How long can the virus exist on surfaces and in the air ive environmental conditions?
Link to paper: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2004973?query=RP
PDF: Aerosol and Surface Stability of SARS-CoV-2 as Compared with SARS-CoV-1
Action for Conservation and Teaching, Seychelles (ACTS)
How long can the virus exist on surfaces and in the air ive environmental conditions?
Link to paper: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2004973?query=RP
PDF: Aerosol and Surface Stability of SARS-CoV-2 as Compared with SARS-CoV-1
Preliminary results of how air temperature and humidity influence the transmission of COVID-19.
PDF: High Temperature and High Humidity Reduce the Transmission of COVID-19
Paper on an online interactive dashboard, hosted by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA, to visualise and track reported cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in real-time.
Link to text: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(20)30120-1/fulltext
PDF: An interactive web-based dashboard to track COVID-19 in real time
Phyloepidemiologic analyses indicated the SARS-CoV-2 source at the Hua Nan market should be imported from other places. The crowded market boosted SARS-CoV-2 rapid circulations in the market and spread it to the whole city in early December 2019.
Preparedness and vulnerability of African countries against importations of COVID-19: a modelling study
Link to text: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30411-6/fulltext
The Imperial College report that made the UK government change track. It says population-wide social distancing applied to the population as a whole would have the largest impact, and in combination with other interventions – notably home isolation of cases and school and university closure – has the potential to suppress transmission to rapidly reduce case incidence.
Impact of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) to reduce COVID-19 mortality and healthcare demandDescribes the successful combination of measures taken by Singapore to contain COVID-19 and share some early lessons learnt from the experience
Link to paper: https://academic.oup.com/jtm/advance-article/doi/10.1093/jtm/taaa039/5804843
Image: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – A digital illustration of the coronavirus shows the crown-like appearance of the virus.
In the public’s interest and because of uncertainty and fake news, we’ve opened up this site to include the sharing of carefully curated scientific and government reports on #Covid-19. COVID-19 is a new illness that can affect your lungs and airways. It’s caused by a virus called coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2). Our goal is to inform, not to alarm, and to provide a resource for people to use. Please note that the science is evolving, and the information is updated as it comes.
In this article, Dr. Nirmal Jivan Shah, Nature Seychelles Chief Executive, expounds on the reasoning behind this effort: An Interview with Dr. Nirmal Jivan Shah on Nature Seychelles’ new awareness and educational resource on COVID-19
General and specific information from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on the rapidly evolving COVID-19 situation https://www.nih.gov/health-information/coronavirus
Download this free comic from SECORE to learn more about corals and coral reefs.
http://www.secore.org/site/our-work/detail/coral-heroes-comic.53.html
SECORE International is a leading conservation organization for the restoration and protection of coral reefs.
SECORE applies a multidisciplinary strategy combining research, active reef restoration, education, and outreach for the conservation of coral reefs.
Download a free poster from the Children and Nature Network that explains the link between nature and improved academic performance. Spending time in Nature enhances educational outcomes by improving children’s academic performance, focus, behavior and love of learning. Download a PDF here.
For the last three years, the ResponSEAble project has been looking at ways to help people understand their connection to the sea. Whether they live on the coast or inland, the project’s goal has been to figure out how to encourage Europeans to take a more interest in their oceans, improve their understanding and to treat them with greater respect.
A part of the project a series of 6 short documentary films have been produced. The videos are designed to help inform the public about key ocean health issues and how we as consumers can adopt ocean-friendly behaviours.
They are free to watch online on this channel
Easily downloadable resources help educators bring nature into the classroom (PHOTO BY RAWPIXEL/ISTOCK)
Sierra Club: BY ALISON CAGLE | AUG 27 2018 For children, nature is an opportunity to engage in a world of vibrant sensory experiences: toes curling on sand, the icy crunch of a snowball, the thrill of spotting a deer among trees, watching a brilliant caterpillar explore a leaf.
Yet opportunities to connect with nature often get reduced to special occasions as children get older and spend more time indoors at school. Educators are increasingly realizing that this isolation from nature isn’t great for kids’ health or their school experience. Teachers are coming to learn that the environment can be a dynamic educational resource, as both a tool for teaching and as a classroom in itself. Read more
Photo: Spix’s Macaw © Al Wabra Wildlife Preservation
Birdlife – Eight bird species, including two species of macaw, look set to have their extinctions confirmed following a robust new assessment of Critically Endangered species. The findings reveal a worrying new trend: for the first time, mainland extinctions are outpacing island extinctions.
Photo: Another caecilian, the Hypogeophis pti, locally called petite Praslin caecilian, was discovered on Praslin, late last year. (Salifa Karapetyan, Seychelles News Agency)
(Seychelles News Agency) – A new legless amphibian known as the caecilian has been discovered on the Seychelles’ main island of Mahe by scientists from the UK, according to an article published by the University of Wolverhampton last week.
The new species called montane Mahé (Hypogeophis montanus) was discovered through an ongoing study led by the University of Wolverhampton lecturer Simon Maddock and colleagues from London’s Natural History Museum.
AIESEC, a global youth-led organization, has partnered with the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme to produce a guide of daily actions and activities that can be carried out to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The guide was produced building on ideas from 500 young leaders from 126 countries.
The Young Person’s Guide: Changing the World Edition combines inputs from youth leaders and young people worldwide with expertise coming from 13 partner organizations in the private sector, civil society and international financial institutions. Read more
IUCN-WCPA’s Best Practice Protected Area Guidelines are the world’s authoritative resource for protected area managers. Involving collaboration among specialist practitioners dedicated to supporting better implementation in the field, they distil learning and advice drawn from across IUCN. Read more
This publication was developed as a primer for youth on the green economy, particularly since there are no youth-friendly publication that explain this issue to youth. This publication enables youth to better familiarize themselves with the green economy and the skills needed for it (e.g. engaging in social innovation and green entrepreneurship).
Every year, the sum of humanity’s knowledge increases exponentially. And as we learn more, we also learn there is much we still don’t know. Plastic litter in our oceans is one area where we need to learn more, and we need to learn it quickly. That’s one of the main messages in Marine Litter Vital Graphics. Another important message is that we already know enough to take action.
Plastic litter in the ocean can be considered a ‘common concern of humankind’. This study summarizes the state of our knowledge on sources, fate and effect of marine plastics debris and microplastics, and describes approaches and potential solutions to address this multifaceted issue. The study is divided into four main sections: Background, Evidence Base, Taking Action, and Conclusions and Key Research Needs.
The Seychelles Magpie Robin Copsychus sechellarum was once one of the most threatened birds in the world, but was downgraded from Critically Endangered to Endangered after a long-term recovery programme was successfully implemented. Comprehensive long-term monitoring of this species was conducted on the islands of Cousin and Cousine over an 18-year period. We report here on the species longevity and annual survival at these two sites.
The report Turn Down the Heat: Confronting the New Climate Normal is a result of contributions from a wide range of experts from across the globe. The report follows Turn Down the Heat: Climate Extremes, Regional Impacts and the Case for Resilience, released in June 2013 and Turn Down the Heat: Why a 4°C Warmer World Must be Avoided, released in November 2012.
“Dramatic climate changes and weather extremes are already affecting millions of people around the world, damaging crops and coastlines and putting water security at risk. Across the three regions studied in this report, record-breaking temperatures are occurring more frequently, rainfall has increased in intensity in some places, while drought-prone regions like the Mediterranean are getting dryer. A significant increase in tropical North Atlantic cyclone activity is affecting the Caribbean and Central America. There is growing evidence that warming close to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels is locked-in to the Earth’s atmospheric system due to past and predicted emissions of greenhouse gases, and climate change impacts such as extreme heat events may now be unavoidable.” Dr. Jim Yong Kim, President, World Bank Group
With the second edition of ‘Grow and Eat Your Own Food Seychelles’ recently published, you can learn how to cultivate and care for your own vegetable garden. This book also has recipes for delicious and healthy meals.
Copies are available for sale in bookshops in Seychelles but can also be ordered via Nature Seychelles.
Nature Kenya’s (BirdLife Partner in Kenya) Insect Committee have made available for free download a pollinators conservation handbook. “Our Friends the Pollinators: A Handbook of Pollinator Diversity and Conservation in East Africa” is written and illustrated by Dino J Martins. According to the publishers The goal of the book “is to inspire excitement about pollinators, and make the link with food, and people’s livelihoods.”
The book “also aims to create awareness, provide practical information on the diversity of pollinators in East Africa (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Burundi), and introduce you to a few of them.” An excerpt from the book says: “The relationships between insects and flowers are ancient, intricate, and fragile. Working with pollinators helps us to glimpse, and understand some of the most wonderfully beautiful, and complex interactions on the planet. We expect that the learning shared in this book will help to shape a strong grassroots movement that works for the protection of habitats, better farming practices, and the restoring of pollination services. We hope that our sense of wonder at pollinators, and their interaction with flowers, will pass to future generations through this book.” Download and share the handbook from this link
An excellent guide to biodiversity for youth part of the Youth and United Nations Global Alliance Learning and Action Series. Download it, share it, use it and apply it!
A new list of the species closest to extinction released today by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) includes three Seychelles’ species: Seychelles Sheath-tailed bat, the Seychelles earwig (insect, Antisolabis seychellensis), Moominia willii (mollusc). For the first time ever, more than 8,000 scientists from the IUCN Species Survival Commission (IUCN SSC) have come together to identify 100 of the most threatened animals, plants and fungi on the planet. But conservationists fear they’ll be allowed to die out because none of these species provide humans with obvious benefits. Do these species have a right to survive or do we have a right to drive them to extinction? Read the report online.
The Center for Research on Environmental Decisions has made available for free a guide for communication climate change. The Psychology of Climate Change Communication is a “Guide for Scientists, Journalists, Educators, Political Aides, and the Interested Public.” The guide is available in its entirety on the CRED site, by clicking through the contents menu at left. You can also download a PDF.
Are you a teacher? Looking for resources to enhance your students’ classroom experiences and help them learn about the ocean and its connection to our planet? Check out the resources available on the NOS Education website. http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/
Oxford University Press makes conservation biology textbook by some of the world’s most prominent ecologists and conservation biologists available as free download. Conservation Biology for All provides cutting-edge but basic conservation science to a global readership. A series of authoritative chapters have been written by the top names in conservation biology with the principal aim. Download
The BirdLife Africa partnership has published a manual – Guidelines for the Establishment, Development and Management of Wildlife Clubs in Africa. The manual is based on information and experiences from 16 BirdLife Africa Partners (including Nature Seychelles), most of whom have been involved in wildlife clubs establishment, development and management for more than two decades. Download it here.