Latest in General
RTÉ News
15 minutes ago
- General
- RTÉ News
Deforestation in Sierra Leone national park threatens chimps, humans alike
Esther and Rio, two orphaned baby chimpanzees, clung tenderly to their caregiver's chest at a sanctuary inside one of Sierra Leone's flagship national parks, where unprecedented deforestation and illegal urban encroachment pose a risk to both primates and humans. The young apes, who arrived at the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary when they were just three months old, listened with wide eyes as other chimps screeched and played nearby. The park's dense vegetation, stifling heat and the metallic fever pitch of reverberating insects served as a backdrop for the country's spectacular biodiversity, which includes several protected species. While the sanctuary rehabilitates orphaned Western chimpanzees, it is also a leading site for wildlife research and conservation education programmes. It is extremely popular with tourists - but its keepers have defiantly kept it closed since late May. The protest is meant to spur the government into action over the rapid environmental degradation taking place in the national park where it is located. The deterioration does not just affect the chimps, experts say, but also inhabitants of the wider region including the nearby capital of Freetown, home to some two million people. Situated just 15km from the overcrowded metropolis, the sanctuary lies inside the country's Western Area Peninsula National Park (WAP-NP). Mining, logging and urban development have claimed vast swaths of the verdant park. Meanwhile, poachers place traps dangerously close to the terrain for the sanctuary's Western chimpanzees, which are listed as "critically endangered" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Since 2000, Sierra Leone has lost 39% of its forest cover, according to monitoring site Global Forest Watch. And of the 18,000 hectares (44,500 acres) of forest in WAP-NP, almost a third has been ruined or severely degraded since 2012. "The last two (or) three years we have seen an increase of chimpanzees rescued, simply because you have a lot of degradation outside where wild populations are," sanctuary director Bala Amarasekaran, who founded the facility in 1995, said. Freetown threatened The dangers of deforestation extend well beyond chimpanzees, however, and also threaten humans, particularly those in Freetown whose water supply is controlled by the Guma Dam, located inside WAP-NP. The enormous structure sits about 6km south of the chimpanzee sanctuary and is surrounded by a green, old-growth tropical rainforest. In the valley below the dam, urbanisation is highly visible. The sprawl causes runoff which contains extra silt and sediment that collects in the dam's reservoir and creates sanitation issues, especially in the long rainy season. "This settlement did not exist three years ago," Maada Kpenge, managing director of the Guma Valley Water Company, said. But "every year a few houses get added to it" he said, stating that the squatting residents claim to own the land legitimately. "Every year we lose thousands of hectares of the forest," he said, adding that in 10 or 15 years' time there will be hardly any forest left. Without the trees to help regulate the water cycle and capture and retain water, the dam's level will additionally drop drastically. Under such circumstances, "living in Freetown would be a challenge, almost impossible," Kpenge said. The government faults opaque and corrupt land allocation practices carried out in the past, while highlighting new, stricter laws on land ownership that it says are helping. But activists and experts say the new regulations are not being adequately enforced. Ranger patrol AFP was able to follow a team of underequipped rangers who are attempting to enforce the rules and keep deforestation at bay. "We have so many challenges in the national park and so many (illegal) activities," Alpha Mara, commander of the forest guards within the National Protected Area Authority (NPAA), said. On the day AFP spoke with Mara, he and about 20 other rangers packed into one pickup truck to check on six sites located in the park and its buffer zone. Except for one man with a machete, the guards lacked weapons or protective gear to fend off traffickers and squatters. To tear down illicitly constructed structures or remove beams demarcating land that had been claimed illegally, the men used their bare hands. At one site, the ranger with a machete slashed the sheet metal of shacks. Suddenly, a terrified young woman emerged from one, holding a crying baby. The woman, Famata Turay, explained that her husband worked guarding the piece of land and was paid by a wealthy person living abroad who claimed it as his own. "This is illegal construction," ranger Ibrahim Kamara told her as he wrote up a report on the site. Turay said defiantly that she had been unaware. "I feel bad because I don't have any other place to sleep," she said after the rangers left, sobbing as she looked at her half-destroyed shack. Institutional failure Because of deforestation, already extreme temperatures could become unbearable for the majority of residents in Freetown and the surrounding region, experts warn. Deforestation also exacerbates soil erosion, which is already dire during the country's rainy season, as evidenced by Africa's deadliest ever landslide, which struck in Freetown in 2017 and killed 1,141 people. Back at the Tacugama sanctuary, its founder Amarasekaran was appalled at what he saw as the government's institutional failure. If someone is breaking the law, "there should be penalties, there should be prosecution (but) that is not happening," he said. The orphan chimps often arrive malnourished and disabled. Some additionally suffer from gunshot or machete wounds while others were caught by poachers then kept as pets in villages. Even after orphans such as Esther and Rio are rehabilitated, they must still spend the rest of their lives living on the sanctuary's dozens of hectares of protected wilderness, alongside some 120 other chimps. The apes have made Tacugama the country's "number one ecotourism destination", Amarasekaran said.
Boston Globe
16 minutes ago
- General
- Boston Globe
Five years after COVID closed schools, Mass. parents still worry about pandemic effects on kids
Here's a breakdown of the findings: Closing the digital divide About 68 percent of low-income parents report not having enough devices at home to support work and their children's education, a greater disparity than in 2020, when it was 80 percent. Among Latino families, the figure was 74 percent this year. Advertisement Jennie Williamson, state director for Ed Trust in Massachusetts, said this divide directly undermines student success and broader educational experiences, especially when it comes to students with disabilities or 'Access to devices and technology is not a luxury. It's a necessity,' Williamson said. Leonel Lainez, 55, from Brockton, has two children in college and a son in the eighth grade. Lainez, who works in construction, said his three children share one device and access poor internet service. Lainez said his son uses a device at school but is unable to bring it home, and the family can't stretch their budget to buy another one. 'He isn't up to speed with his peers, he needs a device,' Lainez said in Spanish. Advertisement Academic losses While the majority of parents agree educators are doing their best, more than 40 percent of parents expressed concern over their children's academic progress, up from 36 percent in 2022. Daniel Sosa, 33, from Revere, said his fourth grade son is falling behind in reading and math. 'I just feel like the classes are too full, so there's not enough attention to each student or the way the teacher teaches,' Sosa said. Sosa, who owns his own men's clothing business in downtown Boston, said when he briefly entered his son into an afterschool math program before school let out for the summer, his performance improved substantially, echoing a need for specialized instruction. Post-secondary expectations A majority of Black, Latino, and low-income parents have little expectation their children will earn a college degree, while their more affluent and white peers do. About 39 percent of Black parents and 31 percent of Latino parents expect their child to get a degree. Of families surveyed who earn less than $50,000, only 17 percent said they expect to complete college. By contrast, 62 percent of parents who earn over $100,000 said they expect their children to earn degrees. Williamson, the Ed Trust state director, said parents are reevaluating the cost-benefit of college, especially considering ballooning student debt and 'We find this gap to be really alarming, especially in a state like Massachusetts that has invested so heavily in making higher education more accessible and affordable,' Williamson said. John King, 33, from Boston, has a child entering the third grade at Saint Theresa of Avila School. He said he opted for his child to go to private Catholic school instead of Boston Public Schools to better prepare him for higher education, due to his own high school experience, where he felt he lacked college readiness and financial literacy education. Advertisement 'College might be a real optional thing for people. I start seeing a lot of people with degrees that don't have jobs. That's a lot of debt,' King said. Sosa said sending his kid to college is the family's priority. 'My parents, they didn't even finish school coming from a third world country, so now going forward, we have to do better than our parents,' Sosa said. Safety, fairness, and discrimination Of those surveyed, parents of color were more likely to report their children have experienced school-based bullying, violence, or racism. About 39 percent of Asian parents, 37 percent of Latino parents, and 30 percent of Black parents, also said their child received unfair treatment at school. King said multiple times he has needed to raise concerns to administrators for his son, who is one of the few Black students at school. He once raised concerns that school work his son was given promoted negative associations with the color black. 'You have to be a big advocate on those things, if not [educators] just assume everything is great,' King said. Lainez said his son has witnessed violence and drugs in his middle school. There's 'constant bullying for being Hispanic,' he said. Mental health concerns While concerns over their children's mental health and well-being improved from its peak during the height of the pandemic, 45 percent of parents Advertisement Christina Alquinta, 53, from Lynn, has a sophomore daughter who has ADHD and receives accommodations through a 504 plan. Alquinta said her daughter has benefited from her specialized program and will graduate high school with an associate's degree. Because of the support her daughter received through the specialized plan, Alquinta feels confident in her daughter's mental health. But three-quarters of parents whose children have individualized education plans do have greater concerns about student mental health. 'Families are still worried about their children's academic progress and emotional wellbeing, and many of the challenges that were exposed during the pandemic still persist today,' Williamson said. Maria Probert can be reached at
Wall Street Journal
16 minutes ago
- General
- Wall Street Journal
Transgenderism Turns the World Upside Down
While reading Jessica Hart Steinmann and Leigh Ann O'Neill's op-ed 'Transgenderism Won't Let Girls Say No' (June 6), I was reminded of a 17th-century English ditty: 'If buttercups buzz'd after the bee, if boats were on land, churches on sea; if ponies rode men and if grass ate the cows, and cats should be chased into holes by the mouse; if the mamas sold their babies to the gypsies for half a crown; if summer were spring and the other way round, then all the world would be upside down.'
Wall Street Journal
18 minutes ago
- General
- Wall Street Journal
Trust in God, Check the Rest
Andy Kessler's excellent column 'Can You Trust Anybody?' (Inside View, June 9) reminds me of a maxim that an early and important mentor instilled in me: 'In God we trust, everyone else we check.' Ronald Reagan, I'm sure, would approve. Bill Heitz
Yahoo
22 minutes ago
- General
- Yahoo
B.C. Forest Practices Board says forestry changes could reduce wildfire risk
VICTORIA — British Columbia's Forest Practices Board says a two-year investigation has found "outdated rules and unclear responsibility" are stopping forestry from becoming a wildfire prevention tool. The board — an independent body that audits B.C. forest practices — says it examined forestry operations between 2019 and 2022 in areas where communities and forests meet, including the Sea to Sky, Cariboo-Chilcotin and Peace districts. It says fire hazard assessments are a "cornerstone of wildfire risk reduction," and while the industry assessments met 70 per cent of the requirements, fewer than one-quarter were completed on time. The board says municipalities are excluded from the definition of legal interface, a term used for fires burning close to homes, which means logging debris can remain for up to 30 months, even in high-risk areas. The report makes five recommendations to the province that it says would help support "faster fuel cleanup, better co-ordination and more consistent protection for people and communities throughout B.C." The suggestions include encouraging forest operators to actively reduce fire risk, improve co-ordination between government and industry, update legal definitions to add municipalities in the interface, modernize hazard assessment guidelines and incentivize faster logging cleanup. Board chair Keith Atkinson says more than a million B.C. residents live in areas with high or extreme wildfire risk. "Foresters are already active in these spaces. With better rules and incentives, their efforts can become part of the wildfire solution," he says in the release. "This is an opportunity to improve our policies and processes toward proactive, risk-reducing forestry. It starts with better policy and ends with safer, more fire-resilient communities." This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 19, 2025. The Canadian Press
