Noteable Quotes at Bali Climate Talks

PlanetArk 13 Dec 07;

Following are quotes from world leaders and senior officials at the opening of the high-level segment of Dec. 3-14 UN-led climate talks in Bali or at press briefings.

UN SECRETARY-GENERAL BAN KI-MOON:

"This is the moral challenge of our generation. Not only are the eyes of the world upon us. More important, succeeding generations depend on us. We cannot rob our children of their future."

"Our atmosphere can't tell the difference between emissions from an Asian factory, the exhaust from a North American SUV, or deforestation in South America or Africa," he said.

INDONESIAN PRESIDENT SUSILO BAMBANG YUDHOYONO

"We are embarking on the biggest project in human civilisation," he said. "We must ensure that the United States ... is part of such post-2012 arrangements."

AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER KEVIN RUDD

"For Australians, climate change is no longer a distant threat. Our rivers are dying, bushfires are more ferocious and more frequent and our natural wonders -- the Great Barrier Reef, Kakadu, our rainforests -- are now at risk."

PAULA DOBRIANSKY, HEAD OF THE US DELEGATION

"We want the world's largest economies, including the United States, to be part of a global arrangement. An approach in which only some are committed to acting cannot be environmentally effective."

"We don't want to be prejudging outcomes here," she said of US opposition to scientific guidelines for rich nations to cut emissions by 25-40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020. "We dont want to be predetermining what will come out of this process."

PRESIDENT OF THE MALDIVES, MAUMOON ABDUL GAYOOM

"We believe that climate change must be viewed not only as a danger to natural systems, but also as a direct threat to human survival and well-being. We are convinced that this negotiation process must not be viewed as a traditional series of governmental trade-offs, but as an urgent international effort to safeguard human lives, homes, rights and livelihoods."

PRIME MINISTER OF PAPUA NEW GUINEA, MICHAEL SOMARE

"The answer is simple. If we lose the world's forests, we lose the fight against climate change. Rainforests are our Earth's greatest utility -- our planet's lungs, thermostat and air-conditioning system."

PRESIDENT OF THE WORLD BANK, ROBERT ZOELLICK

"Climate change policies cannot be the frosting on the cake of development; they must be baked into the recipe of growth and social development."

DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF THE FAO, JACQUES DIOUF

"Low-income people everywhere will be at risk of food insecurity due to loss of assets, absence of alternative livelihood options and lack of adequate insurance coverage from extreme weather events." -- For Reuters latest environment blogs click on: http://blogs.reuters.com/environment/ (Compiled by David Fogarty; Editing by Jerry Norton)

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Saudi Arabia Says No Need to Cut Oil Use to Fight Warming

Emma Graham-Harrison, PlanetArk 13 Dec 07;

NUSA DUA, Indonesia - Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia said on Wednesday the world does not need to shift away from fossil fuels to combat global warming, suggesting pilot technology and greater efficiency as better options.

Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi told UN-led climate talks that the world should focus on research to cut emissions while continuing to use its "huge reserves" of crude, gas and coal.

Riyadh is traditionally wary of anything that might undermine demand for the vast reserves of oil that have transformed it from a small desert kingdom to a powerful international player, and is currently earning near-record prices for its crude.

"The trend towards moving away from fossil fuel consumption as a means of addressing climate change does not represent a practical alternative to reducing emissions of greenhouse gases, particularly given the availability of technologies for energy efficiency and carbon capture and storage," Naimi said.

Many governments and groups such as the International Energy Agency are heavily pushing energy efficiency as a way to start tackling emissions problems with existing technology.

But no commercial-scale projects yet exist for carbon capture and storage, which is supposed to pump emissions from coal-fired power plants underground for long-term storage.

Naimi also criticised fuel taxes that aim to curb consumption in some countries, saying they were part of a system that unfairly favoured coal and largely emissions-free nuclear energy "despite their more adverse pollution and impact on the climate".

Naimi said the world should instead investigate "clean oil", including carbon capture and storage, although he did not explain how it might be possible to capture and then store emissions from the vehicles that consume a large portion of the world's oil.

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Seychelles promises to protect its sharks

Ed Harris, Reuters 12 Dec 07;

PORT LOUIS, Dec 12 (Reuters) - The Seychelles will protect its rapidly declining shark population, the government said on Wednesday, after a Taiwanese fishing boat was caught in its waters with an illegal load of fins.

Booming demand for shark fin soup in Asia, especially China, is driving the shark fishing industry and increasing the risk of extinction for some shark species, marine scientists warn.

Conducting searches around the 115-island Indian Ocean archipelago last week, a French navy ship found 650 kg of shark fins aboard a Taiwanese fishing vessel. The fishermen's paperwork said only 15 kg were caught in Seychellois waters.

"We could only get them for the 15 kg, not for the rest, but this shows you the volume of sharks caught," Didier Dogley, permanent secretary at the Seychelles' Environment Ministry, told Reuters by telephone.

"We are going to crack down on illegal shark finning ... We have already started with the patrolling."

The 650 kg of dried shark fin that was discovered would have come from about 13 tonnes of sharks, he added. Some shark fishermen cut off the fins before throwing the shark back into the water -- where they drown because they cannot swim.

Dogley was speaking as scores of delegates from around the world held the second of three days of talks in the Seychelles to discuss how to best protect shark populations.

The whale shark -- the largest fish species, growing up to 20 metres long -- visits the Seychelles between August and November.

"These sharks are very important for countries like us," Dogley said, referring to Seychelles' eco-tourism industry.

"If you're lucky, you can see about a dozen." (Additional reporting by George Thande in Victoria; Editing by Daniel Wallis)

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Ivorians warn of Chinese fishing threat: union

Yahoo News 12 Dec 07;

Ivorian fishing groups warned Wednesday of the threat to acquatic flora and fauna in their national waters from "exploitation and abusive practices" by Chinese fishing fleets.

"Foreign boats, notably Chinese, are in the process of jeopardising the future of fishing in Ivory Coast," Ivory Coast Marine Fishermen Union (SYMAPECI) Secretary General Barthelemy Kouassi Yao told AFP.

"Today, in total disregard of national and international law, they use 'bottom trawling' which is dangerous and captures everything in its wake," Kouassi said, calling this an "alarming situation."

"We have observed a drastic decline in the local production because nothing is done to stop this pre-planned pillage. And we are far from the turning point of stopping the fall in production, unfortunately," he added, saying that part of the problem was due to the "complacency" of Ivorian authorities.

Since 2004, "nearly 40 Chinese ships operate in Ivorian territorial waters, some of which hold questionable agreements," he said. The Chinese presence symbolises a menace "for 4,000 jobs in the sector."

"In terms of the number of boats that sail here...if you let things be, in a few months all sea life will be gone from the waters of the Ivory Coast," Ivorian ship owner Richard Tchibanda said.

He said at least 20 years are needed for certain species to be able to replenish fish stocks.

On July 27, 22 African countries bordering the Atlantic Ocean, including Ivory Coast, spoke out against the "pillaging of more than 50 percent" of their fish resources by fishing boats without authorisation and which threatens the food security for the population.

"More than 50 percent of our fish resources are pillaged every year," said Ivorian Animal Production Minister Alphonse Douati, also head of the Ministerial Conference on Fishing Cooperation between the 22 African countries bordering the Atlantic (COMHAFAT).

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Scientists shed light on monster sea waves

Julie Steenhuysen, Yahoo News 12 Dec 07;

Ocean waves as tall as an eight-story building, once dismissed as maritime folklore, can be studied using waves of light, offering hope of predicting where these monsters may appear, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday.

"These giant waves have been featured in many famous literary works from the Odyssey to Robinson Crusoe, but they were just thought to be the subject of myth for a long time," said Daniel Solli of the University of California, Los Angeles, whose study appears in the journal Nature.

These rogue or freak waves can appear out of nowhere on an otherwise calm sea. Their extreme height -- reaching some 98 feet tall -- can batter a ship, smashing it to bits. "Even modern ships are not immune to damage from these things," Solli said in a telephone interview.

"Scientists thought these were just sailor's yarns," Solli said, until they spotted one in the mid-1990s off an oil platform in the North Sea.

Now they are studying how they form. Solli thinks the answer may be found by studying light waves, which behave similarly to water waves.

Solli was studying the properties of light waves traveling in glass when they discovered optical rogue waves, freak brief pulses of intense light similar to the freak water waves.

Solli, a physicist, knew the same physical effect could occur in different physical systems. He began looking at possible explanations and found a stark resemblance between the mathematical equations that describe rogue water waves and his rogue light waves.

"The more we looked into this, the more it became clear that what we were seeing was the optical counterpart of the same effect," he said.

When they examined these light waves further, they found a predictable change occurred that perturbed an otherwise normal-looking wave into becoming a rogue light wave.

He thinks the same thing may be happening in the sea.

"Essentially there is a sweet spot or tickle spot we found. If you tickle the wave on this particular spot, it develops into one of these rogue waves," he said.

"It is highly likely a similar effect is at work in the water waves," he said.

If he is right, the finding could allow scientists to study these rare monster waves in a table-top experiment.

"We hope it may be possible to develop more complete models and learn new ways to predict them," he said.

(Editing by Will Dunham and Sandra Maler)

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Red Cross says global warming caused record disasters in 2007

Yahoo News 12 Dec 07;

Global warming caused a record number of natural disasters across the world in 2007, up nearly 20 percent from a year earlier, the International Federation of the Red Cross said on Thursday.

"As of 10 October 2007, the Federation had already recorded 410 disasters, 56 percent of which were weather-related, which is consistent with the trend of rising numbers of climate change-related disasters," the IFRC said in its "World Disasters Report".

In 2006, the IFRC recorded 427 natural disasters, a rise of 70 percent in the two years since 2004.

"These figures confirm the trend of recent years," IFRC Secretary General Markku Niskala told a press conference.

Over the last 10 years, the number of natural disasters rose by 40 percent from the previous decade, while the number of deaths caused by disasters doubled to 1.2 million people from 600,000, the report said.

The number of people on average affected by natural disasters each year rose to 270 million from 230 million over the same period.

"Better reporting of smaller disasters partially explains these increases. However, more severe disasters are also on the increase," the IFRC report said.

The report warned that vulnerable groups in society such as women, disabled people, the elderly and ethnic minorities face extra hardships when coping with natural disasters.

The IFRC cited examples of blind, deaf or paralysed people who may be unable to flee danger on their own, or people unable to follow evacuation plans because they have been excluded from school and thus cannot read.

In the December 2004 tsunami that devastated southeast Asia, three times as many women were killed than men because they tended to be at home when the waves struck, noted Mohammed Mukhier, one of the report's authors.

The report also said that in some instances, minority groups like the Dalits in India and the Tamils in Sri Lanka did not receive equal amounts of aid after the tsunami due to political, ethnic or religious reasons.

"Aid agencies need to work to change attitudes, develop inclusion and advocate on behalf of marginalised groups," Niskala said.

"Discrimination thrives in the shadows, so we need to chase those shadows away," he added.

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U.N. aims to provide carbon neutral example

Reuters 12 Dec 07;

NUSA DUA, Indonesia (Reuters) - More countries should follow the examples of Costa Rica, Norway and New Zealand and aim to wipe out their contribution to climate change altogether, the U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP) said on Wednesday.

"This is not peanuts, it's whole countries," UNEP chief Achim Steiner told a news conference.

The United Nations aims to go completely carbon neutral starting with the "small step" of offsetting the carbon footprints of U.N. officials attending December 3-14 climate talks in a luxury Indonesian island resort in Bali.

The U.N., which reckons it emits about 1 million tonnes of greenhouse gases a year mainly by burning fossil fuels for travel and running offices, could show how it can be done.

"It's important that the U.N. takes the lead ... how to achieve it," said Erik Solheim, environment minister for Norway, which aims to be climate neutral by 2050.

Among nations, Costa Rica is set to win the carbon neutral race by a mile, aiming to wipe all its emissions by 2021 in time for a 200th independence anniversary party, by planting trees and relying more on its brimming hydropower.

"Costa Rica will plant 5 million trees in 2007 and in 2008 the goal will be doubled," said Paulo Manso, head of the Costa Rica's negotiating team attending the climate talks.

About 190 nations are meeting in Bali to try and launch negotiations on a global climate pact to replace the Kyoto Protocol from 2013.

Going carbon or climate neutral involves as far as possible cutting your emissions of the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, for example by switching from high carbon-emitting fossil fuels to renewable sources of energy such as wind and water.

For all the rest you pay someone else to cut emissions on your behalf. The trend has taken off among U.S. and European corporates ranging from Google to HSBC bank.

But such goals have drawn slurs of tokenism from some skeptics who point out that volunteers often have very low carbon emissions to start with, in contrast to heavy industry.

Costa Rica, Norway and New Zealand, which wants a carbon neutral energy sector by 2040, all have small populations and plentiful renewable energy resources, especially hydropower.

Several environmental groups have questioned the quality of carbon offsets available for sale under the U.N.-run Kyoto Protocol. It can be difficult to prove, for example, that sellers weren't planning to cut their emissions anyway.

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StatoilHydro says 25,000 bbl oil spilled in North Sea

John Acher, Reuters 12 Dec 07;

OSLO, Dec 12 (Reuters) - About 25,000 barrels of oil spilled into the Norwegian sector of the North Sea at the Statfjord oilfield on Wednesday, field operator StatoilHydro (STL.OL: Quote, Profile, Research) and oil officials said.

The spill occurred in rough seas while oil was being loaded from a storage unit to a tanker, but the spillage has been halted, oil safety authorities said.

A meteorologist at the Storm forecasting centre said the spill may be drifting east to southeast. That could put it on a collision course with the southwest coast of Norway.

"This could be the second largest spill in Norwegian oil history," the Petroleum Safety Authority's (PSA) spokeswoman, Inger Anda, said. The biggest was a 75,000-barrel spill from the Bravo blowout in 1977.

By comparison, the Exxon Valdez tanker spilled about 240,000 barrels of crude off Alaska in 1989.

"During loading of oil from the Statfjord A platform in the North Sea about 4,000 standard cubic metres of oil was released into the sea," Norwegian energy group StatoilHydro said in a statement.

Neither production nor exports from Statfjord, the biggest oilfield ever found off Norway though now far off its peak, would be affected, StatoilHydro said.

Statfjord currently produces about 100,000 barrels per day and news of the spill initially helped to send oil prices higher.

The spill happened in rough weather while the tanker Navion Britannica was loading oil from a storage buoy, StatoilHydro said. The ship belongs to Vancouver-based tanker group Teekay Corp (TK.N: Quote, Profile, Research).

Winds at Statfjord are for the moment around 45 knots, and seas are around seven metres (23 feet), StatoiHydro said.

The Statfjord field lies about 200 km (124 miles) offshore, west of the port of Bergen near the UK boundary line in the North Sea.

The PSA said it established an emergency response centre.

The Storm centre official said southerly near gale to gale winds were expected in the area for the next 24 hours and seas of 4-1/2 to 7 metres and the spill seemed to be drifting east to southeast, but that could not be immediately confirmed.

StatoilHydro shares rose despite the spill and traded up 1.4 percent at 165 Norwegian crowns ($30.36) at 1504 GMT, outperforming a 0.2 percent rise in the Oslo bourse benchmark index and a 1.1 percent rise in the DJ Stoxx oil and gas index . (Additional reporting by Wojciech Moskwa, Ole Petter Skonnord and Bart Noonan, Editing by Anthony Barker)

Large oil spill near North Sea oil platform: Norway
Pierre-Henry Deshayes, Yahoo News 12 Dec 07;

Thousands of tonnes of oil poured into the North Sea Wednesday as it was being piped from an offshore platform to a loading buoy, Norwegian authorities and the platform's operator said.

A plane, a helicopter and boats were scrambled to the scene in the Statfjord oilfield, some 200 kilometres (125 miles) from the Norwegian coast, to determine the extent of the spill and try to contain it, operator StatoilHydro said.

"There was a very large spill while transhipping oil from the platform to a ship," Inger Anda, a spokeswoman for the Petroleum Safety Authority Norway, told AFP.

According to preliminary estimates from the Petroleum Safety Authority, some 3,840 cubic metres, the equivalent of 24,150 barrels or 3,220 tonnes of oil, had spilled into the sea.

Norwegian oil giant StatoilHydro said the accident happened as oil was being pumped to the tanker Navion Britannica.

The leak occurred in a pipe between the platform and a nearby loading buoy where tankers dock to load up. The pipe and buoy were shut down to prevent any further leaks.

StatoilHydro estimated the size of the spill at some 4,000 cubic metres, which Anda said was the second largest in Norway's history.

With the wind conditions prevailing at the time, the oil was headed north, sparing the Norwegian coastline for the time being.

Meteorologist Oeyvind Breivik, interviewed by news agency NTB, said it was unlikely the oil would reach the Norwegian coast. A large part of the oil was likely to evaporate or sink in the coming hours, he said.

According to StatoilHydro, weather conditions were limiting efforts to clean up the spill, with winds of 45 knots and waves of seven metres (23 feet).

"We've stationed a boat at the scene and other boats are headed for the zone," StatoilHydro spokesman Oerjan Heradstveit told AFP.

"But the weather conditions are for the time being making it impossible to clean up the oil mechanically" with barriers and pumps, "and we may have to use (chemical) dispersal agents," he said.

Norwegian environmental groups expressed concern after Wednesday's accident.

"The oil spill is as big as all the small spills in the past 10 or 12 years put together," the head of the Norwegian branch of WWF, Rasmus Hansson, told AFP.

The green group said the accident occurred at a time when large numbers of sea birds, such as little auks and guillemots, were in the area.

"These are very vulnerable species, and they are already threatened by overfishing which deprives them of their nourishment," Hansson said.

Following the spill, WWF Norway demanded that StatoilHydro put an end to its lobbying to prospect for oil the length of the Norwegian coast.

Another environmental organisation, Bellona, said the accident showed that StatoilHydro's and the authorities' reaction capabilities were insufficient.

Norway's largest spill happened in 1977 when an explosion on the Ekofisk Bravo platform released 12,000 cubic metres of oil into the North Sea, the Petroleum Safety Agency said.

The Statfjord oilfield, one of Norway's largest, is located some 200 kilometres (125 miles) west of Bergen, right on the boundary between the Norwegian and British sectors of the North Sea.

Norway is the world's 10th largest oil producer.

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Community raises awareness to save Indonesian mangrove

Jakarta Post 12 Dec 07;

“It is a dilemma. The locals need to develop their economy to lead a better life and sometimes development requires the clearing of forests,”

BADUNG, Bali (JP): For years the mangrove forests have protected the people of Tanjung Benoa village from flood and served as the foundation of their fishing economy. Tanjung Benoa is located on the west coast of the Nusa Dua tourist enclave.

The forest reduces tidal inundation and protects the beach from eroding, explained I. Wayan Kembar, one of the village’s elders.

The villagers have long believed the forest was divinely ordained, coming from the grace of the Creator. A wide variety of trees in the mangrove give animals a place to live and local residents, who are mostly fishermen, bountiful harvests .

It never crossed their minds that one day they would have to plant trees as the mangroves declined due to rapid development.

“This beach has never been planted since I first came here years a go. We have now begun planting trees as we have been taught about the many functions of the mangrove forest,” said

Kembar, while looking at a landscape of coastal terrain, where he has sown thousands of mangrove seeds.

An increasing urban population coupled with little public environmental awareness has had a serious impact on the mangrove population and extent. The construction of infrastructure in the mangrove area, particularly the Ngurah Rai bypass, has led to massive losses of mangrove forests with the areas turned over to housing and business centers. Mounting plastic waste is another serious threat to the mangroves.

The Badung forestry agency in 2005 said that out of a total of 627 hectares of mangrove forest, about 270 hectares (43.06 percent) were deteriorating, 180 hectares (28.71 percent) were borderline critical and a further 90 hectares (14.35 percent) were in a critical condition.

While claiming that the forests are generally healthy, the Bali Forestry Agency said that the mangrove forests in the southern part of Bali, spanning from Denpasar to Badung regencies, have declined from about 1,373 to 1,000 hectares for the sake of development.

It is also just a matter of time before state-owned airport operator PT Angkasa Pura clears several hectares of mangroves to allow for the expansion of the runway at the Ngurah Rai airport, scheduled to commence after 2025.

“It is a dilemma. The locals need to develop their economy to lead a better life and sometimes development requires the clearing of forests,” said Tjok Agung Adnjana of the Badung office of the Indonesian Red Cross.

“For that reason, what we need to do is plant new trees in the mangroves to offset the destruction we have done.”

International Red Cross and the Red Crescent Movement has helped Kembar and his fellow villagers cope with the adverse effects of an environment that is deteriorating due to human activities. The humanitarian organization, in cooperation with the local forestry agency, is helping Tanjung Benoa villagers to anticipate natural disasters by planting 10,000 mangroves in the village.

“As the world’s largest humanitarian organization, we are uniquely suited to mobilize communities on the critical issue of adaptation,” said Madeleen Helmer, who heads the Red Cross and Red Crescent Climate Centre.

Calling for governments to prioritize risk reduction, the organization believes that the issue of adaptation is equally important as mitigation.

“Discussions about climate change are too focused on reducing future impacts, through cuts to carbon emission,” said Simon Missiri, the deputy head of the International Federation’s delegation at the United Nations climate conference.

“This is of course vitally important. But people are already suffering because of climate change,” he said

The Red Cross and the Red Crescent have helped the villagers in Tanjung Benoa plant 3,000 trees so far and the remaining 7,000 will be completed within the next six months. Most of the people involved in the reforestation program are children, with the hope they will see the benefit of what they are doing in the future.

“This is for our future,” 14-year-old Ni Luh Budi Riandani said as she planted the mangrove seeds along with dozens of the village’s younger generation. (Ary Hermawan)

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Indonesian mangroves and global warming

Sukristijono Sukardjo, Jakarta Post 12 Dec 07;

The majority of the world's mangroves lie in Indonesia and Indonesian mangroves contribute 27 percent of the world's mangrove area.

Because the mangrove forest grows at the interface between land and sea, the destruction of this ecosystem causes severe damage to both terrestrial and aquatic neighboring ecosystems.

Straddling two environments -- land and sea -- the frontal edge of the mangrove stand is characterized by thick vegetation, tangled roots and glutinous mud.

The soil is periodically waterlogged, rich in organic matter and therefore low in oxygen. Water and nutrients are abundant, but the water is salty. It is called the waterlogged forest.

The environment in which mangroves grow is harsh. Only a few of the mangrove species are normally seen at or close to the water's edge and that is why most people seem to find these forests somewhat monotonous.

The other members of the group tend to be hidden from view by those at the front, but nonetheless often cover large areas and are important in the general ecology.

Rarely are all species found in any one estuary. It is true to say, in fact, that no two estuaries are exactly alike. Like any other plant, each mangrove has its particular environmental preferences.

To the experienced eye, therefore, mangrove forests display far greater diversity than one might imagine and it is beginning to appear these differences may affect such things as fishing.

Only careful research will tell whether or not this is so.

To date, approximately 110 to 204 plants species being found associated with Indonesian mangroves and numerous species of micro flora (fungi, lichens, diatoms and algal), the associated fauna and the microbial species of the soils, waters and air. Some are still waiting a proper identification.

Walking in an Avicennia forest is hampered by a dense growth of short, woody pegs projecting from the soil. These are pneumatophores -- aerial extensions of the mangrove's roots. The prop-roots of Rhizophora spp stabilize the mangrove in soft mud and hold it against currents.

The roots of the living trees serve as hiding places for fish and as substrate for much-desired oysters. The seeds within the fruits will germinate before falling from the tree.

Viviparity, as this phenomenon is called, enables the young mangroves to root quickly.

Tidal forests contain distinctive vegetation zones, reflecting differences in the duration of inundation, the input of freshwater from the hinterland, salinity, geomorphology, human interference and other factors.

Indonesian mangroves grow in areas of high solar radiation and have the ability to take up fresh water from salt, so they are in an excellent position to achieve high primary productivity. Mangroves provide an interesting natural laboratory for ecologists and biologists.

Mangroves are also valuable outdoor classrooms and in the Suwung in Bali for example, boardwalks have been built allowing easy public access. The mangroves of Indonesia's coast are exhilarating to view and exciting to explore.

The republic's mangroves are one of the most important parts of the country's estuaries (as a major component of river-basin or river catchment) and a source of conflicts in terms of tropical ecosystems for the direct and indirect benefits it produces.

The mangrove forest plays many roles including a coastal stabilizer, dispersant of the energy of storms, tidal bores and winds.

It is also a convenient nursery area for fish, shrimp, crabs, mollusks. The role of mangroves in the cycle of nutrients and energy, which makes estuaries among our most important sources of seafood has been recognized only in recent years.

This is a considerable challenge which, if effectively pursued, could prove the only long-term means of sustaining an economically viable fishery.

Mangroves along the coasts of Indonesia are vital for global climate changes and also to South China Sea fishing, ecologists say.

The destruction of Indonesian mangroves by mankind, however, is progressing extensively and intensively in a massive manner. Also, the natural calamities at the present day play a significant role too. We should pay attention to the coastal environment, especially in Aceh, Sumatra Utara and Nias.

Conservation of the mangrove ecosystem is a way for "real lasting development. Because the mangrove forest grows at the interface between land and sea, the destruction of this ecosystem causes severe damage to both terrestrial and aquatic neighboring ecosystems.

The majority of the world's mangroves lie in Indonesia and Indonesian mangroves contribute 27 percent of the world's mangrove area. The time has come for Indonesia to establish a National Strategy for Mangrove Ecosystem Management in Indonesia (NSMEMI) that clearly states the values of mangroves resources to the nation, takes steps to keep our remaining mangrove forests and initiates the process of restoring the mangrove environment for the future.

A national policy must increase the role of resource management agencies in development projects and require that all development agencies prevent mangrove forest loss or fully mitigate such loss when it is unavoidable.

As a national policy develops and is implemented we will see significant changes that not only slow, and eventually stop, mangrove forests loss, but ultimately result in a reversal of mangrove loss.

The establishment and implementation of a national policy (e.g., for green belt, national parks, nature reserve, wildlife sanctuaries) on coastal resources in general and the mangrove ecosystem in particular, will not be easy task, but it is necessary one.

Mangroves mean too much to the national interest to be squandered for quick profits or political expediency. Instead, these tidal wetlands should be declared endangered habitats and given national recognition as a critical resource. The question is do we Indonesians have the will?

The writer is professor of mangrove ecology at the Center for Oceanological Research and Development, Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), Jakarta, Indonesia.

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Put biodiversity at centre of climate debate, says new survey

IUCN website 10 Dec 07;
New global survey of on-the-ground climate decision makers in 100+ countries launched

Bali, 10 December, 2007 (IUCN) – A fascinating picture has emerged from a unique survey of 1,000 climate decision-makers and influencers from across 105 countries conducted by GlobeScan, the World Conservation Union (IUCN) and the World Bank in the two weeks leading up to the Bali Climate Conference.

Key findings include:

High emphasis on the protection of biodiversity to help guide climate actions; relatively low emphasis on cost effectiveness.

Bio-fuels produced from food crops like corn have the least potential of 18 technologies for reducing carbon emissions over the next 25 years.

Decision makers expect half of their organizations’ reductions of carbon emissions over the next decade to come from energy demand management or efficiency improvements and not carbon capture.

While most decision makers rate climate change as a key factor influencing their professional activities, only 27% think a post-Kyoto agreement by 2009 is likely or very likely.

Unlike public opinion polls, the survey focuses on the views of professionals in a position to make or influence large decisions in their organizations and society. This focus, together with the survey’s large global sample, spread across all regions of the world and from governments at all levels, scientific institutions, business, and civil society, makes the survey unique.

“This landmark survey brings good and bad news for climate negotiations,” said Julia Marton-Lefèvre, Director General of the World Conservation Union. “It is encouraging that sustainable development and biodiversity rate highest in importance for climate action, but this is not always reflected in the climate negotiations”.

IUCN Deputy Director General Bill Jackson said: "I am pleased that IUCN's Commissions were important participants in this survey because it helps to show what the world's most credible scientists are concerned about when it comes to climate change.”

Some of the other top-line findings of this survey of senior officials from governments at all levels, scientists, and business and civil society leaders, include:

• More than six in 10 (63%) report that climate is one of the top three factors affecting their organizations today.
• On average, two thirds (66%) of the resources their organizations currently allocate to climate is directed at mitigation (i.e., reducing emissions) and one third (34%) to adapting to the effects of climate change. In five years they expect adaptation to increase somewhat, changing this ratio to 60-40.
• In reducing their organization’s carbon emissions over the next 10 years, respondents expect half the reductions (48%) to come from energy demand management and efficiency improvements, a third (35%) to come from lower-carbon energy sources, and 18 percent from carbon capture and storage.
• Respondents look to their national government (92%) ahead of global institutions (76%) or more local-level governments (71%) for the public policies and leadership that their organizations need in order to implement climate solutions.
• When rating the potential role of 18 specific technologies “in reducing atmospheric carbon over the next 25 years without unacceptable side effects,” majorities give high marks only to solar, wind and co-generation (combined heat and electricity). The lowest rating is given to so-called first generation bio-fuels from food crops.
• Asked to rate various possible components of an adequate post-2012 global agreement, strong majorities give high ratings to inclusion of all major carbon-emitting countries (92% essential or important), commitment by wealthy countries to provide aid/technology transfer to assist developing countries meet targets (84%), legally binding targets for each signatory country (77%), and different types of commitments based on countries’ stage of development (76%).
• Respondents also make clear that climate actions must be taken within the framework of sustainable development (87% important), ensuring the protection of biodiversity (78%), appropriate burden sharing (75%), energy security (75%), and setting an agreed maximum carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere (74%).
• Respondents are neither pessimistic nor optimistic that a post-2012 global agreement will be concluded by the UN target of December 2009 needed to ensure a smooth transition.
  

Low faith in biofuels for climate
By Richard Black, BBC News 11 Dec 07;

Decision-makers in the climate change field have little faith in biofuels as a low-carbon technology, the World Conservation Union (IUCN) says.

Unveiled at the UN climate convention meeting in Bali, its survey suggests professionals have more confidence in bicycles than in biofuels.

The findings come as ministers assemble for the final part of the UN talks.

Conservation groups have highlighted the impact of climate change in the tropics and the Antarctic.

European negotiators at the two-week meeting in the beach resort of Nusa Dua are hoping that the meeting will launch a two-year process leading to a further round of binding cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, to come into force when the current Kyoto Protocol targets expire in 2012.

But delegates say much ground remains to be covered as ministers from nearly 190 nations arrive for the last three days of discussions under the UN climate convention (UNFCCC) and Kyoto Protocol.

Fuelling doubts

"Technology must be at the heart of the future response to climate change," UNFCCC executive secretary Yvo de Boer declared at the talks.

But which technology? In a survey of 1,000 professionals in 105 countries, IUCN attempted to gauge which technologies inspired the most confidence.

The survey included people from governments, NGOs and industry.

Of 18 technologies suggested by IUCN, the current generation of biofuels came bottom of the list, with only 21% believing in its potential to "lower overall carbon levels in the atmosphere without unacceptable side effects" over the next 25 years.

Nearly twice as many were confident in the potential of nuclear energy, while solar power for hot water and solar power for electricity emerged as the most favoured low-carbon technologies.

Overall, respondents said increasing energy efficiency and reducing demand could produce more benefits than "clean" energy sources.

Although the EU and the US are attempting to boost the expansion of biofuels, recent evidence is equivocal about their potential.

Studies show they may produce only marginal carbon savings compared to conventional petrol and diesel.

In Indonesia and elsewhere, forests are being cleared for palm oil plantations, partly to produce biofuels. There is evidence that leaving forests intact results in greater climate benefits while protecting biodiversity.

Life at the extremes

Two presentations on the sidelines of the Bali conference have highlighted the impacts of climate change on the natural world.

Conservation International (CI) researchers took forecasts from the the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) 2007 assessment of the Earth's likely climatic future, and calculated what those forecast trends would mean for areas safeguarded for nature, such as national parks and forest reserves.

They found that more than half of these zones were vulnerable to projected climate change. In 21 countries, mainly in the tropics, more than 90% of protected areas were vulnerable.

"We previously assumed that if the land is protected, then the plants and animals living there will persist," said Sandy Andelman, head of CI's Tropical Ecology Assessment and Monitoring network.

"That may be wishful thinking."

WWF, meanwhile, looked at conditions at the Earth's other climatic extreme - the cold of the Antarctic peninsula.

This tendril of land that projects from the Antarctic towards the tip of South America is warming much faster than the global average.

According to WWF researchers, sea ice cover has declined by about 40% over the last quarter century.

"The research done over the last couple of years is that many penguin populations across Antarctica are in decline, with some dropping as much as 65%," said WWF's director-general Jim Leape.

"You are seeing a massive loss of sea ice in important parts of the continent, and that sea ice is crucial to the food web of Antarctica upon which these penguins depend."

Binding ties

Like other conservation groups, WWF is calling for the inclusion of binding targets for reducing carbon emissions in any agreement coming out of the Bali conference.

A draft circulating this week calls for industrialised nations to cut their emissions by 25-40% by 2020.

It is supported by the EU. But the US, Australia, Canada and Japan are arguing against the inclusion of concrete targets at this stage.

"To start with a predetermined answer, we don't think is an appropriate thing to do," US chief negotiator Harlan Watson has said.

But there is frustration among some developing countries at what they see as a lack of political will among the high emitters.

"If nobody shows the willingness to deal with the reduction of carbon emissions to a manageable level, then what are we doing here?" Brazilian delegate Thelma Krug told the AFP news agency.

Receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo yon Monday, former US Vice-President Al Gore urged the US and China to "stop using the others' behaviour as an excuse for stalemate" and work together to find a mutually acceptable way of tackling climate change.

Mr Gore and his fellow Nobel laureate, IPCC chairman Rajendra Pachauri, will be in Bali for the ministerial talks, as will the new Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, whose recent ratification of the Kyoto Protocol injected fresh optimism into the UN process.

But three days of busy talks lie ahead if a deal is to be made.

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Cities Play the Green Card to Achieve Success

UNEP website 11 Dec 07;
UNEP/Cities Alliance/ICLEI report shows how to make cities more liveable, boost investment and help address climate change

"A modern city can only be truly successful if it can convincingly recognize its natural assets, create efficient water, energy and transport infrastructure, and protect its citizens from present and future impacts of climate change," Achim Steiner

Bali, Indonesia, 11 December 2007- From the use of horse-drawn carriages to solve public transport shortage in Bayamo, Cuba to an emissions trading scheme in Taiyuan, China, cities around the world are providing inspiring examples in the global quest for sustainability and the fight against climate change.

The report "Liveable Cities: The Benefits of Urban Environmental Planning", published by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), Cities Alliance and ICLEI -Local Governments for Sustainability, showcases 12 examples of cities around the world.

It explores various options for sustainable urban development ranging from practical tools and comprehensive policies to innovative market mechanisms.

"The report contains many 'take home' messages- environmental management can boost city budgets, prove a strong marketing tool for attracting investors and contribute to public health and poverty eradication," said UN Under-Secretary-General and UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner at the launch of the report today at the Local Government Climate Sessions at the UN Climate Conference in Bali, Indonesia.

"A modern city can only be truly successful if it can convincingly demonstrate its green credentials by recognizing its natural assets, creating efficient water, energy and transport infrastructure, and protecting its citizens in the face of present and future impacts of climate change," he added.

For example, the City of Bayamo in Cuba, faced with a situation where motorized transport was available to just 15% of local commuters, has in 2004 reverted to horse-drawn carriages. Horse-drawn services now take care of around 40% of local transport needs, demonstrating that motorized transport is not the only solution to a public transport problem.

The Municipality of Bohol in the Philippines has been using the ecoBUDGET© tool, an environmental management system that incorporates natural resources and environmental goods into budgeting cycles, to achieve the twin objectives of environmental sustainability and poverty alleviation.

Taiyuan, an industrial city in the coal belt of northern China, is addressing urban air quality problem by introducing a city-wide emissions trading scheme to help reduce sulphur dioxide (SO2) concentration in the atmosphere.

The report makes a strong case for the environment as the key asset for cities. For example, a 2006 survey of professionals working in Hong Kong revealed that almost four out of five professionals were thinking of leaving or new others who have already left because of the quality of the natural environment, while 94% ranked it as the top factor in selecting a place to live.

"Cities today have to be competitive. They operate in a global marketplace, competing with other cities and urban settlements around the world for investment. A city cannot compete, however, if it cannot offer investors security, infrastructure and efficiency. Hardly any city can offer these elements without incorporating environmental issues into its planning and management strategies," said Cities Alliance Manager William Cobbett.

"Today's cities only cover one-third of the urban area we will have in 2030. That gives city mayors and planners the opportunity to influence what kind of cityscape we will have in the future. At present, city sprawl is dominating the scene with tripling of space requirement for every doubling of city population. With bold leadership we can prevent slum proliferation and urban sprawl through building denser and more energy and transport efficient cities that will curb the negative trend of undermining the natural resource base the cities are built upon," he continued.

With an estimated 80% of greenhouse gas emissions originating in cities and three-quarters of urban settlements located in coastal areas at risk from sea-level rise, local governments are also increasingly involved in global efforts to address climate change.

"Through initiatives like ICLEI's Cities for Climate Protection campaign and C40, cities around the world are taking the lead in cutting greenhouse gas emissions- some with targets above and beyond national commitments under the Kyoto Protocol. Furthermore, climate change adaptation is top of the agenda for many developing country cities featured in this report, including the ancient city of Alexandria in the Nile Delta, South Africa's coastal jewel of Cape Town, and Asia's booming megalopolis of Bangkok," said ICLEI Secretary-General Konrad Otto-Zimmermann.

Over 65 cities and local governments are participating in the two-day Local Government Climate Sessions in Bali. These sessions, organized by ICLEI in collaboration with UNEP at UN Climate Conferences since 2005, give local authorities an opportunity to meaningfully contribute to the global climate change negotiations, as well as showcase their climate actions.

"As champions of the climate cause and centers for innovation, efficiency, investment, and productivity, cities are posed to play an increasingly prominent role in the international climate change debate. It is in cities that climate and sustainability solutions for more than half of the humanity will be found," concluded UNEP Executive Director Steiner.

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