faulker098

Cayman Islands, Panama, Belize, Turks and Caicos and other Central American small countries may remind some of us of little pieces of paradise, but may also remind others of tax havens and corruption. However, perhaps a question that nobody had (dared to?) asked before was about a possible link between tax havens and environmental degradation. A study recently published in Nature Ecology and Evolution gives us a good sense of how these two things may be much more related than you would have ever guessed so. Tax havens are known for providing politically neutral and reliable arenas for institutional innovation compared with settings dominated by political turbulence and institutional legal vacuum. At the same time, however, some negative effects of these jurisdictions are evident, such as their role in ‘money laundering’ and funding of illegal activities, and the risk of amplified global systemic financial risks created by the lack of financial transparency and oversight . But how abo...

Marine fishery resources have worldwide economic, social, and ecological importance. These fisheries provide a relevant part of protein intake and income for people in the developing world, being linked directly and indirectly to the fishing sector. As the global population increases, the demand for fish increases which leads to a growing number of vessels, diversification of fishing gear, and improvements of catchability. All of these innovations are leading to crashing fish stocks and dramatically changing marine ecosystems. However, the growing number of vessels, the diversification of fishing gear and the improvements in catchability, coupled with population growth and increased demand for fish in recent decades made overfishing a global reality, not only affecting fish stocks, but entire marine ecosystems. This urgent situation should leads to the promotion of forms of sustainable resources, which should encompass fisher all the way to the final consumer.     ...

Imagine yourself in a very hot day or after spending two hours working out at the gym. Would you get thirsty? It is just amazing to have an iced glass of water to refresh and hydrate our bodies or to take a long shower to relax after a working day. Water is so essential that no living being could survive without it. But have you ever thought that this resource could end or about the problems water scarcity could bring to the ecosystems and human lives as well? Could you imagine our blue planet without the blue part? Unfortunately, water shortage is a reality and we must understand what causes it and its consequences so that we could try to mitigate and avoid worse problems. The amount of freshwater available in our planet is limited, which puts a cap at how much we can use of it. However, such threshold is likely to be close due to over-exploitation and human’s current unsustainable water use practices. Global demands for water have been increasing since the 1950s, whereas the freshwat...

Maybe this is something that has never crossed your mind: despite the benefits of eating seafood, what are the ethical implications of doing this? Seafood consumption impacts consumers and the marine environment in both positive and negative ways. Fish consumers may experience an increase of gray matter in the brain, as well as nutritional benefits, but those benefits may be balanced against mercury contamination. Environmental impacts include unsustainable harvesting and other alterations to the oceans’ health. Yes, you probably heard about all of these before. However, in addition to consumer-related and environmental concerns, labor trafficking (over 45 million people around the globe are trapped in some form of slavery, see the Global Slavery Index 2016 ) – has become an issue in the fishery industry worldwide. Do you know or do you even care if your fish was caught with forced labor? Forced labor or labor trafficking encompasses a range of activities (e.g.: recruiting, harboring, ...

The understanding the state of conservation of marine ecosystems and the distribution and recovery capacity of marine species continue to gain momentum among marine scientists, marine resource users and other stakeholders. The main concern is overfishing, which affects the supply of seafood, income generation for large, medium and small-scale fisheries and the livelihoods of resource-dependent coastal communities, especially those in the developing world. Of the approximately 250,000 catalogued marine species, about 16,000 species are exploited by commercial fisheries. Projections made by marine scientists estimate between 2 to possibly 10 million fish species   yet to be discovered and probably exploited. Predictive models coupled with bibliometric analyses showed that in the first decade of 2000 the number of authors describing new species each year increased to up to 4,900 authors. In Brazil, which covers almost half of South America and holds more than 20% of...