Refugia

Introduction

---

Welcome to the Eco-Report! It has been awhile since the last one, and even that one had a significant gap between the previous one, so I feel that it is important that I explain what an Eco-Report actually is.

The Eco-Report is written into the Refugi Revised Statutes as a duty of the Councilor of Culture to help fulfill the goal of having members of the region collectively reach an average Environmental Beauty score of 1,300 and an average Eco-friendliness score of 3,750. So, if that is all there is to it, why don't I just tell all Refugi to answer issues in an environmentally conscious manner with their nations and provide a resource that might help people do that?

Well, a few reasons. Firstly, I understand that people answer issues in ways that do not necessarily align with their actual beliefs. The majority of Refugi are environmentally conscious, but does that mean that all of their nations are reflective of that? No, and there should be no shame in that. Seriously, do what you want with your nation! But... if you do want to improve your nation's and the region's environmental stats, I have some graphs to show and advice to give!

Additionally, another reason why the Eco-Report doesn't just consist of advice and instructions is because my predecessors realized that would be quite boring, so I'm going to write about other eco topics in the latter parts of this report. I seriously would recommend learning and reading about your local ecology, if you haven't already. There are all sorts of interesting things happening, both good and bad, that, as a local, you would benefit from being more knowledgeable about.

A final reason, and I have already touched on in the previous reasons, is that it is cool to have regional environmental goals, but we can have the most pristine environmental stats across NationStates, but that doesn't change anything in real life. Let us learn just a little bit more about the planet and all the beautiful things on it together! So, it is beneficial to use the report as a stage to write about environmental matters beyond browser game statistics. I still think, though, that generally, we should try our best to make our silly little fictional nations have a great environment, unless, of course, you have lore reasons not to do so.

Eco-Challenges

---

GREEN WEEK 2026?!?!?

YES! INDEED! TELL EVERYONE IN YOUR CITY AND SEND MESSENGER PIGEONS WITH THE MESSAGE THAT GREEN WEEK IS COMING BACK AFTER AN OVER TWO YEAR HIATUS!

*Ahem*

It has been so long since the previous Green Week, that I probably ought to also explain what in the world that is. Green Week is an event in which members of the region answer as many issues as they can to raise their environmental statistics as much as possible over a certain amount of days. Contrary to what the name might suggest, this does not typically happen over seven days, but instead takes place across a two-week period. The winners of this event usually receive some sort of prize, such as trading cards or other neat things.

In the previous Green Week, we targeted both our environmental beauty and eco-friendliness stats. However, given how much time has passed since then, I think it is best to start out simpler, so we will instead be focusing on just our eco-friendliness stats. There will be winners selected based on both raw number growth and percentage growth. The exact dates of the event and the prizes still need to be sorted out, but I aim to have Green Week ready to launch by the end of the month.

Even if you have poor environmental stats now, you can still win this! The hope is that the gains you make during the event will continue afterward, and the region will see a big jump in both environmental beauty and eco-friendliness stats as a result.

Eco-Stats

---

Both stats are near record-high levels, and are well above the environmental goals set out in the Refugia Revised Statutes. We also reversed the downward trend that we were suffering in our environmental stats at the time of the last Eco-Report. Perhaps it is time for these goals to be raised?

Eco-Friendliness
At the time the previous Eco-Report was published, Refugia had an average of 4,516 points for it's "Dolphin Recycling Awareness Index". At the time of writing, Refugia has an average of 5,260 points! Since I'm historically awful at math, I hope I somehow didn't mess this up, but that is (allegedly) a 16.47% increase! This also puts us 1,510 points above our target.

Environmental Beauty
Like the eco-friendliness stats, the environmental beauty stats have also been on the up! At the previous Eco-Report, the regional average was 1,464 "Pounds Of Wildlife Per Square Mile". At the time of writing, Refugia has an average of 1,631 points, which is a 11.41% increase! This is also 331 points above our goal.

Advice about meeting targets
Keep on keeping on! 😀

Oh, you want me to write something else? Okay! As I touched on earlier in this Eco-Report, I don't want anyone to feel pressured to change anything about their nation just because these goals exist. This advice is more so for people who want to take part in helping the region continue to meet these goals and/or improve the environmental stats of their own nation. The main thing you can do is just put on your environmental lens whenever you get an issue that is remotely related to the environment and try your best to weigh the options presented and pick the one you believe will best benefit your environment.

However, do note that sometimes issues that may not initially seem related to the environment may still have effects on your eco-friendliness and environmental beauty stats. Additionally, some General Assembly resolutions may also have an effect on these stats, but currently only the World Environmental Treaty has a noted effect on either of those stats. Even if you make a mistake in answering an issue, your eco-friendliness and environmental beauty stats can always recover! Do not be discouraged, and instead learn from what went wrong.

Finally, just cheat (if that suits you)!

Whaaaaaaaat?!?

You can see the potential results of issues with this handy website. It is an odd site, and you will have to disable the JavaScript in your browser to access it. It is a perfectly safe website to visit though, don't worry, but I am not legally responsible if you somehow bork your browser trying to disable your JavaScript. Personally, I don't use it, but some people do and people who are unaware of it might also want to.

Eco-Deep-Dive: New species of cat and penguin

---

The Tilcayo
I'm sure that many of you have already heard about the tilcayo (Leopardus tilcayo), the first formally described cat species since 1923. It is a small feline belonging to the Leopardus genus and it is part of the tiger cat (tigrinus) family. Tilcayos are on average smaller than a domestic cat, with a head-body length of 42.5–50 cm (16.7–19.7 in) and a tail length of 25–26.5 cm (9.8–10.4 in), and weigh 1.5–2.0 kg (3.3–4.4 lb). There is still a lot to learn about their distribution and habitat, but they have been found in the Nor Yungas Province near the town of Arapata. Arapata is located in the Yungas region, a narrow strip of forest along the eastern slope of the Andes Mountains stretching from Peru to Argentina.

We love cats in Refugia, so the news spread quite rapidly our Discord server. When a species is formally identified, that does not mean it did not exist for years, decades, or even centuries before–it just means that a new species has been identified by researchers and a formal scientific description has been published (typically in a scientific publication) which explains how it differs from previously described species, especially closely related species, and provides an in-depth description of the new species. It is also often accompanied by illustrations of the new species, whether it be photographs or drawn.

The tilcayo was already known by locals prior to when researchers began investigating whether it was its own unique species. The name "tilcayo" even comes from the local name for the small furry feline. Paola Nogales-Ascarrunz, a Bolivian biologist, first encountered the species after she was contacted by a wildlife sanctuary in 2017 about a cat that had been brought into the sanctuary. Prior to the sanctuary gaining custody of the cat, the feline had been living with a man in La Paz who found the cat as a kitten and initially believed it to be a stray domestic cat. When Nogales-Ascarrunz first saw the cat, she was intrigued and believed it was a unique-looking oncilla (Leopardus tigrinus), a related species also native to parts of Bolivia.

Two years later, as Nogales-Ascarrunz was preparing a booklet about cat species in Bolivia, she realized that the cat from the wildlife sanctuary was notably distinct from oncillas. After this revelation, she revisited the cat in the wildlife sanctuary, who was nicknamed "Tigrino". Nogales-Ascarrunz then teamed up with researchers from across the world to study Tigrino, and to collect DNA evidence from living and extinct species to compare them to Tigrino's. In September 2026, Nogales-Ascarrunz and her team published their findings in Current Biology, in which they not only provided evidence supporting that Tigrino not only belonged to a previously unknown species of cat, but suggested that there were up to five different tiger cat species (up from the three previously known by scientists).

The Southeastern Gentoo Penguin

The southeastern gentoo penguin (Pygoscelis kerguelensis) is the first formally described new species of penguin since 1921. It was formally identified by a team of researchers in September 2026, after they published their findings in April 2026. The southeastern gentoo penguin is a member of the genus Pygoscelis. The researchers were led by scientists from the University of California, Berkeley, and several other institutions in Chile. Prior to this revelation, it was believed that the gentoo penguin (Pygoscelis papua) was a single wide-spread species with three different subspecies. However, the researchers were able to discern through integrated genomic analysis that the three subspecies were in actuality their own species, and that there was a fourth previously unknown species of penguin among them, which was the southeastern gentoo penguin.

The southeastern gentoo penguin has an identical plumage pattern to other gentoo penguins, and it is smaller than the northern gentoo penguin (Pygoscelis papua), larger than the southern gentoo penguin (Pygoscelis ellsworthi), and roughly identical in size to the eastern gentoo penguin (Pygoscelis taeniata). It was estimated that the four species began to diverge approximately 300,000 to 500,000 years ago during the Pleistocene epoch. Each of the gentoo penguin species is considered a cryptic species, which isn't anything scary, but instead just means that they are morphologically identical lineages that are genetically distinct. The speciation process was triggered by geographic isolation, philopatry (the tendency of an organism to stay in or habitually return to a particular area, in this case, each population's differing nesting sites), and oceanic boundaries like the Antarctic Polar Front restricting gene flow between populations.

The southeastern gentoo penguin is native to the Kerguelen Islands, Heard Island, and McDonald Islands, while the eastern gentoo lives on Crozet, Marion and Macquarie Islands, the northern gentoo lives on the Falkland Islands, Malvinas Islands, and Martillo Islands, and the southern gentoo lives on the Antarctic Peninsula, along the coast of Antarctica, and on South Georgia Island.

That is cool and all, but why does it matter?

With the identification of a species, researchers can better understand the threats that face them. Prior to a population of animals being divided into two or more species, it may appear that the population is healthy. However, once researchers learn that the previously healthy looking population is actually made of multiple different species, they may learn that one or more of those species is actually under threat of extinction. This allows resources and conservation efforts to be better coordinated and to prevent those newly described species from suffering extinction. Simply put, you can't protect something effectively if you don't know it exists.

The gentoo penguins are all under threat from climate change, and they are spread across multiple jurisdictions who each have their own conservation measures in place. With it being known that there are four different gentoo penguin species, individualized plans can be put into place to protect these species. Similarly, tiger cats are under threat from deforestation, habitat loss, and poaching, and are spread across multiple jurisdictions from Central to South America. With the tilcayo being described as its own distinct species, organizations and governments can better protect them.

Finally, even if all the species of a genus are not at risk of extinction, it is always a positive to learn about the natural world, especially in a time of scientific backsliding from many of the world's governments. There are countless species of animals and plants still out there to discover, and maybe a Refugi could discover one of those species one day.

Sources: 1234

Eco-articles

---

• The world's oceans (outside the polar regions) reached 21.1C (70F) on average, the hottest they have ever been on record as a result of a historic El Niño event and climate change.

• The Peruvian military has stepped up its campaign against illegal mining in the Amazon, seeking out and destroying illegal mining sites. However, they acknowledge that their efforts will not end illegal mining, and their goal is instead to make it harder for them to operate. Peruvian prosecutors are pressuring the government to follow the money trail to better prevent illegal mining from taking place.

• Vietnam is developing an alternative method of rice farming using drones which will reduce water usage, methane output, reduce air pollution, use less rice seed, lower labor costs, increase output, and allow farmers to use more precise amounts of fertilizer.

• A group of women are planting mangroves and training locals to help restore the over-exploited Niger delta and to reclaim their land from the oil spills that robbed the local communities of their livelihoods.

• Birds in Ukraine are using fibre-optic cables from drones to build their nests. Research is ongoing into what species of bird or birds is creating the nests. Researchers are also unsure if the birds benefit or suffer from using the cables in their nest building, but it highlights the Russo-Ukrainian war's impact on the local ecology.

• Huge swarms of bogong moths in New South Wales, Australia, potentially indicate that recovery efforts for the native species are a success.

---

Thank you for reading,
Melenavenia
The Office of Culture