Saving Wildlife and Biodiversity: Looking to the Future

November 2019 saw the launch of the European Citizens' Initiative petition under the title 'Save Bees and Farmers'.

The petition was the brain-child of a consortium of environmental groups, including Pesticide Action Network (PAN) Europe, the Munich Environmental Institute, the German 'Aurelia Foundation', 'SumofUs', France's 'Générations Futures', and Global 2000 Austria. The full list of the campaign's supporters can be found here, and of course it includes us, Eco Hvar from Croatia. The campaign's aims were summarized as follows: "The Europe-wide initiative aims to fight against the collapse of natural ecosystems and in parallel, the collapse of small-scale farms; we want to support family farming and restore biodiversity by gradually replacing synthetic pesticides with non-toxic alternatives. Civil society organisations from across the European Union are supporting the campaign. They call on the European Commission to propose new legislation to phase out synthetic pesticides, restore biodiversity and support farmers in the necessary transition."

Public awareness of the dangers of pesticides is slowly awakening. Relatively few people are conscious of the scale of pesticide use worldwide, and the fact that the effects of the resulting poison mixtures are absolutely unkown. Many farmers are likely to be be surprised that people think they need to be saved! The agrochemical companies have been outstandingly successful in persuading them that farming is impossible without chemical pesticides and fertilizers, and that their products are safe and do not affect crop quality - tenets which are increasingly questioned and dismissed by independent scientists, observers and consumers. On Hvar chemical pesticides are used in astonishing quantities, especially glyphosate-based herbicides (see our article on land use in the historic Stari Grad Plain). Some farmers have changed their ways on learning more about the adverse effects of the poisons they have been using. A surprising number have carried on undeterred, even though most of them know that Hvar has a high rate of ill health, including cancers and thyroid problems, which can reasonably be attributed, at least in part, to the effects of chemical pesticides.

To bring home the urgent need to stop the intensive and indiscriminating use of chemical pesticdes in agriculture, the petition campaign included a research project titled 'Pesticides in our Bedrooms'. The results were published on September 21st 2021 and make alarming reading. The overall picture was outlined in a press release, and the details of the project were presented in a brochure, available in PDF format online. Eco Hvar took part, collecting a dust sample on June 22nd 2021 from a house in the village of Svirče which abuts on to vineyards. Seven potentially highly dangerous chemical pesticides were found to be present: five fungicides (Boscalid, Cyprodnil, Fluopyram, Pyradostrobin, Spiroxamine and Trifoxystrobin) and two herbicides (Pendimethalin and Chlorotoluron). You can read about their proven possible adverse effects in our articles 'Pesticide Products in Croatia' and 'Pesticides and their Adverse Effects'. Only a limited number of pesticides were included in the test, which was carried out in the Yootest laboratory in France. Many subtsnaces commonly used on Hvar, such as glyphosate, were not tested, so one fears the true picture is even worse. Naturally the owners of the house which was tested are extremely concerned about the potential damage being caused to their family and friends. Clearly a solution needs to be found as a matter of urgency. the only acceptable immediate measure would be for the farmers to stop using chemical pesticides and turn to organic cultivation.

The lawsuits being raised successfully in the United States against the manufacturers of Roundup will certainly help to change people's attitudes to that and other glyphosate-based herbicides. Slowly but surely, around the world, more cases relating to pesticide use are being brought. The French organisation 'Justice pesticides' is collating them as an information tool in order to help victims of pesticide use to understand how to make realistic claims in court. Lawsuits are lengthy, costly, and require a lot of detailed preparation. A successful case sends an exceptionally powerful message to all concerned, especially the agrochemical companies.

We need bees and other pollinators! Photo: Vivian Grisogono

A European Citizens' Initiative (ECI) is a formal application to garner public support, so that the proposals put forward in the petition will be examined by the European Commission. General guidelines about ECIs are given here. If the Commission decides the proposals merit it, they will prepare them for adoption into law by the European Parliament or the European Council. The process for preparing an ECI is complex and costly. The campaign has to be properly formulated and presented to the Commission for approval. Not all the campaigns submitted are selected to go further. There are six steps from start to finish in an ECI. The first is to create an organisers' group of at least seven people, each from a different EU country. Applying for registration is step two, for which the campaign must have an 'organiser account' in order to liaise with the EU, and provide details of the initiative, its aims, and its initial funding. Once submitted, the response will be given by the EU within two to four months. Step three is to garner support from at least one million people within twelve months from the starting date, which is chosen by the petition organisers: at least seven EU countries have to submit minimum numbers of signatures. The signature collection is strictly regulated, which is why the forms ask for relevant details identifying each person who signs. Data protection rules are applied to prevent misuse of the information. Step four: if the target of a million signatures is met within the timeframe, the statements of support have to be verified by the various countries whose citizens have participated. Verification has to be completed within three months, after which Step five is to submit the initiative petition to the Commission, together with all the support information and details of the funding received for the campaign. Step six is the Commission's response, which may consist of three stages, concluding within six months whether or not it will take any action based on the petition's recommendations.

Roundup (Croatian Cidokor) at work in an olive grove. Photo: Vivian Grisogono

The 'Stop Glyphosate' campaign, completed at the end of 2017, is an example of a a successfully organised ECI. The required one million signatures were collected in less than six months, well within the twelve-month deadline, so collecting was halted early. The ECI was titled 'Ban glyphosate and protect people and the environment from toxic pesticides'. The official record shows that funding for the campaign totalled €328,399. (No details are given on the EU website of how the financial resources are spent.) Despite the obvious overwhelming public support for the initiative, the Commission rejected its main proposal out of hand, concluding "that there are neither scientific nor legal grounds to justify a ban of glyphosate". However, important potential successes met the other two proposals in the ECI, with legislation proposed to ensure more transparency in the approvals process for pesticides, more reliance on independent studies regarding the safety or otherwise of pesticides (as opposed to the present system of primarily accepting industry-funded studies). The new Regulation covering these issues was published on September 6th 2019, coming into force 20 days later. It was due to come into effect after 18 months, on 27th March 2021.

The result from that ECI is not what one would have hoped, and it is horrifying to see how long the accepted proposals take to come into legislative effect. Given the amount of damage being done by pesticides in the meantime under the present system, these issues should be treated as a matter of urgency. But the ECI has still served a valuable purpose in raising awareness and showing the strength of public support for a ban on glyphosate. That is why all parallel ECIs highlighting the dangers of pesticides should be supported, even though one cannot be optimistic about the outcome in terms of the European Commission response.  

The 'Save Bees and Farmers' petition was one such campaign which urgently needed every thinking person's support. Launched on 31st July 2019, it was accepted by the European Commission on September 4th 2019, and formally approved on September 30th under registration number ECI(2019)000016 . You can see its initial presentation, including its basic funding sources, and how it progressed on the EU website. The Covid pandemic disrupted the normal processes of collecting signatures in person, and an extension was granted allowing more time for signings via the internet. The outcome was ultimately successful, with 1,154,024 signatures collected by the time the Petition closed at the end of September 2021. Activities in support of restricting the sale and use of chemical pesticides are of course continuing, The task is dauntingly huge and fraught with difficulties, but it has to be pursued for the sake of our planet and its future generations. 

The ECI 'Save Bees and Farmers' was presented to the European Parliament on January 24th 2023.

© Vivian Grisogono MA(Oxon) 2020, updated December 31st 2021, February 11th 2023.

 

 

 

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  • EDITOR’S NOTE:Few places on Earth are as evocative — or as imperiled — as the vast grasslands of sub-Saharan Africa. In a new Conservation News series, “Saving the Savanna,” we look at how communities are working to protect these places — and the wildlife within.

    MARA NORTH CONSERVANCY, Kenya — Under a fading sun, Kenya’s Maasai Mara came alive.

    A land cruiser passed through a wide-open savanna, where a pride of lions stirred from a day-long slumber. Steps away, elephants treaded single-file through tall grass, while giraffes peered from a thicket of acacia trees. But just over a ridge was a sight most safari-goers might not expect — dozens of herders guiding cattle into an enclosure for the night. The herders were swathed in vibrant red blankets carrying long wooden staffs, their beaded jewelry jingling softly.

    Maasai Mara is the northern reach of a massive, connected ecosystem beginning in neighboring Tanzania’s world-famous Serengeti. Unlike most parks, typically managed by local or national governments, these lands are protected under a wildlife conservancy — a unique type of protected area managed directly by the Indigenous People who own the land.

    Conservancies allow the people that live near national parks or reserves to combine their properties into large, protected areas for wildlife. These landowners can then earn income by leasing that land for safaris, lodges and other tourism activities. Communities in Maasai Mara have created 24 conservancies, protecting a total of 180,000 hectares (450,000 acres) — effectively doubling the total area of habitat for wildlife in the region, beyond the boundaries of nearby Maasai Mara National Reserve.

    “It's significant income for families that have few other economic opportunities — around US$ 350 a month on average for a family. In Kenya, that's the equivalent of a graduate salary coming out of university,” said Elijah Toirai, Conservation International’s community engagement lead in Africa.

    © Jon McCormack

    Lions tussle in the tall grass of Mara North Conservancy.

    But elsewhere in Africa, the conservancy model has remained far out of reach.

    “Conservancies have the potential to lift pastoral communities out of poverty in many African landscapes. But starting a conservancy requires significant funding — money they simply don't have,” said Bjorn Stauch, senior vice president of Conservation International’s nature finance division.

    Upfront costs can include mapping out land boundaries, removing fences that prevent the movement of wildlife, eradicating invasive species that crowd out native grasses, creating firebreaks to prevent runaway wildfires, as well building infrastructure like roads and drainage ditches that are essential for successful safaris. Once established, conservancies need to develop management plans that guide their specified land use for the future.

    Conservation International wanted to find a way for local communities to start conservancies and strengthen existing ones. Over the next three years, the organization aims to invest millions of dollars in new and emerging conservancies across Southern and East Africa. The funds will be provided as loans, which the conservancies will repay through tourism leases. This financing will jumpstart new conservancies and reinforce those already in place. The approach builds on an initial model that has proven highly effective and popular with local communities.

    “We’re always looking for creative new ways to pay for conservation efforts that last,” Stauch said. “This is really a durable financing mechanism that puts money directly in the pockets of those who live closest to nature — giving them a leg up. And it’s been proven to work in the direst circumstances imaginable.”

    © Will McCarry

    Elijah Toirai explains current conservancy boundaries and potential areas for expansion.

    Creativity from crisis

    In 2020, the entire conservancy model almost collapsed overnight.

    “No one thought that the world could stop in 24 hours,” said Kelvin Alie, senior vice president and acting Africa lead for Conservation International. “But then came the pandemic, and suddenly Kenya is shutting its doors on March 23, 2020. And in the Mara, this steady and very well-rounded model based on safari tourism came to a screeching halt.”

    Tourism operators, who generate the income to pay landowners' leases, found themselves without revenue. Communities faced a difficult choice: replace the lost income by fencing off their lands for grazing, converting it to agriculture, or selling to developers — each of which would have had drastic consequences for the Maasai Mara’s people and wildlife.

    © Will Turner

    A black-backed jackal hunts for prey.

    “But then the nature finance team at Conservation International — these crazy guys — came up with a wild idea,” Alie said. “In just six months they put this entirely new funding model together: loaning money at an affordable rate to the conservancies so that they can continue to pay staff and wildlife rangers.”

    Conservation International and the Maasai Mara Wildlife Conservancies Association launched the African Conservancies Fund — a rescue package to offset lost revenues for approximately 3,000 people in the area who rely on tourism income. Between December 2020 and December 2022, the fund provided more than US$ 2 million in affordable loans to four conservancies managing 70,000 hectares (170,000 acres).

    The loans enabled families in the Maasai Mara to continue receiving income from their lands to pay for health care, home repairs, school fees and more. And because tourism revenues — not government funding — support wildlife protection in conservancies, this replacement funding ensured wildlife patrols continued normally, with rangers working full time.

    Born out of this emergency, we discovered a new way to do conservation.

    Elijah Toirai

    “The catastrophe of COVID-19 was total for us,” said Benard Leperes, a landowner with Mara North Conservancy and a conservation expert at Maasai Mara Wildlife Conservancies Association. “Without Conservation International and the fund, this landscape would have not been secured; the conservancies would have disintegrated as people were forced to sell their land to convert it to agriculture.”

    But it was communities themselves that proved the model might be replicable after the pandemic ended.

    “The conservancies had until 2023 before the first payment was due,” Toirai said. “But as soon as tourism resumed in mid-2021, the communities started paying back the loans. Today, the loans are being repaid way ahead of schedule.”

    “Born out of this emergency, we discovered a new way to do conservation.”

    A new era for conservation

    The high plateaus overlooking the Maasai Mara are home to the very last giant pangolins in Kenya.

    These mammals, armored with distinctive interlocking scales, are highly endangered because of illegal wildlife trade. In Kenya, threats from poaching, deforestation and electric fences meant to deter elephants from crops have caused the species to nearly disappear. Today, scientists believe there could be as few as 30 giant pangolins left in Kenya.

    Conservancies could be crucial to bringing them back. Conservation International has identified opportunities to provide transformative funding for conservancies in this area — a sprawling grassland northwest of Maasai Mara that is the very last pangolin stronghold in the country. The fund will help communities better protect an existing 10,000-hectare (25,000-acre) conservancy and bring an additional 5,000 hectares under protection. It provides a safety net, ensuring a steady income for the communities as the work of expanding the conservancy begins. With a stable income, communities can start work to restore the savanna and remove electric fences that have killed pangolins. And as wildlife move back into the ecosystem, the grasslands will begin to recover.

    In addition to expanding conservancies around Maasai Mara, Conservation International has identified other critical ecosystems where community conservancies can help lift people out poverty, while providing new habitats for wildlife. Conservation International has ambitious plans to restore a critical and highly degraded savanna between Amboseli and Tsavo National Parks in southern Kenya, as well as a swath of savanna outside Kruger National Park in South Africa.

    © Emily Nyrop

    A lone acacia tree in a sea of grass.

    Elephants, fire, Maasai and cattle

    Many of the new and emerging community conservancies have been carefully chosen as key wildlife corridors that would be threatened by overgrazing livestock.

    When the first Maasai Mara conservancies were established in 2009, cattle grazing was prohibited within their boundaries. When poorly managed, cattle can wear grasses down to their roots, triggering topsoil erosion and the loss of nutrients, microbes and biodiversity vital for soil health. It was also believed that tourists would be put off by the sight of livestock mingling with wildlife.

    © Emily Nyrop

    Cattle are closely monitored in the Maasai Mara to prevent overgrazing.

    However, over the years, landowners objected, lamenting the loss of cultural ties to cattle and herding. “That was when we changed tactics,” said Raphael Kereto, the grazing manager for Mara North Conservancy.

    Beginning in 2018, Mara North and other conservancies in the region started adopting livestock grazing practices to restore the savanna. Landowners agreed to periodically move livestock between different pastures, allowing grazed lands to recover and regrow,  mimicking the traditional methods pastoralists have used on these lands for hundreds, if not thousands, of years.

    “Initially, there was a worry that maybe herbivores and other wildlife will run away from cattle,” said Kereto. “But we have seen the exact opposite — the wildlife all follow where cattle are grazing. This is because we have a lot of grass, and all the animals follow where there is a lot of grass. We even saw a cheetah with a cub that spent all her time rotating with wildlife.”

    “It's amazing — when we move cattle, the cheetah comes with it.”

    The loans issued by the fund — now called the African Conservancies Facility — will enhance rotational grazing systems, which are practiced differently in each conservancy, by incorporating best practices and lessons from the organization’s Herding for Health program in southern Africa.

    © Will Turner

    An elephant herd stares down a pack of hyenas.

    For landowners like Dickson Kaelo, who was among the pioneers to propose the conservancy model in Kenya, the return of cattle to the ecosystem has restored a natural order.

    “I always wanted to understand how it was that there was so much more wildlife in the conservancies than in Maasai Mara National Reserve,” said Kaelo, who heads the Kenya Wildlife Conservancy Association, based in Nairobi.

    “I went to the communities and asked them this question. They told me savannas were created by elephants, fire and Maasai and cattle, and excluding any one of those is not good for the health of the system. So, I believe in the conservancies — I know that every single month, people go to the bank and they have some money, they haven't lost their culture because they still are cattle keepers, and the land is much healthier, with more grass, more wildlife, and the trees have not been cut.

    “For me, it’s something really beautiful.”


    Further reading:

    Will McCarry is the content director at Conservation International. Want to read more stories like this? Sign up for email updates. Also, please consider supporting our critical work.

  • Conservation International is helping recover a savanna habitat nearly twice the size of Manhattan.

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