#éléphants

@arno a googlé Lionel Jospin.

Plantation Worlds

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51kEdji7pHL._SY445_SX342_.jpg

In Plantation Worlds, Maan Barua interrogates debates on planetary transformations through the histories and ecologies of plantations. Drawing on long-term research spanning fifteen years, Barua presents a unique ethnography attentive to the lives of both people and elephants amid tea plantations in the Indian state of Assam. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, nearly three million people were brought in to Assam’s plantations to work under conditions of indenture. Plantations dramatically altered the region’s landscape, plundered resources, and created fraught worlds for elephants and people. Their extractive logics and colonial legacies prevail as durations, forging the ambit of infrastructures, labor, habitability, and conservation in the present. And yet, as the perspectives of the Adivasi plantation worker community and lifeworlds of elephants show, possibilities for enacting a decolonial imaginary of landscape remain present amid immiseration. From the margins of the Global South, Barua offers an alternative grammar for articulating environmental change. In so doing, he prompts a rethinking of multispecies ecologies and how they are structured by colonialism and race.

▻https://www.dukeupress.edu/plantation-worlds
#plantations #plantation #paysage #éléphants #livre #Assam #thé #Inde #extractivisme #colonialisme #héritage_colonial #habitabilité #travail #infrastructures #Adivasi #décolonial

L’homme le plus riche d’#Asie va investir dans la #5G en #Afrique

Ca fait rire #jaune les #éléphants... :-D :-O :-(

#communication #propagande #intox #médias #information #diversité #société #seenthis #vangauguin

https://tirelire-peggybank.com/cdn/shop/products/elephant-tirelire-porte-telephone_504a7cf5-d592-4a16-b130-fddc2b57f1b5_1024x1024.jpg?v=1641985250 https://cdn1.img.sputniknews.africa/img/07e8/05/1e/1066802593_0:1437:2048:2589_1280x0_80_0_0_b9ddec180cbbf48308d28e87c080527e.jpg.webp

▻https://fr.sputniknews.africa/20240530/lhomme-le-plus-riche-dasie-va-investir-dans-la-5g-en-afrique-1066

Des éléphants s’approchent dangereusement d’une grande ville chinoise | National Geographic
https://www.nationalgeographic.fr/animaux/des-elephants-sapprochent-dangereusement-dune-grande-ville-chinoi

https://static.nationalgeographic.fr/files/styles/image_3200/public/h_11.02865262.jpg?w=1600&h=1067

Depuis un an, un troupeau de quinze éléphants d’Asie (Elephas maximus) a pris la route pour un voyage sans précédent. Les pachydermes se sont éloignés de plus de 482 km de leur habitat d’origine à Xishuangbanna, une réserve naturelle située dans la province du Yunnan, dans le sud-ouest de la Chine. Ils ont pris la direction du nord, vers une destination inconnue. Leur voyage a retenu l’attention de toute la nation. Personne ne sait pourquoi les éléphants ont entrepris cette migration ni où ils se dirigent. Ils sont en passe d’effectuer la plus longue migration d’éléphants jamais observée en Chine.

Cette famille d’éléphants est composée de six femelles adultes, trois mâles adultes et six éléphanteaux. Désormais, elle erre aux abords de Kunming, où vivent plus de huit millions d’habitants.

[...]

#saperlipopette

Giant Slaves
▻https://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/giant-slaves-english-trailer

This expository documentary is shedding some light on the southeast asian elephant industry. What is this dark secret? And why is it harmful for the elephants? 

Kenya : mort de Tim, l’un des derniers #éléphants aux #défenses_géantes - Sciences et Avenir
▻https://www.sciencesetavenir.fr/nature-environnement/kenya-mort-de-tim-l-un-des-derniers-elephants-aux-defenses-geantes_

Les défenseurs de l’environnement estiment qu’à peine quelques dizaines d’éléphants aux défenses touchant le sol survivent encore en Afrique.

Les braconniers, qui recherchent pour leur ivoire les éléphants aux plus longues défenses, en font leur cible privilégiée.

Ces grands pachydermes étant tués les premiers, le patrimoine génétique se trouve réduit. C’est ainsi que les éléphants d’Afrique ont aujourd’hui de plus petites défenses qu’il y a un siècle, selon les scientifiques.

Ces dix dernières années, le nombre d’éléphants africains a chuté de 110.000 pour atteindre 415.000 spécimens, selon l’Union internationale pour la conservation de la nature (UICN).

Quelque 30.000 éléphants africains sont victimes chaque année de braconnage.

AI For Good Is Often Bad. Trying to solve poverty, crime, and disease with (often biased) technology doesn’t address their root causes.

After speaking at an MIT conference on emerging #AI technology earlier this year, I entered a lobby full of industry vendors and noticed an open doorway leading to tall grass and shrubbery recreating a slice of the African plains. I had stumbled onto TrailGuard AI, Intel’s flagship AI for Good project, which the chip company describes as an artificial intelligence solution to the crime of wildlife poaching. Walking through the faux flora and sounds of the savannah, I emerged in front of a digital screen displaying a choppy video of my trek. The AI system had detected my movements and captured digital photos of my face, framed by a rectangle with the label “poacher” highlighted in red.

I was handed a printout with my blurry image next to a picture of an elephant, along with text explaining that the TrailGuard AI camera alerts rangers to capture poachers before one of the 35,000 elephants each year are killed. Despite these good intentions, I couldn’t help but wonder: What if this happened to me in the wild? Would local authorities come to arrest me now that I had been labeled a criminal? How would I prove my innocence against the AI? Was the false positive a result of a tool like facial recognition, notoriously bad with darker skin tones, or was it something else about me? Is everyone a poacher in the eyes of Intel’s computer vision?

Intel isn’t alone. Within the last few years, a number of tech companies, from Google to Huawei, have launched their own programs under the AI for Good banner. They deploy technologies like machine-learning algorithms to address critical issues like crime, poverty, hunger, and disease. In May, French president Emmanuel Macron invited about 60 leaders of AI-driven companies, like Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, to a Tech for Good Summit in Paris. The same month, the United Nations in Geneva hosted its third annual AI for Global Good Summit sponsored by XPrize. (Disclosure: I have spoken at it twice.) A recent McKinsey report on AI for Social Good provides an analysis of 160 current cases claiming to use AI to address the world’s most pressing and intractable problems.

While AI for good programs often warrant genuine excitement, they should also invite increased scrutiny. Good intentions are not enough when it comes to deploying AI for those in greatest need. In fact, the fanfare around these projects smacks of tech solutionism, which can mask root causes and the risks of experimenting with AI on vulnerable people without appropriate safeguards.

Tech companies that set out to develop a tool for the common good, not only their self-interest, soon face a dilemma: They lack the expertise in the intractable social and humanitarian issues facing much of the world. That’s why companies like Intel have partnered with National Geographic and the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation on wildlife trafficking. And why Facebook partnered with the Red Cross to find missing people after disasters. IBM’s social-good program alone boasts 19 partnerships with NGOs and government agencies. Partnerships are smart. The last thing society needs is for engineers in enclaves like Silicon Valley to deploy AI tools for global problems they know little about.

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The deeper issue is that no massive social problem can be reduced to the solution offered by the smartest corporate technologists partnering with the most venerable international organizations. When I reached out to the head of Intel’s AI for Good program for comment, I was told that the “poacher” label I received at the TrailGuard installation was in error—the public demonstration didn’t match the reality. The real AI system, Intel assured me, only detects humans or vehicles in the vicinity of endangered elephants and leaves it to the park rangers to identify them as poachers. Despite this nuance, the AI camera still won’t detect the likely causes of poaching: corruption, disregarding the rule of law, poverty, smuggling, and the recalcitrant demand for ivory. Those who still cling to technological solutionism are operating under the false assumption that because a company’s AI application might work in one narrow area, it will work on a broad political and social problem that has vexed society for ages.

Sometimes, a company’s pro-bono projects collide with their commercial interests. Earlier this year Palantir and the World Food Programme announced a $45M partnership to use data analytics to improve food delivery in humanitarian crises. A backlash quickly ensued, led by civil society organizations concerned over issues like data privacy and surveillance, which stem from Palantir’s contracts with the military. Despite Palantir’s project helping the humanitarian organization Mercy Corps aid refugees in Jordan, protesters and even some Palantir employees have demanded the company stop helping the Immigration and Customs Enforcement detain migrants and separate families at the US border.

Even when a company’s intentions seem coherent, the reality is that for many AI applications, the current state of the art is pretty bad when applied to global populations. Researchers have found that facial recognition software, in particular, is often biased against people of color, especially those who are women. This has led to calls for a global moratorium on facial recognition and cities like San Francisco to effectively ban it. AI systems built on limited training data create inaccurate predictive models that lead to unfair outcomes. AI for good projects often amount to pilot beta testing with unproven technologies. It’s unacceptable to experiment in the real world on vulnerable people, especially without their meaningful consent. And the AI field has yet to figure out who is culpable when these systems fail and people are hurt as a result.

This is not to say tech companies should not work to serve the common good. With AI poised to impact much of our lives, they have more of a responsibility to do so. To start, companies and their partners need to move from good intentions to accountable actions that mitigate risk. They should be transparent about both benefits and harms these AI tools may have in the long run. Their publicity around the tools should reflect the reality, not the hype. To Intel’s credit, the company promised to fix that demo to avoid future confusion. It should involve local people closest to the problem in the design process and conduct independent human rights assessments to determine if a project should move forward. Overall, companies should approach any complex global problem with the humility in knowing that an AI tool won’t solve it.

▻https://www.wired.com/story/opinion-ai-for-good-is-often-bad/?mbid=social_twitter
#IA #intelligence_artificielle #pauvreté #développement #technologie #root_causes #API #braconnage #wildlife #éléphants #droits_humains

Je découvre ces deux articles qui se focalisent sur les #réfugiés et les #animaux... un regard assez nouveau...

The important role of animals in refugee lives

Refugees are people who have been forcibly displaced across a border. What do animals have to do with them? A lot.

Companion animals, for example, are important to many people’s emotional wellbeing. “For people forced to flee,” the Norwegian Refugee Council recently noted, “a pet can be a vital source of comfort.” At the sterile and hyper-modern Azraq refugee camp in Jordan, Syrian refugees would pay a high price for caged birds (30-40 Jordanian dinars each, roughly €35-50). In Syria, many people keep a bird at home. At Azraq keeping a bird is one way of making a plastic and metal shelter into a home.

In many contexts, refugees also depend on animals for their livelihoods. Humanitarian assistance understandably focuses on supporting people, but if refugees’ working animals and livestock perish then their experience of displacement can worsen drastically: they lose the means to support themselves in exile, or to return home and rebuild their lives.

https://42796r1ctbz645bo223zkcdl-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/BC-744x558.jpg

Ever since the earliest days of modern refugee camps, at the time of the First World War, agencies responsible for refugees have had to think about animals too. When the British army in the Middle East built a camp at Baquba near Baghdad in 1918 to house nearly 50,000 Armenian and Assyrian refugees, there were some animals that they needed to keep out. Fumigation procedures and netting were used against lice and mosquitos, carriers of typhus and malaria respectively. But refugee agencies also needed to let larger animals in. The people in the camp, especially the Assyrians, were accompanied by seven or eight thousand sheep and goats, and about six thousand larger animals like horses and cattle. Many of the people depended on their animals for their livelihood and for any prospect of permanent settlement, so they all needed to be accommodated and cared for.

There are similar examples around the world today, like the longstanding camps for Sahrawi refugees in southwestern Algeria. There, goats and camels are socially and economically significant animals: goat barns, enclosures often made of scrap metal, are a prominent part of the camps’ increasingly urban landscape, while camel butcheries are important shops.

This helps us understand why the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees now has programmes to support refugees’ animals. For example, in 2015, with funding from the IKEA Foundation, the organization assisted 6,000 Malian refugees in Burkina Faso and their 47,000 animals: helping animals helps the people too, in this case to earn a living (and achieve economic integration) through small-scale dairy farming. It also helps us understand how conflicts can arise between refugees and host communities when refugees’ animals compete for grazing or water with local animals, or damage local farmers’ crops.

Starting in 2011, nearly 125,000 people from Blue Nile state in Sudan fled from a government offensive into Maban country, South Sudan, with hundreds of thousands of animals (about half of whom soon died, stressed by the journey). Peacefully managing their interactions with local residents and a community of nomadic herders who also regularly migrated through the county was a complex task for the South Sudanese government and humanitarian agencies. It required careful negotiations to allocate grazing zones as far as 60km from the camps where the refugees lived, schedule access to watering points, and agree a different route for the nomads’ migration.

In Bangladesh, meanwhile, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature has recently been involved in efforts to prevent conflict between refugees and wild animals. Nearly a million Rohingya refugees from state persecution in Myanmar live in semi-formal camps near Cox’s Bazar that have grown up since 2017, but these block the migration routes of critically endangered Asian elephants. The International Union’s conflict mitigation programme includes building lookout towers, training Rohingya observers, and running an arts-based education project.

https://42796r1ctbz645bo223zkcdl-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/elephants-744x479.jpg

And this highlights a final issue. The elephants at Cox’s Bazar are endangered because of ecological pressures caused by humans. But increasingly, humans too are endangered—and displaced—by ecological pressures. In the late 2000s, a years-long drought in Syria, worsened by human-caused climate change, pushed over a million rural Syrians off the land. (The country’s total livestock fell by a third.) The political and economic pressure that this generated was a significant factor in the crisis that ignited into war in 2011, in turn displacing millions more people. Hundreds of thousands of them fled to Jordan, one of the most water-stressed countries in the world, where the increased extraction of groundwater has lowered the water table, drying out oases in the Jordanian desert. Wild birds migrating across the desert have to fly further to find water and rest, meaning fewer survive the journey. In the Syrian war, and in many other conflicts around the world, human and animal displacements are intersecting under environmental stress. If we want to understand human displacement and respond to it adequately, we need to be thinking about animals too.

https://blog.oup.com/2019/10/the-important-role-of-animals-in-refugee-lives
#rapport_aux_animaux #animaux_de_compagnie

Environnement. Le #Botswana réautorise la #chasse aux #éléphants et crée la polémique

Après l’avoir interdite pendant cinq ans, le gouvernement du Botswana vient de réautoriser la #chasse_sportive d’éléphants dans le pays. La décision suscite un tollé chez les écologistes, les autorités la justifient par des questions de #sécurité.

https://www.courrierinternational.com/sites/ci_master/files/styles/image_original_765/public/assets/images/058_2413738.jpg?itok=6MTtwThF#.jpg

Cartographie numérique : Recensement des #éléphants en Afrique : une population en baisse inquiétante

#biodiversité #cartographie #afrique #braconnage

▻http://cartonumerique.blogspot.com/2019/02/recensement-des-elephants-en-afrique.html
▻https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/proxy/IQWsBqWFVc0K7VmyllxDuC046tTMapThaVmj8TKi-kJUGsnrons_WHSHKZmSZ

« Éléphants sans frontières » a réalisé une enquête pendant deux ans sur la population des éléphants en Afrique (2014 et 2015). Connu sous le nom de Great Elephant Census (GEC), ce recensement a permis d’observer que le nombre de troupeaux d’éléphants vivant principalement dans les zones de savane s’était considérablement réduit. Selon les estimations, la population d’éléphants diminue d’environ 8% par an. Près du tiers de la population d’éléphants de la savane a disparu en seulement sept ans.

#Braconnage. Pourquoi le #Botswana n’est plus le paradis des #éléphants africains

Quatre-vingt-dix carcasses d’éléphants ont été retrouvées au Botswana. Jusqu’à présent, contrairement au reste du continent, ce pays d’Afrique australe était préservé des braconniers en quête d’#ivoire. Désarmement des rangers, nouveau président… Ce spécialiste sud-africain explique ce qui a changé.

▻https://www.courrierinternational.com/sites/ci_master/files/styles/image_original_1280/public/assets/images/capture_decran_2018-09-18_a_11.40.39.png?itok=Ruq6b3ko
▻https://www.courrierinternational.com/article/braconnage-pourquoi-le-botswana-nest-plus-le-paradis-des-elep

Voix du Mondulkiri historique

https://i.imgur.com/fkq96fv.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/tRohphE.png https://i.imgur.com/1E2HoRE.png

Kruger’s contested borderlands
►https://pulitzercenter.storylab.africa/dominion

https://pulitzercenter.storylab.africa/dominion/assets/lh5pYbXXdO/opener-1250x695.png

#parcs_naturels #éléphants

Qui veut noyer Filoche l’accuse de la rage Le Grand Soir - Théophraste R. - 22 novembre 2017
▻https://www.legrandsoir.info/qui-veut-noyer-filoche-l-accuse-de-la-rage.html

Ah, Gérard Filoche ! Le fort en gueule, un des #éléphants du #PS engraissés au Bureau national, poste envié d’où sourdent les lois anti-pauvres contre lesquelles l’Inspecteur du travail Filoche Gérard a bataillé toute sa vie, avec fougue, en expert reconnu, défenseur des sans-dents que son président multipliait en se moquant.

https://www.legrandsoir.info/local/cache-vignettes/L191xH137/breveon5625-025ad.jpg

Il a été complice jusqu’au bout des #Hollande, #Valls, #El_Khomri, #Cambadelis, etc. qu’il vilipendait en servant de caution morale au PS et à un ministre de l’économie nommé #Macron.

Mais un Filoche poil à gratter n’avait pas droit à l’erreur, pas le droit de tweeter une image trouvée sur le site de Soral, qu’il a retirée dès qu’il a été alerté sur ce qu’elle était. Trop tard, il a failli : la meute est lâchée. Filoche est, comme disait Mitterrand en parlant de Beregovoy, « jeté aux chiens » qui piaffaient dans de nombreux chenils politico-médiatiques.

Filoche aurait été grand s’il avait mis en accord ses actes et ses paroles, en cessant de pédaler sur un vélo sans chaîne ou d’imiter les pétarades d’un moteur en glissant dans les rayons une carte du PS tenue par une pince à linges, bref : en quittant ce repaire de félons avant qu’un ignominieux coup de pied au cul l’en sorte sans gloire par la porte des poubelles, lesquelles auraient dû être pleines si le PS y mettait tous les siens qui ont trahi Jaurès.

Filoche n’est pas antisémite. Il serait judicieux de ne pas le pousser à le devenir par un long et injuste procès.

Théophraste R. (Slogan qui n’a rien à voir : « Vive la Palestine ! »).

Avaaz - Empêchons les #Trump (et son fils) de massacrer les #éléphants
▻https://secure.avaaz.org/campaign/fr/trump_vs_elephants/?aawBRgb

The World’s First ‘EleFriendly Bus’ Curtails Human-Elephant Conflict in Sri Lanka · Global Voices
▻https://globalvoices.org/2017/10/13/the-worlds-first-elefriendly-bus-curtails-human-elephant-conflict-in-s

https://globalvoices.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/IMG_4825-1-800x450.jpeg

This post by Anya De Saram-Larssen, a student of the British School in Colombo, appeared in Groundviews, an award-winning citizen journalism website in Sri Lanka. Ms. Saram-Larssen attended the anniversary of the launch of the EleFriendly Bus and talked with different stakeholders. An edited version is published below as part of a content-sharing agreement with Global Voices.

#sri_lanka #éléphants #transport #sécurité #enfants #enfance

Pour échapper aux braconniers, les éléphants marchent la nuit et se cachent le jour

►http://www.lemonde.fr/afrique/article/2017/09/14/pour-echapper-aux-braconniers-les-elephants-marchent-la-nuit-et-se-cachent-l

Une étude menée au Kenya révèle que les pachydermes, animaux normalement diurnes, adaptent leur comportement en fonction de la menace humaine.

http://img.lemde.fr/2017/09/14/578/0/3500/1747/600/315/60/0/a25094a_11635-1rbzisw.ckd7mygb9.jpg

Les éléphants d’Afrique, animaux diurnes, ont appris à se déplacer et à se nourrir la nuit pour mieux se cacher le jour et échapper ainsi à l’attention des braconniers dans les zones où ceux-ci sévissent particulièrement, révèle une étude menée par l’organisation de protection des animaux Save The Elephants et l’Université de Twente (Pays-Bas).

Normalement, les éléphants se reposent la nuit et sont plus actifs le jour. Mais les chercheurs ont constaté que « les éléphants bougeaient plus la nuit que le jour lorsque le niveau de braconnage était élevé », comme en 2010-2012, souligne l’étude. Cette attitude était encore plus marquée chez les femelles que chez les mâles. Entourées d’éléphanteaux, elles sont souvent plus prudentes, expliquent les chercheurs.

« Pour les éléphanteaux, le risque d’être attrapés par des lions ou des hyènes la nuit pourrait être plus grand », indique à l’AFP Festus Ihwagi. « Et pour les éléphants adultes, cela implique une altération de leur vie sociale » et peut avoir un impact sur leur activité sexuelle, ajoute-t-il.

Mony Hong, habité par la forêt
►https://visionscarto.net/mony-hong-habite-par-la-foret

Dans le village de Leng Ness, dans la forêt tropicale cambodgienne, une rencontre inopinée avec un passionné cartographe, en lutte contre la déforestation et pour les droits des peuples autochtones. Mony Hong nous fera découvrir la région, ses cartes et son projet. par Cristina Del Biaggio (texte), Alberto Campi (photos) et Mony Hong (cartes) S’il y a de l’espoir dans le monde, il ne se rencontre pas dans les salles de conférences sur le changement climatique ou dans les villes pleines de (...)

#Billets

The African elephant’s range & population (19th century vs. 2012) - Vivid Maps
▻http://www.vividmaps.com/2017/07/the-african-elephants-range-population.html

https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ck37NC3Yhcc/WWfCN9YejDI/AAAAAAABDWs/Dw9qsHv-lHAVfhL0tUmU0aJFLkUkCukpgCLcBGAs/s1600/elephants.gif

The African elephant’s range & population (19th century vs. 2012)

#éléphants #extinction #Afrique #cartographie

En Asie, les « éléphants à touristes » vivent dans des conditions « inacceptables »
▻http://www.lemonde.fr/planete/article/2017/07/06/an-asie-les-elephants-a-touristes-vivent-dans-des-conditions-inacceptables_5

http://img.lemde.fr/2017/07/06/203/0/3500/1750/644/322/60/0/d9f6264_ed01fcbad1224509991a7b645963795b-ed01fcbad1224509991a7b645963795b-0.jpg

« Quand ils ne sont pas utilisés pour des promenades ou des spectacles, les éléphants sont enchaînés jour et nuit, le plus souvent avec une chaîne de moins de 3 m de long », souligne le rapport. Un constat fait à travers toute l’Asie. « La nourriture qui leur est donnée n’est pas bonne, ils ont des soins vétérinaires limités et sont souvent gardés dans des endroits stressants, avec de la musique forte ou des groupes de touristes, sur un sol en ciment. »

L’#industrie_des_parcs à #éléphants en #Thaïlande s’est développée dans les années 1990, après l’interdiction de l’exploitation des éléphants pour transporter des arbres dans le secteur forestier.

#maltraitance_animale #tourisme

#Last_of_the_Elephant_Men (2015)

For centuries the #Bunong indigenous people on the Cambodian-Vietnamese border lived with elephants, believing they shared the same destiny. Today, as the forests and rivers both man and animal depend on are threatened, their fates seem even more inseparable. Last of the Elephant Men follows over a period of time several members of the tribe as they attempt to save the animal that once defined their way of life and may hold the key to their own survival.

▻http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4607098

#film #éléphants #peuples_autochtones #documentaire #Vietnam #Cambodge #Pnong #forêt #déforestation #Mane_Yun
cc @albertocampiphoto

See the Historic Maps Declassified by the CIA

▻http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/11/us-cia-maps-strategy-foreign-policy-display

signalé par l’excellent @lecartographe sur Twitter (que j’aimerai bien convaincre de venir sur seenthis d’ailleurs)

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/content/dam/news/2016/11/18/cia/09-Kennedy-Laos-1961.ngsversion.1480163414751.jpg http://news.nationalgeographic.com/content/dam/news/2016/11/18/cia/16-African-elephants-2013.ngsversion.1480163405744.adapt.352.1.jpg

Shortly after the attacks of September 11, 2001, U.S. President George W. Bush and several advisors gathered at Camp David to weigh the country’s options. On the table in front of them, as you can see in the photo below, was a map of Afghanistan created by cartographers at the Central Intelligence Agency. It was among the first of what would become thousands of maps the CIA produced after September 11 to track terrorist networks and support U.S. military operations, including the raid to capture Osama bin Laden in 2011.

#cartographie #cia #manipulation #éléphants cc @fil #sémiologie

Rendez-vous manqué pour la protection des #éléphants - Le Temps
▻https://www.letemps.ch/sciences/2016/10/05/rendezvous-manque-protection-elephants

https://assets.letemps.ch/sites/default/files/media/2016/10/05/file6rrv4n3emdg1e853f67a.jpg

Rendez-vous manqué pour la protection des éléphants

La conférence de la Convention sur le commerce international des espèces de faune et de flore sauvages, qui s’est tenue à Johannesburg, a déçu les défenseurs des pachydermes. Ils espéraient l’interdiction définitive du commerce de l’ivoire

#biodiversité #trafic_faune #trafic_ivoire

L’inexorable déclin des #éléphants d’Afrique
▻http://www.lemonde.fr/biodiversite/article/2016/09/02/l-inexorable-declin-des-elephants-d-afrique_4991313_1652692.html

http://s1.lemde.fr/image/2016/09/02/644x322/4991311_3_8558_des-elephants-dans-le-parc-national_969eac93a19b24c588ac1c404ebcd74e.jpg

Et les éléphants de #forêt ? Dissimulés par les houppiers, ils n’ont pas été répertoriés par les survols aériens. Mais leur sort n’est pas plus enviable. Une étude, parue en 2013 dans la revue PlosOne, estimait que leurs peuplements dans les forêts d’Afrique centrale (Cameroun, Congo, Gabon ou République centrafricaine) avaient fondu de plus de 60 % en dix ans. Leur population, de 500 000 individus en 1993, est tombée à moins de 100 000, vingt ans plus tard.

Une nouvelle étude, publiée dans le Journal of Applied #Ecology le 31 août, esquisse un avenir particulièrement précaire pour ces éléphantidés – plus petits que leurs cousins de savane mais pourchassés eux aussi pour leur #ivoire –, jusqu’alors peu étudiés. Il apparaît qu’ils se reproduisent à un rythme beaucoup plus lent que ceux de savane : les femelles mettent bas pour la première fois à l’âge moyen de 23 ans (au lieu de 12 pour leurs cousines), et un intervalle de cinq à six ans sépare deux naissances (contre trois à quatre ans). Si bien que, même s’il était mis fin au braconnage, il faudrait près d’un siècle (précisément quatre-vingt-un ans selon les calculs des chercheurs) pour qu’ils retrouvent leur #population des années 2000.

New elephant study shows catastrophic decline in Africa - CNN.com
▻http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/31/africa/great-elephant-census/index.html

http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/.e/interactive/html5-video-media/2016/08/31/Great_elephant_Census_780px.jpg

In seven years between 2007 and 2014, numbers plummeted by at least 30%, or 144,000 elephants. 
And the specific cases are even more disturbing: 
In the Selous Game Reserve in Tanzania, and Mozambique’s Niassa Reserve, elephant populations have plummeted by more than 75% in the past ten years as poachers cut down family herds, according to the survey. 
The Babile Elephant Sanctuary in Ethiopia hasn’t lived up to its name: Chase and the team counted just a single herd of 36 elephants — the last in the Horn of Africa, a vast area roughly the size of Mexico. 

“When you think of how many elephants occurred in areas 10 or 20 years ago, it’s incredibly disheartening,” says Chase. 
“Historically these ecosystems supported many thousands of elephants compared to the few hundreds or tens of elephants we counted.” 
The current rate of species decline is 8%, meaning that elephant numbers could halve to 175,000 in nine years if nothing changes, according to the survey — and localized extinction is almost certain.

#elephants #rhino #braconnage #biodiversité #militarisation

et la #carte de tous les éléphants, comptés un à un par avion
▻http://www.greatelephantcensus.com
▻https://elephant-atlas.org/home

https://dl.dropbox.com/s/y9ye9olmb4cdbi1/elephants.png?dl=0