Butterfly of the Month - November 2010 - Tawny Palmfly
from Butterflies of Singapore
A Post Featuring Many Many Swallows ft. Barn Swallows!
from Trek through Paradise
Do we really need water filters 2?
from Water Quality in Singapore
The Biodiversity Crew On Alltop
from The Biodiversity crew @ NUS
Mark Kinver, BBC News 19 Nov 10;
Farming rare animal species will not halt the illegal trade in animal parts, a conservation group has warned.
Care for the Wild says the fact that the animals are worth more dead than alive is hampering efforts to save species such as tigers and rhinos.
They add that selling parts from captive-bred creatures would not result in a halt of illegally traded animal parts and would instead fuel demand.
A kilo of powdered rhino horn can fetch £22,000 on the black market.
Mark Jones, programmes director of Care for the Wild International, said recent media reports suggested that the South African government was considering "a feasibility study on some kind of farming or ranching of rhinos for their horns".
"This flagged up that these sort of farming initiatives are still being considered at quite high levels," he explained.
"Rhinos are in quite a lot of trouble at the moment, with the value of their horns going through the roof, especially in Vietnam."
Media coverage in 2009 reported that a member of the Vietnamese government said he took rhino horn and his cancer went into remission, prompting a growth in the demand for the illegal product.
"The sums that are being paid for powdered rhino horn are just astronomical."
There are two species of rhino found in Africa. While the white rhino (Ceratotherium simum) has enjoyed a surge in numbers in recent years, taking the population to about 17,500, it is a very different story for the northern sub-species Ceratotherium simum cottoni.
It is listed as Critically Endangered, and conservationists have warned that it is on the "brink of extinction" with four or fewer individuals remaining.
More than 200 rhinos have been killed in South Africa for their horns since the beginning of this year. This week, the nation's defence minister told BBC News that troops would be deployed to help rangers fight poachers.
Horn of hope
Mr Jones added: "One of the issues we have is that the white rhino population (not sub-species) in South Africa/Swaziland is on Appendix II of Cites, which means some export is allowable.
"Also, China has been buying quite large numbers of live rhinos from South Africa in recent times, and there is concern that some people within China may be setting up rhino horn harvesting.
"An awful lot of people from Vietnam, in particular, seem to be coming over to shoot rhinos and take the horns home as trophies.
"Yet, they don't seem to have much interest or history in hunting but appear to have an awful lot of history in getting the horn out of the country."
The Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites) is a global framework designed to regulate the global commercial sale of wild species.
If a species is listed as Appendix I, such as tigers, this means that no commercial exports are permitted. However, Cites has no jurisdiction within national borders.
The idea of farming threatened species, through captive breeding programmes, is not new. Bear bile farms have been in operation in East Asia for three decades.
The practice involves caged bears being fitted with tubes that allows the bile from the animals' stomachs to be extracted and legally sold.
"Putting the welfare issues of the practice to one side, there is absolutely no evidence coming out of China that Asiatic black bear (Ursus thibetanus) populations are stabilising or increasing," Mr Jones told BBC News.
"Another example is turtle farming, which is arguably a multi-billion dollar industry. Populations of freshwater turtles in China and beyond continue to decline.
"Even the supply of very, very large numbers of turtles from the farms does not seem to be having any positive impact on the conservation of wild populations."
Probably the most controversial topic involves farming tigers. Campaigners suggest that for every one of the estimated 3,500 wild tiger alive in the world today, there may be three farmed tigers in China.
China banned the trade in tiger bones and products in 1993, but wildlife monitoring groups say that has not stopped the practice.
A recent report by Traffic estimated that 1,000 of the big cats were illegally killed in the past decade to meet the demand for tiger parts.
In an effort to protect the world's remaining wild population, a tiger summit begins on Sunday in St Petersburg, Russia, with the aim of drawing up a road map to ensure the species is not wiped off the face of the Earth.
Campaigners are not hopeful that Chinese representatives will engage with other delegates on the topic of tiger farms.
Farming fears
Farming rare species, it is argued, could help protect dwindling populations because it would meet the demand for parts of threatened species without the need to kill wild individuals.
"On the face of it, it does seem like a logical argument," said Mr Jones.
"But for many people, there is a perception that products from wild animals is better than that from farmed or ranched animals, or animals that are kept in captivity."
As a result, increasingly affluent people are willing to pay a premium for products from wild-caught specimens.
He explained that there was no simple answer to ending the illegal hunting of threatened wild animals, especially when the species commanded a high value.
"It is complex, but we are talking about the establishment of good legal provisions to protect species in their home range countries, and the adequate enforcement of those laws," Mr Jones observed.
"You also have to consider education programmes to inform the public of the illegality of poaching these animals, but also the value of the live animals to the ecosystem in which they live.
"If you remove a species from a particular ecosystem, then the system changes and usually diminishes."
Antara 19 Nov 10;
Bengkulu (ANTARA News) - Three Sumatra rhinoceroses (dicerorhinus sumatrensis) a few years ago known to be living in their habitat in Bengkulu province have now disappeared and might have migrated to neighboring Jambi province, according to a conservationist.
"Those rare animals have been the target of poachers so they are not safe in the national park and, we think, they have migrated to Kerinci Seblat national park (TNKS) in Jambi," said Andi Basrul, head of Bengkulu`s Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA) here on Friday.
Basrul said in 2005 there were at least three rhinos living in Bengkulu forests but the local rhino patrol unit (RPU), which closely monitors the most endangered animals, cannot see them any longer these days. The unit had now been disbanded for failure in performing its task and replaced by a "rescue team."
The failure of the unit to carry out its task was based on the fact that the number of rhinos in their habitat in Bengkulu had dwindled drastically from about 40-60 in 1992 to about just 2-3 in 2004 and zero in 2010, Basrul said.
Basrul emphasized that rhinos were the most sought after animals by poachers because their tusks fetched a high price in the market.
The Sumatran rhino, the most endangered of all rhinoceros species, is fast approaching extinction with its population at one of its last reserves in Indonesia dropping by 90 percent in 14 years to 50, an official said Sunday.
The directorate for forest protection and nature conservation, forestry ministry had the data there were about 50 rhinos inside TNSK in 2005, from around 500 rhinos in 1990.
Bengkulu shares part of the national park that is the country`s largest national reserve, straddling four provinces on Sumatra island -- West Sumatra, Jambi, Bengkulu and South Sumatra and being one of the last reserves for the small and hairy Sumatran rhinoceros.
The International Rhino Foundation has estimated there are fewer than 300 Sumatran rhinos surviving in very small and highly fragmented populations in Southeast Asia with Indonesia and Malaysia being home to most.
(Uu.KR-VFT/HAJM/H-YH/P003)
Yahoo News 19 Nov 10;
JOHANNESBURG (AFP) – South African wildlife officials have found 18 rhino carcasses dumped by poachers in a remote area with their horns removed, a spokesman for the northern province of Limpopo said Friday.
The carcasses were discovered during a game census when a helicopter flew over an area near Kruger National Park, the country's largest wildlife reserve, said Joshua Kwapa, the province's environment and tourism spokesman.
Kwapa said the rhinos appear to have been killed between 2005 and 2008.
"All of them have been de-horned. Obviously this is a devastating incident. We were very shocked following the discovery," he told AFP.
Rhino poaching in South Africa has escalated sharply, driven by demand for rhino horn in Asia, where it is used as a traditional medicine.
The national parks agency says 261 rhinos have been poached this year, up from 122 in 2009.
* Russia to host high-level tiger forum
* Just 3,200 tigers left in the wild - WWF
* Russian PM Putin to meet Chinese counterpart
Alissa de Carbonnel Reuters AlertNet 19 Nov 10;
MOSCOW, Nov 19 (Reuters) - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, China's premier Wen Jiabao and other world leaders will hold an unprecedented summit next week in a last ditch effort to save the tiger from extinction.
Just 3,200 tigers now roam free, down from 100,000 a century ago, and those that remain face a losing battle with poachers who supply traders in India and China with tiger parts for traditional medicines and purported aphrodisiacs.
The leaders are expected to endorse an initiative by the World Bank and wildlife charity WWF aimed at doubling the tiger population by 2022, the next Year of the Tiger under the Chinese calendar.
"For the first time we have world leaders coming together focused on saving a single species," Jim Leap, international director general of the WWF told reporters on Thursday.
Putin, who is hosting the "tiger summit" with officials from 13 tiger range nations, will try to thrash out a deal aimed at turning the tables on poachers. China's Wen and the prime ministers of Bangladesh and Laos are among those expected.
"The summit may be the last chance for the tiger. Tigers are vanishing," World Bank President Robert Zoellick told reporters on a conference call ahead of the gathering, which he will attend in Russia's former imperial capital of St Petersburg.
"We need to see poachers behind bars, not tigers," he said. "If we can't save the tiger, which almost every human being knows from an early age, than what is the likelihood we are going to be able to save any other species?"
The bid to halt poaching, loss of habitat and tiger-parts trafficking will cost about $350 million over five years. Securing funding for the 12-year cross border plan will be one of the main aims of the conference, according to the WWF.
On the eve of the forum, a rare Siberian Amur Tiger was found dead from poachers' bullets in Russia's Far Eastern region of Primorsky, highlighting the greatest threat to the tigers.
Only 300 to 400 wild Amur Tigers remain, according to the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW).
"This crime is a wake up call," IFAW's Russia director Masha Vorontsova said in a statement. "We can't save the tigers unless we combat rampant poaching, which is the single greatest threat to the survival of this species.
Putin, Russia's most powerful man, was feted by Russian media in 2008 for saving a television crew from a Siberian tiger by sedating the beast with a tranquilliser gun.
A study by the WWF and wildlife trade watchdog Traffic this month said more than 1,000 tigers have been killed over the last decade for illegal trade, an average of 104 to 119 tigers a year. The groups said this was probably a fraction of the total.
India, home to half the world's wild tiger population, is the centre of the trade with the most seizures of tiger parts, followed by China, where demand is rampant for tiger parts used in traditional medicines and as aphrodisiacs.
Tiger skins can fetch thousands of dollars on the Chinese black market, though just 1,000 breeding females remain in the wild, surviving on barely 7 percent of their historic range.
Yet Leap of the WWF said it was not too late to save them.
"The good news about tigers is that they are cats and that means that if you protect them, if you provide them space and food, meaning prey, they will come back: They are prolific breeders." (Editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Peter Graff)
India under spotlight at tiger conservation conference
Rupam Jain Nair Yahoo News 19 Nov 10;
NEW DELHI (AFP) – Efforts to save the tiger, set to be addressed at a conference in Russia next week, will depend in large part on the effectiveness of the shield India has tried to throw over the animal.
The country is home to more than half of the world's rapidly dwindling wild tigers, but even its conservation programme, said by the government to be the world's most comprehensive, has failed to halt the creature's decline.
In the land that inspired Rudyard Kipling's legendary Jungle Book stories -- featuring the cunning tiger protagonist Shere Khan -- authorities are in danger of losing their battle against poachers and other man-made problems.
The picture is similar across the Asian region where one of nature's most revered hunters teeters on the brink of extinction.
"Despite all the efforts, we are still facing challenges at various levels to end the poaching problem," said Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh in New Delhi last week.
The tiger population in India has fallen to 1,411, from about 3,700 estimated to be alive in 2002 and the 40,000 estimated to be roaming across India at the time of independence from Britain in 1947.
"Besides poaching, the tiger in India faces new threats -- the destruction of its habitat due to industrial expansion, mining projects and construction of dams near protected reserves," Ramesh added.
The federal government in 2007 swung into action by setting up a new tiger protection force, chalked out some bold and urgent steps to end the poaching menace, and pledged to pump millions of dollars into the programme.
Authorities are also moving villages out of reserve areas to secure natural habitat for the tigers and are transferring animals from one reserve to another in a bid to boost populations.
A recent report by wildlife trade monitoring group TRAFFIC said parts from 1,000 tigers slain by poachers across Asia have been seized over the past decade.
"Tiger skins fetch anywhere around 11,000-21,000 US dollars and bones are sold for about 1,000 US dollars in China," said Rajesh Gopal, chairman of National Tiger Conservation Authority in New Delhi
"There is a huge demand for these items in China and poachers take all the risk to make high profits."
Across Asia, the tiger figures are alarming.
According to 2009 International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List, there are 70 tigers in Bhutan, 10-50 in Cambodia, about 40 in China, 300 in Malaysia, 100 in Myanmar, 350 in Russia, more than 250 in Thailand and fewer than 100 in Vietnam.
"There are just 3,200 tigers left across the world. This is a scary figure," Ramesh said last week ahead of the Global Tiger Summit in St Petersburg, which starts on Sunday.
Belinda Wright, director of the Wildlife Protection of India, is sceptical about the agenda of the summit, which will seek to double the number of tigers by 2020.
"It sounds very ambitious and positive that we will have 6,000 tigers in two decades, but tell me how will they do it without being able to save the existing ones?" Wright told AFP.
"Patchy intelligence gathering techniques across Asia and lack of cross-border commitment to end the sale of tiger parts has led to a collective failure," she said.
A major trafficking route begins in India and ends in China where tiger parts are highly prized as purported cures for a range of ailments and as aphrodisiacs.
India's porous border with neighbouring Nepal, home to 121 Royal Bengal tigers, acts as a smuggling corridor for poachers, who bribe poor forest dwellers to guide them through the dense jungles.
Earlier this year the Nepalese government pledged to double the number of tigers, but campaigners say the deeply impoverished country lacks the funding to carry through on the promise.
In Bangladesh, another of India's neighbours, chief wildlife conservator Tapan Kumar Dey says tiger numbers have risen since 2004, when a United Nations-funded census found 440, but this is disputed by some observers.
Dey said doubling the tiger population was impossible for Bangladesh.
"The unique mangrove eco-system, a tiger habitat, cannot be expanded to encourage more tigers, plus there is not enough food -- largely spotted deer -- to sustain an increased tiger population," he said.
Russia introduces ban on Korean Pine logging
WWF 19 Nov 10;
The Russian government has taken a huge step to save key Amur tiger habitats by banning Korean Pine logging, WWF says.
Just before the International Tiger Conservation Forum, which will take place Nov. 21-24 in St. Petersburg, the Russian government has adopted a new version of the list of tree and shrub species prohibited for timber logging, and included Korean Pine in the list.
“A ban on Korean Pine logging is the best gift for the Amur tiger in the Year of the Tiger”, says Igor Chestin, CEO of WWF-Russia. “Korean Pine has a crucial importance for tiger conservation: its cones are fodder for wild boars, and wild boars are tiger’s prey”.
Korean Pine is important for tiger conservation
WWF-Russia included this ban in the list of top eight measures that must be taken in Russia for tiger conservation, which were presented to the Ministry of natural resources and environment of Russia in summer 2010.
The new version of the “List of species of trees and shrubs prohibited for timber logging”, which includes the Korean Pine, was approved on Aug. 2, 2010. However, it came into force only on Nov. 12 2010, when the Government cancelled the previous list, adopted on March 15, 2007.
Korean Pine harvest is important for at least 50 species, including the wild boar, one of the main prey species of the Amur tiger. Korean Pine forests played a key role in Amur tiger conservation during the drastic decline in its population (down to just 30 animals) on the Sihote-Alin in the first half of the 20th century.
In 2007, Korean Pine forests received an almost mortal blow – the new Forest Code of Russia cancelled the ban on industrial Korean Pine logging. Taking into account that commercially valuable timber stocks are depleting, forest companies rushed to use the remaining available forests – the protection forests.
As a result, the largest amount of Korean Pine timber in history was exported from the Russian Far East in 2009, and according to WWF estimates, its harvesting exceeded the allowable limits by 2.5-3.7 times.
“Today, Korean Pine forests are in the worst condition in the recent history”, says Denis Smirnov, head of the Forest Program of WWF-Russia Amur branch.
“And half-measures could not save them from complete degradation. Widely announced plans of the regional forest departments and forestries to voluntarily reduce pine logging turned out to be empty promises made to divert the public and government attention from the problem. In this situation, the only adequate decision was to introduce a full ban on Korean Pine logging, and we have been insisting on it for three and a half years”.
The endangered Amur tiger, numbering fewer than 500 in the wild, is found primarily in southeastern Russia and northern China.
Denis D. Gray, Associated Press Yahoo News 19 Nov 10;
BANGKOK – Wildlife trafficking officials say they have reached a preliminary agreement with an ethnic minority group in Myanmar to close down markets where hundreds of poached tigers from across Asia are sold for use in purported medicines and aphrodisiacs in China.
The markets, in an area of northeastern Myanmar controlled by the Wa minority, are considered one of the world's hot spots for wildlife trafficking, and among the only places left where tiger parts are openly sold.
"Basically closing these markets will alleviate pressure on all of Southeast Asia's tiger populations because the sourcing is being done from areas as far away as India and Sumatra," said William Schaedla of the wildlife trade monitoring group TRAFFIC. "If we were to close these markets it would stop the drain on those source populations of tigers."
Schaedla, TRAFFIC's Southeast Asia director, spoke ahead of a "tiger summit" in St. Petersburg, Russia, aimed at saving the endangered species from extinction. There are believed to be as few as 3,200 wild tigers remaining, down from about 100,000 a century ago — a decline of 97 percent.
The Nov. 21-24 conference, hosted by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, will attempt to finalize a plan to double the number of tigers in the wild by 2022. It is being described as the first international meeting on a single wildlife species.
"If the markets are not closed, we will see the end of all tigers," Schaedla told a press conference Friday. None of the goals set at the St. Petersburg summit can be reached if the illegal wildlife trade in the Thailand-Myanmar-China border region is not stopped, he said.
A TRAFFIC report released Friday said in a decade-long investigation, hundreds of parts of more than 400 big cats were seen in the Myanmar-China border town of Mong La, controlled by the Wa, and Tachilek, on Myanmar's border with Thailand.
Some traders operated small warehouses with shelves of rolled-up tiger and leopard skins. Bones, paws, penises and teeth were also found, used for home decor, magic amulets and products advertised as health tonics and aphrodisiacs, the report said.
The wildlife trade is especially rife in the Wa region, with Chinese traders coming to Mong La to buy and eat wild animals, gamble and consort with prostitutes in what TRAFFIC investigators described as a "wild west" atmosphere. Tiger bone wine is a popular drink with those out for sex.
The Wa, who have forged a semiautonomous region and field a powerful army, have long been accused of massive drug trafficking.
"They're interested in establishing contact with the outside world, and this is a much less contentious issue than some of the other things that they're facing, such as human trafficking or drugs or some of the other crime issues. And it's perhaps also a much more straightforward issue for them to take care of," Schaedla said, explaining why the Wa may want to make a deal to shut down the markets.
Schaedla said he was cautiously optimistic the Wa could be trusted to keep the agreement with TRAFFIC, a joint program of WWF and the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Myanmar border markets act as deadly trade gateway for tigers
WWF 19 Nov 10;
Bangkok, Thailand—Black markets along Myanmar, Thailand and China’s shared borders play a crucial role facilitating the deadly illicit trade in tigers and other endangered species say TRAFFIC and WWF in the lead up to the International Tiger Conservation Forum starting Sunday in St Petersburg, Russia.
The report is accompanied by a short documentary called Closing a Deadly Gateway that illustrates the illegal trade described in the report. The film shows interviews with poachers and alarming footage of butchered tigers.
“With as few as 3,200 wild tigers worldwide, the ongoing large-scale trade documented in this report cannot be taken lightly. Illegal trade poses the most immediate and dire threat to the survival of tigers. Moreover, it puts all Asia’s big felines at serious risk,” noted TRAFFIC Southeast Asia Regional Director, William Schaedla.
“Wildlife laws in Myanmar and Thailand clearly prohibit trafficking in tigers and other big cats. We urge authorities to bring the full weight of the law to bear upon traffickers.”
Provincial markets and retail outlets at the Myanmar towns of Mong La, near the China border and Tachilek, on the Thai border, were found to play a pivotal role in the large scale distribution of big cat parts including whole skins, bones, paws, penises, and teeth. The products are transported by road and sea into China and Thailand or sold to Chinese nationals who cross the Myanmar border to gamble and consume exotic wildlife.
The report comes as tiger range State governments, including representatives from Myanmar, China, and Thailand, are expected to meet in St. Petersburg, Russia hosted by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
“A critical part of saving wild tigers must be to shut down the illegal trade in tiger parts,” said Michael Baltzer, head of WWF’s Tigers Alive initiative. “With all the tiger range countries convening this month in Russia for a groundbreaking summit on the future of the tiger, illegal trade such as this must stay front and centre in the negotiations.”
Findings point to a flourishing illegal trade in tigers and other wildlife through Myanmar that thrives despite national and international laws. The majority of this trade occurs in non-government controlled areas between northern Myanmar and southern China. The fact that these areas maintain their own governments not linked to Myanmar’s capital poses difficulty co-ordinating effective enforcement action.
“There is an urgent need to step up efforts if the region is to save its declining tiger populations. We need to enhance information gathering and ensure government and non-government agencies share information in transparent and timely ways from the local level to the regional scale,” said Peter Cutter, Coordinator for WWF Greater Mekong Region’s tiger conservation in Thailand.
Tiger populations in the Greater Mekong—an area that includes Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand and Viet Nam—have plummeted from an estimated 1,200 during the last Year of the Tiger in 1998 to about 350 today.
“Alarmingly, the landscape between Myanmar and Thailand holds the greatest hope for tiger population recovery in this region,” said Cutter, “but this can only happen if there are unprecedented and co-ordinated regional efforts to tackle illegal wildlife trade.”
The TRAFFIC/WWF report found whole animals as well as parts and derivatives are sourced within Myanmar and from Lao PDR, Thailand, Malaysia, India and Indonesia; then trafficked across national borders into non-government controlled areas in Myanmar. Wildlife traders in Myanmar’s non-government controlled areas reported that high profit margins, corrupt authorities and little fear of recrimination enables them to trade openly in prohibited wildlife. While local communities are sometimes involved, they are rarely major drivers of the illegal activities.
TRAFFIC Southeast Asia Director, William Schaedla, summarized the problem. “The area is struggling with governance and tigers are easy money for everyone from mafia types to anti-government opposition groups. Some of these players should be countered with direct enforcement actions. Others might be receptive to work through regional agreements and international bodies in order to address the problem.”
Marlowe Hood Yahoo News 19 Nov 10;
PARIS (AFP) – Japan took centre stage Friday at talks on the future of Atlantic bluefin tuna, issuing a call for negotiators to respect science and crack down on renegade fishing.
Facing declining stocks and over-exploitation of a fish prized in Japan as gourmet sashimi and sushi, Tokyo issued a sharp warning to bluefin-trawling nations on the Mediterranean rim.
Countries that fail to show they will honour catch limits "should not engage in fishing in 2011," chief delegate Masanori Miyahara told the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) in a closed-door session.
In an opening statement obtained by AFP, Miyahara was to propose a new rule whereby each party' "ability and plan" to monitor and police their catches of bluefin be first submitted to ICCAT's compliance committee.
The 48-member ICCAT, meeting in Paris until November 27, is charged with setting the rules and quotas for Atlantic fishing of bluefin.
It is also tasked with monitoring compliance, for which it has only a spotty record.
Until this year, the organisation has routinely ignored the catch limit recommendations of its own scientists. Even then, the more generous quotas set were often surpassed by a wide margin.
Industrial-scale fishing using huge trap nets during spawning season have helped drive down stocks by about 85 percent, marine biologists say.
Miyahara reminded delegates that Japan recently refused, for the first time, more than 3,000 tonnes in Atlantic bluefin shipments due to irregularities in documentation.
Tokyo would call for suspending fishing entirely if necessary, he told journalists before the plenary began.
"According to our reading, the science does not require that level of severe measure this year. But in future, if it is necessary, we are ready to take those measures," he said.
The bluefin debate pits dug-in economic interests against mounting concern that the gleaming, fatty fish is close to being wiped out as commercially viable species.
Japan consumes nearly 80 percent of all bluefin caught in the Atlantic and Mediterranean, and thus wield enormous influence in the talks here.
"Japan has the key, and the means to convince fishing countries to accept the necessary conservation measures," said Sergi Tudela, a fisheries expert at WWF Spain.
"The decision on bluefin will be an agreement between Japan and the European Union."
The head of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Jane Lubchenco, also underscored Japan's influence.
"Japan has an absolutely critical role to play," she told AFP. "It has a serious responsibility, and I think they take these issues very seriously."
Still, conservationists remain guarded in assessing Japan's new surge of vigilance in safeguarding the species.
"On tuna and sharks, what Japan is saying and putting in writing is great, now they have to deliver," said Sue Lieberman, policy director for the Pew Environment Group. "Much more needs to be done."
They also point out that Japanese companies -- notably industrial giant Mitsubishi -- have huge stockpiles of frozen bluefin, providing at least a two-year cushion if supplies are ruptured.
On Thursday, during a closed-door meeting in which compliance of ICCAT members was reviewed, a Japanese delegate criticized the poor performance of some nations, according to someone present.
"Countries that want to sell tuna to Japan had better start to work properly," said the source, who asked not to be named.
The meeting in Paris will set catch Atlantic bluefin catch limits for 2011. The 2010 quota was 13,500 tonnes.
The EU and the United States favour a "reduction" for next year, but have not specified by how much.
Conservationists say only a temporary ban on bluefin fishing can ensure a long-term recovery of the species.
US calls for reduction in bluefin tuna catch: official
Marlowe Hood Yahoo News 18 Nov 10;
PARIS (AFP) – The United States will push to further reduce fishing quotas for Atlantic bluefin tuna at a key multinational meeting, a senior official told AFP on Thursday.
"Given the serious overfishing that has happened in the past, we need to rebuild the stocks as rapidly as possible," said Jane Lubchenco, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The 48-member International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), convening in Paris through November 27, sets the rules and catch limits for Atlantic fisheries, and monitors compliance.
"Based on the scientific advice and the need for precaution, we believe that a reduction in the total allowable catch is appropriate for both the eastern and western stocks," she said in an interview.
ICCAT scientists calculate that extending the 2010 annual quota of 13,500 tonnes through 2013 would put the species on track for a 60-percent probability of reaching so-called "maximum sustainable yield" by 2022.
For Lubchenco, a 60 percent chance of success is not good enough. "It needs to go further than that," she said.
But just how deep those cuts should be, she would not say: "It is premature to put a number on the table. We are in the process of actual negotiations."
The US position echoes one adopted late Wednesday by the European Union after weeks of intense internal bickering among member states.
The compromise stance mandates the EU commissioner to seek a "stable or partially reduced quota" that could, according to one diplomat, shave 2,000 tonnes off the 2010 limit of 13,500.
In the run-up to the meeting, fishing nations led by France, Spain, Italy and Malta called for the 2010 cap to be rolled over for another year.
EU Fisheries commissioner Maria Damanaki, backed by Britain, wanted the quota slashed to 6,000 tonnes.
Conservation groups say industrial-scale tuna fishing in the Mediterranean, a spawning ground, should be suspended altogether.
ICCAT has allocated quotas for western bluefin since 1982, and for eastern stocks -- including in the Mediterranean -- since 1994.
While the western stock has stabilised thanks to strict enforcement efforts, eastern Atlantic bluefin numbers have plummeted 85 percent over three decades due to rampant overfishing, much of it illegal.
Until this year, ICCAT routinely set catch allowance for the eastern region far higher than those recommended by its own scientific committee.
Lubchenco said the organisation has recently taken key steps to "respect science" and crack down on cheating, but that there is still much room for progress.
"ICCAT needs to demonstrate that it's capable of making tough decisions and addressing the past failures of compliance," she said.
She also underscored the key position of Japan, which consumes nearly 80 percent of the tuna extracted from the eastern Atlantic in the form of sushi and sashimi.
"Japan has an absolutely critical role to play. It has a serious responsibility, and I think they take these issues very seriously."
On Thursday, during a closed-door meeting in which compliance of ICCAT members was reviewed, a Japanese delegate criticized the poor performance of some nations, according to someone present.
"Countries that want to sell tuna to Japan had better start to work properly," said the source, who asked not to be named.
The United States will also table proposals to protect sharks, especially the bigeye thresher and the short-fin mako, Lubchenco said.
Tens of millions of the open water predators are killed every year to satisfy a burgeoning appetite for shark fins, a Chinese delicacy.
One US proposal would require that some sharks captured in the Atlantic be brought to shore with their fins attached, in part to help scientists gather data and keep track of which species are most vulnerable.
EU, Japan sketch battle lines in bluefin tuna meet
Marlowe Hood Yahoo News 18 Nov 10;
PARIS (AFP) – A meeting on the fate of the Atlantic bluefin tuna got into its stride on Thursday as Europe mulled a call for a modest cut in catches and Japan said it would propose a ban on nations that cheat on fishing quotas.
At stake is the viability of a billion-dollar fishery for the open-water predator and perhaps even the species' long-term survival, say conservationists.
Industrial-scale fishing using huge trap-nets during spawning season has drastically reduced stocks in the Mediterranean over the last three decades.
Nearly 80 percent of each year's catch is shipped to Japan, where it is a hallowed part of the national diet, eaten raw as gourmet sushi and sashimi.
The 48-member International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), meeting in Paris until November 27, sets the rules and quotas for Atlantic fisheries and monitors compliance.
European Union (EU) nations, overcoming internal divisions, agreed late Wednesday to push for a "stable or partially reduced quota".
European fisheries commissioner Maria Damanaki, backed in particular by Britain, called last month for slashing yearly quotas to 6,000 tonnes.
This is less than half of the 13,500 tonnes extracted from the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean in 2010.
Fishing industry countries led by France -- including Spain, Italy and Malta -- had called for rolling over the current quotas for at least another year.
Eventually, though, all 27 member nations agreed on a proposal to "negotiate the bluefin tuna quota between its current level of 13,500 tonnes and a partial reduction", a European diplomat told AFP.
Another diplomat said the EU 27 were ready to accept a reduction of 2,000 tonnes.
Japan, meanwhile, said it would table a proposal by which countries that cheat on their quotas would be banned from fishing the following year unless they improved monitoring and enforcement measures, the daily Asahi Shimbun reported.
"Japan will take leadership in the meeting to ensure the recovery of the stock," Masanori Miyahara, the head of the Japanese delegation, told NHK television in Paris.
The United States has in the past pushed for "zero" quotas, but is under pressure from its own domestic industry, centered in Massachusetts, to ease up on restrictions to boost employment.
Going into the meeting, ICCAT Chairman Fabio Hazin said that a proposal favoured by four major green groups to suspend industrial fishing in the Mediterranean in favour of more traditional methods was under consideration.
"That is a realistic scenario," he said. "One of the things being discussed is the possible suspension of purse-seine fishing and the caging activities."
ICCAT scientists calculate that annual quotas of 13,500 tonnes through 2013 would put the species on track for a 60-percent probability of reaching so-called "maximum sustainable yield" by 2022.
At the same time, they caution that estimates about fish populations and the true tonnage of catches are rife with uncertainty.
A single Atlantic bluefin tuna can fetch more than 100,000 dollars in wholesale markets in Japan, where the fish is prized by sushi connoisseurs as the "black diamond" because of its scarcity.
Bluefin make up less than one percent of the global tuna catch, which includes five species.
ICCAT will also review proposals to set catch limits for several species of sharks listed as globally "endangered" and "vulnerable" by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Tens of millions of sharks are killed every year for their fins, prized by Chinese gourmets. Of 21 species of shark fished in the Atlantic, only one -- shortfin makos -- is even monitored.
Yahoo News 19 Nov 10;
LONDON (AFP) – A British climate change economist at the heart of international negotiations seeking a greenhouse gas deal said Friday that the US faces a trade boycott if it fails to rein in its carbon emissions.
Lord Nicholas Stern, author of the British government's 2006 report on the economics of climate change, warned the US that many countries would shun its goods if they deemed them to be "dirty."
"The US will increasingly see the risks of being left behind, and 10 years from now they would have to start worrying about being shut out of markets because their production is dirty," Stern told The Times newspaper.
"If they persist in being slow about reducing emissions, US exports will start to look more carbon intensive."
Stern advises several G20 countries and his 2006 Stern review is regarded as the most in-depth and well-known study into climate change economics.
World leaders will meet at the UN climate change conference in Cancun, Mexico, in 10 days' time to try and kickstart emissions negotiations which faltered at the Copenhagen conference last December.
Stern said that countries who have pledged to reduce their emissions would resent competition from "dirty" exports. He highlighted aircraft, cars and machine tools as goods which could face restrictions.
"If you are charging properly for carbon and other people are not, you will take that into account," he said. "Many of the more forward-looking people in the US are thinking about this."
US President Barack Obama pledged before the Copenhagen conference to cut US emissions by 17 percent on 2005 levels by 2020, but has been thwarted by Congress.
Any new US commitments within the next two years are highly unlikely following the Republican party's gains in the midterm elections.
China softens stance ahead of climate negotiations
Yahoo News 19 Nov 10;
BEIJING (AFP) – China appeared Friday to soften its stance on a sticking point in UN climate change negotiations, the issue of verifying developing countries' emissions reductions.
Beijing does not "believe that increasing transparency will be a problem," at global talks opening later this month in Mexico, said Huang Huikang, the Chinese foreign ministry's representative at the talks.
"This is a strong signal," Huang told reporters. "In the past few months we have never expressed so publicly that, in principle, we do not see this as an issue."
China and the United States, the world's two biggest sources of greenhouse gases, have been at odds over how to rein in such emissions, casting a shadow over the talks in Cancun set from November 29 to December 10.
The meeting is the latest round of negotiations in a long effort under the United Nations to forge a global climate change treaty.
Huang in his up-beat comments said that "emissions reductions achieved by developing countries with technical and financial support from developed countries can be measurable, reportable and verifiable."
The United States has asked China to commit to curbing its carbon emissions and wants developing countries to agree to more transparency and scrutiny of their claims on emissions reductions and other climate efforts.
China in turn has accused Washington of using the transparency issue to divert attention from its failure to pass laws to reduce domestic emissions.
It was not immediately clear how China's apparent new flexibility would affect the transparency of its own efforts to fight climate change.
China has set a 2020 target of reducing carbon emissions per unit of gross domestic product -- or carbon intensity -- by 40-45 percent from 2005 levels. That amounts to a vow of energy efficiency, but emissions will continue to soar.
However, China has so far strongly resisted the suggestion that it should allow outside verification of whether it is achieving its climate goals.
China rules out linking climate aid to transparency
Chris Buckley Reuters AlertNet 19 Nov 10;
BEIJING, Nov 19 (Reuters) - China said on Friday it will not agree to any deal tying climate change aid from rich nations to its acceptance of tighter international checks of its greenhouse gas emissions, which it said will grow for some time.
Huang Huikang, the Chinese Foreign Ministry's special representative for climate change talks, laid bare rifts between Beijing and rich countries, especially the United States, that could trouble high-level negotiations in Cancun, Mexico.
China, the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases from human activity, will be a key player when almost 200 governments meet in Cancun from late this month to try to agree on a "green fund" for poor countries and other building blocks for a comprehensive new agreement to combat global warming.
Cancun is meant to be the stepping stone to a legally binding deal next year that would lock governments into reducing the greenhouse gas pollution holding solar heat in the atmosphere and threatening to trigger dangerous climate change.
Premier Wen Jiabao chaired a meeting of Chinese officials steering climate policy that issued a statement that their government would "work with all sides to achieve a positive outcome in Cancun," the official Xinhua news agency reported.
But even modest gains at the talks appear tough after bickering between China and the United States, the top greenhouse gas emitters that have also sparred over trade and currency ties.
The U.S., European Union and other governments want China, India and other big emerging economies to shoulder firmer international commitments to control and eventually cut their emissions, and to subject those emissions to tighter monitoring.
Huang said Beijing would not yield on what he said was China's right to make economic growth an overriding priority.
"Recently, we've found that some people have always been making a fuss about so-called (emissions) transparency," he told a news conference.
The key to success in climate negotiations, he said, was advanced economies leading with big emissions cuts and ensuring more aid and clean technology to help poorer nations.
"These are unconditional and should not be linked to anything else," he said of rich nations' efforts.
"This is a strong signal. Previously, we haven't so strongly stressed that as a matter of principle we believe that improving transparency is not an issue."
China's emissions would keep growing for some time, Huang added, but he did not specify for how long.
"China's overriding priority will be to develop its economy, eliminate poverty and raise people's welfare, and our energy consumption and (greenhouse gas) emissions will experience reasonable growth for some time," he said.
Huang's comments underscored the hurdles to crafting a climate treaty that will accommodate the competing demands of emerging and advanced economies
Governments failed to agree last year on a new legally binding deal. A meeting in Copenhagen last December ended in rancour between rich and developing countries and created a loose, non-binding accord with many gaps.
China's emissions have more than doubled since 2000 and have outstripped the United States'. In 2009 its emissions of carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels were 7.5 billion tonnes, or 24 percent of the global total, according to BP .
Beijing has made a domestic vow to reduce "carbon intensity", the amount of carbon dioxide emitted for each dollar of economic growth, by 40-45 percent by 2020 compared with 2005. But it says that goal will not be turned into a binding international target.
(Editing by Ken Wills and Sanjeev Miglani)
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