<
https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/nine-countries-sign-global-pact-to-protect-endangered-river-dolphins/>
"In September of last year, 154 river dolphins perished in Lake Tefé in the
Brazilian Amazon, reminding conservationists of the urgency required to protect
threatened freshwater cetaceans. The deaths occurred during an intense drought.
“For us, this is a crisis. In one month, more than 10% of the populations of
the two dolphin species that inhabit Lake Tefé died,” says Daphne Willems,
global leader of river dolphin research at the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).
“We’ve never seen this before. It’s climate change. The water was significantly
reduced and temperatures rose to 40° Celsius (104° Fahrenheit). Dolphins are
not generally sensitive to temperatures; it doesn’t bother them much. But this
was like cooking them.”
The mass death occurred just a few weeks before International River Dolphin Day
on Oct. 24. To commemorate this day, key actors for the species gathered at a
meeting in Bogotá, Colombia. During the meeting, participants discussed the
political context surrounding dolphins, success stories and a continental work
session.
The main objective of the meeting was to encourage nations to sign the Global
Declaration for River Dolphins, promoted by the Colombian government, along
with WWF, the Omacha Foundation, the World Bank and specialists from the South
American River Dolphin Initiative (SARDI).
The declaration commits 14 of the animals’ range countries (Bangladesh,
Bolivia, Brazil, Cambodia, China, Colombia, Ecuador, India, Indonesia, Myanmar,
Nepal, Pakistan, Peru and Venezuela) to implement specific actions and
strengthen regional and national initiatives. So far, nine of these countries
have signed the declaration. China, Indonesia and Myanmar, Peru and Pakistan
are pending."
Via
Future Crunch:
<
https://futurecrunch.com/good-news-malaria-vaccine-reforestation-china-poverty-india/>
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
