Best of our wild blogs: 23 Feb 10

They are back at Sungei Buloh!
from The Simplicities in Life

Chek Jawa walk
from a spark of new hope

Reaching for the light!
from Psychedelic Nature

Green Junglefowl
from Bird Ecology Study Group

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Carbon tax a 'more practical' system for Singapore

Teo Xuanwei, Today Online 23 Feb 10;

SINGAPORE - It would be "more practical" to reduce carbon emissions in Singapore through a tax system, rather than a cap-and-trade system, said the Ministry of Finance (MOF) in the FY2010 Revenue and Expenditure Estimates it released yesterday.

This is because Singapore is a small domestic market with only "a few large energy consumers".

A tax system - where the Government fixes the price per unit of carbon - can also "provide greater price certainty and stability that will incentivise investments in energy efficiency and low carbon solutions", MOF said.

Conversely, a cap-and-trade system - which allows firms to buy and sell their emissions permits - could pose "substantial" transaction and monitoring costs on both the Government and firms because a new carbon trading infrastructure would have to be set up.

Carbon trading also allows the price of carbon to vary, and may deter or delay carbon reduction investments, the ministry added.

MOF said a combination of price signals, fiscal measures and other policy interventions will be needed to curb carbon emissions.

It is studying all the options, and will announce specific measures after working out the details and the outcome of climate change negotiations is clearer.

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Increasing the number of 'green' cars in Singapore

Today Online 23 Feb 10;

SINGAPORE - To encourage test-bedding of clean technologies, green vehicles brought in here can enjoy the waiver of Additional Registration Fees, Certificate of Entitlement and custom duties for six years - an extension from the current two years.

The Transport Technology Innovation Development Scheme will also be enhanced to allow up to 1,300 vehicles, up from the current quota of 300. The total amount of tax waived is estimated to be about $75 million.

Imported used green vehicles will also get to enjoy the Green Vehicle Rebate, which grants a 40-per-cent cut in the main car tax. Currently, only brand new green vehicles qualify for the rebate, but the scope will be extended from July.

However, the extension of the rebate will not be applicable to imported used Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) vehicles and vehicles which are required to be brand new at the point of registration, such as taxis.

More details will be released by the National Environment Agency and the Land Transport Authority next month.

Singapore Environment Council executive director Howard Shaw welcomed the move to allow imported used green vehicles here as returning Singaporeans and expatriates could bring their green vehicles for use here. "Overall, it is a small development in the scheme of greening private cars but it will increase the number of green cars on the roads," he said. Leong Wee Keat

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Singapore budget: committed to going green

Teo Xuanwei, Today Online 23 Feb 10;

Despite inconclusive climate change talks in December, the Republic is nonetheless pushing ahead with more spending for a greener Singapore. Within the Government's expenditure estimates, which were released yesterday, green schemes featured notably as part of the new spending commitments in the year ahead.

The Environment and Water Resources Ministry will be spending more, for example, on research programmes in environment technology and on grants for firms developing energy-efficient technologies in the upcoming financial year.

But in terms of funding for the individual ministries, the Information, Communications and the Arts Ministry is getting the largest hike compared to last year - a 33-per-cent increase. It will be getting $1.01 billion.

This is largely due to the development of the Next Generation National Broadbank Network, which will cost an estimated $258.03 million.

For the National Development Ministry, $1.09 billion is expected to be spent on public housing expenditure, which includes the lift upgrading and main upgrading programmes and the Selective En-bloc Redevelopment Scheme.

The largest share of Government spending will go to Mindef (24.7 per cent or $11.46 billion) and the Education Ministry (20.8 per cent or $9.66 billion). Salaries for political appointments - ministers, ministers of state and parliamentary secretaries - are estimated to be $58.28 million, or 8.8 per cent higher than last year. TEO XUANWEI

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Shock in Malaysia over tiger poaching clip

Lester Kong, The Star 23 Feb 10;

PETALING JAYA: Conservation groups are shocked over a video clip showing poachers proudly posing for the camera with a tiger which they had allegedly killed.

The clip, which was captured using a mobile phone, was highlighted in a report by Britain’s Channel 4 News and posted on its website on Saturday.

It stated that the footage was recorded in northern Malaysia around the end of last year.

The clip showed several people standing around a tiger carcass and discussing how they had killed the animal.

Malaysian Nature Society president Tan Sri Salleh Mohd Nor said the killing was disrespectful to the Year of the Tiger, especially with the low tiger population in Malaysia.

“They should be hung for that. The law needs to be urgently tightened with tougher punishment for poachers,” he told The Star yesterday.

He also urged the Department of Wildlife and National Parks (Perhilitan) to bolster its manpower and support services to prevent more poaching.

“The Government needs to stop thinking in terms of economics. Conservation of tigers and other endangered wildlife is about our natural heritage,” Salleh said.

Public environment stewards who act as whistle-blowers against environmental and wildlife threats must also be appointed, he added.

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Whaling Commission Proposes Return to Commercial Whaling

Environment News Service 22 Feb 10;

CAMBRIDGE, UK, February 22, 2010 (ENS) - A working group of the International Whaling Commission today released a draft proposal that would allow the return of commercial whaling. An IWC moratorium on commercial whaling has been in place since 1986.

The compromise is aimed at unblocking the long-stalled negotiation process between IWC member countries opposed to commercial whaling and those that want to kill whales.

The draft Consensus Decision by the Small Working Group on the Future of IWC would allow only the countries that currently take whales under the "research" provisions of the treaty to hunt them under the proposed management regime. Those countries are Japan, Norway, Iceland and the Faroe Islands, which together kill some 1,500 whales a year. Indigenous subsistence whaling also would be allowed to continue.

The draft proposal would bring whaling by all 88 member countries under the control of the IWC. Currently, the IWC has no control over whaling under objection/reservation to the treaty or whaling under special permit, the so-called "research whaling."

The proposal establishes caps of takes that are "within sustainable levels" for a 10 year period, although most of those quotas are not specified in the draft document but are marked "TBD," to be decided. The draft comments that catches would be reduced "significantly" from current levels.

Currently, Japan has a six-vessel whaling fleet in Antarctic waters as part of its scientific whaling program. It targets up to 900 minke whales, which are not an endangered species, plus 50 endangered fin whales.

In 2009, Japan took 679 minke whales and one fin whale for a five-month effort in the Southern Ocean, spending much time and effort in clashes with the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. Japan's goal had been to kill up to 935 minke whales and 50 fin whales.

The IWC proposal states that a fundamental component of the Consensus Decision is that the commission will "focus on the recovery of depleted whale stocks and take actions on key issues, including bycatch, climate change and other environmental threats."

But environmental groups are outraged by the proposal.

From its office in Amsterdam today, Greenpeace International called for the proposal by to be rejected out of hand, describing it as a dangerous throwback to the 20th century when whales where hunted to near extinction.

"The proposal rewards Japan for decades of reprehensible behavior at the International Whaling Commission and in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary," said John Frizell, Head of the Greenpeace Whales Campaign.

"We are at a critical junction for both whaling and ocean conservation," said Frizell. "A return to commercial whaling would not only be a disaster for whales but will send shock waves through international ocean conservation efforts, making it vastly more difficult to protect other rapidly-declining species such as tuna and sharks."

From its headquarters in Gland, Switzerland today, WWF-International said the new draft compromise on whaling "set a dangerous precedent that the international community must reject."

WWF said that while the compromise "contains many positive elements for whale conservation that would help bring the IWC into the 21st Century," the compromise could legitimize whaling by Japan in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.

"If there is one single place in the world where whales should be fully protected, it is the Southern Ocean," said Wendy Elliott, species manager at WWF-International. "What we need is to eliminate all whaling in the Southern Ocean, including Japanese commercial whaling thinly disguised as 'scientific research.'"

"But what we have now is a deal which could make it even easier for Japan to continue taking whales in this ecologically unique place," Elliott said.

The IWC supposedly provides special protection to a critical whale feeding area, the Southern Ocean, surrounding the continent of Antarctica, which the IWC established as a 50 million square kilometer whale sanctuary in 1994. "This extra layer of protection signifies the importance of this area as the primary feeding habitat of many of the Southern Hemisphere�s whale populations," Elliott said.

The proposal sets a process in motion that could endorse quotas which have not yet had a full and proper scientific review. "It is difficult to see how determining quotas through politics rather than science can be considered progress," said Elliott.

The draft Consensus Decision will be discussed by a group of IWC countries at a meeting in March, with the intention that it will be adopted by the IWC at its next full meeting in Agadir, Morocco in June.

New whaling compromise is step backwards for whales
WWF 23 Feb 10;

A new draft compromise on whaling released by the International Whaling Commission (IWC) today set a dangerous precedent that the international community must reject, WWF said.

A working group within the IWC today unveiled a new compromise aimed at unlocking the stalled negotiation process between countries fundamentally opposed to whaling and states that support it.

While the compromise contains many positive elements for whale conservation that would help bring the IWC into the 21st Century, the compromise could legitimise ‘scientific’ whaling by Japan in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.

“If there is one single place in the world where whales should be fully protected, it is the Southern Ocean,” said Wendy Elliott, Species Manager at WWF-International. “What we need is to eliminate all whaling in the Southern Ocean, including Japanese commercial whaling thinly disguised as ‘scientific research’. But what we have now is a deal which could make it even easier for Japan to continue taking whales in this ecologically unique place.”

The IWC has maintained a ban on all commercial whaling since 1986. But, defying this ban, Japan, Norway and Iceland use loopholes in the IWC’s founding treaty to kill more than 1,500 whales a year. The loopholes allow whaling under ‘objection’ to management decisions (Norway and Iceland) and “scientific” whaling for research purposes (Japan).

The IWC also provides special protection to a critical whale feeding area, the Southern Ocean surrounding the continent of Antarctica, which the IWC established as a 50 million square kilometre whale sanctuary in 1994. This extra layer of protection signifies the importance of this area as the primary feeding habitat of many of the Southern Hemisphere’s whale populations.

Additionally, the proposal sets a process in motion that could endorse quotas which haven’t yet had a full and proper scientific review. “It is difficult to see how determining quotas through politics rather than science can be considered progress,” added Elliott.

The are some positive aspects of the compromise including increased efforts to secure the recovery of depleted whale populations, action on critical conservation threats facing whales such as such as bycatch and climate change, and improved governance and compliance. However, the compromise cannot be accepted by WWF as long as it allows whaling in the Southern Ocean.

The new compromise which will be discussed by a group of IWC countries at a meeting in March, is intended to be adopted by the IWC at its next full meeting in June this year.

Whaling plan to okay hunts in return for fewer kills
Kyoko Hasegawa Yahoo News 23 Feb 10;

TOKYO (AFP) – The global body that regulates whaling has proposed giving the green light to Japan to keep hunting the sea mammals in return for reducing the number of animals killed.

Greenpeace and the World Wide Fund for Nature harshly condemned the draft plan which aims to unlock stalled talks when the 85-nation International Whaling Commission (IWC) meets next month in Florida.

While Greenpeace called it "a dangerous throwback to the 20th century when whales were hunted to near extinction", the WWF said it "could legitimise ?scientific? whaling by Japan in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary".

Commercial whaling has been banned worldwide since 1986 but Japan justifies its annual hunts in the Antarctic and Northwestern Pacific as lethal "scientific research" under a loophole permitted by the IWC.

Norway and Iceland also hunt whales, claiming it is central to their culture. Between them, the three nations have killed more than 30,000 whales since the moratorium was declared, says the IWC.

The draft -- which has not been agreed by members, and which leaves whale catch quotas undecided -- would allow Japan to keep hunting the ocean giants, but under stricter monitoring, including DNA sampling of whale meat.

Cristian Maquieira, the body's chairman, described the proposal as a "paradigm shift" designed to bring whaling back under IWC control, reduce the numbers killed and regulate it to ensure a healthy whale population.

The proposal comes as Japan's annual whale hunt in Antarctic waters has again made headlines in recent weeks, with its harpoon ships clashing repeatedly with militant environmentalists the Sea Shepherds.

Anti-whaling nation Australia last weekend warned it would launch legal action against Japan in the International Criminal Court unless it commits before November to ending its annual whale hunts.

Japan makes no secret of the fact that the meat of whales it kills is sold in restaurants and shops, and maintains that whaling is an important and centuries-old tradition for the island-nation.

Under the IWC draft proposal, whaling ships would be fitted with satellite monitoring systems, and DNA registries and market sampling would be introduced to detect illegal whaling and enforce quotas.

Commenting on the draft, Japan's Fisheries Minister Hirotaka Akamatsu said only that in the IWC talks "we will be flexible, but we will also seek to gain 60 or 70 percent of what we've been demanding".

A Japanese fisheries agency official said the new proposal "aimed at breaking the deadlock in the IWC, setting aside the arguments on the nature of whaling -- whether it is commercial whaling or scientific, or whaling by indigenous people for their subsistence".

"We can't comment on whether the proposal is good or bad for Japan," the official, Toshinori Uoya added.

Greenpeace, a veteran opponent of whaling, was scathing about the draft.

"The proposal rewards Japan for decades of reprehensible behaviour at the International Whaling Commission and in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary," said John Frizell, head of the Greenpeace Whales Campaign.

"We are at a critical junction for both whaling and ocean conservation. A return to commercial whaling would not only be a disaster for whales but will send shockwaves through international ocean conservation efforts."

In the draft document, a table features catch limits for the next 10 years, including for Japanese whaling of minke whales in its coastal waters while it leaves the annual quotas "to be decided".

"The only number that should be decided is zero," said Frizell.

Read more!

Foreign fishing activity threatening Papua`s marine life

Eliswan Azly, Antara 22 Feb 10;

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The operations of many foreign fishermen in Papua waters have become a serious problem to Indonesia as they increasingly use equipment that damage the province`s coral reefs and other biota.

Aria Aditya Setiawan, a political and international relations observer, said here recently illegal fishing using trawls often occurred in waters just a few hundred meters off the Papua coastline.

The illegal fishing`s impact on the environment was posing a problem to Indonesia`s easternmost province. It was not only causing economic damage but also had a negative impact on the environment of the region because of the use of explosives, he said.

Aria who is head of the International Relations Department of the Jayapura Technology and Science University (USTJ) said the use of explosives in fishing had become popular because potassium was easy to get both legally and illegally.

Commonly, according to him, foreign boats which are often illegally fishing in Papua`s waters came from the Philippines, Thailand and China.

"There were also Indonesian ships cooperating with the foreigners so they could get bigger profits from Papua`s marine resources," he said.

He said activities of foreign fishermen in Papua waters produced better results than those of Papua fishermen themselves because the former used high technology.
Meanwhile, Papuan fishermen are still relying on traditional fish traps.

Aria said, until 2008, security officers had inspected 39 foreign ships engaged in illegal fishing in Papua`s waters.

"Illegal fishing still poses a problem and gives a serious impact. Therefore the government including the security forces and the people should work together in dealing with the problem," he said.

Coral reefs in Indonesia`s territorial waters reach to 51.000 kilometers square or 18 percent of the total coral reefs in the world and stretching from the western through the eastern parts of Indonesia`s territorial waters.

With its wealth in biodiversity, Indonesia lies in the coral triangle along with the Philippines, Malaysia, Timor Leste, Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands.

Currently, Raja Ampat islands in Papua Barat Province is the richest area in coral reefs in the world with 537 species of coral reefs and 1.074 species of fish.

Last year former Maritime and Fisheries Minister Freddy Numberi asked the National Police`s Criminal Investigation Department (Bareskrim) to dismantle the many illegal fishing networks believed to be operating in Indonesian waters.

The minister also requested Bareskrim to investigate fish and fuel oil barter activities in which Chinese fishing boats were known to be often engaged in Indonesian waters.

Numberi said his requests was tendered to the police in connection with the apprehension of 26 foreign fishing boats in waters off Papua`s southern coast by an integrated security agencies team.

All of the 26 fishing boats, including two Thai-flagged ones, were currently being detained at Timika`s Pomako harbor in Papua.

Numberi said his ministry believed some organization was behind the illegal activities in Indonesian waters and he had asked Bareskrim to bust it and uncover the individuals involved.

It was also reported the foreign fishing vessels used forged documents.

In the meantime, Navy spokesman First Adm. Iskandar Sitompul previously said the Indonesian Navy had seized 32 foreign ships in Papuan waters since the beginning of the month for crimes ranging from illegal fishing to the transportation of illegally harvested timber.

Iskandar said that most poachers were from Malaysia, the Philippines, China and Thailand. Most of the crew members were Indonesians, he said.

According to him, investigations had already been launched into all the cases and hoped that prosecutions would be filed in the near future.

He said that the seized ships were being held at a number of naval bases, including Jayapura, and Sorong and Manokwari in West Papua.

Court cases relating to the seizure of 25 vessels last year were still ongoing, with the owners of 21 of the vessels filing appeals with the Supreme Court, Iskander said. For example, the MV Golden Blessing was waiting for re-evaluation of its case by the Supreme Court.

Another vessel, the Siong-siong Hai-05099, would be auctioned off if its owners and crew members were found guilty of breaking the law, Iskandar said.

The Navy`s deputy chief, Vice Adm. Moekhlas Siddik, earlier said that in 2008 the Navy successfully prosecuted the operators of 100 domestic and foreign vessels.

During the year, Navy patrols inspected 1,869 ships, and of those, 521 were seized for alleged violations of Indonesian law, he said.

Indonesia is facing a host of unsolved maritime problems including rampant illegal fishing and the environmental damage from the dumping of toxic waste.

Based on a 2007 report from the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing in Indonesian waters costs the state $2 billion each year.

Iskandar said not all the crimes were related to illegal fishing or logging. (*)

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Fishing bans boost Australia's Great Barrier Reef

Yahoo News 22 Feb 10;

SYDNEY (AFP) – Strict fishing bans have helped regenerate wildlife and coral on one-third of Australia's Great Barrier Reef, a new study shows, raising hopes that years of decline can be reversed.

The study, bringing together years of research by scientists on the world's biggest living organism, proves "no-take" zones set up in 2004 have had a significant benefit, its authors say.

"The results are actually quite impressive," said lead author Laurence McCook.

"Having a higher proportion of protected areas is good for marine life, it's good for fish and it's good for people who rely on the reef for a living."

The study, published in the Proceedings of the US National Academy of Sciences, shows the zones have more and bigger fish, including sharks, and less damage to coral.

"That's a very important result not only for the reef, because corals build the reef, but it's also important for the tourism and fishing industries because fish rely on coral for their habitat," McCook said.

"We think it adds to the value of the reef and it's likely to be contributing to the long-term sustainability of fishing," added McCook, of the Australian Research Centre's Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority.

However, McCook warned that the reef was also facing a significant danger from climate change, which bleaches the coral and impedes its growth by raising the water's temperature and acidity.

World-class protection boosts Australia's Great Barrier Reef
ARC Centre of Excellence in Coral Reef Studies EurekAlert 21 Feb 10;

Australia's Great Barrier Reef (GBR) is showing an extraordinary range of benefits from the network of protected marine reserves introduced there five years ago, according to a comprehensive new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The scientific team, a 'who's-who' of Australian coral reef scientists, describe the findings as "a globally significant demonstration of the effectiveness of large-scale networks of marine reserves".

"Our data show rapid increases of fish inside no-take reserves, in both reef and non-reef habitats ," says Professor Terry Hughes, Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, speaking today at the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences meeting in San Diego, California.

"Critically, the reserves also benefit overall ecosystem health and resilience", says lead author Dr Laurence McCook of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority.

"Outbreaks of coral-eating, crown-of-thorns starfish are less frequent on no-take reefs, which consequently have a higher abundance of healthy corals after outbreaks."

"In concert with other measures, the reserve network is also helping the plight of threatened species like dugongs and marine turtles", says Dr McCook.

"There is now very strong evidence that no-take zones benefit fish populations within those zones. The numbers of coral trout doubled on some reefs within two years of closure to fishing," reports Dr Hugh Sweatman, from the Australian Institute of Marine Science.

Overall, the team concluded "With 32% of GBR reef area in no-take reefs, and fish densities about two times greater on those reefs, fish populations across the ecosystem have increased considerably." The researchers predict that as protected fish inside no-take areas grow larger and larger, they will contribute many more larvae to the whole ecosystem. Therefore, the benefits of no-take areas are expected to extend far beyond the no-take boundaries, replenishing surrounding areas that are open to fishing.

Larger, more mobile species, such as sharks, have benefited less than residential fishes, but nevertheless show clear effects of protection: grey reef sharks are much more abundant on highly protected reefs than on fished reefs.

However the team cautioned that there was evidence of some poaching in no-take zones, reinforcing the need for education and enforcement.

The researchers say that preliminary economic analysis points to considerable net benefits, both to the environment and to tourism, fishing and related enterprises.

"The Great Barrier Reef generates far more economic benefit to Australia than the cost of protecting it" they added.

"Given the major threat posed by climate change, the expanded network of marine reserves provides a critical and cost-effective contribution to enhancing the resilience of the Great Barrier Reef," the scientists comment.

"In summary, the network of marine reserves on the GBR has brought major, sustained ecological benefits, including for target fish and sharks.

"Overall, the results demonstrate that the large-scale network of marine reserves on the GBR is proving to be an excellent investment - in social, economic and environmental terms," they conclude.

###

Their paper "Adaptive management of the Great Barrier Reef: a globally significant demonstration of the benefits of a network of marine reserves" by Laurence J. McCook, Tony Ayling, Mike Cappo, J. Howard Choat, Richard D.Evans, Debora M. De Freitas, Michelle Heupel, Terry P. Hughes, Geoffrey P.Jones, Bruce Mapstone, Helene Marsh, Morena Mills, Fergus Molloy, C.Roland Pitcher, Robert L. Pressey, Garry R. Russ, Stephen Sutton, Hugh Sweatman, Renae Tobin, David R. Wachenfeld and David H. Williamson is in the current Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The authors are affiliated with the Australian Institute of Marine Science, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, and James Cook University.

Poachers raiding rich Barrier Reef zones
Peter Michael The Courier-Mail 24 Feb 10;

POACHERS are raiding "no-take zones" on the Great Barrier Reef as fish stocks more than double in protected areas, the latest research shows.

Fish, shark and dugong inside marine parks have shown rapid population growth since the introduction of strict zoning under the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority five years ago, a study has found.

But scientists warn new evidence shows fish poachers have been "cherry-picking" highly lucrative species such as coral trout and red emperor by fishing inside the prohibited zones.

"It is the goose that lays the golden egg," said lead author Dr Laurence McCook.

"The resounding pattern overall is there are more and bigger fish in the protected areas than the fished areas," said Dr McCook, of GBRMPA and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies.

"Bigger fish have more babies. The increase spills over into the fished areas."

He said the number of coral trout had doubled in some reserves within two years of banning fishing. Numbers of other popular table fish such as red emperor and snapper were also up.

But fish poachers drawn by easy pickings have been plundering the no-take zones.

"People are out there cherry-picking the protected reefs," Dr McCook said.

"Illegal fishing is a concern for us, for the environment, and for the law-abiding fishermen who are being cheated."

He said an analysis of reported offences in the green (no-take) and pink (no-entry) zones over the past eight years revealed the trend in illegal fishing activity.

The study was published in the journal Proceedings of the US National Academy of Sciences.

It found larger, more mobile species, such as sharks, have been slower to recover but grey reef sharks were 30 times more abundant in protected reefs compared with fished reefs.

Dr McCook said there were also increases in white-tipped and black-tipped shark populations.

One-third of the 344,400sq km marine park is zoned as "no-take".

Professor Terry Hughes, director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University, delivered the paper in the US yesterday.

Researchers predict that as protected fish inside no-take areas grow larger, they will contribute many more larvae to the whole ecosystem.

Read more!

Japan opposes trade ban on bluefin tuna

Yahoo News 22 Feb 10;

TOKYO (AFP) – Japan opposes plans to list the Atlantic bluefin tuna, which is highly prized in sushi and sashimi, as a most-endangered species and to ban its international trade, an official said on Monday.

The UN-backed wildlife trade agency supports a call to stop cross-border trade in the fish when 175 member nations to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) meet next month in Doha, Qatar.

Marine wildlife experts say that, despite fishing quotas, bluefin tuna stocks have plunged by 80 percent in recent decades in the Western Atlantic and Mediterranean, threatening the predator species with extinction.

Japan -- which consumes three-quarters of the global bluefin tuna catch from both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans -- says it opposes such a trade ban and prefers other mechanisms to make the catch more sustainable.

Farm and Fisheries Minister Hirotaka Akamatsu said this month that Japan's answer to the proposed trade ban is "a clear no", and a fisheries official said Monday that Japan may "take a reservation" and ignore a ban if it is passed.

"We have been saying that is one of our options," Shingo Ota, a senior negotiator for Japan fisheries, told AFP.

"We are not saying we will definitely reserve it. We are doing our best so that it won't be adopted. Our final decision will come after the vote."

The EU Commission is due to propose that the 27 EU governments ban commercial bluefin tuna fishing, at a meeting of farm and fisheries ministers in Brussels, sources have told AFP.

France, the biggest producer of bluefin tuna for consumption, has spoken in favour of a ban, but for a limited duration and not for another 18 months. But Spain, Greece, Cyprus and Malta have opposed a ban.

Atlantic bluefin tuna, a metallic-blue hunter up to four metres (13 feet) long, roams the Atlantic but returns every spring to the warmer waters of the Mediterranean Sea, as well as the Gulf of Mexico, to spawn.

In the hunt for the prized fish, industrial-scale fishing fleets have often used spotter aircraft and helicopters to locate tuna schools and scooped the fish up with giant drag nets.

Many of the fish are fattened up in offshore cages to produce a low-cost version of "toro" or fatty tuna, which is highly valued in sushi and sashimi, mostly for export on freezer ships to Japan.

As bluefin tuna has become more rare, its price has shot up, especially in East Asia. A single fish, weighing up to 650 kilograms (1,400 pounds), can fetch as much as 120,000 dollars, CITES has said.

EU proposes ban on commercial bluefin tuna fishing
Yahoo News 22 Feb 10;

BRUSSELS (AFP) – The European Commission said on Monday that it is proposing a ban on commercial bluefin tuna fishing, to protect the fish much prized by Japanese sushi lovers, to come into force next year.

"We have no other choice but to act now and propose a ban on commercial fishing," EU Environment Commissioner Janez Potocnik told a Brussels press conference, indicating that it would affect the summer 2011 fishing season.

Governments across the European Union must now approve the commission's proposal, ahead of a meeting in March in Qatar of the United Nations body that decides whether species are listed as endangered.

"What really matters here is our intention, the future for fish and fisheries concerns every country," added EU fisheries commissioner Maria Damanki.

"We are well aware of the short-term cost, but I am sure we can guarantee a viable future for our fishermen.

"We have to try and persuade other Mediterranean countries of our intentions," she added.

The UN-backed wildlife trade agency supports a call to stop cross-border trade in the fish when 175 member nations to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) meet in Doha.

Marine wildlife experts say that, despite fishing quotas, bluefin tuna stocks have plunged by 80 percent in recent decades in the Western Atlantic and Mediterranean, threatening the predator species with extinction.

Japan -- which consumes three-quarters of the global bluefin tuna catch from both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans -- says it opposes such a trade ban and prefers other mechanisms to make the catch more sustainable.

Farm and Fisheries Minister Hirotaka Akamatsu said this month that Japan's answer to the proposed trade ban is "a clear no", and a fisheries official said Monday that Japan may "take a reservation" and ignore a ban if it is passed.

"We have been saying that is one of our options," Shingo Ota, a senior negotiator for Japan fisheries, told AFP.

"We are not saying we will definitely reserve it. We are doing our best so that it won't be adopted. Our final decision will come after the vote."

France, the biggest producer of bluefin tuna for consumption, has spoken in favour of a ban, but for a limited duration and not for another 18 months.

Italy has voluntarily acted to keep its trawlers in port, using existing European Union funding to cushion the blow. But Spain, Greece, Cyprus and Malta have opposed such a ban.

Read more!

Climate Change and Coral Reefs: Coral Species Has Developed the 'Skills' to Cope With Rising Temperatures

ScienceDaily 21 Feb 10;

Move, adapt or die. Those are the options marine plants and animals have in the face of climate change, said Stanford biologist Steve Palumbi, who has been exploring how to help them go with the first two options, rather than the third. He's come up with some surprising answers.

Palumbi discussed the results of his research in two talks at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Diego.

How to design marine protected areas to best benefit a wide variety of plant and animal species is the focus of a talk he gave on Feb. 20. The most practical kind of natural reserve is one that benefits species and local human populations, but Palumbi said striking that balance isn't always easy. Many people have argued that bigger is better when it comes to marine reserves, but Palumbi has data suggesting that is not always the case.

In a separate Topical Lecture he gave on Feb. 21, Palumbi presented his findings on how marine species are reacting to climate change, including new work on coral species in the Pacific that have poor powers of dispersal but a surprising ability to cope with higher temperatures.

Palumbi is director of Stanford's Hopkins Marine Station and a senior fellow at the university's Woods Institute for the Environment.

If you can't move, then you'd better adjust

Many species, such as those along the west coast of California, can simply migrate north to colder waters. But other animals, such as the coral that Palumbi's team has studied in Fiji and American Samoa, won't be moving anytime soon.

"Each coral population is trapped on its own island, and as global climate changes around them, the populations are essentially stuck where they are. They have to go to the second stage, which is to adapt," Palumbi said.

Marine scientists have predicted that coral reefs will be at risk of extinction due to high ocean temperatures caused by climate change, but Palumbi has found a species of coral that may have a better chance of adapting.

Palumbi's team studied corals growing in shallow lagoons that face intense heat during noontime summer low tides. The team knew these corals were resistant to brief heating but were surprised to find that the corals survived five to six days of high water temperatures. Baking in the tropical summer sun at low tide for 4 to 6 hours a day seems to have better prepared these corals for global warming temperatures.

"When we tested these corals against high temperatures for extended periods of time, they showed all the evidence of having higher resilience," Palumbi said. "It looks like the corals have adapted or acclimated to that stress and have a better chance of resisting high global warming temperatures." How long this resilience will last, and whether all corals can do this, are remaining questions.

Does size matter for marine reserves?

A major response to climate change is to protect reefs from other human-caused stresses such as overfishing. And as a result, a large number of Marine Protected Areas have been implemented in the Pacific. Some are the size of a football field. Some are the size of California. Is bigger better?

To determine how much difference the size of a protected area might make, Palumbi analyzed data from a set of small reserves in Fiji, from the Phoenix Islands and from the Papahanaumokuakea Reserve in Hawaii, the largest marine reserve in the world. All three areas are set aside by government agencies.

The Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument covers 360,000 square kilometers (139,000 square miles) in Northwest Hawaii and is a "no-take" reserve, which means nothing may be removed, including fish.

The Phoenix Islands Protected Area, which lies in the central Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and Fiji, is over 408,000 square kilometers (158,000 square miles). There are seven no-take reserves in this area, each about 39 kilometers (24 miles) across.

However, in densely populated areas, smaller reserves are more common. Fiji has 246 such protected areas, each averaging about 2 to 3 square kilometers (about a square mile).

"Small sets of marine protected areas are much more convenient: People can fish in between them or go around them easily. Species found within the marine protected areas easily spill out into the surrounding areas, potentially increasing fishing productivity," Palumbi said.

However, wide stretches of protected ocean allow species to spread more easily than small areas, where they risk being caught by fishermen between the reserves. Therefore, small reserves must be well matched to the plants and animals they are protecting because each species spreads at different rates, Palumbi said.

"Species have lots of different dispersal abilities, so it's very hard to have a marine protected area network that works equally well for all different species. You have to tailor the network of reserves to the species," he said.

Though small reserves meet the needs of fewer species than those of larger reserves, setting aside enormous areas of ocean is not that simple. Scientists and policymakers must consider local residents who depend on fisheries for their well-being.

"With heavy human populations, the political, social and economic problems of a big marine protected area are paramount and you've got to go to another strategy. But it's a strategy with limitations because it's hard to design an area perfectly for all species that need protection," Palumbi said. The most effective reserve is one that balances preservation of species with human needs, he said. Finding that balance is the challenge.

Read more!

Loggerhead turtle breeding affected by global warming

Kirrin McKechnie, ABC Net 23 Feb 10;

A turtle researcher says global warming is behind an influx of loggerhead turtles breeding in south-east Queensland.

Jennie Truman monitors loggerhead and green turtle nests on beaches at North Stradbroke Island, off Brisbane.

She has seen a big increase in breeding activity on the Island, and believes that is due largely to global warming which is making beaches further north too hot for nests.

"The sand temperature has started rising up there and it is cooking the eggs basically and not incubating them," she said.

She says as south-east Queensland is increasingly playing an important part in turtle breeding, local authorities must work with researchers to better accommodate the seasonal influx of the endangered species.

Meanwhile, conservationists on North Stradbroke Island are calling for the community to become plastic bag free to help protect turtles and other marine life.

This summer residents in south-east Queensland have monitored 16 loggerhead and green turtle nests on the island.

That is a big increase on previous years, and researchers say it could be due to global warming which is making beaches further north too hot to nest.

Stradbroke Island Management Organisation (SIMO) spokeswoman Jackie Cooper says the area is home to endangered creatures and more must be done to protect them.

"A lot of people on the island every morning are walking on the beach - they carry a bag to put rubbish in and they collect rubbish off the beach," she said.

"And you never come back with an empty bag - it's always got some rubbish in it.

"For Stradbroke to stand up and say we ban plastic bags gives a message to all our visitors and to the rest of Australia that we care about our marine environment."

Read more!

New Zealand dolphins under threat

University of Otago, Science Alert 23 Feb 10;

Highly threatened Hector’s dolphin populations around New Zealand are still declining despite new protection measures implemented in 2008, according to new University of Otago research.

In an article appearing in the journal Aquatic Conservation, Associate Professors Liz Slooten and Steve Dawson studied the impact of the new measures.

Associate Professor Slooten says their detailed analysis shows that the protection measures put in place in 2008 by then Minister of Fisheries Jim Anderton are a large step in the right direction.

But dolphin populations are still declining because too many areas have been left out of the protection package or have been compromised in other ways, she says.

“For example, Tasman Bay, Golden Bay and Taranaki were left out and in other areas dolphins are declining because protection does not go far enough offshore.

“This includes the west coast of the South Island, where dolphins are protected from entanglement in gillnets out to two nautical miles offshore for three months of the year, but Hector’s dolphins there range to six nautical miles offshore, year round.”

At Kaikoura, local fishermen successfully sought an exemption to the dolphin protection measures. Everywhere else on the east coast of the South Island, dolphins are protected from gillnets to four nautical miles offshore.

An exemption was made on the argument that the deeper waters off Kaikoura are rarely used by Hector’s dolphins, she says.

“Unfortunately, the line for the exemption zone was drawn far too close to shore and a dolphin has already been caught in the exemption area.

“Simply too many compromises were made in the protection package. The dolphin that drowned in a net off Kaikoura last year confirms that.”

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Absence of E-Waste Controls Poses Environmental Threat in Indonesia

Fidelis E. Satriastanti, The Jakarta Globe 22 Feb 10;

Nusa Dua. Wait. Before you throw away that old cellphone, think about what it may be doing to the planet.

That was the warning given here Monday over Indonesia’s lack of regulations on electronic waste as a new study from the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) documented a sharp increase over the next ten years in the dumping of hazardous e-trash.

“We have no regulations on e-waste and it [the issue] is becoming more and more complicated,” said Imam Hendargo, the Environment Ministry’s deputy for the management of hazardous substances and waste.

The report, “Recycling — From E-Waste to Resources,” was presented at a forum on toxic chemicals here and included data from 11 developing countries to estimate current and future e-waste from products like computers, printers, laptops, mobile phones and television sets.

The eleven countries are China, India, South Africa, Uganda, Senegal, Kenya, Morocco, Brazil, Columbia, Mexico, and Peru.

Based on the report, discarded gadgets in China and South Africa will jump by 200 to 400 percent from 2007 levels by 2020. In India the figure is 500 percent.

There is no available data on Indonesia’s e-waste, Imam said, but, he added, it could be estimated based on the number of people who own refrigerators, television sets and mobile phones.

“If 10 percent of Indonesians own mobile phones that is [an indicator of] how much e-waste we have, not to mention how many own refrigerators or televisions. Nowadays, one household might even have more than one television,” he said.

According to London-based Business Monitor International, Indonesian consumers are expected to spend $7 billion on consumer electronics this year. Last year it reported that sales of LCD and plasma televisions, as well as Chinese cellphones, surged due to lower prices.

There are at least 100 million cellphone users in the country, with two of the largest cellphone service providers, Telkomsel and Excelcomindo, reporting a combined 90 million subscribers at the end of 2008.

With no existing regulations, Imam said that the government was still relying on voluntary action by companies willing to recycle their own e-waste.

“It is not just about e-waste, we also need to deal with medical waste, because no one really knows where it is being discarded and there are no regulations concerning that issue,” he said.

Achim Steiner, executive director of UNEP, said people don’t yet realize the impact of mountains of e-waste inundating landfills, slums, rivers and the environment in general. New policies must be developed to deal with the problem.

“The numbers that are emerging are staggering. We are roughly estimating the global generation of e-waste is growing by about 40 million tons a year,” said Achim, adding that in the US alone there were more than 150 million mobile phones and pagers sold in 2008.

Globally, more than one billion mobile phones were sold in 2007, up from 896 million in 2006.

Jim Puckett, executive director of the Basel Action Network, said that people were not going to stop consuming electronics.

“We’re seeing things becoming waste more quickly now. Every six months you see newer models of mobile phones. You can’t stop people from consuming electronics right away, but what we can do is get the toxic materials out of the equipment,” Puckett said.

RI congratulated for rejecting e-waste from US
Antara 23 Feb 10;

Nusa Dua, Bali (ANTARA News) - The Basel Action Network has praised Indonesia for turning down nine containers of e-waste (electronic waste) from the United States last November 2009.

"Last night, I congratulated the Indonesian environmental affairs minister for the Indonesian authorities` diligent action," Jim Puckett, coordinator of Basel Action Network (BAN), said here on Monday.

Old computer monitors in the nine containers are considered hazardous e-waste for containing lead, he said when speaking to journalists attending a United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) Workshop on "Reporting Green - Environment as News".

He said e-waste was a problem which could poison the people. Some children working in electronic companies have lead in their blood which later could damage their brain. A similar problems could be found in China, India and Nigeria, he said.

The e-waste coming from Massachusetts was about to enter Semarang, Central Java, last November. But, thanks to a tip-off from BAN, the Indonesian authorities managed to foil the smuggling attempt.

In accordance with Indonesia`s law, hazardous import was banned, while for the US, which has not yet ratified the Basel Convention, the export was legal, he said.

Besides the US, Afghanistan and Haiti are yet to ratify the Basel Convention.
An attempt was made to dump used computer monitors in Indonesia because it was cheaper to export than recycle them, he said.

The sale of electronic products in countries like China and India and across continents such as Africa and Latin America are set to rise sharply in the next 10 years, according to UN experts in a landmark report released by UNEP in Nusa Dua, Monday (Feb. 22).

"And, unless action is stepped up to properly collect and recycle materials, many developing countries face the spectre of hazardous e-waste mountains with serious consequences for the environment and public health," according to the report.

Issued at a meeting of Basel Convention and other world chemical authorities prior to UNEP`s Governing Council meeting in Bali, the report "Recycling - from E-Waste to Resources" , used data from 11 representative developing countries to estimate current and future e-waste generation - which includes old and dilapidated desk and laptop computers, printers, mobile phones, pagers, digital photo and music devices, refrigerators, toys and televisions.

Nairobi-based UNEP is organizing "The Reporting Green Workshop" and "The Simaltaneous Extraordinary Meetings of the Conference of the Parties (COPs) to the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions", in Nusa Dua, from Feb. 22 to 26.

And on Feb. 24-26, UNEP will hold the 11th Special Session of the Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum, which is expected to be officially opened by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and attended by around 100 environment ministers from various countries.(*)

Indonesia Takes Tough Stand Over Exports of Toxic Trash
Fidelis E Satriastanti, Jakarta Globe 24 Feb 10;

Nusa Dua, Bali. As wealthy countries eye developing ones as dumping grounds for their hazardous waste, little has been done by the Indonesian government 16 years since it ratified the international chemical waste treaty.

The agreement, also known as the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal, seems to have been forgotten amid challenging climate change issues.

The State Ministry for the Environment said Indonesia had turned away a US shipment of hazardous waste at Tanjung Mas port in Semarang in November. The vessel was carrying nine containers of cathode ray tubes. The incident was widely reported abroad, but received little coverage by local news media.

CRT is a vacuum tube found mostly in computer and television sets. They are classified as hazardous under the Basel Convention.

Yuyun Ismawati, director of the BaliFokus Foundation, a Bali-based environmental group, said the Basel Convention was crucial because it was Indonesia’s only legal platform to prohibit dangerous waste from entering the country.

“The US containers case in November is a good example of how important this convention is,” Yuyun said.

She said that of the 22 official ports in the country, Batam and Wakatobi in Sulawesi were the main entry points for such materials from overseas.

Reports from the convention’s signatory nations suggest that there are at least 8.5 million tons of hazardous waste moving between countries each year.

Yuyun said to keep the archipelago from becoming a dumping ground for developed nations, the government must first ensure Indonesians understand the Basel accord.

“The convention is producing guidance in mostly complicated terms that commoners find hard to understand,” she said.

The Basel Convention, signed in 1989, was initially criticized by environmentalists for being too lenient. Activists, particularly those from Africa, called for a complete ban on the export of hazardous chemicals.

In 1995, the agreement was amended to mandate a complete ban, but was not legally binding because major signatories, such as Japan and the United States, refused to ratify it. Only 68 of the 172 signatory nations signed the amendment.

Imam Hendargo, the Environment Ministry’s deputy for the management of hazardous substances and waste, said there were difficulties in monitoring waste coming into the country, citing a lack of resources.

“And it is not that easy to monitor our vast coastal areas,” Imam said.

Jim Puckett, executive director of the Basel Ban Network, applauded the government for turning down the shipment in November.

He added, however, that the United States would not been penalized. “But this sends a strong signal back to the United States. Environmental protection agencies across the whole region are freaking out.”

He said that while all eyes were on climate-change issues, no one wanted to live in a contaminated world, where birth defects and cancer become epidemic.

“If we save ourselves from the climate but keep on contaminating our environment, it’s the same. We can’t ignore these issues while we work on climate change issues,” he said.

Read more!

China, India adding to e-waste timebomb: UN

Yahoo News 22 Feb 10;

NUSA DUA, Indonesia (AFP) – Mountains of discarded computers and mobile phones could soon pose serious threats to public health and the environment in developing countries without swift action, the UN said Monday.

"Sales of electronic products in countries like China and India and across continents such as Africa and Latin America are set to rise sharply in the next 10 years," the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said in a report.

"And unless action is stepped up to properly collect and recycle materials, many developing countries face the spectre of hazardous e-waste mountains with serious consequences for the environment and public health."

The report entitled "Recycling -- from E-Waste to Resources" was released at a meeting of Basel Convention and other world chemical authorities prior to UNEP's Governing Council meeting in Bali, Indonesia.

It used data from 11 developing countries to estimate current and future e-waste generation such as desk and laptop computers, printers, mobile phones, pagers, digital photo and music devices, refrigerators, toys and televisions.

By 2020 e-waste from old computers in South Africa and China will have jumped by 200 to 400 percent from 2007 levels, and by 500 percent in India, it said.

Waste from discarded mobile phones would be seven times higher in China and 18 times higher in India by the same year.

"This report gives new urgency to establishing ambitious, formal and regulated processes for collecting and managing e-waste via the setting up of large, efficient facilities in China," UNEP executive director Achim Steiner said in a statement.

"China is not alone in facing a serious challenge. India, Brazil, Mexico and others may also face rising environmental damage and health problems if e-waste recycling is left to the vagaries of the informal sector."

He said raising e-waste recycling rates in developing countries could also "generate decent employment, cut greenhouse gas emissions and recover a wide range of valuable metals including silver, gold, palladium, copper and indium".

"By acting now and planning forward many countries can turn an e-challenge into an e-opportunity," he added.

China already produces an estimated 2.3 million tonnes of e-waste, second only to the United States with about three million tonnes, the report said.

It is also a major e-waste dumping ground for developed countries despite having banned such imports.

Much of this rubbish is incinerated by backyard recyclers to recover tiny quantities of metals such as gold, releasing toxic fumes.

The report also found:

-- global e-waste generation is growing by about 40 million tonnes a year

-- manufacturing mobile phones and personal computers consumes three percent of the gold and silver mined worldwide each year; 13 percent of the palladium and 15 percent of cobalt

-- more than a billion mobile phones were sold around the world in 2007, up from 896 million in 2006

The report, written jointly with the United Nations University, recommended various ways to transform e-waste into assets.

"One person's waste can be another's raw material," university rector Konrad Osterwalder said.

"The challenge of dealing with e-waste represents an important step in the transition to a green economy."

The report was issued at the Simultaneous Extraordinary Meetings of the Conferences of the Parties to the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions.

India Computer Waste To Grow 500% By 2020: Report
Sunanda Creagh, PlanetArk 23 Feb 10;

NUSA DUA, Indonesia - Waste from discarded electronics will rise dramatically in the developing world within a decade, with computer waste in India alone to grow by 500 percent from 2007 levels by 2020, a U.N. study released on Monday said.

E-waste -- a term describing electronics including phones, printers, televisions, refrigerators and other appliances -- grows globally by 40 million metric tones a year. Toxins are emitted when it is improperly burned by scavengers looking for valuable components, such as copper and gold.

A report released in Bali on Monday by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) predicted that by 2020, e-waste from computers would grow by up to 400 percent from 2007 levels in China and South Africa.

"This report gives new urgency to establishing ambitious, formal and regulated processes for collecting and managing e-waste via the setting up of large, efficient facilities in China," said Achim Steiner, executive director of UNEP.

"China is not alone in facing a serious challenge. India, Brazil, Mexico and others may also face rising environmental damage and health problems if e-waste recycling is left to the vagaries of the informal sector," he said in the report.

The report, co-authored by EMPA of Switzerland, specialty materials group Umicore and the United Nations University, said that the United States is the biggest producer of e-waste, creating around 3 million metric tones a year.

Close behind is China, which produces around 2.3 million metric tones domestically and is where a lot of the developed world's e-waste is sent, EMPA said.

EMPA is the research institute for material science and technology of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology.

ILLEGAL SHIPMENTS

The study predicted that mobile phone waste in China would be about seven times higher than 2007 levels by 2020, while in India it would be about 18 times higher.

The report advocated transporting some e-waste, such as circuit boards and batteries, from poorer countries to OECD-level countries better equipped to dispose of them properly.

Indonesian environment minister Gusti Muhammad Hatta said in a speech on Monday that Indonesia was vulnerable to illegal trafficking in hazardous waste.

Jim Puckett from the U.S.-based NGO Basel Action Network, which tracks illegal trafficking in e-waste, said Indonesian authorities recently discovered a shipment of nine 40-foot shipping containers of e-waste that had been sent from the U.S. state of Massachusetts.

"They were full of hand-stacked cathode ray tubes, computer monitors, basically. It was old junk that people wanted to get rid of because everyone wants flat-screens now," he said.

He said Indonesian authorities sent the shipment back.

If properly managed, though, e-waste represented a business opportunity, said Konrad Osterwalder, rector of the United Nations University.

"This report outlines smart new technologies and mechanisms which, combined with national and international policies, can transform waste into assets, creating new businesses with decent green jobs.

"In the process, countries can help cut pollution linked with mining and manufacturing, and with the disposal of old devices," he said.

(Editing by David Fogarty and Bill Tarrant)

The Big Question: How big is the problem of electronic waste, and can it be tackled?
Michael McCarthy, The Independent 24 Feb 10;

Why are we asking this now?

Because yesterday the UN issued a new report on electronic waste, highlighting the danger from "rocketing" sales of mobile phones, PCs and electronic appliances, in the developing countries especially.

What danger is that?

Modern electronic devices might look clean, sleek and spotless on the outside, but inside they contain a lot of materials used in manufacture which are potentially hazardous to human health. Typical ones are PVC (polyvinyl chloride) plastic, used as an insulator with internal cabling, and brominated flame retardants, chemicals used to laminate printed circuit boards to prevent them catching fire.

Most of these substances can be disposed of safely, but considerable investment in waste-handling infrastructure is needed to do so, and in the past, many countries, especially the US, have declined to make the investment and instead taken the "out of sight, out of mind" attitude, and simply shipped their e-waste abroad, usually to developing nations such as China and India. There, instead of being properly processed, appliances are either dumped in unmanaged landfills or broken up for scrap in unofficial recycling facilities – not infrequently by children.

But why break up dangerous waste?

Electronic goods don't just contain hazardous substances – they contain valuable substances as well. A device such as a laptop may contain as many as 60 different elements – many valuable, some dangerous, some both. To poor people in the developing countries, there can be real money in a discarded computer or mobile phone. Copper wire is just the start of it. Mobiles and PCs are now estimated to take up three per cent of the gold and silver mined worldwide each year, 13 per cent of the palladium and 15 per cent of the cobalt, as well as substantial amounts of very rare metals such as hafnium. But trying to recover these can pose real hazards, as substantial plumes of toxic pollution, for example, can be produced by backyard incineration. And the concern is, the stream of e-waste is growing ever larger around the world.

How big is the e-waste stream?

A couple of years ago the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) estimated that, worldwide, between 20 and 50 million tonnes of electrical and electronic goods which had come to the end of their lives were being thrown away every year. The latest UNEP report now estimates the annual total at 40 billion tonnes, with America in the lead, producing 3m tonnes domestically every year, followed by China with 2.3m tonnes. (The UK total is thought to be more than 1m tonnes, about 15 per cent of the EU total – it is the fastest-growing waste stream in Britain). But more important, the figure is starting to soar upwards, especially with a gigantic surge of disposable electronics use in the developing countries.

What sort of goods, and in what sort of numbers?

Globally more than a billion mobile phones were sold in 2007, up from 896m in 2006 (In many parts of Africa telephone communications have skipped the landline stage and gone from no phones, to mobile phones, in one step). In the US alone, more than 150m mobiles and pagers were sold in 2008, up from 90m five years earlier. The waste streams are correspondingly burgeoning, and the new UN report focuses on China, India and the other relatively poor but expanding economies.

In China, for example, the report predicts that by 2020, e-waste from old computers will have jumped by 200 to 400 percent from 2007 levels, and the same holds true for South Africa, while the figure for India is a staggering 500 per cent. By that same year in China, e-waste from discarded mobile phones will be about 7 times higher than 2007 levels and, in India, 18 times higher, while e-waste from televisions will be 1.5 to 2 times higher in China and India, and in India e-waste from discarded refrigerators will double or triple. Add to that the vast amounts of e-waste that are still being imported from countries such as the US, and you have a quite colossal e-waste mountain in prospect, with its corresponding dangers for human health and the environment. "The issue is exploding," says Ruediger Kuehr, of the United Nations University in Tokyo.

What can we do about it?

The first thing to do is recognise the problem. The electronics revolution of the past 30 years has seemed different in kind from the original industrial revolution, characterised by smokestacks belching very obvious filth; it has seemed clean, green and lean. But we have gradually come to realise that in two ways in particular, modern hi-tech can be bad for the planet too. The first is its energy use; so enormous is the worldwide scale of IT that electronics now accounts for fully two per cent of global carbon emissions, which about the same as aviation, whose emissions have become highly controversial. The second is the hardware, when it comes to the end of its natural life, which increasingly, is pretty short. We have been largely ignorant of this increasingly important waste stream, so much so that a Greenpeace report on e-waste two years ago referred to it as "the hidden flow". We need to be aware of it.

Once we've recognised the problem, then what?

The European Union has shown the way by adopting a key principle: producer responsibility – that is, make the producers of electronic goods responsible for their disposal at the end of their lives. This is enshrined in the European Union's WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) directive of 2002 which is now law in Britain and across the EU. In practice, it means that electronics retailers must either take back the equipment they sold you, or help to finance a network or drop-off points, such as council recycling sites. There have been some problems with the directive's initial operation, but its main feature is impressive in its ambition: it aims to deal with "everything with a plug".

Has producer responsibility been adopted elsewhere?

Hardly at all as yet, and the EU is very much in the vanguard. The US did nothing in terms of federal legislation during the George W Bush years, and such rules as exist are implemented by the states, such as California. The new UN report suggests that all countries should start to establish proper e-waste management networks, which could not only cut down on health problems but generate employment, cut greenhouse gas emissions and recover a wide range of valuable substances from gold to copper.

Is there anything else that can be done?

Yes: design the problem out. Groups such as Greenpeace have led the way in putting pressure on companies like Apple to find substitutes for the toxic chemicals inside their products, and have had some success in forcing them to develop non-toxic alternatives. This may be the real way forward.

Is the rising tide of e-waste going to swamp us?

Yes...

* Once we recognise the problem, it becomes possible to deal with it, and the need is paramount
* The adoption of producer responsibility for disposal, as championed by the EU, is a major step forward
* Some of the hazards can actually be designed out, and that must be a priority for manufacturers

No...

* The growth of the global e-waste stream is becoming simply too large to handle
* In many countries there are no incentives to install official recycling schemes
* Informal recycling is so large in countries such as China that it will hamper official schemes
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Small family farms in tropics can feed the hungry and preserve biodiversity

University of Michigan, EurekAlert 22 Feb 10;

ANN ARBOR, Mich.---Conventional wisdom among many ecologists is that industrial-scale agriculture is the best way to produce lots of food while preserving biodiversity in the world's remaining tropical forests. But two University of Michigan researchers reject that idea and argue that small, family-owned farms may provide a better way to meet both goals.

In many tropical zones around the world, small family farms can match or exceed the productivity of industrial-scale operations, according to U-M researchers Ivette Perfecto and John Vandermeer. At the same time, smaller diversified farms are more likely to help preserve biodiversity in tropical regions undergoing massive amounts of deforestation, Perfecto and Vandermeer conclude in a paper to be published online Feb. 22 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

"Most of the tropical forest that's left is fragmented, and what you have are patches of forest surrounded by agriculture," said Perfecto, a professor at the School of Natural Resources and Environment. "If you want to maintain biodiversity in those patches of forest, then the key is to allow organisms to migrate between the patches.

"And small-scale family farms that adopt sustainable agricultural technologies are more likely to favor migration of species than a huge, monocultural plantation of soybeans or sugar cane or some other crop."

Some ecologists have suggested that the history of eastern North American forests provides a preview of what's likely to happen in the tropics. European colonization of eastern North America led to massive deforestation that accompanied the expansion of agriculture. Later, industrialization drew people to cities from the rural areas, and the forests recovered.

This scenario is known as the forest transition model. It has been argued that if a similar progression occurs in the tropics, then the decline in rural populations would make more land potentially available for conservation. A corollary of the forest transition model states that if you consolidate agriculture into large, high-tech farms, productivity increases and more land is freed up for conservation.

But after reviewing case studies from Costa Rica, El Salvador, Panama, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico, Perfecto and Vandermeer conclude "there is little to suggest that the forest transition model is useful for the tropics" and that it "projects an overly optimistic vision."

Instead, the U-M researchers propose an alternative model, which they call the matrix quality model. They say it provides a solid foundation for conservation planning in tropical regions.

If you think of the fragments of remaining tropical forest as islands in an ocean of agriculture, the ocean is what Perfecto and Vandermeer call the matrix---it's the area between the patches of undisturbed natural habitat.

A high-quality matrix is one that enables plants and animals to migrate between the remaining patches of forest, increasing the likelihood that a given species will be able to survive, helping to preserve biodiversity.

Small, family-owned farms that use agroecological techniques come closest to mimicking natural forest habitat, thereby creating corridors that allow plants and animals to migrate between forest fragments. Agroecological techniques can include the use of biological controls instead of pesticides, the use of compost or other organic matter instead of chemical fertilizers, and the use of agroforestry methods, which involve growing crops beneath a canopy of trees or growing crops mixed with fruit trees such as mangoes or avocados.

"If you're really interested in conserving species, you should not just concentrate on preserving the fragments of natural habitat that remain, even though that's where many species are," said Vandermeer, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and a professor at the School of Natural Resources and Environment. "You also need to concentrate on the areas between the fragments, because those are the places that species have to migrate through."

Vandermeer said he advocates the break-up of large-scale farms in the tropics, as well as incentives to encourage "a large number of small-scale farmers, each managing the land to the best of his or her ability, using agroecological techniques."

Perfecto said these goals are in line with the findings of the 2009 International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development synthesis report. The report concluded that small-scale, sustainable farms are the best way to alleviate world hunger while promoting sustainable development. Perfecto was one of the report's authors.

###

The PNAS article by Perfecto and Vandermeer is part of a special report in the journal about solutions to the world food crisis. Perfecto, Vandermeer and Angus Wright discuss the links between agriculture, conservation and food sovereignty in their book "Nature's Matrix," published last year by Earthscan.

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Orangutan survival and the shopping trolley

BBC News 22 Feb 10;

The challenge of saving the orangutan - man's closest relative - from extinction is trickling down to the weekly shop.

Many of the biscuits, margarines, breads, crisps and even bars of soap that consumers pick off supermarket shelves contain an ingredient that is feeding a growth industry that conservationists say is killing the orangutans.

The mystery ingredient in the mix is palm oil - the cheapest source of vegetable oil available - and one that rarely appears on the label of most products.

Palm oil is grown on land that was once home to the vast rainforests of Borneo, and the natural habitat of the orangutan.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature estimates that the population has declined by 50% in recent decades and the Indonesian government admits that 50,000 orangutans have died as a result of de-forestation.

A BBC Panorama investigation into clear-cutting in Indonesian Borneo - the island it shares with Malaysia - found that the thirst for land on which to plant palm plantations is encroaching on areas that the Indonesian government has deemed to be off-limits.

'Nuisance'

The orangutans, displaced as the trees of old-growth forests are burned and at times killed by workers who see them as a nuisance in the logging process, are not the only victims of the runaway growth in palm oil - scientists say there is a wider environmental price being paid.

Greenpeace has identified the draining of ancient peat lands to make way for palm oil as a global threat, saying it had lead to massive amounts of trapped methane and carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere.

As a result, Indonesia is the world's third largest emitter of greenhouse gases, behind only America and China.



Using GPS technology and satellite imaging, the BBC team pinpointed exact locations where palm oil giant the Duta Palma Group is logging on both high conservation lands and deep peat lands - both are illegal.

Shailendra Yashwant, Greenpeace director for Southeast Asia, said this illegal logging is widespread and includes major suppliers to the UK's food and household product market.

"We want the Indonesian government to immediately announce a moratorium on further deforestation…beginning with peat lands."

Willie Smits, a former advisor to the Indonesian Ministry of Forestry turned environmental campaigner, said of the findings: "This is criminal, this should not take place. It means there is no hope left for the most endangered sub-species of the orang-utan in west Kalamantan."

He said the wider environmental issue of greenhouse gases can no longer be overlooked by both manufacturers and everyday consumers.

"This is not just a matter for Indonesia to decide, this is a matter for the world."

'Greenwash'

The palm industry - valued at £5bn ($7.7bn) for Indonesia - is the country's third biggest export earner.

Many of the big manufacturers who buy that oil via European wholesalers say that while they are starting to find oil from sustainable sources, they are not yet in a position to trace the origin of all of the oil they use.

Currently, only 3% of the world's palm oil is certified sustainable, meaning it comes from plantations that pass an environmental and social impact test.

Many have joined the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) scheme set up to promote certification of where palm oil originates.

Others have set ambitious goals to use sustainable oil by 2015 or earlier, but Greenpeace's Shailendra Yashwant said the RSPO amounts to a "greenwash" because those commitments are unenforceable on the ground.

Bulk oil from a variety of plantations - including that of Duta Palma Group that the BBC found to be illegally clear-cutting - is mixed together and shipped around the world and sold on to manufacturers behind everyday products.

Duta Palma declined to comment on the BBC's evidence of illegal deforestation.

Consumer pressure

Hilary Benn, the Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, told Panorama the time is right for consumers to put pressure on manufacturers, demanding to know which of their products contain palm oil and assurances that it comes from a sustainable source.

Current labelling laws allow manufacturers to list palm oil as 'vegetable' oil, without singling out the palm oil content.

Many manufacturers, including industry giants Unilever and Proctor and Gamble, say their recipes can change and the amounts and types of oils they use can vary from week to week, making more detailed labels unworkable.

However, Sainsbury's supermarkets had earlier taken the decision to not only single out palm oil on the ingredients lists of their own-brand products, but to state directly that it is from a sustainable source.

Recently Unilever, the UK's largest user of palm oil in products that range from Dove soap to Pot Noodles, Knorr soups and Flora, terminated a large contract with a supplier called Sinar Mas, because of reports it was destroying high conservation value forests.

Unilever has told Panorama that while it may have used oil from Duta Palma in the past, it intends to overcome its supply system problems so that it no longer uses oil from the producer.

Secretary Benn said: "I think it's really about what consumers can do because the most powerful message that can be sent to companies is from their consumers about what it is they want to buy," he told reporter Raphael Rowe, citing the demand for free range eggs in the UK as an example of consumer influence.

Mr Benn said the participation by UK retailers and manufacturers in the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil is a step towards ensuring that palm oil is traceable and therefore increases the chances that it can be certified sustainable.

Panorama: Dying for a Biscuit, BBC One, Monday, 22 February at 2030GMT.

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Breakneck development blamed for Madeira flood toll

Levi Fernandes Yahoo News 22 Feb 10;

LISBON (AFP) – Three decades of breakneck development and rogue urban planning are to blame for the heavy toll from weekend flash floods on Portugal's tourist island of Madeira, environmentalists said Monday.

Portugal was in mourning after torrents of muddy water swamped the mountainous Atlantic island on Saturday, killing 42 people and injuring scores more as the flooding demolished houses and overturned cars.

But for green groups and construction experts, Madeira was left vulnerable to a flood disaster by careless development.

"What happened in Madeira is a textbook example of the dangers of bad urban planning," agreed Ricardo Ribeiro, head of a Portuguese association of public safety technicians.

The Portuguese island, which lies 500 kilometres (300 miles) off the Moroccan coast, has undergone a spectacular modernisation in the past 30 years, largely thanks to European Union funds to channelled to poor, outlying regions.

Tourists from northern Europe flock each year to its capital Funchal, now a small city of 100,000 people boasting waterfront luxury hotels and holiday resorts and state-of-the-art infrastructure.

To cater for the tourism boom, a four-lane highway now runs a ring around the island of 57 by 22 kilometres, while critics says dozens of road tunnels have turned Madeira into a concrete "Swiss cheese."

Green groups have long accused the island's president since 1978, Alberto Joao Jardim, of promoting sprawl with little regard for environmental safety.

For Helder Spinola of the Quercus green group, "heavy rains are not the only explanation for the disaster."

"Planning mistakes made the situation worse," he charged.

Hundreds of buildings have sprung up on land prone to flooding, he says, while the concreting-over of much of Madeira's coast now prevents water from seeping into the soil, making the flood risk worse.

Building roads, high-rise hotels and infrastructure near Madeira's waterways has "waterproofed the soil with concrete and tarmac," he says, a problem particularly acute in the south where most of its 250,000 inhabitants live.

None of the three main rivers that cross Madeira are able to run freely into the surrounding soil, he says.

On Saturday, "these waterways became water cannons sweeping away bridges and buildings," said Portuguese far-left politician Francisco Louca.

Joao Carlos Silva, an opposition Socialist lawmaker in the Madeira regional assembly, also took aim at the "chaotic urbanisation" in and around Funchal, claiming to have repeatedly warned the authorities of the flood risk.

Maderia's regional authorities declined to comment on the accusations, dismissed as "ridiculous" by Funchal's mayor Miguel Albuquerque who said the disaster was caused by "an exceptional weather phenomenon."

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Climate Change Melts Antarctic Ice Shelves: USGS

Deborah Zabarenko, PlanetArk 23 Feb 10;

WASHINGTON - Climate change is melting the floating ice shelves along the Antarctic Peninsula, giving scientists a preview of what could happen if other ice shelves around the southern continent disappear, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said on Monday.

The ice has retreated so far from the land mass that Charcot Island, which has long been connected to the peninsula by an ice bridge, emerged as a real island again last year, a USGS scientist said.

"This is the first time since people have been observing the area, since the 1800s, that that ice shelf has not hitched together Charcot Island and the peninsula," scientist Jane Ferrigno said in a telephone interview.

The Antarctic Peninsula extends further northward than the rest of the roughly circular ice-covered continent, and it is warmer than the rest of Antarctica. But even in the peninsula's coldest, southern part, ice shelves are vanishing.

Research by the USGS was the first to show that every ice front on the southern section of the peninsula has been retreating from 1947 to 2009, with the most dramatic changes since 1990.

A study of the phenomenon by the USGS in collaboration with the British Antarctic Survey and assistance from the Scott Polar Research Institute and Germany's Bundesamt fur Kartographie and Geodasie was posted at pubs.usgs.gov/imap/i-2600-c/ in February; a statement was released on Monday.

ICE SHELVES ACT AS GLACIER DAMS

Ice shelves act as dams to keep land-based glaciers from flowing unimpeded into the sea; when ice shelves melt, glaciers can move more quickly into ocean waters.

If all the land-based ice in Antarctica melted, scientists have estimated sea levels worldwide could rise from 213 to 240 feet, according to the study. If just the ice in West Antarctica melted, there would be a sea level rise of about 20 feet, threatening coastal communities and low-lying islands.

The land-based ice on the Antarctic peninsula is not enough to fuel a major rise in sea level, Ferrigno said. However, the dramatic disappearance of ice shelves there could give a clue of what could happen when glaciers are free to flow seaward.

This is important because the Antarctic ice sheet contains 91 percent of Earth's glacier ice, Ferrigno said.

Unlike Antarctic land-based ice, the ice that covers much of the Arctic Ocean would not contribute to sea level rise if it all melted, in much the way that a melting ice cube in a glass of water would not make the glass overflow.

But both the Arctic and Antarctic have major impact on weather in the temperate parts of the world.

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Climate meeting in April aims at reviving UN process

Yahoo News 22 Feb 10;

COPENHAGEN (AFP) – Talks will take place in April under the UN flag for planning the next steps in the effort toward a global treaty on climate change, Danish Minister for Climate and Energy Lykke Friis said Monday.

The April 9-11 meeting will take place in Bonn gathering senior officials of signatories of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), said Friis, whose country currently chairs the negotiating process.

The date was set at a meeting of the UNFCCC bureau, tasked with drawing up a calendar of meetings for 2010 in the aftermath of the controversial climate summit in Copenhagen in December, the Danish news agency Ritzau said.

Negotiators will be asked to sketch out a work programme for the end of the year, it said.

The December meeting yielded a last-minute compromise deal brokered by around two dozen countries but it failed to get official backing from the entire forum.

The so-called Copenhagen Accord sets a goal of limiting warming to two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) and pledges nearly 30 billion dollars in aid to poor countries in total by 2012.

But it does not spell out the means for achieving the 2C (3.6 F) objective, and the emissions pledges made under it are only voluntary.

Green groups and scientists say the document falls far short of what is necessary for tackling the problem posed by greenhouse gases.

The document did not gain approval at a UNFCCC plenary session and so far has not been officially endorsed by major developing emitters which helped craft it.

As a result, there is confusion as to how the accord fits into the highly complex two-track, 194-nation process. Some negotiators privately say the deal has little future other than as a benchmark of political will.

The April meeting adds to the two other scheduled dates in the UNFCCC calendar this year.

One meeting will take at the level of senior officials in Bonn from May 31-June 11. The next, likewise starting at the official level but ending at ministerial level, will take place in Mexico from November 29-December 10.

Bonn to host extra U.N. climate talks, treaty unsure
Reuters 22 Feb 10;

OSLO (Reuters) - Germany will host an extra session of U.N. climate talks in April but it is too early to say if the world will agree a new treaty this year after falling short at a summit in Copenhagen in December, Denmark said on Monday.

"The negotiations are picking up speed again after Copenhagen," Danish Climate and Energy Minister Lykke Friis, who presides over the U.N. negotiations, told Reuters by telephone.

She said that 11 representatives of key nations decided at a one-day meeting at the headquarters of the Bonn-based U.N. Climate Change Secretariat to add an extra session of senior officials from 194 nations in the Germany city from April 9-11.

"There was a positive and constructive atmosphere and all parties were eager to move forward with the negotiations," she said of the first formal meeting since Copenhagen.

Until now, the calendar had been limited to a session of officials in Bonn from May 31-June 11 and ministerial talks in Cancun, Mexico from November 29-December 10. That was a sharp slowdown from the five preparatory talks last year before Copenhagen.

Friis said she was unsure if U.N. talks would end this year with a new U.N. treaty to combat global warming and succeed the existing Kyoto Protocol. "We are working for an agreement in Cancun but it's too early to say," she said.

TREATY

Last year, many nations had hoped that the Copenhagen summit would agree a legally binding treaty to slow rising emissions of greenhouse gases blamed by the U.N.'s panel of climate experts for floods, droughts, mudslides, heatwaves and rising seas.

The summit ended with the non-binding Copenhagen Accord, which seeks to limit a rise in temperatures to less than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 F) above pre-industrial times. It also promised $10 billion a year in aid from 2010-12, rising to $100 billion a year from 2020.

The April meeting, of senior government officials, would be preceded by one-day preparatory talks among key groups of nations. The April talks would also decide if more U.N. meetings were needed before Cancun.

Many nations have become gloomy about Mexico, partly because U.S. carbon-capping legislation seems stalled in the Senate. President Barack Obama wants to cut U.S. emissions by 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020, or 4 percent below 1990 levels.

In Nusa Dua, Indonesia, the head of the U.N. Environment Programme said developing nations could be able to apply within three months for some of the $30 billion in climate aid promised by rich nations for 2010-12 under the Copenhagen Accord.

Rules for disbusing aid are unclear in the Accord and Achim Steiner said that one developing nation recently asked him if there was a phone number to ring to ask about the cash.

"If, in three months' time, there still isn't a phone number then I expect that part of the accord to be in trouble, but I expect there to be one," he said in an interview on the sidelines of a major U.N. environment conference in Nusa Dua, on the Indonesian island of Bali.

(With extra reporting by David Fogarty in Singapore and Sunanda Creagh in Nusa Dua, Indonesia; editing by Jon Boyle)

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