much as 20 times higher than that on the island of Newfoundland.
Qupee is one of three commissioners for the inquiry, along with retired social work professor Mike Devine and chief commissioner Judge James Igloliorte.
While the Innu experience with the child-protection system follows a long and tragic arc, perhaps the most visceral moment came in the early 1990s when images of teenagers in Davis Inlet sniffing gasoline were broadcast around the world.
Several of them were extracted from the community and taken to St. John’s for treatment.
The episode sparked a collective movement to rescue residents from their broken surroundings and move them to the newly built community of Natuashish.
However, many of the social problems came with them, and the legacy of lost identity continued as children continued to be farmed out to group homes and foster parents.
As well as addressing broader issues, the inquiry will delve into specific incidents of children dying while under the purview of protection services.
In 2020, former Innu deputy grand chief Simeon Tshakapesh expressed his long-standing frustrations after the death of an Innu boy, Wally Rich, at a group home in Happy Valley-Goose Bay.
Tshakapesh’s son, Thunderheart, took his own life three years earlier when he returned to Natuashish after being in care.
The Innu elder summarized the inherent conflict for the Innu under colonization during an earlier interview with The Canadian Press.
“We’re stuck in two worlds,” he said. “We have TVs, satellites, cellphones, the internet, Facebook. … The Mushuau Innu came out of the bush not even 50 years ago. We were a nomadic people.”
The provincial government allocated $4 million in Budget 2022 to establish the inquiry.
Peter Jackson, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Telegram
Interview: Enric Sala on the Critical Role of Marine Protected Areas
Malpelo Island off Colombia's Pacific coast is soon to become a marine reserve (CAUT / CC BY SA 2.0)
Enric Sala is both a leading ocean explorer and a visionary. Originally an academic, he grew tired of “writing the obituary of ocean life”, and decided to start a new career finding ways to protect it. He approached National Geographic with an idea for a project that would “combine exploration, research and media to inspire governments to create marine reserves”. Appointed a National Geographic fellow, he launched his Pristine Seas initiative in 2008. Fifteen years on, the project has helped drive the creation of 23 marine protected areas (MPAs) covering more than 6 million square kilometers of ocean.
Enric Sala at the UN Ocean Conference in Portugal last year (Image: Regina Lam / China Dialogue Ocean)
Under the Pristine Seas banner, Sala has travelled the world examining all sorts of different ocean ecosystems. He has studied everything from microbes and algae to large marine mammals, and he’s reached places very few humans have been before. These experiences have shown him how important and beneficial it is to protect the world’s marine environments, and given him evidence to convince politicians that changes need to be made. And he is succeeding. He considers himself an optimist, and as he told China Dialogue Ocean, he even dreams of one day taking Chinese President Xi Jinping on an expedition to the bottom of the ocean.
We caught up with Sala in June at the UN Ocean Conference in Lisbon, Portugal, to talk about his expedition earlier in the year to the Pacific and Caribbean waters of Colombia.
Note: The map only shows the protected areas mentioned in this article. The islands of Serranilla and Bajo Nuevo are currently administered by Colombia but in an area disputed by Nicaragua. (Data source: Parques Nacionales Naturales de Colombia; Graphic: Ed Harrison / China Dialogue Ocean)
China Dialogue Ocean: Can you tell us about your expedition?
Enric Sala: We went to provide scientific research to inform the process of creating several MPAs that the Colombian government committed to as part of their plan to protect 30% of their waters – not by 2030, but before 2030. We’re talking eight years before the deadline. The expedition was fantastic, we were able to explore deep reefs with our submersible. We found an extraordinary abundance of deep-sea fish that were larger than anybody thought. Also, deep coral systems that had never been described before.
Why is this area important to study?
Colombia has this gem, Malpelo Island, which is protected as a large marine sanctuary. We were able to survey the areas around the sanctuary. Malpelo sits on top of an underwater ridge. It’s the only part of that ancient ridge that actually breaks the surface. We explored underwater seamounts, and we were able to demonstrate that not only Malpelo, but Malpelo Ridge – the entire chain of underwater mountains – is extremely important. Not only for the biodiversity that is there, but also for the endangered species that migrate between these protected islands: Malpelo in Colombia, Cocos Island in Costa Rica [and the] Galápagos Islands in Ecuador. And very often they follow these underwater ridges. We found incredible abundances of hammerhead sharks – on the surface, in the middle of nowhere, 200 metres over the top of seamounts. These are features that we cannot see from the surface, but animals can feel them, and they use them as a migratory highway, like stepping stones between islands.
Where does this highway go to and from?
There is not a single highway. When people talk about a [wildlife] corridor, there is not “a” corridor. Animals migrate throughout the entire eastern tropical Pacific, and different species have different migratory pathways. For example, hammerhead sharks have been tagged in the Galápagos, and they travel to Cocos Island, they travel to Malpelo, and then from there, the females travel to the coast to give birth in the mangroves. So the connectivity of these corridors is very complex and they not only link these oceanic islands, they also link with the coast. Different habitats are essential for different life stages of these species.
Did you use any new tools or techniques during your expedition?
We used Argo. It’s a diving live-aboard [vessel] for tourists based in Costa Rica. They have this wonderful machine, the DeepSee submersible that goes down to 450 metres. Also we have our drop cams, which are basically glass balls that we can drop over the side of the boat and explore as deep as 6,000 metres. Then we have our scuba [gear] and diving rebreathers and remote cameras, so we were able to explore everything from the surface to the deepest habitats.
What was the most amazing thing that you saw?
We saw many amazing things. When we retrieved one of the cameras that we had on the surface, we saw over 20 hammerhead sharks in one frame, in the middle of nowhere – we were 200 miles from the shore. We also saw groupers that were so large they were 40% larger than the maximum size ever reported in scientific literature. We saw deep coral reefs with an extraordinary abundance of fish that had never been described. And in the Caribbean, also, we saw some of the largest abundances of sharks, on an atoll, one of the most remote atolls in the Caribbean – Serranilla – in the northernmost part of Colombia’s waters. That place is protected, because there is a little navy garrison there, so nobody goes there to fish. So it’s not only one of the most remote places in the Caribbean, it is also one of the best preserved.
How will your discoveries be used now?
The scientific data that we collected has already been used by the Colombian government to designate protected areas around the underwater mountains that we visited. We are now producing a National Geographic film that is going to showcase Colombia’s ocean conservation leadership.
Will your findings change any of the policies or the management of these areas?
What we found helped to inform the expansion of the Malpelo Fauna and Flora Sanctuary. That’s a no-take area where fishing and other damaging activities are banned. And our data also informed the creation of two new no-take marine reserves around the two northernmost atolls in the Caribbean belonging to Colombia [Serranilla and Bajo Nuevo]. Plus, the creation of a new area, the Colinas y Lomas Submarinas – underwater mountains and hills – which is going to be a marine managed area, also on the Pacific coast.
What about other Latin American countries – what’s their record when it comes to protecting the ocean?
[Many] countries have a lot of work to do. For example, Peru apparently has 8% of its waters protected. But the area that’s truly protected from fishing, where there is no fishing or other extractive or destructive activities, is negligible. It’s much less than 1%. Peru happens to be a big fishing country, and its fishing industries oppose protections because they argue that this will harm them. This is a false argument. We have evidence from all over the world that when you create no-take zones, it allows species to recover and help repopulate the rest of the ocean. One example is Chile, which is also a big fishing country. It has protected 25% of its waters completely from fishing and other extractive activities. And now its fishing industry is very happy, because their catches are better. Marine reserves are not against fishing, they are an essential tool to allow fishing to continue in the future.
What other reasons are there to protect the ocean?
It’s very important that everyone understands that protecting the ocean is not just something that benefits fish and corals. We all depend on a healthy ocean. It gives us more than half of the oxygen we breathe, which is produced by marine bacteria and microscopic algae. Most people don’t know this. The ocean also helps to regulate the climate and capture some of the carbon pollution we put into the atmosphere. So we need a healthy ocean if we are to continue to thrive on this planet.
Science has a fundamental role to play in providing information, but science takes time. Do we have enough time to make the changes we need?
Science takes time, but we have enough science to make decisions now.
So why aren’t decisions being made?
Given all that we know, if decisions are not being made, it’s because of pressure from economic and industrial groups that have short-term interests and do not really care about long-term sustainability.
What can ordinary people do?
There are many things ordinary people can do to help solve environmental issues. One is to vote properly for politicians who have a programme that is in line with conservation needs. The choice of politicians decides public policy. So, electing the right candidate is the most important thing the ordinary citizen can do. The other thing they can do is to eat more plants and fewer animals. We consume too much meat, and livestock use a lot of resources, land and fresh water, and also produce huge amounts of methane. So reducing meat consumption would help combat climate change. Half of agricultural land is used to feed livestock, which is a huge inefficiency. To be able to restore that land, which is in many cases degraded, to recover the natural ecosystems that offer so many benefits to society, that would be ideal. Besides, eating more plants is good for your health.
At this conference there has been a lot of talk about deep-sea mining. What are your feelings about what has been said so far?
Deep-sea mining has the potential to cause an ecological disaster. We don’t have enough information about the ecosystems that would be affected by mining. And what would the climate change impacts be? We have seen that trawling, by disturbing sediments on the seabed, generates carbon dioxide emissions that are even greater than those from aviation globally. Deep-sea mining would disturb sediment on the seabed on a much larger scale, so it is very likely to generate carbon emissions that would contribute to and amplify global warming.
You were at the first ever UN Ocean Conference in 2017. How far have we come since then?
It’s been five years since the first UN Ocean Conference in New York. There is much more awareness about ocean issues. Back then, many – including conservation organisations – thought that the 30×30 target [to protect 30% of the planet by 2030] was too ambitious. Now we have over 100 countries supporting it. So that’s progress. We have more countries that have created significant marine reserves where marine life thrives.
But on aggregate, the ocean is in worse shape than it was in 2017. There’s been more fishing: today more than three-quarters of our fish stocks are exploited to the limit or over-exploited. Plastic pollution has grown dramatically. Dead zones continue to increase. Invasive species continue to invade ecosystems, destroying the natural balance and also creating huge economic losses. We have more extreme weather events because of global warming, which is also raising the sea level and destroying coastal habitats and infrastructure. So we are in worse shape, even though we’ve had some progress.
The good news, and this is what I’m optimistic about, is that we know that when we give space to the ocean, the ocean comes back spectacularly. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. We see it in these marine reserves that have been created by local communities, Indigenous peoples and governments. And we know what we have to do, we just have to replicate this on scale.
How optimistic can we be about conferences like this one?
The problem with these conferences is that much of the time is spent repeating the obvious: that the ocean is vital to our lives, that we are degrading the ocean, that it is important that we do something, that such-and-such a country is committed to policies to conserve the ocean. Things we’ve heard for 20 years. People who come here to repeat the same thing are wasting their time; they’re wasting everyone’s time.
But I am optimistic because there have been extraordinary announcements at this conference. There has been action beyond empty words. For example, the government of Colombia has designated new MPAs that bring its protected waters to 30%. And they have achieved this eight years from 2030, which was the proposed target. If they have done it, more countries can do it. I wish more countries had come to Lisbon to announce similar things. But the fact that both Colombia this year and Costa Rica last year have met this goal gives me hope that other countries can achieve it.
Jessica Aldred is special projects editor for China Dialogue, focusing on globally important environment themes including the oceans, palm oil and biodiversity. She spent 10 years as deputy environment editor at the Guardian, and has nearly 20 years’ experience working in the newsrooms of major media organisations in London, Sydney and Melbourne.
Jack Lo Lau is Latin America editor for Diálogo Chino (Andean Region), based in Lima.
This article appears courtesy of China Dialogue Ocean and may be found in its original form here.
The opinions expressed herein are the author's and not necessarily those of The Maritime Executive.
Note: The map only shows the protected areas mentioned in this article. The islands of Serranilla and Bajo Nuevo are currently administered by Colombia but in an area disputed by Nicaragua. (Data source: Parques Nacionales Naturales de Colombia; Graphic: Ed Harrison / China Dialogue Ocean)