BIRDS in BRIEF World’s First Certified Bird Friendly® Cacao Products Launched The Smithsonian Zoo and Conservation Institute launched a Bird Friendly® cacao certification in February, following up on a Bird Friendly® coffee certification program launched two decades ago. Now, shoppers can indulge in some of their favorite treats with the assurance that they are sourced from farms with favorable habitat for birds. ABC helped to facilitate this important milestone, making the connection between partner Zorzal Cacao in the Dominican Republic and the Smithsonian. ABC also supported the implementation of the pilot phase that led to the first-ever certified Bird Friendly® cacao farms.
ABC and Partners Continue Fight for Better EPA Regulation of Harmful Insecticides In February, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) and ABC submitted a regulatory filing with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on behalf of 65 nonprofit groups. The filing proposes major reforms in the way the agency regulates systemic insecticides, particularly neonicotinoids (neonics). Neonics are systemic pesticides often applied as agricultural seed coatings that have caused excessive honey bee deaths, native bee declines, and bird mortalities since their introduction more than 20 years ago. The groups are pushing the EPA to discard a 1984 regulatory waiver
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The petition documents how the EPA’s 1984 presumption and its subsequent failure to require efficacy data has led to extensive environmental harm.
second largest annual nesting effort observed since comprehensive systemwide surveys began in South Florida in 1996 and is comparable with reports of large nesting events from the 1940s.” Likely the main reasons for this bonanza: optimal rainfall conditions, dry followed by wet, which provided parent herons, ibis, spoonbills, and storks with a bounty of fish and crayfish. White Ibis by Greg Homel, Natural Elements Productions
For more information: bit.ly/BFcocoa
that allows companies to register pesticides without first submitting data on the costs versus the benefits of application. Instead, the Reaganera EPA waiver simply stated: “Rather than require efficacy data the Agency presumes that benefits exceed risks.”
ABC is grateful to the Raines Family Fund for its support of our Pesticides Program.
A Bounce for Some Florida Wading Birds The South Florida Wading Bird Report, published by the South Florida Water Management District in March, summarized results of the bountiful 2021 nesting season, providing good news from perhaps the most important U.S. region for wading birds. All wading birds had a good nesting season above the ten-year average, but a few species did particularly well: the White Ibis (which made up 67 percent of the region’s wading bird nests), Wood Stork, Roseate Spoonbill, and Great Egret. Overall, the report says the impressive 2021 output was “the
Wind Project Stalled in Lear’s Macaw Country In April, a federal judge in Brazil suspended all licenses previously granted to energy company Voltalia to build a wind power facility in the Endangered Lear’s Macaw’s habitat in northeastern Brazil. In his ruling,