Unusual bird encounters in the city
from Bird Ecology Study Group
Dipterocarp walk at MacRitchie Part 1
from Urban Forest
Guided walk at St. John’s
from Urban Forest
Blue-tailed Bee-eater ringed on the wing
from Bird Ecology Study Group
Monday Morgue: 22nd November 2010
from The Lazy Lizard's Tales
Ahmed Djoghlaf & Tommy Koh for The Straits Times 22 Nov 10;
THE Earth Summit, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in June 1992, gave birth to three conventions: the Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC), the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and the Convention to Combat Desertification.
The Conference of Parties of the United Nations FCCC, held in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December last year, ended in chaos and with very modest results.
In sharp contrast, the Conference of Parties of the CBD, held in October in Nagoya, Japan, was harmonious and productive.
Why is it important to protect our biodiversity? It is important because it is a source of our food and medicine.
During the past 50 years, we have lost 20 per cent of the land suitable for agriculture, 90 per cent of the large commercial fisheries and one-third of our forests.
As former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan has written: 'Human health depends, to a larger extent than we might imagine, on the health of other species and on the healthy functioning of other ecosystems.'
Destroy the ecosystems and we will eventually threaten life on Earth.
The third edition of the Global Biodiversity Outlook, issued in May and based on information from 120 national reports submitted by parties, demonstrated that we continue to lose biodiversity at an unprecedented rate.
The report confirmed that the rate of extinction is today up to 1,000 times higher than the natural rate of extinction. It also warned that irreversible degradation may take place if ecosystems are pushed beyond certain tipping points, leading to the widespread loss of ecosystem services that we depend on greatly. It also predicted that the status of biodiversity for years to come will be determined by actions in the next couple of decades.
This sense of urgency motivated the 18,650 participants attending the Biodiversity Summit in Nagoya.
Indeed, the 193 parties to the CBD and their partners adopted several historic decisions that will permit the community of nations to meet the unprecedented challenges of the continued loss of biodiversity compounded by climate change.
Governments agreed on a package of measures that will ensure the ecosystems of the planet will continue to sustain human well-being into the future.
First, a new 10-year strategic plan containing ambitious targets was adopted with the engagement of all stakeholders, including the business community.
This plan integrates the findings of the study of the economics of ecosystems and biodiversity. It contains the means of implementation and monitoring and evaluation mechanisms. The plan has been adopted as the overarching biodiversity framework for the whole UN system. It will be translated, within two years, into national strategies and an action plan. Parties will also be requested to implement the plan at the local level.
Second, the adoption of the Nagoya Protocol on access and benefit-sharing was a historic achievement.
It is a major contribution to the achievement of the UN Millennium Development Goals, by implementing the third objective of the convention: ensuring the fair and equitable sharing of benefits from the use of genetic resources.
The protocol also proposes the creation of a global multilateral mechanism that will operate in transboundary areas or situations where prior informed consent cannot be obtained. It is expected to come into force by 2012, with support from the Global Environment Facility.
Third, the provision of financial resources is crucial to the implementation of the Nagoya biodiversity compact.
Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan announced US$2 billion (S$2.6 billion) in financing and Minister of Environment Ryu Matsumoto announced the establishment of a Japan Biodiversity Fund. Additional financial resources were announced by France, the European Union and Norway.
Fourth, one of the most important initiatives adopted in Nagoya was a multi-year plan of action on cities and biodiversity adopted by the representatives of 650 municipalities, including 200 mayors, at the first Summit on Cities and Biodiversity.
The plan was submitted and adopted by the Conference of the Parties, thus establishing a strong partnership between ministers and the local authorities.
In adopting the plan, the participants endorsed the Singapore Index on Cities' Biodiversity. This tool was specially designed to monitor and assess the status of biodiversity in urban areas. It was developed at the initiative of Singapore, in partnership with the secretariat of the convention, and was test-bedded on 34 cities before its submission to the summit.
The World Cities Summit and the Mayors' Forum, held biennially in Singapore, will provide a unique opportunity to implement this new partnership at the service of the biodiversity agenda and the future of humanity.
Indeed, the battle for life on Earth will be won and lost in the cities of tomorrow, because the majority of humankind now live in urban, rather than rural, areas.
Ahmed Djoghlaf is the executive secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity and Tommy Koh is the chairman of the Earth Summit's main committee and preparatory committee.
Meryl Williams Science Alert 22 Nov 10;
Aquatic biodiversity provides one of humanity’s most important food resources. Most of the world’s oceans and all inland waters are fished, providing protein and micro-nutrient rich food.
Driven by a growing global population, demand for fish is rising and adding to the pressures on the supply side – overfishing, inefficient aquaculture, climate change, acidification and deoxygenation of oceans, pollution from chemicals and dumping of rubbish, disruptions to nutrient, carbon and water cycles.
The export value of world trade in fish, some US$63 billion in 2003, is more than the combined value of net exports of rice, coffee, sugar and tea. Fishing is also a vital and valuable source of employment and income in both the developed and developing world.
About 30 million fishers make a living directly from the sea and an additional 200 million are dependent on fisheries related activities and industries. Most of these and the one billion people who rely on fish as their main source of animal protein live in developing countries.
Fishing has, over millennia, become a vital part of human life. We take eating fish for granted. For many the popular image of fishing focuses on the people involved, and the dangers in getting fish to the plate, such as in the Discovery Channel documentary series, Deadliest Catch, now shown in 150 countries.
Sustainability debates do not generate such wide spread attention. Yet, a more compelling drama is played out each day in fisheries around the world – the daily struggle of fish workers, many of whom are women, to earn enough to live. Most of the people relying on fishing are labourers on other people’s boats or in processing factories. Few of them have job and resource security and most face declining resources and declining aquatic biodiversity.
Many fisheries are still engaged in a ‘race to fish’ approach, with catches often determined by the size of the boat and illegal fishing practices, rather than sustainable management approaches. These fishers are eager to meet the rising demand for fish in the hope of a better life.
The challenge is two-fold, ensuring that aquatic resources continue to contribute to food security and people’s livelihoods, while not compromising aquatic biodiversity. The successful management of fish production requires an integrated approach and a watchful eye on biodiversity.
Sustainable catches
Although we are tempted to hope that aquaculture can solve the problems of overfishing and save wild fisheries, this is a false hope, no matter how alluring. Instead we must deliver sustainable catches, and productive aquaculture.
Aquaculture is the key to future increased fish production. At most, capture fisheries may hold their own – although a more likely scenario is that catches will be reduced to achieve sustainability.
Today almost half of all fish eaten are farmed. This is a revolution in fish production but also a great challenge from to aquatic biodiversity at genetic, species and ecosystem levels.
The world’s fish catch is biodiverse. Thousands of species are taken, of which approximately 2,000 fish, crustacean, mollusc, echinoderm (marine invertebrates) and aquatic plant species or species groups are reported by name in FAO statistics but 10 million tonnes are landed as unnamed marine fish. More than 5,000 species are probably harvested.
Fishing compromises genetic diversity in several ways. Fishing typically targets one or several species, eventually removing some genetic stocks from the species. Fishing is usually focused on larger fish and when these are removed, a stock’s reproductive capacity is decreased and it is prone to larger fluctuations in abundance.
Preferences for larger, valuable fish species reduce their abundance and promote abundance of other smaller species. Species diversity can be further diminished by incidental killing of non-target species such as marine mammals, sea turtles and sharks. Fishing also reduces the diversity of ecosystems and habitats.
Farming fish also challenges biodiversity and sustainability. Aquaculture utilises and affects species in different ways to fishing. In many cases cultured species are still collected from the wild at some stage in their life cycle because captive breeding has not yet been achieved. Culturing can involve growing out larvae through to fattening juveniles or taking adults for breeding. These unimproved varieties may or may not grow well or even survive capture and growout, thus wasting natural resources.
If local species are not available for culture, then another tactic is to introduce exotic species. Depending on the situation, this may be highly successful – or highly risky because the exotic species can become established invasive species, wrecking other forms of havoc on aquatic biodiversity.
Aquaculture is at a crossroads. It can continue to utilise available species sourced from the world’s waterways and oceans, or it can narrow its focus and domesticate fewer species – but not too few. The first road will place increased pressure on fisheries worldwide, as biodiversity is tapped in an indiscriminate and inefficient way. The second road, while longer and more challenging, is also the more sustainable, as the genetic resources of a smaller number of species are used to build reliable systems for domestication, aiding the preservation of species in the wild.
Taking this second road towards domestication will be highly dependent for success on international agricultural research. Without the steadying hand of research, the choices of species to domesticate may be made for us, as overfishing and inefficient aquaculture reduce biodiversity.
Hit-and-miss
So far, aquaculture has proven to be a hit-and-miss affair. Some species defy all attempts at culturing, others can be grown out after being captured and some can be raised from the larval stage. Presently, FAO reports aquaculture production from 348 different species and species groups. Less than 20 per cent of these species have been domesticated but most of those for which over one million tonnes are produced annually have been domesticated and their breeds improved.
The goal of all future aquaculture activities, and research, must be full domestication of selected species. A careful selection of species must be based on a set of comprehensive criteria. Research must be used to define, test, develop and prove criteria for selecting suitable species.
Suitable species will be those for which the lifecycle can be closed in captivity. Feed must be available and affordable and preferably from non-fish sources. The selected species must have the ability to grow to market size in reasonable time and a tolerance to confinement and handling.
Economically viable culture species require a combination of marketability and profitability. From a food security perspective, some species must be available to smallholder aquaculture producers in the developing world. Achieving this result for smallholders must also cater to issues such as space, environmental management, available finances and assets along with training and education. All of these factors need to be present in species selected for domestication.
The improvement of farm breeds to increase efficiency depends on biodiversity at species and genetic levels. The selection of species must be carried out in conjunction with the preservation of their genetic variability. To do otherwise is to limit the potential for breeding improved fish strains.
With these sorts of challenges in mind, the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) has designed and supported fisheries research since 1984. This research has a dual focus – managing wild fisheries through innovative management approaches and better utilisation of existing harvests, in concert with improved aquaculture through the development of productive and sustainable aquatic farming systems.
As an example, the WorldFish Center, in partnership with ACIAR, is applying this dual approach to sea cucumbers, focusing on viable culturing and restocking of depleted resources. This project, active in the Philippines, Vietnam and Australia, builds on past research that developed technologies for culturing 'sandfish' (Holothuria scabra) in hatcheries and for releasing in the wild. In many areas where sea cucumber has been overfished the culture technologies can be used to replenish selected sandfish populations.
In the Philippines restocking of sandfish into marine reserves is building up a critical mass of spawning adults. The research will help to speed stock recovery, generate income and conserve wild breeding stocks.
In another case, ACIAR’ support has helped in defining the basic taxonomy of the four Indo-Pacific mud crab species (Scylla spp) and developing technology for hatchery and nursery production of crablets with improved productivity in growout. Guidelines for the design of pens for farming crabs were developed. When farmers were provided with appropriate crablet species and equipment, the growth of the crablets was rapid, with relative conformity in size and a viable survival rate compared to stocking ponds with wild seedstock.
Despite these successes, aquatic biodiversity faces huge conservation challenges because much of it needs to be conserved in-situ in water bodies threatened by myriad human actions such as dams and land reclamation for ports and cities. The challenge must be addressed on several fronts – sustainable management of wild resources, developing domestication systems for selected species and strategic and integrated policy interventions.
Whichever way we look at sustaining fish production, protecting and wisely using aquatic biodiversity lies at the core and research provides many of the answers.
I gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Warren Page of ACIAR in preparing the presentation for the 2010 Crawford Fund Conference on which this article was based.
Yahoo News 22 Nov 10;
NUSA PENIDA, Indonesia (AFP) – Indonesia on Sunday declared the coral-rich waters around Bali -- a popular scuba diving spot which is home to the giant Mola-Mola ocean sunfish -- a protected zone.
The 20,000-hectare (49,500 acre) area around Nusa Penida, Nusa Ceningan and Nusa Lembongan islands will be protected from destructive fishing, waste dumping and coral mining, project leader Marthen Welly told AFP.
"Destructive fishing is carried out by fishermen using cyanide and explosives," Welly of the conservation group The Nature Conservancy (TNC) said.
"Many ships also throw anchors on the coral reefs and hotels and households dump wastes causing water pollution. Now they can't do these anymore," he said.
Guidelines for marine tourism will also be drawn up and zones carved out for various activities including fishing, tourism and seaweed mining, Welly said.
"We'll need to consult the community further and we hope to do this within six months," he added.
The islands are part of Coral Triangle, considered the world's richest underwater wilderness which stretches across six nations between the Indian and Pacific oceans -- Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, East Timor, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.
Divers from all over the world arrive at the islands between July and September in the hope of seeing the Mola-Mola, a rare two-metre-long ocean sunfish.
The district government will provide 300 million rupiah (33,600 dollars) and aid agency USAID and TNC will each provide 50,000 dollars a year to run the project, TNC Indonesia director Arwandrija Rukma said.
Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Fadel Muhammad said the project will contribute to the government's target of creating 20 million hectares of maritime conservation parks by 2020, up from around 13 million currently.
"The establishment of MPA (Marine Protected Area) is a concrete step taken by the government to implement the plan of action under the Coral Triangle Initiative," he said.
The Coral Triangle Initiative, which was formed in 2007, calls for stronger international cooperation to combat illegal fishing and environmental destruction in an area half the size of the United States and home to half the world's coral reefs.
Indonesia, US Sign Up to Preserve Nusa Penida’s Marine Environment
Made Arya Kencana Jakarta Globe 21 Nov 10;
Nusa Penida, Bali. The Indonesian and US governments have announced a new initiative to establish a marine conservation area in the waters around Nusa Penida Island, to the southeast of Bali.
The conservation area will cover 200 square kilometers of waters around the island, and become part of the larger national conservation area totalling 200,000 square kilometers across the archipelago by 2020.
The Nusa Penida initiative has already received Rp 100 billion ($11.2 million) in funding from USAID, through the Coral Triangle Support Partnership, according to Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Fadel Muhammad.
Of the fund, Rp 960 million will go toward helping seaweed farmers improve productivity, as part of the government’s target to boost seaweed production in Nusa Penida from 117,000 tons a year to 500,000 tons a year.
Fadel said the richness of the marine diversity around Nusa Penida deserved to be studied in greater depth.
“We’ll manage this conservation area in the same way that Brazil successfully manages the Amazon,” he said at a ceremony to inaugurate the area on Sunday.
The biodiversity around the island, he added, was apparent in a 2009 marine survey performed by scientists Emre Turak and Gerry Allen, which uncovered 296 coral species and 576 fish species, five of which were previously undiscovered.
Fadel also noted that a study by the Nature Conservancy’s Indonesian Marine Program had found 1,419 hectares of coral reef, 230 hectares of mangrove forest with 13 species of mangroves, and 108 seaweed patches with eight types of seaweed.
“We’ll also build a seaweed cultivation center here as well as a seaweed processing plant,” the minister said.
“In addition, we’ll build fish processing plants so that the fish caught in these waters will be ready and packed for shipment.
“We’ll also enlist the local community’s assistance in helping safeguard the waters.”
He added other aims of establishing the conservation area included to encourage fishermen to adopt sustainable fishing practices, and to boost tourism in the area.
US Ambassador Scot Marciel, who also attended Sunday’s event, said Indonesia was well-placed to support global conservation efforts, which made it an important partner for the United States, including in efforts to preserve marine ecosystems.
“We see the marine environment as key to the sustainability of humans,” Marciel said.
Indonesia Aims To Create 20 Million Hectare Conservation Area
Bernama 22 Nov 10;
JAKARTA, Nov 22 (Bernama) -- Indonesia has targetted to create up to 20 million hectares of conservation area by 2020 as part of a concrete step to implement the Coral Triangle Initiative (CTI), Antara news agency reported Marine Affairs and Fisheries Minister Fadel Muhammad as saying Monday.
Currently Indonesia has 13 million hectares of conservation area, he said in in a press statement.
On Sunday, the minister inaugurated a marine conservation area in Nusa Penida, Bali, in a move to protect marine and coastal life as well as to encourage sustainable marine tourism.
The inauguration followed an ecological study conducted by a number of world marine experts such as Emre Turak and Gerry Allen last year.
The results of the study suggest that the 20,057-hectare marine conservation area holds 296 kinds of coral species and 576 kinds of fish species, five of them new fish species.
Meanwhile, the results of a survey made by TNC Indonesia Marine Programme showed that the Nusa Penida waters has 1,419 hectares of coral reefs and 230 hectares of mangrove consisting of 13 kinds.
Fadel said the creation of conservation areas in Nusa Penida and the rest of the country was a concrete step taken by the government to implement the CTI launched by Indonesia, along with the Philippines, Malaysia, Timor Leste, Papua New Guinea, and Solomon Islands.
The Coral Triangle is an expanse of ocean covering 2.3 million square miles (5.7 million km2). This area, sometimes referred to as the "Amazon of the Seas", is the epicenter of marine life abundance and diversity on the planet.
In some areas, it has more than 600 coral species (more than 75 percent of all known coral species), 53 percent of the world's coral reefs, 3,000 fish species, and the greatest extent of mangrove forests of any region in the world.
In addition, the Coral Triangle serves as the spawning and juvenile growth areas for what is the largest tuna fishery in the world.
In December 2007, at the CTI meeting in Bali, the six countries agreed on a plan of action to move the initiative forward and ensure the region's marine resources sustainability.
-- BERNAMA
US supports creation of Indonesia's seven marine protected areas
Antara 22 Nov 10;
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The US government supports Indonesia in establishing seven marine protected areas at critical places along Indonesia`s coasts, according to a US embassy press release here on Monday.
US Ambassador to Indonesia Scot Marciel joined the Indonesian Marine Affairs and Fisheries Minister Fadel Muhammad in launching the first Marine Protected Area in Indonesia on Sunday (Nov 21) in Nusa Penida, Bali, it said.
The US Agency for International Development (USAID) through its Marine Resources Program is supporting the Indonesian government to establish seven Marine Protected Areas at critical places along Indonesia`s coasts.
The five year program valued at 10 million dollars aimed to help the Indonesian government in restoring and enhancing the productivity of marine ecosystems, ensure biodiversity and resilience for food and economic security.
Besides it is also to increase the resilience of natural ecosystems and coastal communities to adapt to climate change and reduce risks from disasters.
"Our common goal for Nusa Penida is to turn the decline in marine resources around by 2013 and have this marine protected area effectively providing sustainable fisheries, marine tourism, and local community livelihoods," Ambassador Marciel said.
There are also other US agencies apart from the USAID, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency, and the Department of Justice are providing program research and technical support in fulfilling these goals.
It is estimated that 60 million of Indonesians are directly depending on marine resources for their livelihoods and that fish is the source of 60 percent of the protein consumed in Indonesia.
Today critical marine and coastal resources are under significant and increasing threat.
The existing habit of poor management, over-fishing, unsustainable fishing practices, land-based sources of marine pollution, coastal habitat conversion and climate change are leading to significant declines in productivity.
These growing threats must be taken seriously if Indonesia is to protect marine and coastal resources for future generations.(*)
Indonesia aims to create 20 million ha conservation area
Antara 22 Nov 10;
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesia has set itself the target of creating up to 20 million hectares of conservation area by 2020 as part of a concrete step to implement the Coral Triangle Initiative (CTI), a minister said.
Right now Indonesia had 13 million hectares of conservation area, Marine Affairs and Fisheries Minister Fadel Muhammad said in a press statement on Monday.
On Sunday (Nov 21), the minister inaugurated a marine conservation area in Nusa Penida, Bali, in a move to protect marine and coastal life as well as to encourage sustainable marine tourism.
The inauguration followed an ecological study conducted by a number of world marine experts such as Emre Turak and Gerry Allen last year.
The results of the study suggest that the 20,057-hectare marine conservation area holds 296 kinds of coral species and 576 kinds of fish species, five of them new fish species.
Meanwhile, the results of a survey made by the TNC Indonesia Marine Program show the Nusa Penida waters has 1,419 hectares of coral reefs and 230 hectares of mangrove consisting of 13 kinds.
Fadel said the creation of conservation areas in Nusa Penida and the rest of the country was a concrete step taken by the government to implement the CTI launched by Indonesia, along with the Philippines, Malaysia, Timor Leste, Papua New Guinea, and Solomon Islands.
The Coral Triangle is an expanse of ocean covering 2.3 million square miles (5.7 million km2). This area, sometimes referred to as the "Amazon of the Seas", is the epicenter of marine life abundance and diversity on the planet.
In some areas, it has more than 600 coral species (more than 75 percent of all known coral species), 53 percent of the world`s coral reefs, 3,000 fish species, and the greatest extent of mangrove forests of any region in the world.
In addition, the Coral Triangle serves as the spawning and juvenile growth areas for what is the largest tuna fishery in the world.
In December 2007, at the CTI meeting in Bali, the six countries agreed on a plan of action to move the initiative forward and ensure the region`s marine resources sustainability.(*)
Majjit Kaur and Zalinah Noordin The Star 20 Nov 10;
THE encroachment of wildlife into human space is one of the signs that rapid development is taking over the natural habitat of the animals, said Sabahat Alam Malaysia.
Its president S.M. Mohd Idris said the animals have no place to go when their natural habitat is cleared for development.
“There should thus be a balance between nature and development to ensure that both can be in harmony with one another, so that the natural habitat of wildlife is preserved,” he said.
Mohd Idris was commenting on a StarMetro report about a trapped otter found in a drain outside a shopping mall in Tanjung Tokong which was later rescued on Thursday.
He added that rapid development along the coastal areas could have caused the mangroves to be destroyed forcing the otter to forage further inland in search of food.
“Today there may be one otter found, who knows how many more will be found on land after this?
“Everyone wants to be rich and make a quick buck from development projects but often there is a disregard for nature and wildlife,” he said.
Taiping Zoo & Night Safari Director Dr Kevin Lazarus said otters normally moved around in groups.
He said if the otter that was found in the drain on Thursday was a male, then it could be possible that it had strayed too far from its original group.
“Male otters will normally move away from its original group once it is fully mature to form its own group,” he said.
He added that otters were not totally dependant on pristine forests and could easily live in places with streams and rivers as long as there was supply of fresh fish for them to feed on.
“It is not uncommon for otters to be found in mangroves and rivers and sometimes they could be found living nearby in those places in newly-built housing areas,” he said.
State Wildlife and National Parks Department director Jamalun Nasir Ibrahim said that the otter would be cared for by the department until it was in a better shape to be transferred to the Malacca Zoo.
“We’re not sure for how long it has been on land when it was rescued as it has lost a lot of energy so we are doing our best to take care of it and feeding it with fresh fish,” he said.
Jamalun said that the gender of the otter had not been determined yet.
“This is the second time an otter has been found on land since last year.
“It could be due to many reasons, one of them could possibly be because of its endangered natural habitat due to excessive development and the other could be that it was washed away by strong currents to the shore,” he said.
Malaysia Nature Society Penang branch chairman D. Kanda Kumar said not much was known about otters in Malaysia as no proper survey had been conducted on them.
“But if compared to 15 years ago, I would say that the population has dwindled.
“Hopefully with the river cleaning up campaign, we hope the population will grow further.
“If we can maintain more mangrove areas, then there is a possibility of seeing more otters,” he added.
He said that otters can still be found at mangrove areas in Tanjung Tokong and Teluk Bahang.
On the otter found trapped in a drain in Tanjung Tokong, Kanda Kumar said it could be due to high tide that the animal got stuck in the drain.
Wildlife and National Parks Department consultant director Burhanuddin Mohd Nor said smooth otters were found in areas with large water bodies such as reservoir and lakes while the small-clawed otters were confined to small rivers and streams.
Burhanuddin said otters in Malaysia prefer the bushy shrubs found in the rice fields or along river banks.
“Cavities found beneath tree roots along rivers and canals will also be utilised by otters as nests.
“Other types of habitat are the mangroves, freshwater swamp forest and peat swamp,” he said.
The Star 22 Nov 10;
KOTA KINABALU: Concerns are growing among conservationists over the slow breeding rate of Sabah’s endangered Borneo Sumatran Rhinoceros.
Despite the large, forested Borneo Rhino Sanctuary set up in the Tabin Wildlife Reserve, their numbers have yet to multiply.
“We are quite concerned because evidence shows that the rhinos have not multiplied despite the abundant forest where they can thrive,” said state Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun.
He said the Borneo Rhino Sanctuary was vital towards the conservation of the animal, now believed to number less than 50 in the world.
Conservationists are hoping to multiply the rhinos through captive breeding at the 20ha site of the Borneo Rhino Sanctuary.
“I hope there is a better chance to get the animals to breed through efforts at the sanctuary,” he said.
However, the state minister warned that this would be difficult as some experts suspected that the rhino’s reproduction cycle might have hit a stalemate after being affected by fragmented forests.
Masidi said the state government was also open to the idea of having collaborative breeding programmes with Indonesia.
However, he said such programmes would only be considered after local efforts to breed the animals were carried out.
“We prefer to do this as we fear that relocating the animals to distant areas will cause the rhinos unnecessary stress,” he added.
Sharifah Mahsinah New Straits Times 22 Nov 10;
JELI: Residents from several villages here have been living in constant fear after tiger pug marks were found near their homes.
The villagers, who are mostly rubber tappers, are afraid to go to their smallholdings for fear of being attacked by tigers, which is nothing new in the district.
Compounding the fear is that the they claim that authorities are not doing anything to protect the residents of Kampung Lubok Bongor, Felcra Berdang, Kampung Renyok and Kampung Chengar Bedil.
Rubber tapper Mek Jah Semail, 69, who survived an attack at Sungai Long here in 2006, was the last known tiger victim in the state. She was the 24th victim since 1992.
Kampung Lubok Bongor village head Che Zaini Mamat said the tiger paw prints were first spotted by his cousin last week, which had led to the villagers limiting their outdoor activities.
Che Zaini, 42, said the sightings had also led to several villagers and foreigners hunting the animal to be sold for its body parts.
"However, it involved only a small number of locals while the rest are from Thailand and Myanmar. They are hunting it as they are paid well for it," he said, when met at his home in Kampung Lubok Bongor.
Security guard Mazlan Mamat, who lost his wife in a tiger attack in 2002, said the government should look into reports of the tiger sightings seriously for the safety of the people.
"Many rubber tappers are afraid to go to their smallholdings now because of the recent sightings. We hope that the relevant agencies will take quick action to prevent the loss of another life," said the 45-year-old father of seven.
Mazlan's wife Nik Mariam Ibrahim, was mauled by a tiger while tapping rubber at her smallholding in Felcra Berdang, here.
Meanwhile, sources said illegal hunters could make between RM12,000 and RM45,000 for each tiger killed.
"Almost all parts of the tiger are used. The meat is a favourite at restaurants, especially across the border, while the skin could be made into handbags and other accessories," said the source.
Olga Nedbayeva Yahoo News 22 Nov 10;
SAINT PETERSBURG (AFP) – World leaders sought Sunday to come up with the hundreds of millions of dollars needed to save the tiger from extinction and double the big cat's numbers by the next Year of the Tiger in 2022.
Russian prime minister and self-proclaimed animal lover Vladimir Putin opened his native city to the world's first gathering of leaders from 13 nations where the tiger's free rein has been squeezed ever-tighter by poachers.
"This is an unprecedented gathering of world leaders (that aims) to double the number of tigers," Jim Adams, vice president for the East Asia and Pacific Region at the World Bank, said at the opening ceremony of the four-day event.
"The global tiger initiative is an example of balanced economic development with nature preservation."
Decades of tiger part trafficking and habitat destruction have slashed the roaming tiger's number from 100,000 a century ago to just 3,200 today.
The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) warns that the species is on course for outright extinction by the next Year of the Tiger under the Chinese calendar.
The tiger rescue effort's success "depends on the political will of the countries that support it", WWF Director General James Leape told the conference.
The World Bank estimates that it will take at least 350 million dollars to support joint efforts to fight poachers and introduce incentives for nature preservation over the next five years.
But the summit's Russian hosts voiced optimism that the four-day conference would be crowned with success and provide a lesson for other joint environmental campaigns.
The tiger summit will be an example "for other challenges such as global warming", Russian Natural Resources Minister Yury Trutnev told the gathering.
The high-profile meeting is due to be attended by Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao and delegations from India and Bangladesh -- the three nations with the largest volume of tiger skin and other organ trafficking.
But consensus on the need to save the tiger has been hampered by a lack of coordination on the ground to stop the trafficking of tiger parts such as paws and bones -- all prized in traditional Asian medicine.
Apart from Russia, 12 other countries host fragile tiger populations -- Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand and Vietnam.
Experts stress that India and China are by far the biggest players in saving the beast.
India is home to half of the world tiger population while the Chinese remain the world's biggest consumers of tiger products despite global bans.
"In China, things are going from bad to worse," said Alexei Vaisman of the WWF. "But it is hard for the Chinese authorities, who are fighting against a millennium-old tradition."
Jia Zhibang, the head of China's forestry administration, admitted Saturday that Chinese authorities had allowed "some exceptions" to a 1993 law that banned the use of tiger parts in Chinese medicine.
But he insisted that China was ready to line up behind the new emergency rescue plan.
"We are ready to cooperate with the World Bank and the other countries seeking to save the tiger," the Chinese minister said.
Russia is the only country to have seen its tiger population rise in recent years.
It had just 80 to 100 in the 1960s but now has around 500, with experts praising Putin for taking an active role in the cause.
Putin has personally championed the protection of the Amur Tiger in the country's Far East and was hailed by the Russian media for firing a tranquillizer dart at one of the fabled beasts in 2008.
Tigers could be extinct in 12 years if unprotected
Irina Titova, Associated Press Yahoo News 22 Nov 10;
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia – Wild tigers could become extinct in 12 years if countries where they still roam fail to take quick action to protect their habitats and step up the fight against poaching, global wildlife experts told a "tiger summit" Sunday.
The World Wildlife Fund and other experts say only about 3,200 tigers remain in the wild, a dramatic plunge from an estimated 100,000 a century ago.
James Leape, director general of the World Wildlife Fund, told the meeting in St. Petersburg that if the proper protective measures aren't taken, tigers may disappear by 2022, the next Chinese calendar year of the tiger.
Their habitat is being destroyed by forest cutting and construction, and they are a valuable trophy for poachers who want their skins and body parts prized in Chinese traditional medicine.
The summit approved a wide-ranging program with the goal of doubling the world's tiger population in the wild by 2022 backed by governments of the 13 countries that still have tiger populations: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam and Russia.
The Global Tiger Recovery Program estimates the countries will need about $350 million in outside funding in the first five years of the 12-year plan. The summit will be seeking donor commitments to help governments finance conservation measures.
"For most people tigers are one of the wonders of the world," Leape told The Associated Press. "In the end, the tigers are the inspiration and the flagship for much broader efforts to conserve forests and grasslands."
The program aims to protect tiger habitats, eradicate poaching, smuggling, and illegal trade of tigers and their parts, and also create incentives for local communities to engage them in helping protect the big cats.
The summit, which runs through Wednesday, is hosted by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who has used encounters with tigers and other wild animals to bolster his image. It's driven by the Global Tiger Initiative which was launched two years ago by World Bank President Robert Zoellick.
Leape said that along with a stronger action against poaching, it's necessary to set up specialized reserves for tigers and restore and conserve forests outside them to let tigers expand.
"And you have to find a way to make it work for the local communities so that they would be partners in tigers conservation and benefit from them," Leape said.
"To save tigers you need to save the forests, grasslands and lots of other species," he added. "But at the same time you are also conserving the foundations of the societies who live there. Their economy depends very much on the food, water and materials they get from those forests."
About 30 percent of the program's cost would go toward suppressing the poaching of tigers and of the animals they prey on.
Russia's Natural Resources Minister Yuri Trutnev said that Russia and China will create a protected area for tigers alongside their border and pool resources to combat poaching.
Leape said that for some of the nations involved outside financing would be essential to fulfill the goals.
"We need to see signficant commitment by the multilateral and bilateral indsitutions like the Global Environment Facility and the World Bank plus individual governments like the U.S. and Germany," Leape told the AP.
For advocates, saving tigers has implications far beyond the emotional appeal of preserving a graceful and majestic animal.
"Wild tigers are not only a symbol of all that is splendid, mystical and powerful about nature," the Global Tiger Initiative said in a statement. "The loss of tigers and degradation of their ecosystems would inevitably result in a historic, cultural, spiritual, and environmental catastrophe for the tiger range countries."
Three of the nine tiger subspecies — the Bali, Javan, and Caspian — already have become extinct in the past 70 years.
Much has been done recently to try to save tigers, but conservation groups say their numbers and habitats have continued to fall, by 40 percent in the past decade alone.
In part, that decline is because conservation efforts have been increasingly diverse and often aimed at improving habitats outside protected areas where tigers can breed, according to a study published in September in the Popular Library of Science Biology journal.
Putin has done much to draw attention to tigers' plight. During a visit to a wildlife preserve in 2008, he shot a female tiger with a tranquilizer gun and helped place a transmitter around her neck as part of a program to track the rare cats.
Later in the year, Putin was given a 2-month-old female Siberian tiger for his birthday. State television showed him at his home gently petting the cub, which was curled up in a wicker basket with a tiger-print cushion. The tiger now lives in a zoo in southern Russia.
Tiger summit aims to double numbers
Richard Black BBC News 21 Nov 10;
Governments of the 13 countries where tigers still live aim to agree moves that could double numbers of the endangered big cats within 12 years.
The International Tiger Conservation Forum in St Petersburg will discuss proposals on protecting habitat, tackling poaching, and finance.
About 3,000 tigers live in the wild - a 40% decline in a decade.
There are warnings that without major advances, some populations will disappear within the next 20 years.
Five prime ministers are due to attend the summit, including China's Wen Jiabao and Vladimir Putin of Russia.
"Here's a species that's literally on the brink of extinction," said Jim Leape, director general of conservation group WWF.
"This is the first time that world leaders have come together to focus on saving a single species, and this is a unique opportunity to mobilise the political will that's required in saving the tiger."
Double trouble
The draft declaration that leaders will consider acknowledges that "Asia's most iconic animal faces imminent extinction in the wild".
Measures aimed at doubling numbers include making core tiger areas "inviolate", cracking down on poaching and smuggling, making people aware of the importance of tigers, and setting up cross-boundary protected areas where necessary.
A recent report by Traffic, the global wildlife trade monitoring organisation, said that body parts from more than 1,000 tigers had been seized in the last decade.
But there is acknowledgement that some of the smaller nations will need help, in the form of money and expertise.
Earlier this year, scientists calculated the price of effective global tiger conservation at $80m (£50m) per year, but said only $50m was currently on the table.
However, campaigners say financial concerns should not be an excuse for inaction.
The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) points out that by comparison, it is estimated that "China spent $31bn on the Olympic Games in 2008, while India spent a total of $2.6bn on the 2010 Commonwealth Games".
"This is the big question," said EIA's campaigner Alasdair Cameron.
"The draft deal has a lot of positive stuff in it, but a lot of the stuff has been around for years - what we need is the political will to make it happen."
He identified two elements missing in the draft deal: measures to reduce the demand for tiger skins and bones and body parts for traditional medicine, and any discussion of tiger farms.
Both are sensitive topics in China, where it is estimated there are more tigers in captivity than exist globally in the wild.
The World Bank has given substantial backing to moves aimed at saving the tiger, and its president Robert Zoellick also referred to the need to reduce demand, especially in China and Vietnam.
"There's no question everyone recognises this as a core issue - the challenge is how we get at it," he said.
Film star Jackie Chan recently voiced some public service announcements in China asking people not to use tiger parts, which Mr Zoellick said was playing a part in "chaning public attitudes".
Small is ugly
From a scientific perspective, one of the most worrying aspects of the tiger's plight is that many populations are very small - fewer than 100 animals.
This means that incidents such as disease can prove particularly severe.
Of the nine sub-species recognised to have been in existence 100 years ago, at least three have since disappeared.
The Bali tiger was last seen in the 1930s, while the Javan and Caspian sub-species were wiped out in the 1970s. All are officially listed as extinct.
The South China tiger may also have disappeared from the wild, with no sightings for nearly 40 years.
Jean-Christoph Vie, deputy head of the species programme with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), suggested the tiger could be seen as a test-case for whether countries are really serious about saving biological diversity.
"Some people are saying 'well, doubling the tiger population is good, but we have no room' - I've heard that said [in preliminary meetings]," he told the BBC.
"It needs to be done everywhere - especially we need to see a doubling where you have significant populations.
""If you leave tigers alone and don't kill them and don't poach them, then naturally they will double in 10 years."
'Last Chance for the Tiger,' Says World Bank President
Andrea Mustain livescience.com Yahoo News 20 Nov 10;
World leaders, conservation groups and major donors are gearing up for a four-day conference to find a workable global strategy to rescue tigers from extinction.
On the eve of next week's Tiger Summit in Russia, World Bank President Robert Zoellick spoke with reporters about the upcoming forum, hosted by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and the World Bank in St. Petersburg.
Tigers are critically endangered. Only about 3,200 of the iconic cats still survive in the wild, and their numbers have continued to decline in the forests of the 13 Asian countries where they still roam free. Only six of the nine recognized subspecies of tiger still survive.
"This summit may be the last chance for the tiger," Zoellick said during a teleconference. "Tigers are vanishing."
Zoellick is the man behind the Global Tiger Initiative, a project that has brought together key players from the international community since 2008. Next week's forum marks the culmination of the project, and it is the first time representatives from all 13 tiger range countries will meet.
Despite recent national and international efforts to save tigers, the big cats are disappearing outside of captivity. Habitat destruction plays a major role, but it is the continued illegal slaughter of wild tigers that has had a particularly devastating effect in recent years, Zoellick said.
"We need to see poachers behind bars," he said, "not tigers."
Criminal syndicates sell valuable skins, bones, claws and even tiger meat on a flourishing global black market, and demand for tiger parts for amulets, showy private collections, and, in particular, traditional medicine, remains strong.
In the last decade, authorities in 11 of the tiger range countries have seized the remains of more than 1,069 tigers; those numbers don't include the rest of the world, or the illegal tiger parts that have avoided detection.
Decreasing the demand for tiger parts by educating the public has been a consistent goal throughout the last two years, Zoellick said.
Several celebrities have gotten on board, lending famous faces and voices to the fight against the grim trafficking of tiger parts. Actor Leonardo DiCaprio has been a vocal supporter.
Perhaps more important for audiences in tiger range countries, action hero and Hong-Kong native Jackie Chan has starred in several public service announcements warning against the purchase of any products purported to contain tiger parts.
In addition to pointing out contributions from Hollywood, Zoellick praised Putin's role in the upcoming meeting, and said the Russian prime minister's active interest in the tiger's plight acted as a catalyst, bringing other world leaders to the table. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao may be among the heads of state attending the summit, Zoellick said.
However, Zoellick said, although political will on the highest level must indeed be harnessed, it is involvement on the ground by locals in the countries where tigers dwell that may matter most in deciding the tiger's fate.
"Outsiders can't do this for people," Zoellick said. "If you don't have local ownership, it won't work."
Richard Black BBC News 21 Nov 10;
Carbon emissions fell in 2009 due to the recession - but not by as much as predicted, suggesting the fast upward trend will soon be resumed.
Those are the key findings from an analysis of 2009 emissions data issued in the journal Nature Geoscience a week before the UN climate summit opens.
Industrialised nations saw big falls in emissions - but major developing countries saw a continued rise.
The report suggests emissions will begin rising by 3% per year again.
"What we find is a drop in emissions from fossil fuels in 2009 of 1.3%, which is not dramatic," said lead researcher Pierre Friedlingstein from the UK's University of Exeter.
"Based on GDP projections last year, we were expecting much more.
"If you think about it, it's like four days' worth of emissions; it's peanuts," he told BBC News.
The headline figure masked big differences between trends in different groups of countries.
Broadly, developed nations saw emissions fall - Japan fell by 11.8%, the UK by 8.6%, and Germany by 7% - whereas they continued to rise in developing countries with significant industrial output.
China's emissions grew by 8%, and India's by 6.2% - connected to the fact that during the recession, it was the industrialised world that really felt the pinch.
Back on track
Before the recession, emissions had been rising by about 3% per year, with the growth having accelerated around the year 2000.
The new analysis suggests that after the recession, those rates of growth are likely to resume.
"Probably, we'll be back on the track of the previous decade, 2009 having been a small blip," said Dr Friedlingstein.
The figures come just a week before the start of the UN climate summit, held this year in Cancun, Mexico.
Little progress is expected, following what is widely regarded as the failure of last year's Copenhagen summit.
But the projections - produced by the Global Carbon Project, a network of researchers around the world - may focus delegates' minds anew on the enduring issue in tackling climate change: decoupling economic growth from carbon emissions.
Speaking last week at a meeting of Indian and British business leaders aiming to develop joint clean energy projects, UK climate minister Greg Barker conceded this was the missing ingredient.
Fundamentally, he said, the question was "whether a transition to a low-carbon economy is compatible with continued economic growth - and no-one knows the answer, because no country has made the transition yet".
Carbon emissions dip in 2009, to jump in 2010 -report
* Drop in 2009 emissions less than estimated -study
* Growth in 2010 emissions driven by China, India
* Emissions from deforestation revised down to 10 pct
David Fogarty, Reuters AlertNet 21 Nov 10;
SINGAPORE, Nov 22 (Reuters) - Global emissions of planet-warming carbon dioxide are on track to hit a record in 2010, a leading annual study said on Monday, driven largely by booming economies in China and India and their reliance on coal. The Global Carbon Project, a consortium of international research bodies, also said annual emissions dipped 1.3 percent in 2009 from 2008 because of the global financial crisis. But the fall was less than half the decrease estimated a year ago.
"The real surprise was that we were expecting a bigger dip due to the financial crisis in terms of fossil fuel emissions," said Pep Canadell, executive director of the Global Carbon Project and one of the co-authors of the study published in the latest issue of the journal Nature Geoscience.
The findings come a week before the start of U.N. climate talks in Mexico aimed at trying to find a way for nations to agree on a tougher pact to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
But Canadell also said new data and reduced loss of tropical rainforests showed that emissions from deforestation had declined and now comprised about 10 percent of mankind's greenhouse gas pollution. Previous studies have said 12 to 17 percent.
Scientists say rising levels of CO2, the main greenhouse gas, from burning fossil fuels and deforestation is heating up the planet.
Canadell said 2009's drop would prove to be a blip.
Emissions from fossil fuels were projected to increase by more than 3 per cent in 2010 if economic growth stayed on track, he told Reuters by telephone from Canberra, Australia. This would mark a return to the high growth rates of 2000-2008, he added.
"The implication of this kind of growth rate is that you're quickly moving into well beyond the 2 degrees Celsius warming target," he said, referring to a level beyond which scientists say the world risks "dangerous" climate change.
BIGGER SHARE
Voracious demand for coal, oil and gas by China, India and Brazil as well as demand for their goods was helping drive the increase.
"Emerging economies are taking a bigger share of the global production of wealth and they do it with more carbon-intense energy systems," said Canadell, a senior scientist with Australia's top research body, the CSIRO.
In 2009, declines in fossil fuel emissions were largest in developed nations. For example, emissions from the United States, the world's second largest carbon polluter, fell 6.9 percent, Britain fell 8.6 percent and Japan fell 11.8 percent.
But emissions from the world's top carbon polluter China rose 8 percent, while India's increased 6.2 percent and South Korea 1.4 percent.
Despite the slight dip in emissions in 2009, the study showed concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere continued rising, reaching a record of 387 parts per million (ppm). This is compared with levels of about 280 ppm at the start of the Industrial Revolution two centuries ago.
Data shows the world has already warmed on average about 0.7 degrees Celsius over the past century and scientists say the globe is on track to suffer more powerful storms, higher sea levels and severe droughts and floods that could disrupt food supplies.
The findings also show that in 2009 the global economy had slipped in terms of energy efficiency because of an increased share of fossil fuel CO2 emissions from emerging economies.
The study says the carbon intensity of global gross domestic product improved in 2009 less than half of the long-term average. Carbon intensity refers to fossil fuel emissions per unit of GDP.
"Both globally and for emerging economies, the fraction of fossil fuel emissions from coal increased in 2009, as in 2008," the study says.
Canadell said better data and forest conservation policies in Brazil and elsewhere were making a difference in curbing emissions from deforestation.
"We found global emissions from deforestation have decreased through the last decade by more than 25 percent compared to the 1990s," he said.
But emissions were still more than three billion tonnes of CO2 a year or roughly three times the total emissions of the Japanese economy.
(Editing by Miral Fahmy)
No letup in carbon emissions, scientists warn
Yahoo News 21 Nov 10;
PARIS (AFP) – Emissions of fossil-fuel gases that stoke climate change edged back less than hoped in 2009 as falls in advanced economies were largely outweighed by rises in China and India, scientists said Sunday.
For 2010, emissions are likely to resume their upward track, scaling a new peak, they warned.
Annual emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the burning of oil, gas and coal were 30.8 billion tonnes, a retreat of only 1.3 percent in 2009 compared with 2008, a record year, they said in a letter to the journal Nature Geoscience.
The global decrease was less than half that had been expected, because emerging giant economies were unaffected by the downturn that hit many large industrialised nations.
In addition, they burned more coal, the biggest source of fossil-fuel carbon, while their economies struggled with a higher "carbon intensity," a measure of fuel-efficiency.
Emissions of fossil-fuel gases in 2009 fell by 11.8 percent in Japan, by 6.9 percent in the United States, by 8.6 percent in Britain, by seven percent in Germany and by 8.4 percent in Russia, the paper said.
In contrast, they rose by eight percent in China, by 6.2 percent in India and 1.4 percent in South Korea.
As a result, China strengthened its unenvied position as the world's No. 1 emitter of fossil-fuel CO2, accounting for a whopping 24 percent of the total.
The United States remained second, with 17 percent.
Fossil fuels account for 88 percent of all emissions from CO2, the principal "greenhouse gas" blamed for trapping the Sun's rays and causing global warming, the driver of potentially catastrophic changes to Earth's climate system.
Concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere from all sources reached a record high of 387 parts per million (ppm), the study said.
"The 2009 drop in C02 emissions is less than half that anticipated a year ago," said Pierre Friedlingstein, a professor at the University of Exeter in Britain, which led the study.
"This is because the drop in world gross domestic product was less than anticipated and the carbon intensity of world GDP, which is the amount of CO2 released per unit of GDP, improved by only 0.7 percent in 2009 -- well below its long-term average of 1.7 percent."
There was one spot of good news, though.
CO2 emissions from deforestation fell sharply, thanks to slowing forest loss in tropical countries and to a pickup in reforestation in Europe, temperate zones of Asia and North America.
In the 1990s, emissions from deforestation were more than 25 percent of the global total. In 2009, though, they were only 12 percent.
Despite this, the news for 2010 is likely to be grim.
CO2 from fossil fuels is likely to increase by more than three percent if predictions of 4.8 percent in world economic growth are right. This means the fall seen in 2009 will have been just a blip as carbon pollution resumes its fast upward track.
The report by the Global Carbon Project, linking leading climate scientists around the world, was published in the run-up to the November 29-December 10 UN climate talks in Cancun, Mexico.
The conference aims at breaking the deadlock on reducing greenhouse-gas emissions and channelling aid to poor, vulnerable countries after the near-fiasco at the world climate summit in Copenhagen.
Weak world economy cuts carbon pollution last year
Seth Borenstein, Associated Press Yahoo News 21 Nov 10;
WASHINGTON – Here's one plus from the global economic recession: Carbon dioxide pollution last year dropped for the first time in a decade.
But it didn't last and it wasn't as big a drop as expected.
Burning fossil fuels to power factories, cars and airplanes spews out greenhouse gases that warm the world. But during the economic downturn, some factories shut down and people didn't drive or fly as much. The helped drop emissions about 1.3 percent from 2008 to 2009, according to a study published Sunday in the journal Nature Geoscience.
There's been a close link between gross domestic product and pollution in recent decades, said study lead author Pierre Friedlingstein of the University of Exeter in England. "The good part of the crisis is that it reduces emissions."
In the United States, the Energy Department said that emissions dropped 7 percent in 2009 because of three equal factors: the slowing economy, slightly better energy efficiency and cleaner energy.
Worldwide, it was mostly a matter of the economy, Friedlingstein said. In 2009, the world spewed nearly 34 billion tons (about 31 billion metric tons) of carbon dioxide. That's a drop of 453 million tons from the previous year — what the U.S. emits in about 26 days.
The last time carbon dioxide pollution dropped worldwide was in 1999 and this was the biggest decrease since 1992, according to records by the Energy Department's Oak Ridge National Lab. Despite last year's improvement, worldwide carbon emissions have increased by 25 percent since the year 2000.
Carbon pollution is probably already rising this year, the study authors said, and likely to set yet a record in 2010.
The same scientists last year had forecast almost a 3 percent drop in emissions for 2009 based on GDP projections from the International Monetary Fund. But the economy improved more than expected and developing countries kept increasing the amount of carbon dioxide they produced, Friedlingstein said.
Developing nations aren't using energy as efficiently and they weren't as affected by the recession as the west, he said.
China's carbon dioxide pollution jumped 8 percent from 2008 to 2009. India's went up about 6 percent, according to the study.
That's part of a dramatic shift in which countries are producing the most carbon dioxide. In 1990, the developed world produced 65 percent of the world's carbon dioxide, said study co-author Gregg Marland of the Oak Ridge National Lab. Now it is less than 43 percent as those countries have cut about 10 percent of their emissions while the developing world has more than doubled their overall emissions.
One bright note is that overall carbon dioxide emissions from the destruction of forests has slowed considerably, Friedlingstein said.
Despite that, it looks like the world cannot reach the goal set by international negotiations in Copenhagen last year of limiting global warming to a 3.6 degree (2 degree Celsius) temperature increase since industrialization, said University of Victoria climate scientist Andrew Weaver, who wasn't involved in the study. Through the first 10 months of the year, 2010 is tied for the hottest year in 131 years of record keeping, according to the National Climatic Data Center.
"We are letting global warming emissions get away from us," Weaver said. "You can't say the climate science community didn't say 'I told you so.'"
Guillermo Barros Yahoo News 22 Nov 10;
MEXICO CITY (AFP) – Mayors from around the world signed a voluntary pact Sunday in Mexico City to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at a meeting meant as a precursor to UN-sponsored climate talks in Cancun opening next week.
The gathering in one of the world's most polluted cities assembled thousands of local and regional leaders to discuss a wide range of economic and social issues, including climate change.
Participants from some 135 cities and urban areas -- including Buenos Aires, Bogota, Johannesburg, Los Angeles, Paris and Vancouver -- signed the pact which states their intention to adopt a slate of measures to stem climate change.
Each city "will have to register its climate data (commitments as well as performance) in the city climate record" during the next eight months, said Gabriel Sanchez, president of Think Foundation, a Mexican non-profit.
Residents will be able to track their cities' performance online, officials said.
The pact will be presented at UN talks in the Mexican resort of Cancun from November 29 to December 10.
That's when top climate scientists from around the world hope to break the deadlock on reducing greenhouse-gas emissions and channeling aid to poor, vulnerable countries after the widely regarded failure of the last climate summit, in Copenhagen.
Sunday's signing came a day after the close of the third conference of the United Cities and Local Governments, attended by mayors, legislators and officials from more than 1,000 cities and towns in 114 countries.
Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard said his counterparts should seize the opportunity ahead of Cancun to highlight their key roles in the fight to put the brakes on climate change.
"We have to tell the international community that it's in the cities that the battle to slow global warming will be won," Ebrard said in the lead-up to the meeting.
And he has brought the battle to his doorstep; the leftist Ebrard pledged last week that Mexico City, with its teeming population of more than 20 million, would reduce its annual greenhouse gas emissions by around 14 percent.
The mayors emphasized the vital role that cities, where more than half the world's population now live, can play in the fight against climate change.
Urban areas consume up to 80 percent of global energy production and emit 60 percent of greenhouse gases, according to Christiana Figueres, head of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
The pact sent a "clear signal" to countries that will sit at the negotiating table in Cancun that it is possible to reach agreement, Figueres said.
Meanwhile, a new study released on Sunday found that fossil-fuel gases edged back less than hoped in 2009, as falls in advanced economies were largely outweighed by rises in China and India.
Annual global emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the burning of oil, gas and coal were 30.8 billion tonnes, a retreat of only 1.3 percent in 2009 compared with 2008, a record year, they said in a letter to the journal Nature Geoscience.
The decrease was less than half what had been expected, because emerging giant economies were unaffected by the downturn that hit many large industrialized nations.
In addition, they burned more coal, the biggest source of fossil-fuel carbon, while their economies struggled with a higher "carbon intensity," a measure of fuel-efficiency.
Emissions of fossil-fuel gases in 2009 fell by 11.8 percent in Japan, by 6.9 percent in the United States, by 8.6 percent in Britain, by 7.0 percent in Germany and by 8.4 percent in Russia, the paper said.
In contrast, they rose by eight percent in China, the world's number one emitter of fossil-fuel CO2, which accounts for a whopping 24 percent of the total.
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