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Yann Bigant

@yannbigant.com
353 followers 402 following 176 posts

Conservation/environment photographer Birds, wildlife trade, etc. in SEAsia Video | Fine art photography DM for assignments 📷📝 SCMP, Dialogue Earth, Mongabay 📍Phnom Penh, Cambodia 🌐 yannbigant.com/links 📷 instagram.com/yannbigant

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Yann Bigant @yannbigant.com · 28/09/2026
Thanks @kiripost.bsky.social for shining some light on my photos and the silent crisis of bird hunting in Cambodia #birds
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Yann Bigant @yannbigant.com · 28/09/2026
Opportunity is a key driver of wildlife crime: "40% of respondents said it was the driving factor in their involvement." Only 16% say circumstances were their main motivation, which questions the livelihoods argument as a poaching driver (without denying it). news.mongabay.com/2026/09/how-... 🌎
news.mongabay.com
‘How did you come to be here?’ Study digs into origins of Zambian wildlife crime
The man in the Zambian prison recalled how he ended up there. He’d been approached by someone who had an uncle in the capital, Lusaka, who was willing to buy ivory and pangolin scales. He gave the man...
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Yann Bigant @yannbigant.com · 27/09/2026
Meta, one of the world's largest wildlife market, settled for billions of dollars and agreed to change its apps for child safety. As Facebook provides all the key functions wildlife poachers and traders need, Meta should do the same for wildlife. gitoc.substack.com/p/metas-171-... 🌏
gitoc.substack.com
Meta's $17.1 billion settlement could reshape Facebook's wildlife market
Meta can redesign the systems that enable several harms at once, or adopt narrow privacy measures that give traffickers better cover
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Yann Bigant @yannbigant.com · 23/09/2026
Happy to see my photo on the bird meat trade in Cambodia recognized in this year's Bird Photographer of the Year competition! Yellow bitterns and other waterbirds on sale in downtown Phnom Penh - our investigation found #birds available across most markets of the capital and several provinces 🌏
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Yann Bigant @yannbigant.com · 21/09/2026
Bird hunting with mist nets is a serious threat to avian populations in Southeast Asia. 'Empty farmland and wetlands' loom, say conservationists. My work on mist net hunting was exhibited at the 2026 @deltabirdingfest.bsky.social - conservation story finalist @birdlifeglobal.bsky.social 🌏 #birds
Samnang* uses a stick to stretch mist nets to their full height at night in Kampong Chhnang province, CambodiaA cinnamon bittern is caught is a mist net at night in Kampong Chhnang province, CambodiaBitterns & other waterbirds are sold in a market in downtown Phnom Penh, Cambodia
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Yann Bigant @yannbigant.com · 18/09/2026
“If you have seabirds, your atoll has a better chance of surviving projected sea level rise” But coconut farms not only mean fewer seabirds, they also prevent islands from naturally moving and growing - their natural defense against rising seas. Fascinating: civilbeat.org/2026/06/colo... #birds 🌏
civilbeat.org
Colonial-Era Coconut Farms Pose Risks To The Survival Of Pacific Atolls
The copra industry keeps remote economies afloat while also threatening to undermine the land it depends on.
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Yann Bigant @yannbigant.com · 15/09/2026
Facebook is a huge wildlife market, where the company's algorithm fuels the trade and generate profits from it. Southeast Asian countries, a key biodiversity hotspot, must pressure Meta to stop its rampant wildlife trade and held it accountable for reparations. phnompenhpost.com/opinion/meta...
phnompenhpost.com
Meta Must Do More to Protect Cambodia’s Wildlife - Phnom Penh Post
Meta — the company behind Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp — allows some of Cambodia, and the region’s most precious and vulnerable wildlife to be openly
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Gloria Dickie @gloriadickie.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
In less than one year, Japan killed more than 14,000 bears. That amounts to one of, it not THE, largest cull of a large carnivore this century. And most were moon bears, a species deemed vulnerable to extinction. My latest feature for @theguardian.com: www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
Japan killed 14,000 bears after a rise in deadly attacks on people – but will it work?
Bears killed 13 people in Japan last year, as a lack of forest foods increased conflicts. Yet some say the country’s controversial cull could threaten the endangered species
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Yann Bigant @yannbigant.com · 28/08/2026
Move to EuroSky and keep using BlueSky as before - just with European data protection and privacy laws. Migration takes a few minutes 👇
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Yann Bigant @yannbigant.com · 27/08/2026
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Yann Bigant @yannbigant.com · 26/08/2026
Banned from China, wildlife farms have moved to Southeast Asia where some of them supply both the pet trade and wild meat consumption (nice cognitive dissonance!) and risk triggering the next pandemic. @sneweyy.bsky.social www.telegraph.co.uk/global-healt... 🌏
telegraph.co.uk
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Yann Bigant @yannbigant.com · 24/08/2026
Apex predators save human lives by keeping deer on edge - and away from roads and cars. news.mongabay.com/2026/08/coug... @mongabay.com 🌎
news.mongabay.com
Cougars cut deadly vehicle-deer collisions in the US by up to 76%, study shows
If you’re a black-tailed deer on the Olympic Peninsula in the U.S. state of Washington, you’re always surrounded by friends and family. You are free-range, with abundant food to forage in familiar woo...
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Yann Bigant @yannbigant.com · 15/08/2026
"I don’t know what Ba makes of these converging lines of flight: our escape from Vietnam as political refugees over forty years ago, and our return to the country as birdwatching ecotourists." A tale of human & shorebirds migration: mekongreview.com/letter-from-... @mekongreview.com #birds
mekongreview.com
Letter from the mudflats - Mekong Review
A father and son travel to experience Vietnam through the birds that call it home, even if only for a little while.
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Earthsight @earthsight.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
📢 A new study from Cornell University & New York University debunks leather tanneries’ claims that their sector has no direct impact on deforestation. Researchers found hides make up 8% of a cow’s value at the slaughterhouse level – which can be instrumental to profitability when margins are tight.
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Yann Bigant @yannbigant.com · 02/08/2026
Climate change and dams on the Mekong are slowly killing the Tonle Sap, the world's largest inland fishery. But changing the way dams operate could reverse some of the damage. ✍️ @vantha.bsky.social 📷 @rounry.bsky.social for @mekongindependent.bsky.social mekongindependent.com/2026/08/floa... 🌏
mekongindependent.com
Floating houses stuck aground as climate change takes hold
Cambodia’s monsoon is weakening, and dams are siphoning water away, researchers say. Residents who fish the Tonle Sap lake’s floodwaters are struggling to survive.
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Yann Bigant @yannbigant.com · 29/07/2026
Cambodia's wildlife trade: traffickers raising lions, tigers & primates on their properties, supplying anything from elephants, rhino horns and pangolins, to corals, bears and sea turtles, sourcing from suppliers in Africa, Europe, Russia and South Asia 🌏 Must read news.mongabay.com/2026/07/repo...
news.mongabay.com
Report reveals Cambodia’s appetite for tigers, rhinos and other endangered wildlife
Tiger bone wines in exquisite bottles. Tiger cubs sold alive as pets or served as a culinary delicacy alongside pangolin and cobra meat at exclusive restaurants. Rooms filled with rhino horns and elep...
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Yann Bigant @yannbigant.com · 29/07/2026
Thailand has delisted Red-whiskered bulbuls in order to please voters & the captive breeding industry. This is sure to increase laundering of wild birds in the caged bird trade, and poaching in countries like Cambodia & Laos where enforcement is lax. 📷 RWB escapee nesting in Phnom Penh 🌏 #birds
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Yann Bigant @yannbigant.com · 25/07/2026
It won't save them overnight, but we could have birds on future Euro banknotes. Vote at the link below! And maybe that makes sense given the EU Bird Directive is a strong piece of legislation protecting birds from whatever environmental backtracking member states try to do 🌏 #birds
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Yann Bigant @yannbigant.com · 20/07/2026
A network of well-guarded shops selling pangolins, ivory and rhino horns in Laos has nearly doubled in size since last year, according to @geraldrflynn.bsky.social and undercover Chinese investigators, with local law enforcement not even making a dent. news.mongabay.com/2026/07/laos...
news.mongabay.com
Laos’s illegal wildlife shops keep growing despite enforcement, investigators find
BANGKOK — Schemes funneling Chinese tour groups through illegal wildlife shopping sites in Laos appear to be persisting and even expanding in spite of some law enforcement action by authorities, Monga...
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Yann Bigant @yannbigant.com · 06/07/2026
If you're an EU citizen, you can request the European Commission to fully suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement and stop supporting a State that commits war crimes and crimes against humanity. Sign here eci.ec.europa.eu/055/public/
eci.ec.europa.eu
European Citizens' Initiative
Give your support !
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Yann Bigant @yannbigant.com · 02/07/2026
petitions.assemblee-nationale.fr/initiatives/... Pétition contre la loi sur le site de l'assemblée nationale.
petitions.assemblee-nationale.fr
Contre la présomption de légitime défense pour les forces de l'ordre. - Contre la présomption de légitime défense pour les forces de l'ordre. - Plateforme des pétitions de l’Assemblée nationale
Le 7 juillet 2026, l'Assemblée Nationale est appelée à se prononcer sur la proposition de loi n°691, portée par le député Eric Pauget (LR), visant à reconnaître une présomption de légitime défense pou...
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Dan Stiles @kenyadan.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
A report by several NGOs released Monday accuses Meta of hosting the world's "largest single known illegal wildlife trade market" and effectively encouraging the trade by sharing advertising revenues with users and allowing them subscription models. www.france24.com/en/live-news...
france24.com
For sale on Facebook: monkeys, rhino horn and dead pangolins
The ghostly white creature curled up on a weighing scale is almost unrecognisable in the Facebook post offering it for sale. Only closer inspection reveals it to be a dead pangolin.
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The Guardian @theguardian.com · 25/06/2026
Edge of Armageddon: why does one of the world’s top thinkers believe we’re nearing nuclear apocalypse?
theguardian.com
Edge of Armageddon: why does one of the world’s top thinkers believe we’re nearing nuclear apocalypse?
In a chilling new book, theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli says we’re back on the brink – and this time, leaders chronically lack the nous of Kennedy and Khrushchev. So why is he against rearming?
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Yann Bigant @yannbigant.com · 20/06/2026
Migratory feeding grounds critical for the survival of critically endangered Spoon-billed sandpipers are at risk from a proposed oil refinery and powerplant in Thailand www.birdlife.org/news/2026/06... (petition to sign) #birds 🌏
birdlife.org
Protecting Pak Thale for the Future of the Flyway
Thousands of birds depend on this site, but now it’s in danger. Your voice can help.
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Yann Bigant @yannbigant.com · 17/06/2026
Follow the new @mekongindependent.bsky.social media for investigative stories from the Greater Mekong
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Kiripost @kiripost.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
A year-long undercover investigation by Earth League International alleges that Cambodia has become a major hub for the trafficking, sale and consumption of endangered wildlife products, linking criminal networks involved in wildlife crime, online scams, drug trafficking and corruption across the...
kiripost.com
Cambodia Named Key Hub in Major Southeast Asian Wildlife Trafficking Network
A year-long undercover investigation by Earth League International alleges that Cambodia has become a major hub for the trafficking, sale and consumption of endangered wildlife products, linking criminal networks involved in wildlife crime, online scams, drug trafficking and corruption across the...
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Yann Bigant @yannbigant.com · 15/06/2026
Phnom Penh is the Southeast Asian capital city with the least public space per person. Parks are near inexistents and surrounding #wetlands are filled in at a steady pace. Checking a few spots last weekend with people supporting 'urban wetland parks' for both people and wildlife 🐦🐢🌏
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Eoghan Daltun 🌍 @irishrainforest.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
It's almost a month now since I read this EXCELLENT piece by @jonathan-watts.bsky.social, and I still can't get it out of my head. In fact, I probably never will, it explains so much about the times we're living through. That's a mark of the very best journalism. www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...
theguardian.com
The American epoch of oil is collapsing. What comes next could be ugly | Jonathan Watts
China is dominating the energy transition with astonishing results, while fossil fuel fascists in the US try to turn back the clock
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Yann Bigant @yannbigant.com · 10/06/2026
(1/3) Where the most gruesome wildlife trade takes place: a few drone stills I shot last year in Sihanoukville for Wildlight & Earth League International for a video highlighting their undercover investigation into wildlife trade networks in Cambodia 🌏
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Yann Bigant @yannbigant.com · 08/06/2026
Is it too early to reintroduce #tigers in Cambodia? “It’s ironic that we are sending one of the most protected animals in India — our flagship species — into a country with one of the worst records of wildlife protection, rampant snaring, and wildlife trade” news.mongabay.com/2026/06/beng... 🌏
news.mongabay.com
Bengal tigers in Cambodia? Reintroduction plan raises questions
Sat Born, 56, recalls freezing at the forest’s entrance when he first saw it. “Its head was this big,” he says, wide-eyed, spreading his hands to show the animal’s size. Recollecting that eventful mor...
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Nicola Crockford @numenini.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
Fab news from China! Congrats to citizens & scientists who saved a key Spoon-billed Sandpiper wintering site, shared with 20,000 waterbirds of 46 species, from a new highway in Guangxi! Thanks Beijing for halting it & local government for seeking alternatives. www.sixthtone.com/news/1018593 #birds
sixthtone.com
How a Rare Bird Stopped a Highway Project in South China
The road was planned to cut through a critical spoon-billed sandpiper habitat. By first organizing online, and then taking action offline, amateur activists halted its construction.
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Yann Bigant @yannbigant.com · 19/05/2026
“Half the people we work with, they eat orangutans. Orangutans eat your fruit. They steal from your gardens.” 'Now ... observers can sit back, take a photo and make some money.' Interesting new conservation idea, though it does feel there's room for many things to go wrong 🌏
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Yann Bigant @yannbigant.com · 18/05/2026
'climate eclipsed other environmental concerns such as land, water, wildlife, and local pollution; “climate” conceptually swallowed “environment.”' So many good points in this commentary that retrace 30 years of narrative drift in the environmental movement 🌏
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Yann Bigant @yannbigant.com · 14/05/2026
Conservation rules, tourism and the disappearance of nomadism may paradoxically increase human-bear conflicts in Tibet. A level of nuance and balance rarely found in articles on conservation, by 猫盟 (Chinese Felid Conservation Alliance/CFCA) mp.weixin.qq.com/s/NT9ox6_6YF... (use auto-translate) 🌏
mp.weixin.qq.com
藏马熊的问题是一个共性的问题|论被忽视的藏地新旧秩序的失衡的问题
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The Atavist Magazine @atavist.com · 06/05/2026
“Once they got faith in us, we couldn’t get rid of them. I mean, they just would not stop killing.” magazine.atavist.com/2026/san-lui...
magazine.atavist.com
The Undercover Agent Who Posed as a Taxidermist to Bust Colorado's Worst Poachers
The San Luis Valley was a wildlife poacher’s paradise. Then George Morrison arrived.
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Erika Piñeros @erikapineros.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
A MUST READ: "..Images now move fluidly across platforms and contexts that the photographer may never have anticipated.. Ethical responsibility does not end at publication; it evolves as images continue to circulate.” institute.aljazeera.net/en/ajr/artic...
institute.aljazeera.net
The Afterlife of an Image: How Photojournalism Contests Shape Visibility and Responsibility
As photojournalism contests elevate certain images to global prominence, they also influence how violence, dignity, and memory are constructed in the public imagination.
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Yann Bigant @yannbigant.com · 08/05/2026
Another bird species, the Timor green pigeon, is at risk of going extinct due to hunting, with less than 500 individuals remaining. phys.org/news/2026-05... 📷 Remains of a different green pigeon found hunted in Phnom Kulen NP, Cambodia 🌏 #birds
Three small dark grey feathers with bright yellow fringe are held in the hands of a conservationists in the forest of Phnom Kulen National Park, Cambodia
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Yann Bigant @yannbigant.com · 01/05/2026
"Journalists cited risks including intimidation, restricted access to information and reporting sites, legal threats, online harassment and physical violence. Many linked these risks to coverage of sensitive topics such as deforestation, land conflicts, climate issues and Indigenous rights."
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Yann Bigant @yannbigant.com · 29/04/2026
98% of all recent environmental claims and commitments from the world’s largest meat and dairy companies can be categorized as “greenwashing”, or intentionally misleading. www.eurekalert.org/news-release... 🌎
eurekalert.org
98% of all recent environmental claims and commitments from the world’s largest meat and dairy companies can be categorized as “greenwashing”, or intentionally misleading
The vast majority of environmental claims from the animal agricultural industry are misleading “greenwashing” that relies on vague promises or projections, according to a study published A...
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Jenny Splitter @jennysplitter.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
The manospere hates tofu www.usatoday.com/story/life/h...
usatoday.com
Women are testing men's tofu tolerance. Here's why
Hate tofu? Some women think it's a sign of toxic masculinity.
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Yann Bigant @yannbigant.com · 24/04/2026
"killing wolves in Alaska leads to increased numbers of moose, who then eat greater numbers of deciduous plants that are replaced by flammable conifers, leading to bigger and hotter fires" Quick & neat read on the complex interplay of species through chemicals www.lukasguides.com/the-phytoche... 🌎
lukasguides.com
The Phytochemical Landscape
We are all just repackaged plant chemistry
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ClientEarth Europe @clienteartheur.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
This hidden tragedy can be prevented. If you care about marine life, join the record against the needless loss of life caused by non-selective fishing:
act.clientearth.org
Take a stand against destructive bycatch: Join now.
I just supported ClientEarth's campaign to stop the needless loss of life caused by non-selective fishing. Together, we can use the law to stand against destructive bycatch. Will you join me?
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ClientEarth Europe @clienteartheur.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
⚠️We're taking France to court to protect seabirds from unselective fishing. Every year, 30-40,000 birds are caught in fishing gear and discarded into the ocean. We think that French authorities failed to monitor and protect them - breaching multiple EU laws, like the Birds and Habitats Directives.
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Yann Bigant @yannbigant.com · 04/04/2026
"And often the spotlight lands on a few people while the many others who made the work possible remain out of frame. Quietly, almost invisibly, the people who carried the effort across the finish line stand off to the side." #conservation
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Yann Bigant @yannbigant.com · 02/04/2026
Beautiful short film about bird-friendly coffee farms in Colombia m.youtube.com/watch?v=wP_Z... #birds
m.youtube.com
Café Y Aves
YouTube video by Smithsonian's National Zoo
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Yann Bigant @yannbigant.com · 01/04/2026
High level conflicts of interests between IUCN Specialist Groups and the fashion industry, this is a wild read by @totalethicsfashion.bsky.social www.collectivefashionjustice.org/articles/iuc... 🌏
collectivefashionjustice.org
CFJ investigation exposes IUCN conservation status of reptiles likely compromised by fashion industry funding ties — Collective Fashion Justice
For the past year, CFJ has investigated ties between the fashion industry, those who profit from the trade of wild animal skins, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The IUCN has th...
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Yann Bigant @yannbigant.com · 20/03/2026
Pretty cool visual story about butterflies crossing the Atlantic and moths navigating migrations by the stars - in a nifty phone-oriented format 🌏 www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
Butterflies crossing oceans, moths navigating by the stars: unravelling the mysteries of insect migrations
Trillions of insects embark, largely unnoticed, on epic journeys every year across mountain ranges, deserts and seas, and it is only now, as their numbers suffer huge declines, that scientists are tra...
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Yann Bigant @yannbigant.com · 19/03/2026
'There are “hundreds, if not thousands, more species that should be listed,” says @chrisrshepherd.bsky.social an expert in the trade of little-known species with the Center for Biological Diversity.' How CITES fails to protect species lacking attention and funding, and how it could be reformed 🌏
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Yann Bigant @yannbigant.com · 18/03/2026
Overharvesting to meet tourism-driven demand for traditional dish put pitcher plants at risk in Sumatra 🌏 '“In the past, this dish could only be enjoyed during certain events, such as traditional ceremonies or Eid al-Fitr,” said Daswarsya.' www.ekuatorial.com/en/2026/03/t...
ekuatorial.com
Traditional Dish Adds To Threats Facing Indonesia’s Carnivorous Plants
Nepenthes ampuralia, or pitcher plant, grows in the Lempur forest in Kerinci Regency, Jambi. This carnivorous plant is still used to wrap the traditional food lemang
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ClientEarth Europe @clienteartheur.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
‼️100 trees are lost every minute due to EU consumption. If policymakers finally enforce the EU deforestation law, we could save up to 50 million trees annually and keep our air clean. Right now, destructive industries are pushing to dismantle the law. We can’t let them win. Sign now!
act.clientearth.org
Sign to defend Europe's forests, rivers and wildlife. And your own health.
Hands Off Nature
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