Why Louis Ng (ACRES) burns with passion
on Otterman speaks
Difference between tortoises and turtles
on the Lazy Lizard's Tales blog
Call of the Koel
from the Lazy Lizard's Tales blog
Rare eagle sighting at Lentor Ave
on the Lazy Lizard's Tales blog
Tawny coaster
on the annotated budak blog and poke me if you dare
Of growing nestlings and Coppersmith Barbets (Part 8)
on the Bird Ecology Study Group blog
Brown-throated Sunbird drying after a bath
on the Bird Ecology Study Group blog
John Berthelsen Asia Sentinel 8 Apr 09;
Although nobody knows how strong or long it will last, Asia's weather will change
Thousands of meters into the atmosphere, the great trade winds over Southeast Asia are starting to slow, as they have done 14 times in the last century. The oceans surrounding Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Australia are beginning to grow warmer. And thousands of miles away, in Ecuador and Peru and the west coast of the United States, the weather could be in for drastic change.
Nobody knows for sure yet if El Nino, as the weather phenomenon is known, is on its way, or how serious it will be if it does arrive. NASA has warned of the possibility of the emergence of an El Nino starting as early as May. The Australian Meteorology Bureau announced last week that the equatorial Pacific Ocean surface had warmed through March and trade winds have begun to ease – the climactic conditions that ultimately will produce the weather phenomenon called in Spanish "the child," so named because sharply warming ocean temperatures arrive off the coast of Ecuador every seven or eight years around Christmas, the birthday of Christ.
Weather researchers are monitoring Pacific Ocean temperatures, with some remaining unconvinced. However, commodity traders, instantly alert to suggestions of changes in weather conditions, almost instantaneously drove up the price of palm oil temporarily on world markets when the Australian Meteorological Bureau issued its alarm. Indonesia, Malaysia and Australia are expected to be hit by hotter, drier conditions at the same time regions in the west start to drown. At the same time, colder, wetter winters can be expected in the southern United States along the Gulf Coast.
In the three most previous El Nino events, palm oil prices skyrocketed as yields fell in Indonesia by as much as 15 percent and in Malaysia by more than 10 percent. Between them, the two countries produce 90 percent of the world's palm oil, one of the world's most important edible oils. In one of the three weather changes, palm oil prices rose by more than 200 percent. Wheat, rice, coconut oil, coffee and rubber are all vulnerable to crop disruptions.
The flip side of El Nino is La Nina, whose conditions are almost the exact opposite. "One of the longest and strongest recent La Nina events is now waning," said the US-based private weather consulting firm Dynamic Predictables. "While much of 2008 will see Nada Nina [near typical] sea surface temperature in the tropical Pacific, 2009 will be dominated by a warm water event."
Given the world's fragile food balance, major weather occurrences such as those that hit in late 2007 and early 2008 with tropical cyclones in Bangladesh and Burma can cause prices to spike sharply. For instance, from November 2007 to April 2008, the world price of rice skyrocketed from about US$350 per tonne to as much as US$1,100 although some governments couldn't buy it at any price. The Philippines had to withdraw a rice tender in April 2008 because of high prices and lack of supply. Food riots occurred in Cairo and other cities and brought down the always fragile government in Haiti.
Soetanto, the chief of the climatological and agro-climate weather quality analysis section of Indonesia's Meteorological, Climatological and Geophysical agency, said Tuesday that there has been no sign yet of El Nino yet.
"There are several analyses including by the Australian researchers that there is a possibility that El Nino could arrive in August," Soetanto said."But several reports also say otherwise. To say that there will be an El Nino is a bit premature because it is still April. It will probably be around the end of May before more accurate predictions can be made."
Derom Bangun, vice chairman of the Indonesian Palm Oil Council, which covers both palm oil farmers and processors, said that so far he has received no official reports and has not provided warnings to produces. Some preventive action can help to avoid major production losses, he said although he added that the council will wait for weather warnings from the council.
"We'll be very selective in receiving weather forecasts and we will wait to avoid a possible rush and panic," he said. "In 1998, CPO output dropped because of very dry and hot weather, some plantations even burned. At that time, we didn't have proper equipment to reduce fires at palm oil plantation because of the lack of preparation," he said.
Trade winds had begun to weaken across almost the entire breadth of the tropical Pacific Ocean by the end of March, according to weather researchers. When trade winds slow, the vast tide of sea water across the thousands of kilometers of the Pacific Ocean slows as well and begins to heat up in the sun. Eventually this enormous body of warmer water reaches the west coast of South America, particularly Peru and Equador, and the United States, and begins to upwell with increased rainfall in the gulf coast states, although Atlantic hurricanes are expected to diminish.
In the worst recorded El Nino in 1982 and 1983, weather-related disasters hit Australia, Africa and Indonesia, which suffered droughts, dust storms and brush fires, according to the San Francisco State University Department of Geosciences. Australia suffered its worst droughts ever coinciding with El Ninos in 1982-1983 and 1997-1997.
In just 24 hours, according to the department's analysis, sea surface temperatures rose 7.2 degrees Fahrenheit at one Peruvian village site. In an area where rainfall averaged only 150 millimeters per year, one part of Peru received 3,352 millimeters – more than 20 times as much rainfall. As far away as Sri Lanka, according to the International Journal of Climatology, "climactic fluctuations have a profound influence on the cultivation of crops such as rice, which is the staple food."
On the west coast of the United States, as the trade winds slacken, nutrient rich water within the Peru Current along the west coast of South America is prevented from moving up from the depths to replace warm surface water. With that, plankton, a major source of nutrients for the fish population, begin to die off, resulting in a drastically altered ecosystem for fish, according to Dynamic Predictables.
Despite concerns that global warming from greenhouse gases may be producing stronger El Nino conditions, a computer modeling study quoted by Reuters News Service in March said that one such occurrence in 1918 was far stronger than previously thought, coinciding with one of the worst droughts in India's history, an indication that the weather phenomenon isn't getting any worse.
La Nina is no picnic. The 1998 model resulted in floods in Bangladesh and China that displaced 230 million people according to the David Suzuki Foundation, a science-based Canadian environmental organization.
Janeman Latul and Arti Ekawati in Jakarta contributed to this article.
Andrew Simms, BBC News 8 Apr 09;
While most governments' eyes are on the banking crisis, a much bigger issue - the environmental crisis - is passing them by, says Andrew Simms. In the Green Room this week, he argues that failure to organise a bailout for ecological debt will have dire consequences for humanity.
"Nature Doesn't Do Bailouts!" said the banner strung across Bishopsgate in the City of London.
Civilisation's biggest problem was outlined in five words over the entrance to the small, parallel reality of the peaceful climate camp. Their tents bloomed on the morning of 1 April faster than daisies in spring, and faster than the police could stop them.
Across the city, where the world's most powerful people met simultaneously at the G20 summit, the same problem was almost completely ignored, meriting only a single, afterthought mention in a long communique.
World leaders dropped everything to tackle the financial debt crisis that spilled from collapsing banks.
Gripped by a panic so complete, there was no policy dogma too deeply engrained to be dug out and instantly discarded. We went from triumphant, finance-driven free market capitalism, to bank nationalisation and moving the decimal point on industry bailouts quicker than you can say sub-prime mortgage.
But the ecological debt crisis, which threatens much more than pension funds and car manufacturers, is left to languish.
It is like having a Commission on Household Renovation agonise over which expensive designer wallpaper to use for papering over plaster cracks whilst ignoring the fact that the walls themselves are collapsing on subsiding foundations.
Beyond our means
Each year, humanity's ecological overdraft gets larger, and the day that the world as a whole goes into ecological debt - consuming more resources and producing more waste than the biosphere can provide and absorb - moves ever earlier in the year.
The same picture emerges for individual countries like the UK - which now starts living beyond its own environmental means in mid-April.
Because the global economy is still overwhelmingly fossil-fuel dependent, the accumulation of greenhouse gases and the prognosis for global warming remain our best indicators of "overshoot".
World famous French free-climber Alain Robert, known as Spiderman, climbed the Lloyds of London building for the OneHundredMonths.org campaign as the G20 met, to demonstrate how time is slipping away.
Using thresholds for risk identified by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), on current trends, in only 92 months - less than eight years - we will move into a new, more perilous phase of warming.
It will then no longer be "likely" that we can prevent some aspects of runaway climate change. We will begin to lose the climatic conditions which, as Nasa scientist James Hansen points out, were those under which civilisation developed.
Small dividend
As "nature doesn't do bailouts", how have our politicians fared who ripped open the nation's wallet to save the banks?
Not good.
According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the UK spent a staggering 20% of its GDP in support of the financial sector.
Yet the amount of money that was new and additional, announced in the "green stimulus" package of the Treasury's Pre-Budget Report, added-up to a vanishingly small 0.0083% of GDP.
Globally, the green shade of economic stimulus measures has varied enormously. For example, the shares of spending considered in research by the bank HSBC to be environmental were:
* the US - 12%
* Germany - 13%
* South Korea - 80%
The international average was around 15%. HSBC found the UK planned to invest less than 7% of its stimulus package (different from the bank bailout) in green measures.
Comparing the IMF and HSBC figures actually reveals an inverse relationship - proportionately, those who spent more on support for finance had weaker green spending.
So here we are, faced with the loss of an environment conducive to human civilisation, and we find governments prostrate before barely repentant banks, with their backs to a far worse ecological crisis.
Extreme markets
On top of low and inconsistent funding for renewable energy, the shift to a low carbon economy is being further frustrated by another market failure in the trade for carbon seen, for example, in the EU's Emissions Trading Scheme.
Bad market design, feeble carbon reduction targets and the recession have all conspired to drive down the cost of carbon emission permits, wrecking economic incentives to grow renewable energy.
Worse still, the difficulty of accounting to ensure that permits represent real emissions has led both energy companies and environmentalists to warn of an emerging "sub-prime carbon market".
Relying on market mechanisms is attractive to governments because it means they have less to do themselves. But they will fail if carbon markets are just hot air.
There seems to be a hard-wired link between memory failure and market failure.
As the historian E J Hobsbawm observed in The Age of Extremes: "Those of us who lived through the years of the Great Slump still find it almost impossible to understand how the orthodoxies of the pure free market, then so obviously discredited, once again came to preside over a global period of depression in the late 1980s and 1990s".
Perhaps the greatest failure is one of imagination.
Some people alive today lived through those past recessions and depressions. They know they can be nasty and need averting.
But the last time the Earth's climate really flipped was at the end of the last Ice Age, more than 10,000 years ago. No one can remember what that felt like.
Lessons of history
Looking forward, the IPCC's worst case scenario warns of a maximum 6C rise over the next century.
Looking back, however, indicates that an unstable climate system holds worse horrors.
Work by the scientist Richard Alley on abrupt climate change indicates the planet has previously experienced a 10C temperature shift in only a decade, and possibly "as quickly as in a single year".
And, around the turn of the last Ice Age, there were "local warmings as large as 16C".
Imagine that every day of your life you have taken a walk in the woods and the worse thing to happen was an acorn or twig falling on your head.
Then, one day, you stroll out, look up and there is a threat approaching so large, unexpected and outside your experience that can't quite believe it, like a massive gothic cathedral falling from the sky.
In tackling climate change we need urgently to recalibrate our responses, just as governments had to when they rescued the reckless finance sector.
Then officials had to ask themselves "is what we are doing right, and is it enough?"
They must ask themselves the same questions on the ecological debt crisis and climate change.
The difference is, that if they fail this time, not even a long-term business cycle will come to our rescue. If the climate shifts to a hotter state not convivial to human society, it could be tens of thousands of years, or never, before it shifts back.
Remember; nature doesn't do bailouts.
Andrew Simms is policy director of the New Economics Foundation (nef), and author of Ecological Debt: Global Warming and the Wealth of Nations
The Green Room is a series of opinion articles on environmental topics running weekly on the BBC News website
Ahmad Ibrahim New Straits Times 8 Apr 09;
ON a recent trip to London, I chanced upon an article in National Geographic magazine describing the supposed threat posed to Borneo's rainforest by oil palm.
The claim was that oil palm has taken a heavy toll on the indigenous communities. A subsequent letter to the editor cited a United Nations prediction that an estimated five million indigenous people in the Indonesian part of Borneo will lose their homes or livelihoods if biofuel crops like oil palm continue to expand.
The writer proceeded to condemn Malaysian palm oil.
I had to sympathise with the Malaysian palm oil industry for the never-ending negative publicity it has been getting all these years, often for things not of their doing. Sometimes I wonder when palm oil will instead be praised for its tremendous contribution in providing affordable edible oil to the world.
What if the world is denied the supply of palm oil from Malaysia and Indonesia?
Despite what has been portrayed by some, fats are an important part of a healthy human diet. Even the vilified saturated fats help regulate the metabolism of the human body.
The same goes for cholesterol, another much-criticised natural product. Cholesterol is naturally produced in the body for a reason. It has been reported that a body devoid of cholesterol can spell trouble for the brain, not to mention a declining libido! Cholesterol, like all the other constituents in the body, will only create problems if there is an imbalance.
The advice is to maintain a good balance of "good" and "bad" cholesterol. It is, therefore, quite misleading to pass a blanket judgment saying that all cholesterol is bad.
Palm oil has been attacked ever since it became clear it was assuming leadership of the global oils and fats market. First, it was to do with bad nutrition. This was neutralised with the unveiling of convincing scientific findings suggesting the contrary. The palm oil industry had had to cough up quite a sizable funding to clear its name then.
The irony is that when palm oil was an insignificant player in the global trade, being produced in small quantities in West Africa, there was practically no talk about palm oil being unhealthy, or threatening the rainforest.
The attack on the oil palm has now reached worrying levels. It started in the European Union, but consumers in the US are also getting disturbing news about oil palm posing serious threats to the environment. And this is happening while palm oil industry players in Malaysia and Indonesia are collaborating with various stakeholders in the supply chain, including buyers and some environmental non-governmental organisations, to embrace the sustainable palm oil certification.
A few companies have been certified by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) for producing palm oil meeting all the agreed criteria.
That there has been no let-up on the criticism which poses serious credibility issues with the RSPO. Why are there still non-governmental organisations out there that do not accept the RSPO certification? What will it take to satisfy them?
Admittedly, this issue on the environment is quite distinct from the earlier issues on nutrition. Those critics were easily neutralised through credible scientific facts.
But it is not that easy to verify the credibility of the sciences related to the environment. This is understandable. Even climate change and global warming are still being challenged by some sectors of the scientific community.
It is still best to adopt a precautionary stance, as the palm oil industry has been doing all these years. In Malaysia, for example, the industry has always been exploring environmentally-friendly approaches in their plantation and milling practices. The research undertaken by industry players, including the Malaysian Palm Oil Board, indicates that concerns of environmental impact have always been paramount.
This is how practices such as zero-burning, use of natural predators, deployment of biofertilisers and zero-waste in palm oil mill effluent management have evolved all these years.
I wonder what would happen if one day palm oil producers in Malaysia and Indonesia decide they have had enough of this nonsense. What if they decide not to export any of the palm oil they produce, and instead use it all to feed their domestic demand for food, oleochemicals and fuel?
I think its use as biofuel would take up the bulk of the palm oil produced. What would happen to the world price of oils and fats if palm oil, which now accounts for more than 30 per cent of the global trade, is suddenly taken out of the world supply?
That would surely drive up the world prices of oils and fats. If that happens, there could be riots where palm cooking oil is an important food item, especially among the poor. We have seen this before.
Would that put a stop to this unfair criticism of palm oil? It may or may not. The richer countries may increase their subsidies so consumers will not feel the effect. But high prices aside, the shortage of oils and fats will be felt by most if not all users of oils and fats.
With such a prospect, the consumers of the world should not continue taking the supply of palm oil for granted. Palm oil has a cushioning effect on the world price of edible oils. The more palm oil is produced and made available, the better it is for all.
* The writer is a fellow of the Malaysia Academy of Sciences
WWF 7 Apr 09;
Jakarta, Indonesia: A major Indonesian plantation company has become the country’s first certified maker of sustainable palm oil as WWF simultaneously collaborated with the Indonesian Department of Agriculture and others to hold a first-time regional training workshop for small producers.
Musim Mas Group Plantations, is the first company in Indonesia to demonstrate that some of its plantations comply with the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) Principles and Criteria, a set of standards that helps ensure that palm oil is produced in a socially and environmentally responsible way. Indonesia is the world’s biggest producer of palm oil.
The RSPO brings together oil palm growers, oil processors, food companies, retailers, NGOs and investors to help ensure that no rainforest areas are sacrificed for new oil palm plantations, that all plantations minimize their environmental impacts and that basic rights of local peoples and plantation workers are fully respected.
“Musim Mas hopes that its certification will encourage more Indonesian companies to follow suit,” said Liantong Gan, head of Musim Mas’ sustainability department.
Musim Mas’ certification underscores the progress that WWF, and others, have made in efforts to increase the number of palm oil producers that are operating sustainably.
WWF works to ensure that oil palm expansion does not come at the expense of forests by promoting its expansion onto degraded lands. It is also helping to develop guidance for the small holders representing 40 per cent of Indonesia’s palm oil growers.
"WWF is pleased to see progress in Indonesia, but there is much work to be done before sustainable palm oil can be a mainstream reality," said Ian Kosasih, Director of the Forest Programme at WWF Indonesia.
"WWF Indonesia will continue to cooperate with stakeholders to build the capacity of farmers to implement the RSPO guidelines, promote the use of idle or degraded land for oil palm expansion, and put pressure on those companies that persist in converting natural forest for oil palm expansion," Kosasih said.
WWF helped organize the training for 21 training representatives from small Indonesian palm oil plantations from West Sumatra, Riau, South Sumatra, Jambi, and West of Kalimantan.
WWF held the training in collaboration with the Indonesian Smallholders Working Group, the Department of Agriculture, the RSPO Indonesia Liaison Office, Sawit Watch, and various certification bodies. The training stemmed from a memorandum of understanding signed on Feb. 17 between the RSPO and the Indonesian Department of Agriculture.
The objective was to educate trainers on the threats of oil palm plantations to the region’s forests and local species, to motivate smallholders to comply with the RSPO P & C, and to provide practical ways smallholders can comply with these sustainability criteria, including mitigating the wildlife human conflict that often occurs happens in oil palm plantations.
In addition, a syllabus and training modules were developed so that the representatives could take them back to their operations for educational purposes.
The Indonesian Smallholders Working Group is planning to hold further trainings in the five provinces represented at the March training, and follow them up with audits.
As a founding member of the RSPO, WWF has worked since 2002 with a wide range of stakeholders to ensure that the RSPO standards contain robust social and environmental criteria, including a prohibition on the conversion of high conservation value (HCV) areas.
The workshop and Musim Mas’ certification come only months after the first shipment of RSPO certified sustainable palm oil arrived in Europe from southeast Asia.
Several European companies, including Unilever, Sainsbury’s and Albert Heijn, have already made strong public commitments to buy certified sustainable palm oil.
The next RSPO Roundtable meeting and the 6th General Assembly of RSPO members will be held in November 2009 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
British beaches have never been dirtier, the Marine Conservation Society has found, with record amounts of litter washed up around the coastline
Louise Gray, The Telegraph 7 Apr 09;
The 2008 annual survey recorded and removed some 385,659 items of rubbish including plastic bags, sanitary items, fishing nets, cigarette butts and cotton bud sticks from beaches across the UK.
The average amount of rubbish found was 2,195 items per kilometre (0.6 miles) - more than two pieces for every metre (3.3ft) of beach, and more than double the 1,045 items per kilometre picked up during the first annual survey in 1994.
More than a third of the rubbish was generated by the public followed by fishing litter, sewage-related rubbish and debris from shipping. The worse problem was plastic, which accounted for more than half of the litter found. It never breaks down and is a threat to wildlife.
Emma Snowden, Litter Projects Co-ordinator for the MCS, said litter is not only ruining the appearance of Britain's coastline but causing a hazard for threatened wildlife. She said more than 170 species including seabirds, turtles and whales have been known to mistake litter for food, which can lead to starvation, poisoning and fatal stomach blockages.
"Whether you live near the coast or miles inland, we are all connected to the sea," she said. "This is a man-mad problem. Every piece of litter has an owner and we all need to take responsibility to not drop litter in the first place."
More than 5,000 volunteers for the MCS surveyed 175.7 kilometres (109 miles) on 374 beaches for the survey, collecting 3,188 bags of rubbish last September.
The dirtiest beaches were in the South West where 4,784 items of rubbish were picked up per kilometre (0.6 miles), although this is largely due to the patterns of tides washing rubbish into the area. Wales and Scotland were next followed by the South East where 1,941 items were recorded per km. The North West was slightly better followed by the North East and Channel Islands. Northern Ireland had the cleanest beaches with 940 items per km.
Beach litter can also be hazardous to people and costs millions to clear up.
However at the moment there is no Government-led plan of action to tackle the problem.
Miss Snowden called on ministers to take action.
"MCS wants to see zero waste on Britain's beaches and our first goal is to halve the litter on Britain's beaches by 2015," she said. "But in order to achieve this we need to appoint lead agencies with the specific responsibility to stop marine litter and develop a marine action plan now."
Record levels of litter found dumped on UK beaches
Increase in flytipping and shipping rubbish poses a serious hazard to seabirds
Martin Hickman, The Independent 8 Apr 09;
A record amount of litter is fouling Britain's beaches, according to a national survey today.
The Marine Conservation Society’s annual Beachwatch survey found double the amount of plastic, rope, sweet wrappers and other debris than its first check 15 years ago.
An army of volunteers spotted an average of 2,195 pieces of litter per kilometre last September compared with 1,045 in 1994.
Pieces of plastic were the objects most often found, followed by polystyrene, plastic rope, plastic caps and sweet wrappers.
The MCS said that it could not be sure where 40 per cent of the rubbish came from, but blamed members of the public for 37 per cent of the total. Fishing boats were responsible for 13 per cent.
Sanitary towels and cotton buds flushed down toilets and carried out in sewage accounted for 6 per cent of the total, followed by shipping and fly-tipping.
A record 5,129 volunteers walked 374 beaches in September last year, collecting 385,000 separate items of rubbish from 176km of Britain’s coastline, 9 per cent of the total.
Wales had most litter (2,634 items per km), followed by England (2,242), Scotland (1,505) and Northern Ireland (484).
MCS demanded urgent action from Whitehall to prevent the growing tide of litter damaging marine life and complained that there was no strategy in place to tackle the problem.
More than 170 species of marine wildlife including seabirds, turtles and whales can ingest litter, resulting in starvation, poisoning and fatal stomach blockages, the MCS, Britain’s biggest marine charity, said.
"Whether you live near the coast or miles inland, we are all connected to the sea. This is a man-made problem. Every piece of litter has an owner and we all need to take responsibility to not drop litter in the first place," said Emma Snowden, MCS litter project coordinator.
"MCS wants to see zero waste on Britain’s beaches and our first goal is to halve the litter on Britain’s beaches by 2015, but in order to achieve this we need to appoint lead agencies with the specific responsibility to stop marine litter and develop a marine action plan now."
Keep Britain Tidy spokesman Dickie Felton complained that litter louts had turned the shoreline into "dumping grounds." "It is shocking that our coastline is blighted by such high levels of litter but sadly the state of our beaches mirrors the state of our towns and cities too. There is no excuse for dropping litter anywhere, it’s disgusting."
The Council for the Protection of Rural England joined calls for Government action. "These figures confirm what we suspect: that people are continuing to thoughtlessly drop litter and the Government should act on managing litter as a matter of urgency. It should meet the MCS to draw up a strategy," said Samantha Harding, manager for CPRE’s Stop the Drop campaign.
British beach litter levels highest on record
Research by Marine Conservation Society shows drastic rise in beach waste, with public litter accounting for nearly 40% of it
David Adam, guardian.co.uk 8 Apr 09;
The amount of litter on British beaches has reached record levels, according to a survey of 374 popular coastal spots. The Marine Conservation Society (MCS) study reveals that litter levels have more than doubled in the last 15 years, putting seabirds, turtles and whales at risk.
Volunteers recorded 385,659 individual pieces of rubbish – equivalent to two pieces per metre.
Emma Snowden, MCS litter projects coordinator, said: "Whether you live near the coast or miles inland, we are all connected to the sea. This is a man-made problem. Every piece of litter has an owner and we all need to take responsibility to not drop litter in the first place."
Snowden said the society wanted to cut beach litter by 50% by 2015. "In order to achieve this we need to appoint lead agencies with the specific responsibility to stop marine litter and develop a marine action plan now." The society has launched an online petition calling on ministers to set up such a plan.
The survey – which was conducted during one weekend last September – showed the main source of rubbish is public litter (37.7%) followed by fishing litter (13.8%), sewage related debris/sanitary waste (6.2%) and shipping litter (1.8%).
The most common items were plastic and polystyrene pieces, along with plastic rope, plastic lids, crisp and sweet wrappers. Cotton bud sticks made up 4.6% of the recorded waste, while bits of fishing net and line made up 7.4%.
The average density of UK beach litter in the survey was 2,195 items per kilometre, compared with 1045 pieces per kilometre found during the first Beachwatch survey in 1994.
Plastic packaging and discarded fishing nets injure, entangle and drown marine wildlife including seals and dolphins, the society warned. More than 170 marine animals have been recorded mistaking plastic bags and other items for food, which can result in starvation, poisoning and fatal stomach blockages. It can also be hazardous to people and costs millions of pounds to clear up.
Neil Jacobson, head of coastal operations at the Crown Estate, which co-funded the survey, said: "Beachwatch and its thousands of volunteers continue to highlight the increasing problem of beach litter. This report makes it clear individual action is the key to encouraging everyone to keep Britain's beaches beautiful and free of litter."
Robin Wilkins, managing director of co-funders SeaFrance, said: "Along with other members of SeaFrance staff and local volunteers, I have been involved in regular beach cleans and surveys at Kingsdown. It's been quite shocking to see the levels of litter on the beach. One problem is it's the easy option to just leave your litter behind rather than take it home with you but the litter left behind impacts our coastline for generations."
The society says its annual surveys are "essential in turning the tide on litter". It says recent results have helped change laws governing disposal of waste at sea, and have forced investment in better coastal sewage treatment. The data also feeds into a project called the International Coastal Cleanup, involving more than 70 countries, organised by the Ocean Conservancy in the US.
"The government appears to have given up the fight against litter, which is now far worse on our beaches than it has been for years," said Nick Herbert, shadow environment secretary. "It's not only unpleasant for visitors but a threat to our marine wildlife too.
"The thousands of volunteers who are trying to clear up this mess are doing a fantastic job, but we need a far more concerted campaign to prevent littering in the first place. We need more responsibility from producers, better incentives to recycle things like plastic bottles and, where necessary, tougher enforcement against litterbugs."
Huw Irranca-Davies, the environment minister, said: "Litter goes in our bins, not on our beaches, and ultimately this is an issue of personal responsibility. This is a problem caused by a minority who spoil things for everyone else, and campaigns against this behaviour can help us to make this unacceptable to everyone. That's why we fund Keep Britain Tidy for anti-litter campaigns to help stamp out the problem."
In England, where more than a quarter of a million pieces of rubbish were logged, the average levels of litter increased by almost a tenth on the figures for 2007, and the problem got worse in all regions except for the north-west. Levels of rubbish in Scotland fell slightly in 2008, compared with the previous year, but were still at the highest densities in the UK, with an average 2,581 items per kilometre. Wales and Northern Ireland both saw litter levels fall slightly, but the Channel Islands saw a slight increase.
UK coastal litter in numbers
385,659 – individual pieces of rubbish
374 – beaches surveyed
175.7km - total length of coastline covered
2,195 – mean number of items per km
14.5% – proportion of large plastic rubbish items
5.7% – plastic caps/lids
5.2% – crisp/sweet wrappers
4.6% – cotton bud sticks
1.7% – drink cans
Yahoo News 7 Apr 09;
DUBAI (AFP) – Beaches in the Gulf tourism hub of Dubai have been plagued by a bloom of algae known as the "red tide" that has killed fish and is potentially harmful to humans, a municipality official said on Tuesday.
"This is a natural fauna that goes into harmful algal bloom," said Mohammed Abdulrahman Hassan, head of the marine and wildlife section in the municipality's environment office.
The algae can cause skin and eye irritations as well as breathing problems for people, who should avoid swimming near it, Hassan said.
The algae, whose scientific name is Cochlodinium polykrikoides, absorb oxygen at a high rate, especially at night. Reduced oxygen levels can harm fish, and the algae can also kill them by clogging their gills.
On Tuesday municipality officials found algae near the iconic sail-shaped Burj Al-Arab Hotel, but Hassan said it was pointless closing sections of beach since the bloom was constantly on the move.
"People should use common sense. If they see the bloom or dead fish, they should not touch it and should not swim in that area," he said.
Newspaper reports said the phenomenon has plagued neighbouring emirates Ras al-Khaimah and Fujairah for months, killing hundreds of tonnes of fish.
One of the seven emirates comprising the United Arab Emirates, Dubai is popular with tourists and residents alike for its sunbaked beaches.
Yahoo News 7 Apr 09;
MANILA (AFP) – A megamouth shark, one of the world's most elusive species, was caught, carved up and eaten by fishermen from a town in the Philippines, the environmental conservation group WWF said Tuesday.
So rare are megamouth shark sightings that each find is given a number -- this one, caught by fishermen from the coastal town of Donsol, was only the 41st ever seen or captured in the world.
A handout photo released on April 7, 2009 by WWF shows experts measuring a megamouth shark caught by fishermen off the Donsol marine resort in the Philippines. The shark, one of the world's most elusive species, was later carved up and eaten by fishermen, the environmental conservation group said Tuesday. (AFP/HO)
But Elson Aca, a Donsol WWF representative, said it was butchered and its meat sauteed in coconut milk as a local delicacy, against the organisation's advice.
The four-metre (13-foot), half-tonne (1,100-pound) megamouth was snared by fishermen trawling for mackerel off the Bicol peninsula on Luzon island.
The species, which is named after its metre-wide mouth, is a fairly recent scientific discovery. The first specimen was caught off Oahu, Hawaii in 1976, the WWF said.
The scientific community hailed it as the 20th century's most significant marine find, it added. Together with the whale shark it is one of only three filter-feeding shark species in the world.
It is classified by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature as "data deficient" because so few have ever been studied.
Ironically Donsol has earned a global reputation for marine conservation, after campaigners convinced the locals to stop butchering giant whale sharks which use the nearby waters to feed.
The town prides itself as the whale shark capital of the world and marine tourism is a key money earner.
The Philippines sits at the apex of a so-called Coral Triangle, considered by experts as a world centre for marine bio-diversity.
Ultra-Rare Shark Found, Eaten
National Geographic News 7 Apr 09;
April 7, 2009—In just a short time, one of the rarest sharks in the world went from swimming in Philippine waters to simmering in coconut milk.
The 13-foot-long (4-meter-long) megamouth shark (pictured), caught on March 30 by mackerel fishers off the city of Donsol, was only the 41st megamouth shark ever found, according to WWF-Philippines.
Fishers brought the odd creature—which died during its capture—to local project manager Elson Aca of WWF, an international conservation nonprofit.
Aca immediately identified it as a megamouth shark and encouraged the fishers not to eat it.
But the draw of the delicacy was too great: The 1,102-pound (500-kilogram) shark was butchered for a shark-meat dish called kinuout.
"While it is sad that this rare megamouth shark was ultimately lost, the discovery highlights the incredible biodiversity found in the Donsol area and the relatively good health of the ecosystem," Yokelee Lee, WWF-US program officer for the Coral Triangle, said in an email.
The Coral Triangle, which spans Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Solomon Islands, and Timor-Leste (East Timor), is home to the richest concentration of marine life—including iridescent corals—in the world, according to WWF.
"It is essential that we continue working with the government and local community on the sustainable management of Donsol's fisheries resources for the benefit of whale sharks, megamouth sharks, and the local community," Lee said.
The megamouth shark species, discovered in 1976 off Oahu, Hawaii, was so bizarre that scientists had to create a new family and genus to classify it. With its giant mouth but tiny teeth, megamouth, like the whale shark, is a filter feeder that preys on tiny animals and appears to be no danger to humans.
Only 40 megamouth sharks, including 7 in the Philippines, have been found since the initial discovery. The shark is so rare that the International Union for Conservation of Nature lists the megamouth species as "data deficient."
(Related shark pictures: "Rare "Prehistoric" Shark Photographed Alive".)
Scientists who examined Megamouth 41—the Philippine specimen's official name, bestowed by the Florida Museum of Natural History—before it was eaten found facial scars from past run-ins with gill nets. The shark's last meal was shrimp larvae.
Other shark species in Donsol are valued for conservation rather than consumption: The region hosts a successful ecotourism project that allows people to swim with whale sharks, according to WWF.
—Christine Dell'Amore
Rare megamouth shark caught in Philippines
WWF 8 Apr 09;
Donsol, Philippines: An extremely rare megamouth shark was caught by Filipino fishermen, marking only the 41st time the species has been seen in the 33 years since its discovery and giving new insight into the elusive shark’s behaviour.
Fishermen based in Donsol were trawling for mackerel along the eastern coast of Burias Isle on the morning of 30 March when they caught a large shark from a depth of approximately 200 meters.
The shark was brought to shore in Barangay Dancalan in Donsol, Sorsogon and WWF Donsol Project Manager Elson Aca immediately arrived to assess the haul and identified it as a megamouth shark – considered the world’s rarest shark.
Megamouth 41, as the Florida Museum of Natural History has named the Donsol shark, measured four meters and weighed an estimated 500 kg.
Last week’s megamouth encounter underscores the importance of the Donsol-Masbate region – part of the Coral Triangle – as a haven for rare marine life, according to WWF Philippines.
The discovery follows last month’s rescue by WWF of a 38 cm baby whale shark – considered the world's smallest of its kind ever discovered.
"The presence of two of the world's three filter feeding sharks warrants special attention for the Donsol-Masbate region," Aca said. "Whale and megamouth sharks, manta rays, dolphins and other charismatic giants indicate that the region's ecosystem is still relatively healthy.”
“By protecting megafauna, we help maintain the dynamic balance of our seas, and ensure the entire ecosystem's resilience and natural productivity,” Aca said.
WWF works with a host of partners to protect the megafauna of the Coral Triangle which is considered a major center for marine biodiversity.
WWF's satellite tagging initiatives have already shown that pelagic filter feeders such as whale sharks and manta rays regularly prowl through the region.
The megamouth (Megachasma pelagios) is a fairly recent scientific discovery, with only 40 recorded encounters worldwide until the latest find.
The first specimen was caught off Oahu, Hawaii in 1976. The discovery led to the creation of an entirely new family and genus - prompting the scientific community to hail it as the 20th century's most significant marine find and rivaling the rediscovery of the coelacanth in 1938.
The megamouth shark is so named for its enormous maw - almost a meter
wide and lined with a brilliant silver band to attract planktonic prey. It has been found roaming throughout the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans. Males average four
meters while females - which give birth to live young – can grow to five meters long.
Relatively little was known of their habits until researchers fitted a megamouth – the sixth one discovered – with a pair of ultrasonic transmitters and tracked it for two days in 1990. The research indicated that the sharks spend the daytime in waters up to one kilometre deep and surface only at night to feed on plankton, small fish and jellyfish - usually at a depth of around 15 meters.
Eight megamouth sharks, a full fifth of all recorded encounters, have been caught in Philippine waters. Four were caught in Cagayan de Oro and one each in Negros, Iloilo and Cebu. Megamouth 41 is the first megamouth shark to have been caught in Luzon, which is the Philippines’ largest island.
Sadly and despite protests from Aca, the megamouth shark caught near Donsol was later butchered and eaten. Its stomach contents revealed it was feeding on shrimp larvae.
For more than a decade, WWF has worked in Donsol to establish community-based whale shark eco-tourism, transforming the once sleepy town into one of the Bicol region's busiest revenue generators.
Current initiatives funded by WWF-Denmark and supported by the local government include researching whale shark migration routes and numbers through state-of-the-art photo-identification and satellite tagging techniques.
The waters around Donsol are part of the Sulu-Sulawesi Seas ecoregion, one of WWF's Global 200 ecoregions — a science-based global ranking of the world's most biologically outstanding habitats and the regions on which WWF concentrates its efforts. The also make up part of the Coral Triangle, a major area of marine biodiversity.
Leaders of the six nations that make up the Coral Triangle – Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Timor Leste –will meet on May 15 in Manado, Indonesia for the World Oceans Conference where they will announce a comprehensive set of actions to protect ecosystems and food security in the region.
Jeremy Hance, mongabay.com 7 Apr 09;
Current Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are too small to adequately serve whales and dolphins according to the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS). The international organization is calling for a global network of MPAs to save the ocean's most beloved inhabitants.
"A worldwide effort must be made urgently to identify and define whale and dolphin critical habitats and hot spots,” said WDCS Research Fellow, Erich Hoyt. “Then we need to map this information with other species and data to create networks of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in national waters and on the high seas. It is like creating a sort of worldwide web for whales and dolphins but connecting not just the animals, but the special places where they live, and the people there too."
Whales migrate thousands of miles annually. In fact, the humpback whale holds the world record for the longest migration. Dolphins are wide-ranging and will follow food sources. According to WDCS, 40 percent of the 300 existing MPAs for marine mammals are too small to offer any protection to whales and dolphins.
"Probably less than 1 percent of the world's marine mammal critical habitat has been identified much less protected," added Hoyt. "We have discussed strategies for cost-effective measures to attack this huge workload with surveys and other studies. Clearly the emphasis will need to be on rare and endangered species, but we also need to protect healthy populations so that they don't join the endangered ranks."
WDCS made the statement last week at the first international conference on marine mammal protected areas held on the island of Maui Hawaii. The conference included over 200 marine mammal scientists, MPA managers and other experts from 40 countries.
Yahoo News 8 Apr 09;
PARIS (AFP) – Very loud, repeated blasts of sonar can cause a dolphin to temporarily lose its hearing, according to an investigation into a suspected link between naval operations and cetacean strandings.
Numerous beachings of whales, dolphins and porpoises have occurred over the past decade, prompting a finger of blame to be pointed at warship exercises.
A theory is that the mammals' hearing becomes damaged by the powerful mid-frequency sonar used by submarines and surface vessels, prompting the creatures, which themselves use sound for navigation, to become disoriented.
A paper published in the British journal Biology Letters on Wednesday provides the first lab-scale investigation into this idea, although its authors stress it does not provide proof that warship sonar is to blame.
Marine biologists led by Aran Mooney at the University of Hawaii exposed a captive-born, trained Atlantic bottlenose dolphin to progressively louder pings of mid-frequency sonar.
The experiment took place in open water pens at the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology and in the presence of the dolphin's trainer.
The scientists fitted a harmless suction cup to the dolphin's head, with a sensor attached that monitored the animal's brainwaves.
When the pings reached 203 decibels and were repeated, the neurological data showed the mammal had become deaf, for its brain no longer responded to sound.
The deafness, though, was only temporary and the dolphin was not hurt in the experiment, said Mooney.
The hearing was typically restored after 20 minutes, and its loss only occurred after the dolphin was exposed to five rounds of noise. Each round comprised a block of three pings, with 24 seconds between each block.
Other sensors showed that the dolphin's breathing rose significantly when the sonar was turned on.
"We definitely showed that there are physiological and some behavioural effects [from repeated, loud sonar], but to extrapolate that into the wild, we don't really know," Mooney said in an interview with AFP.
"The sound levels that we used were essentially the equivalent of if an animal is about 40 metres (yards) from the sonar source," he said.
"The animal would have to be there for about two minutes or so" to get the same level of exposure as in the Hawaii experiment.
"That's a pretty long time for an animal to be there. If the sound's pretty loud and the animal's not used to it, he would move around, and the ship itself is moving in a different direction."
On the other hand, a cetacean that sought to escape a persistent loud sonar may not easily find an escape route, said Mooney.
"In the ocean, sound doesn't attenuate in a normal fashion. Sound can sometimes get trapped at the surface, in layers called thermoclines, at the top 100 metres (325 feet) or so.
"Maybe in those conditions it's more difficult to get away from the sound to a quieter area."
Further work is needed to figure out what happens at lower sound levels from sonar and at greater distances to see how cetaceans respond, he said.
WWF 6 Apr 09
New evidence from the North and South Poles indicates that time is running out for the world’s leaders to respond to climate change.
As ministers from Arctic Council and Antarctic Treaty states hold their first ever joint meeting in Washington on April 6 celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the signing of the Antarctic Treaty, WWF is challenging the ministers to mark the occasion by affirming their commitment to climate change action.
The conservation organisation provided the ministers with compelling recent evidence from both the north and south poles that clearly demonstrates global temperature increases must be kept well under two degrees Celsius.
“A global average temperature rise of 2 degrees is clearly too much for the poles,” says Rob Nicoll, Manager of WWF’s Antarctic and Southern Oceans Initiative.
“Scientists are already unpleasantly surprised at how quickly the impacts of warming such as sea ice loss are showing up in the polar regions, exceeding recent predictions.”
Global average warming due to climate change since the late 1800s is showing severe impacts at less than one degree, as the Arctic is warming at about twice the global average and parts of the Antarctic are also outstripping the global average.
The polar regions themselves have profound and not yet fully understood impacts on climate globally, and there are fears that polar tipping points could trigger abrupt change around the world.
A forthcoming report on Antarctic Climate Change and the Environment from the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research is expected to up previous estimates on Antarctica’s expected substantial contributions to sea level rises.
Marine food chains of global significance are also under threat from warming in the Antarctic. “Ice shelves the size of small countries are crumbling away and the latest evidence from the Antarctic is showing that the effects of global warming there are increasing in magnitude,” said Mr Nicoll.
“The penguins may feel it first, but the rest of us won’t be far behind.”
The warming of the Antarctic is not yet as acute as the Arctic, but it is yet a further indication that the meltdown of our polar caps continues apace. If world leaders fail to act on this information the effects will be calamitous.
“The world is caught in a polar pincer movement,” said Neil Hamilton, Director of WWF International’s Arctic Programme.
“What is happening at the poles will control the world’s climate. If we do not stop the poles from melting, the whole world will feel it, in the form of runaway warming and rising waters.”
Right now the Catlin Arctic Survey expedition is sampling the thickness of Arctic sea ice. The expedition, partly sponsored by WWF, is likely to confirm scientists’ fears that the older, thicker ice is disappearing. This has led them to predict that the summer sea ice could disappear within a generation, leading to catastrophic consequences for the entire ecosystem, everything from single celled animals to whales.
“The Ministers meeting today in Washington have a special responsibility to the world,” said Mr Hamilton.
“They are the custodians of the poles, and this would be an opportunity for them to show the world that they are ready to step up and shoulder their responsibility to keep the poles frozen, by committing to taking urgent and effective action at the Copenhagen climate meeting this December.”
Yahoo News 7 Apr 09;
PARIS (AFP) – The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said the breakway of a Jamaica-sized ice shelf from the Antarctic peninsula could accelerate global warming in this already vulnerable region.
Satellite pictures show a 40-kilometre (25-mile) ice bridge that was the Wilkins Ice Shelf's last link to the coast had now shattered at its narrowest point, about 500 metres (yards) wide, UNEP said.
The Wilkins Ice Shelf once covered around 16,000 square kilometres (6,000 square miles) before it began to retreat in the 1990s, and by last May the ice bridge was all that connected it to Charcot and Latady islands.
The loss of the bridge "may now allow ocean currents to wash away far more of the shelf," UNEP said.
Christian Lambrechts, a policy and programme officer with UNEP's Division of Early Warning and Assessment, said this would expose more of the sea's surface to sunlight, rather than reflect it, in turn "contributing to continued and accelerated warming."
The Antarctic peninsula -- the tongue of land that juts up towards South America -- has been hit by greater warming than almost any other region on Earth.
In the past 50 years, temperatures have risen by 2.5 degrees Celsius (4.5 degrees Fahrenheit), around six times the global average.
Ice shelves are ledges of thick ice that float on the sea and are attached to the land. They are formed when ice is exuded from ice sheet on land.
The Antarctic ice shelves do not add to sea levels when they melt. Like the Arctic ice cap, they float on the sea and thus displace their own volume.
But the loss of an ice shelf means that the glaciers that feed it may flow out straight to the sea, as if from an uncorked bottle.
"Although the Wilkins ice bridge collapse will have no direct consequence on sea level rise, it might have an indirect impact, as the decay of the ice shelf will reduce the stability of the glaciers that are feeding it," said Lambrechts.
In the past 20 years, Antarctica has lost seven ice shelves.
The process is marked by shrinkage and the breakaway of increasingly bigger chunks before the remainder of the shelf snaps away from the coast.
It then disintegrates into debris or into icebergs that eventually melt as they drift northwards.
PlanetArk 8 Apr 09;
OSLO/BONN - Global warming is likely to overshoot a 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 F) rise seen by the European Union and many developing nations as a trigger for "dangerous" change, a Reuters poll of scientists showed on Tuesday.
Nine of 11 experts, who were among authors of the final summary by the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2007 (IPCC), also said the evidence that mankind was to blame for climate change had grown stronger in the past two years.
Giving personal views of recent research, most projected on average a faster melt of summer ice in the Arctic and a quicker rise in sea levels than estimated in the 2007 report, the most authoritative overview to date drawing on work by 2,500 experts.
"A lot of the impacts we're seeing are running ahead of our expectations," said William Hare of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.
Ten of 11 experts said it was at best "unlikely" -- or less than a one-third chance -- that the world would manage to limit warming to a 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) rise above pre-industrial levels.
"Scientifically it can be done. But it's unlikely given the level of political will," said Salemeel Huq at the International Institute for Environment and Development in London.
And David Karoly, of the University of Melbourne, said the world was "very unlikely" to reach the goal.
"The concentration of long-lived greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is already enough to cause warming of more than 2C above pre-industrial levels, and we are continuing to emit more and more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere," he said.
BONN TALKS
Officials from 175 nations are meeting in Bonn, Germany, for 11 days of negotiations lasting until April 8 on a new U.N. climate treaty due to be agreed in December. Reuters got 11 replies to five questions, sent to 35 IPCC authors.
The European Union, many developing nations and environmental groups say 2 Celsius above pre-industrial levels is the maximum to avoid the worst of rising sea levels, floods, droughts or heatwaves. Temperatures are already up 0.7 Celsius.
An alliance of 43 small island developing states, who fear being swamped, want temperatures limited to an even tougher goal of below 1.5 Celsius. They say rich nations should sharply cut greenhouse gas emissions, mainly from burning fossil fuels.
Removal of manmade sun-blocking smoke under clean air laws may add a 1 Celsius rise while oceans will warm further under a lag effect, underscoring how near the 2 degrees limit is already.
The IPCC said in 2007 that it was at least 90 percent certain that human activities, led by burning fossil fuels, were the main cause of warming in the past 50 years. Nine reckoned that evidence was stronger, two said it was unchanged.
Six of the scientists said world average annual temperatures would set a new record by 2015 -- and another four projected that it would happen by 2020 -- dismissing views from skeptics that global warming has stopped.
The hottest year since records began in the 19th century was 1998, according to the World Meteorological Organization.
And the scientists generally said that sea levels would rise faster than projected in the IPCC report, in a threat to many cities, islands and coasts from Bangladesh to Florida.
The IPCC said seas would rise by between 18 and 59 cms (7-24 inches) this century. But it pointed to big uncertainties about ice sheets in Greenland or Antarctica -- one IPCC estimate was that this ice could add up to 20 cms to sea level rise.
In the poll, the lowest projection for sea level rise by 2100 was 30-40 cms, the highest up to 140 cms.
And 10 of those polled projected that Arctic late summer sea ice could vanish before 2050, with two saying it could disappear by 2020. The IPCC had said some scenarios pointed to a loss in the latter half of the century.
PlanetArk 7 Apr 09;
LONDON - The government launched a campaign on Tuesday to get the public to reuse carrier bags, saying each shopper got through 13,000 bags in a lifetime.
"We simply can't continue using the billions of new plastic bags we do each year, it's such a huge waste and a visible symbol of our throwaway society," said Environment Minister Jane Kennedy.
A survey found that an average shopper uses more than 160 new carrier bags every year, with 9.9 billion new bags distributed in 2008 alone, the government said.
Last year Prime Minister Gordon Brown warned retailers to take action on the issue or the government would force them to charge shoppers for their bags.
The new "Get a bag habit" campaign, backed by the British Retail Consortium (BRC), aims to encourage people to reuse their bags and comes after a commitment from the seven leading supermarkets to reach a 50 percent cut in the number given out by this May.
"Customers have already done a great deal to help us reduce the number of carrier bags issued each year by over a quarter," said Jane Milne, BRC Business Environment Director.
(Reporting by Michael Holden; Editing by Steve Addison)
Carey Gillam, PlanetArk 8 Apr 09;
KANSAS CITY - Moves by the United States to provide more cash instead of commodities to fight a growing world food crisis are welcomed, but more is needed, a U.N. World Food Program (WFP) official said on Tuesday.
"Just because food prices have come down doesn't mean the crisis is over," said Allan Jury, WFP director of U.S. relations.
The United States provides a little more than half of the world's food aid, with an operating budget for food aid for fiscal 2008 of about $2.5 billion.
This year, WFP is projecting its needs will total nearly $6 billion, compared with about $5.7 billion in 2008.
The United States comes under frequent criticism because it is the only major donor that provides most of its food aid in the form of commodities rather than cash, a policy that benefits U.S. farmers. The food aid can be more beneficial if it is purchased locally or regionally in the area of the need, rather than in the United States and then shipped overseas, critics charge.
U.S. officials have acknowledged the criticism and have been working to make changes.
A new four-year, $60-million pilot program for just such local and regional purchases is getting under way with funding from the 2008 Farm Bill. And the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is spending about $145 million for local procurement projects to bring aid to people in Somalia, Ethiopia, Nepal and elsewhere, said Dirk Dijkerman, an assistant administrator with USAID.
The moves are "a start in the right direction," but more is needed, Jury said.
"Most of the donors give us cash. The U.S. is one of the last that gives us any kind of commodities. We would very much welcome if the U.S. was able to join the flexibility of other donors," he said.
Consistent funding is needed as well, Jury said. For the last several years, U.S. aid has relied greatly on emergency supplemental funding appropriations that make it difficult for programs to make effective and efficient food aid delivery plans, he said.
The ranks of the hungry grew by 115 million people over 2007-2008, bringing the total who need food assistance globally to 963 million at the end of 2008, according to the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO).
Food prices have come down from last year, but the food crisis is continuing amid this year's global economic downturn, and donations are expected to be down, Jury said. . "The world made an extraordinary effort last year. Many food operations for WFP nearly doubled the donations to us to about $5 billion. Making sure that continues in 2009 when the need is just as high is a big challenge," said Jury. "Now, broader economic and financial crises capture a lot of attention but frankly the vulnerability of hungry people is just as great this year."
(Editing by Jim Marshall)
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