Time to invest in nature's capital

Andrew Mitchell, BBC Green Room 13 Oct 08;

Amid the global financial crisis, it is time to recognise the wealth we enjoy from nature's capital, says Andrew Mitchell, director of the Global Canopy Programme. In this week's Green Room, he argues that there will be no government bailout if we fail to protect the vital services provided by the world's forests.

The world's largest gathering of conservation scientists and NGOs have been meeting in Barcelona to ask: "What price do we put on nature?"

In these extraordinary times of credit crunch and climate change, the world feels hitched to an uncertain roller coaster ride where we don't know what to value any more.

What investors thought was safe as houses has turned out to be nothing more than the property of the poor disguised in a silver wrapper, enabling bankers to pocket billions.

In a curious way, all this chaos may turn out to be a good thing because it will force the world to ask: "Are we creating wealth that's worth having?"

A wine broker said to me recently: "The thing about investing in a first growth is, the more the world drinks a good vintage, the more valuable it gets."

So could disappearing forests one day be a safer investment than houses.

Balancing the books

A major new theme of this Congress of the World Conservation Union (IUCN) is about how we value natural capital, which up to now has not appeared on company balance sheets.



I believe the current financial crisis may force the global community to right that wrong, along with many others, because we all want a more stable economy.

However, in global markets today, rainforests are worth more dead than alive. Poor and often opaque governments, with little to sell, offer their rainforests to raise revenue, attracting largely risk capital with strings attached.

The only way to do this is to convert rainforests into something else, usually timber, beef, soy or palm oil that Westerners, and now prosperous Asians, have a burgeoning appetite for.

Most deforestation today is enterprise driven and funded by hedgefunds, pension funds, and other sources of liquidity from capitals often far from, and blind to, the forests they are destroying.

Billions in green dollars end up on investors' balance sheets, but there is a catch: billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide goes up in smoke from the trees burned in the process - and the risk to everyone is building up to a climate credit crisis.

The timetable on this issue is tight. In December 2006, at the UN in New York, Papua New Guinea invited rich countries to pay poor ones to stop deforestation.

In May 2007, London's Independent newspaper blew the whistle on "the hidden cause of global warming", the destruction of the world's rainforests.

And in September, political leaders, scientists, and NGOs rallied around the Global Canopy Programme's (GCP) Forests Now Declaration.

'Carbon crunch'

The global deal on climate change, due to be signed by the UN in 2012, will be inadequate if it does not include a means to curb emissions from forests.

Just one day of emissions from deforestation equates to 68 million people flying from London to New York.

Seven billion tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) annually places rainforests just second to energy as a source of global emissions and is more than the entire world's transport sector put together.

And it is not just about carbon. The world's rainforests are a giant "utility", providing services we all use but do not pay for.

The Amazon releases 20 billion tonnes of water into the atmosphere each day. This air-conditions the atmosphere, waters agri-business and underpins energy security from hydro to biofuels across Latin America on a gigantic scale.

Were it possible to build a machine to do this, every day it would consume the energy equivalent to the world's largest hydro dam running on full power for 135 years; and the Amazon does all this for free. Now that's natural capital and we are eroding it fast.

Pavan Sukhdevs' landmark report, The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity, published by the EU earlier this year, estimated the annual losses of natural capital to be, at the low end, equivalent to the value of the Indian stock market and, at the high end, the entire London stock market.

If what biodiversity does for us is so valuable, why is this happening? The answer is in part ignorance and, in part, that the global economy may no longer be fit for purpose.



The problem is that nature is priceless. What nature does for us is not valued economically. Whilst only financial and human capital drive human endeavour, and inputs from natural capital remain unrecognised, business proceeds on a false sense of security.

The economy, I believe, is at a truly historic tipping point where the global economy will rapidly need to incorporate the risks from the collision course that energy security, food security and environmental security are all on.

By 2050, to keep global temperatures from rising more that 2C and at the same time feed nine billion people, we cannot go on as we are.

Investing in natural capital may in time indeed turn out to be as safe as any other public utility but for that to happen we need the equivalent of an ecosystem services market with an environmental regulatory body that forces us to value the common goods that we continue to plunder at our peril.

The carbon market is such an invention by governments, valuing a commodity we cannot see, smell or touch but which is poisoning our world.

The Kyoto Protocol has jump-started the global market which could soon exceed $100bn per year.

Markets are by no means perfect but they are inventive. Who would believe 30 years ago that a bottle of fashionable mineral water would sell for more than petrol. But left to itself, the global market puts a value on bottled water of 70bn euros per year but nothing on vital rain from rainforests.

A scheme to value forest ecosystem services in global markets could deliver financial flows at scale, in addition to those provided by carbon markets.

Some understandably fear turning natural capital into bonds or equities because the market can be a beast, but government funds sourced from taxation are unlikely to meet the $30-50bn annual bill for halting deforestation.

Banking on change

Some industrialised nations have called for future investments in nuclear and carbon capture power stations to reduce their own emissions entering our atmosphere at a cost of between $250-150 a tonne of CO2 saved.

Yet they are failing to invest now, to maintain the existing sequestration service ancient forests provide, which might be preserved for perhaps a tenth of the cost per tonne.

To reduce emissions by 80% of 1990 levels will require us to use every means available. Arguing about emissions from factories or forests will not get us there.

Who should be paid and how raises other awkward questions. Who owns the tropical forest "utility" is often far from clear. Governments claim some 70%, but indigenous and other communities contest their view and landowners often argue over the rest.

Defining such landrights is a central prerequisite to equitable benefit sharing. Poor Governments are not always transparent. Responsibility needs proper incentives.

We need also to ask if GDP is the right way to measure human welfare and create such incentives. Pavan Sughdev has called for a GDP of the poor. They will suffer most from climate change, yet are least responsible for it. Incentivising them to use natural capital sustainably may not show up in current GDP figures, but could significantly improve their lives.

Rich nations, which have caused climate change, may have the financial muscle to help solve it and should find a way to recognise "real capitalism" inclusive not only of financial and human capital, but also natural capital.

If the global economy can, almost overnight, find two trillion dollars to cut the risk of Freddie Mae and Bertie Mac and the global banking community from going down the pan, surely it can find a fraction of that to cut the risk of forests going up in smoke.

If one day forests could be safer than houses, now that would be wealth worth having.

Andrew Mitchell is the founder and director of the Global Canopy Programme

The Green Room is a series of opinion articles on environmental topics running weekly on the BBC News website

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Huge Gap Between World Demand For Fish And What Can Be Sustainably Harvested

ScienceDaily 13 Oct 08;

The President of SINTEF Fisheries and Aquaculture, Karl Andreas Almås, crouches over his laptop, opens one of his presentations and finds an illustration. It shows one red curve and one blue one. He then indicates the point where they meet each other, then frowns and says the message he cannot repeat often enough: There is a huge gap between world demand for fish and what we can harvest from the world’s natural stocks. The figures are clear: If we don’t do something about the over fishing, the stocks of wild fish will be dealt a death blow.

At the same time, the world’s population continues to grow – and with it the global demand for food.

“On a global basis today, we have an average annual consumption of 15-16 kilos of fish per person,” says Almås. “If we are going to continue consuming at this rate, we need to double the production of farmed fish within the next 20 years. Doing this in a sustainable manner will be a major challenge.”

Balancing act

As well as expressing his concern, the president is also optimistic. As the head of Europe’s largest research institution for fisheries and aquaculture technology, he knows more than most about the conditions in the sea and how this can be achieved.

According to Almås, there are two main parts to the work towards sustainable aquaculture, but they are closely connected:

One is to develop technology for more selective and gentle capture of species in the sea to enable natural growth in the stocks and only capture the quality we actually want. This must also occur without the fishing fleet using large energy consumption.

The other is to increase the efficiency of the aquaculture sector. The president’s figures show that the difference between fish production in 1980 and that which we will require in 2030 is a full 60 – 70 million tonnes of farmed fish. This means among other things we must stop using fish as feed for farmed fish. Fish caught at sea must be human food. Therefore, we need to find feed alternatives that can be captured lower in the food chain. Plant oils and proteins may be utilised as ingredients for feed in the aquaculture industry, and this is an area some research scientists are working on. Another alternative is to convert natural gas to bio proteins, so-called single-cell proteins.

Last, but by no means least, we need to succeed in finding some new species of farmed fish and develop technology that enables a smarter and more cost-effective production of the fish species we are already farming.

If Almås achieves his visions of technological development and knowledge transfer, there will be few quiet days for he and his colleagues at SINTEF SeaLab at Brattørkaia in Trondheim Harbour. However, they are already well on the way to finding solutions for the challenges.

Trawling down in the food chain

One of the research scientists eager to put fresh aquaculture knowledge into practice is Research Director Håvard Røsvik. Together with product designer and colleague Mads Heide, he is working on the final polish of a new animation. It demonstrates one of the research scientist’s pet projects: a bubble trawler, which until now the world has not seen equal to. Soundtracks featuring the cries of sea gulls, the splashing of waves and the sound of boat motors turn the film clip into a living description of the trawler that utilises air bubbles instead of a net to surface its prey: the 3 mm long, protein-rich Calanus finmarchicus.

“This tiny creature, which has its natural place long down in the food chain, contains large amounts of proteins as well as marine fats,” says Røsvik.

The film shows the boat chugging off on the smooth sea, while releasing air bubbles down into the sea. As Calanus finmarchicus contains many hairs on its tiny body, it attaches itself to the air bubbles in the same manner as a nail attaches itself to a magnet, and floats up to the surface. The tiny creatures are then collected in a fine-mesh cloth and enter the catch chamber with the assistance of a pump system. Seemingly, it is just as simple as it is genial. (Se egen sak. S... red. anm.)

The challenge previously has been to capture a sufficient volume of the little chap. With this trawler, it is likely that large enough volumes can be captured to make it profitable. There is certainly enough to capture: Calculations show there are 300-400 million tonnes in Norwegian waters alone.

“Capturing just one percent of this biomass would cover the requirements for the Norwegian aquaculture industry,” says Røsvik.

The 90 degree effect

Another challenge Røsvik and his colleagues are working on is selective capture: Developing trawler systems that make it possible to catch fish of the correct size without damaging the small fish.

“Trawling accounts for 40 percent of the world’s total fisheries production,” says Røsvik. “As such, improvements to this method of fishing will produce major consequences for the different fish stocks and the areas in which they live.”

A simple, but extremely effective solution to make trawling gentler and more selective has been to turn the trawl net 90 degrees.

“This is one idea that we tested in our flume tank in Hirtshals in Denmark,” says Røsvik. “Scientists knew that fish were often damaged in the codend because turbulence occurs around traditional codends, causing them to swing from side to side.”

However, by turning the meshes in the codend, the SINTEF research scientists utilised a recipe that did not cause turbulence: namely that the meshes in an outstretched position remain as wide open as possible. It yielded results. The cross-section was 12 times greater and the swinging movements were dramatically reduced compared to traditional codends. Further, the meshes remain open when the trawl is stretched. This means that the small fish escape and the fish that are large enough are damaged to a much lesser extent. Energy consumption was also reduced. A large proportion of the trawling fleets fishing whitefish off the coasts of Iceland, Scotland and New Zealand have now adopted this idea.

Cod farming

In the basement at SINTEF SeaLab, Trina Galloway stands bent over a tank of young cod. Galloway is working on areas including the development of new farmed species. She is now studying the result of one of the department’s latest trials: 15 cm long “teenagers” swimming around in the tanks in the name of research. In two years, these will be large cod that fetch a high price at seafood restaurants. But whether they grow up and become saleable, healthy and good fish is not something we can take for granted. It is the result of many years’ research, trial and error and then yet more research.

One of the challenges associated with farming cod has been to find suitable feed for the recently hatched fish larvae. While salmon larvae hatch with a large built-in packed lunch and develop a functional digestive system relatively quickly, cod require specially developed, live plankton, which is 100 percent research-based!

“On the cod’s part, hatching the eggs is not enough,” says the biologist. “We need to have control of the entire life cycle, including the factors that contribute to the fish that hatch growing up. The conditions need to be optimal.”

Ecosystem in the “cod kindergarten”

What appear to the uninitiated like ordinary plastic tanks with small creepy-crawlies swimming around are actually small, but exactly balanced ecosystems. In each tank, phytoplankton, zooplankton and fish larvae are living in perfect harmony, and physical factors such as water flow, temperature and light are precisely matched. At the end of the hall, there is a two metre high white plastic container filled with a gurgling yellowy-green soup. This is the heart of the facility: a bio filter or “live storeroom” containing the optimal bacterial flora for cod babies, and which supplies the facility’s tanks with mature, re-circulated water.

For small, sensitive, young fish, it is particularly important to have stable growing conditions early in their childhood.

“This is the marine fish hatchery of the future,” says Galloway.

From mono to poly

But the future of the aquaculture industry will offer challenges other than good water for the hatcheries and new feed alternatives. Better utilisation of both the fish farming area and the energy in the feed will be important.

“On average, the salmon utilise only 20-25 percent of the energy in the feed for growth,” says Galloway. “The remainder is separated as waste or disappears out of the cages.”

With this in mind, the research scientists have designed a system for three farmed species. The idea is to cultivate species that live in different stages of the food chain in the same place.

“If we succeed with keeping salmon, mussels and kelp in the same system, the feed will be fully utilised because the mussels and kelp eat the feed not consumed by the fish,” explains Galloway.

Operating aquaculture in this way is relatively new in Norway, but not totally uncommon in fish farming counties in the east. SINTEF research scientists will pursue the idea and develop it for the open sea - and it is precisely far out at sea that the fish farms of the future will be located.

Aquaculture off-shore

“If the aquaculture industry is going to grow globally, this must happen at sea,” says Arne Fredheim. “Fish farming in rough and open sea is something we can do well in Norway, and this knowledge is in demand from clients worldwide.”

There are many reasons why the aquaculture sector is aiming for the open sea. The water quality here is better than the limited areas near land and the temperature is more stable – a factor that improves the quality of the fish meat. Moreover, the flow rate increases, and with it the supply of oxygen to the cages.

He is now working to develop fish farms for the open sea. Fredheim is Director of CREATE, a centre for research-based innovation in aquaculture technology and one of the areas of strategic focus for the Research Council of Norway within innovation. He and his research colleagues at NTNU and SINTEF have received NOK 80 million. One of the research scientists’ visions is an advanced fish farm that can “think for itself”. Such fish farms will be able to float to more optimal locations when required and submerge in the sea when exposed to rough weather.

Even though this vision is unlikely to be a reality for at least 10 or 15 years, the technology for fish farms in the open sea is already in place.

“Our part is to view the total, integrated process, from the technological and operational sides through to the biological challenges,” says Fredheim.

Today the research scientists are working on developing such fish farms through different projects. One of the challenges is to find out how long a submergible cage should use on its ascent back to the surface.

“Some fish species can actually get a sort of decompression sickness,” says Fredheim. “Ascending too quickly will, for example, burst a cod’s air bladder. Maybe it is ideal that a cage uses several days to complete the ascent up to the surface.”

Utilising the whole fish

One floor above the laboratory’s “fish kindergarten”, Marit Aursand is sitting at her desk thumbing through a report. The report is about “functional food”, one of the hottest concepts within food technology. Functional food is food that in addition to providing nutrition contains properties beneficial to your health. One such example is food to reduce cholesterol, which is already available on shop shelves. This is a growing market. As Research Director at the Department of Processing Technology, this is an area in which Aursand is particularly interested.

“One of our main challenges is more of what we catch needs to be used as human food, and the parts that cannot be used for food can be used for marine oils, animal feed or health products,” says Aursand.

“Products like this can be added to other food to provide health benefits. Healthy fish oil can, for example, be added to yoghurt. Fish have the potential for 100 percent utilisation. If we manage to develop automation processes to achieve this objective, this can become an important industry for Norway.”

And with Marit Aursand’s vision, along with new solutions for fishing equipment, fishing methods and fish farming on both land and at sea, maybe we can see hope for the new face of the sea?

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British seas face ecological disaster due to over fishing and pollution

Paul Eccleston, The Telegraph 13 Oct 08;

The seas around Britain face an ecological disaster because of over fishing and pollution, a new report warns.

Many fish species that were once common are either vastly reduced in number or locally extinct, the Marine Conservation Society (MSC) says.

Its report Silent Seas warns that without urgent action to protect marine life and to limit the damage already inflicted marine ecosystems will fail.

The MSC launched its latest report in support of its call for a Marine Bill to be introduced in the Queen's Speech which would designate protections zones where all fishing would be outlawed.

MCS head of conservation, Dr Simon Brockington who compiled the report, said: "Echoing Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring", Silent Seas forsees a world where extinctions of marine creatures begins to rise and the ecosystem starts to fail.

"Too many fish are taken from the sea, too much rubbish is thrown into the sea, and too little is being done to protect precious marine life and habitats. We have to act now!"

The report warns that the state of our seas has changed over the past 25 years and the loss of wildlife could result in fundamental ecological 'regime shifts' which was already happening in some parts of the world. In Namibia's seas over-fishing has led to a dramatic increase in jellyfish which now dominate the ecosystem.

In shallow UK waters numbers of many predatory fish such as sharks, skates and rays have fallen largely through fishing, and several once common species are now locally extinct.

A century ago large fish such as common skate, angel sharks, Atlantic halibut and cod in excess of a metre long were common in the North Sea but many of these species are classed as critically endangered.

The report also highlights the problems caused by pollution and particularly plastic which poses a significant hazard to marine wildlife.

MCS claims plastic litter washing up on UK beaches has grown by 126 per cent in the last 14 years. Sea birds, turtles, whales and seals are all killed by marine plastic either through entanglement, or ingestion causing death through starvation.

Dr Brockington said the threats posed by pollution, over-fishing and a lack of habitat protection would be made worse by climate change.

Continued pressure on the marine ecosystem would bring it to the point where it could support only creatures at the bottom of the food chain, such as jellyfish and plankton.

He said: "In the next few years we're going to start seeing the effects of climate change; the first effects are already there, such as migration of fish and plankton types.

"Unless we build a healthy ecosystem, the impacts of climate change will be far worse."

As well as marine protection zones the MCS wants a government strategy to combat pollution, more sustainable fishing and better water treatment plants.

In a foreword to the report Prince Charles says it is a "wake up call" that our seas need help.

"I pray that the society's message will be heeded by everyone who can support them in their mission to ensure that our seas do not fall silent forever as a result of pollution, over-exploitation and neglect," he said.

"Highly protected marine reserves, selective fishing practices and action to reduce plastic litter are just some of the steps needed to initiate recovery."

The latest IUCN Red List of Endangered Species revealed that one in three marine mammal species is threatened by extinction including almost a quarter of the world's whales and dolphins.

The Silent Seas report says that there are seven times more vertebrate species at risk of extinction in British waters than there are on land.

Some of the species include:

Native oyster (Ostrea edulis): Southern North Sea used to support an oyster bed the size of Wales. Now found only in a few isolated locations.

Common sturgeon (Acipencer sturio): Much sought after for food and eggs that make caviar. Fished almost out of existence.

Angel shark (Squatina squatina): Once found throughout north east Atlantic. Extinct in the North Sea and now only rarely found.

Common skate (Dipturus batis): Once common all around the UK shore it has now vanished completely from many areas.

Blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus): Largest animal in the world. Once common hunted to near extinction in the 1800s. Locally extinct.

Crawfish (Palinurus elephas): Commonly seen by divers until the 1970s but now rarely encountered.

Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua): Once abundant in north east Atlantic, hunted beyond biological limits and now endangered.

Leatherback turtle (Dermochelys coriacea): In substantial decline and last stronghold is Atlantic where it is seen hunting jellyfish in summer.

Atlantic halibut (Hippoglossus hippoglossus): Largest flatfish in the world. Has suffered massively from over fishing.

Porbeagle (Lamna nasus): British shark seriously depleted by longline fishing.

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Whale deal falls at last minute

Richard Black, BBC News 13 Oct 08

A unique consensus between environment groups and whaling nations at the World Conservation Congress was derailed by a last-minute Australian intervention.

Japan and Norway had agreed to back a motion saying there was not enough data to support the claim that culling whales could raise fisheries yields.

But Australia's late bid for stronger wording broke the consensus and left other anti-whaling countries fuming.

The "whales eat fish" argument is often cited as a reason to maintain hunting.

The conservation groups behind the consensus, the Pew Environment Group and WWF, believed it could help build bridges between Norway, Japan and Iceland and their opponents which could, in the end, lead to a diminution of the whaling industry.

"We had an excellent spirit of co-operation and consensus," said Sue Lieberman, head of WWF's global species programme.

"We felt that we had a resolution, but these are the ins and outs of negotiations."

Japanese officials who had participated in an intensive series of consensus-building discussions during the week - at which Australia was also represented - were furious at the last-ditch attempt to introduce stronger wording than had been agreed.

"Australian bad behaviour has put the spirit of co-operation in jeopardy," said Hideki Moronuki, a senior official with Japan's fisheries agency.

"Australia had participated in the [consensus-building] process, they were in the room all the time - this is back-handed."

Officials from other anti-whaling nations agreed, one calling the last-minute intervention "despicable".

The Australian delegation here declined to comment.

Management issue

Japanese scientists have regularly argued that whales may be competing with humans for fish, and countries that usually vote with Japan within the International Whaling Commission (IWC) have cited it as a reason for their support.

The St Kitts Declaration, a resolution passed at the 2006 IWC meeting which numbered Japan and Norway among its sponsors, said: "Scientific research has shown that whales consume huge quantities of fish, making the issue a matter of food security for coastal nations and requiring that the issue of management of whale stocks must be considered in a broader context of ecosystem management."

This was greatly contentious. Three years earlier, the IWC's scientific committee had concluded there was no way of providing reliable advice on the impacts of cetaceans on fisheries, though acknowledging that "consideration of ecosystem interactions between fish stocks and cetaceans is a potentially important research topic".

The wording of the consensus resolution agreed here asked delegations, which include most of the world's governments, to acknowledge that "there is inadequate scientific information to support an assertion that controlling great whale populations can increase fisheries yields".

Pew and WWF argued that having Japan and Norway put their names to this would make it impossible for them to use the "whales eat fish" argument in future.

The amendment tabled by Australia asked delegations instead to acknowledge "that the great whales play no significant role in the current crisis affecting global fisheries".

Twenty-nine nations, Japan among them, could not accept the wording or the manner of its introduction. Although it passed with a majority of about three governments in favour to every one against, the anti-whaling bloc will not be able to say that Japan accepted it.

The motion also urged members of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which runs the World Conservation Congress, to prioritise the conservation of fish, whales and the wider marine environment by addressing issues such as illegal fishing and excessively large fleets, and establishing marine protected areas.

It also encouraged the use of non-lethal research methods on the biology and behaviour of whales.

Engagement off?

The Pew group has been supporting moves over the last year and a half to seek ways of breaking the deadlock within the IWC, and appears to have established enough of a relationship with Japanese whaling officials to engender constructive dialogue.

"I hope that the constructive and unprecedented discussions that have taken place this week in Barcelona, with all sides working together to seek consensus, is a precursor of the signal that we have urged the government of Japan to give regarding its intentions," said Remi Parmentier, a senior policy advisor with Pew.

The latest stage in the IWC "peace process" was a week-long meeting in Florida held in September.

Sources indicate there was amicable dialogue, but little progress on the substantive issues such as Japan's desire to secure small whaling quotas for four coastal communities, and opposition to the scale of its current Antarctic hunt, conducted under regulations allowing whaling for scientific research.

Following the breaking of the consensus here, there must be doubts now about whether Japan and Norway will want to stay engaged, although officials from other anti-whaling nations and environment groups were at pains to emphasise the amendment had been a uniquely Australian affair.

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Chimpanzees' last stronghold in danger as numbers fall by 90%

Richard Alleyne, The Telegraph 13 Oct 08;

Time appears to be running out for chimpanzees living in the wild after a survey of its last "stronghold" found numbers had plummeted by 90 per cent.

The effect of man had already led to a reduction from an estimated 100,000 fifty years ago to between 12,000 and 8,000 in 1990 in the Ivory Coast, the west African country that harboured more than half the world's population of chimps.

But a new survey has found that it has dropped a further 90 per cent to little more than 1,000 individual chimps.

Now scientists believe there is only one viable population left in the Tai National Park and that the ape should be classified as "critically endangered".

Christophe Boesch, of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, told the journal Current Biology, that the rise in the human population was to blame.

"The human population in Cote d'Ivoire has increased nearly 50 per cent over the last 18 years," he said.

"Since most threats to chimpanzee populations are derived from human activities such as hunting and deforestation, this has contributed to the dramatic decline in chimpanzee populations.

"The situation has deteriorated even more with the start of the civil war in 2002, since all surveillance ceased in the protected areas."

The few remaining chimpanzees are now highly fragmented, with only one viable population living in Taï National Park, according to a report.

Chimpanzees are notoriously difficult to spot so researchers count the number of nests to estimate populations.

In the new study, the number of nests recorded by Boesch and his colleague Geneviève Campbell had dropped by 90 per cent since the last count.

They found the catastrophic decline in chimpanzees is especially strong in forest areas with low protection status, where the researchers saw no sign of the chimps.

Even in protected areas like Marahoué National Park, chimpanzees have clearly suffered since surveillance and external funding support were disrupted by civil unrest in 2002.

Campbell said. "It was saddening that I only found one nest in this park, as during the previous survey they found 234 nests. The one nest I did find was also in an area that had just been cleared for agriculture."

Even the last remaining refuge for the dwindling West African chimpanzees the Taï National Park is extremely threatened by poachers, Boesch said.

"We must appeal to the international conservation community to invest in sustainable funding of conservation activities in national parks with known importance for chimpanzee populations.

"External financial support in that park is scheduled to end in 2010, a move that will probably have disastrous consequences for the last vestiges of chimpanzees in Côte d'Ivoire."

Chimps 90 Percent Gone in a "Final Stronghold"
Rebecca Carroll, National Geographic News 13 Oct 08;

West African chimpanzees have declined by 90 percent in the last 18 years in an African country that is one of the subspecies' "final strongholds," a new study stays.

Scientists counting the rare chimps in Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) found only about 800 to 1,200 of the apes—down from about 8,000 to 12,000 in 1989-90. Before the new survey, the country had been thought to harbor about half of all West African chimps.

"We were not expecting such a drastic decrease," said lead author Geneviève Campbell, a doctoral candidate at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany.

The 1989-90 survey had itself represented a significant decline from 1960s estimates of about a hundred thousand West African Chimps in Côte d'Ivoire.

Nowhere to Run

Since 1990 Côte d'Ivoire's human population has grown by about 50 percent. This growth is the most likely cause of the decline in the chimp numbers, according to the report.

More people has led to more hunting and deforestation—key chimp threats—particularly since 2002, when a coup attempt sparked civil unrest that continues today, the study says.

One of the country's sanctuaries, Marahoué National Park, has lost 93 percent of its forest cover in the last six years, the new survey found.

Campbell said that at many of the sites her team visited, "the habitat is gone, and all the protected areas have been invaded by people."

The human "invasion" has left wide swaths inhospitable to other forms of life, she suggests.

At many of the survey sites, "it's not just the chimps—[there's] no animal at all," said Campbell, speaking by phone from Côte d'Ivoire.

In Decline Elsewhere?

A similar decline may have taken place in other countries within the West African chimpanzee range, says the new report, which was published today in the journal Conservation Biology.

The largest remaining population of the subspecies is believed to be in Guinea. But that belief is based on counts that are more than a decade old, according to the study.

In the falling West African chimp numbers, scientists see a door closing on their ability to understand and protect the subspecies.

"We know very little, really, about West African chimps compared to our knowledge of the East African chimp species," said Jill Pruetz of Iowa State University via email.

"Populations in Ivory Coast seemed to me the one place (and, perhaps Guinea) where we could still look," added Pruetz. The biological anthropologist, who was not involved in the study, is a National Geographic Society emerging explorer. (The National Geographic Society owns National Geographic News.)

Ape expert Frans de Waal of Emory University in Georgia described the report as "depressing."

"This study focuses on one rare subspecies of chimpanzee, but the same poor prospects hold for apes in general," said de Waal, who was not involved in the new research.

De Waal fears the report is "one of many to come."

Conservation Works

During the recent study, in all but 3 of the 11 survey sites, researchers found significantly fewer chimp nests—platforms built of branches high in the trees—than had been found in 1989-90.

In Marahoué National Park, study co-author Campbell found only one nest, versus 234 in 1989-90.

Two of the sites where West African chimps have not declined had only a few to begin with.

The third site is Taï National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site that has benefited from intensive research and conservation efforts, according to the report.

The Taï numbers suggest that the apes' numbers respond to stable conservation efforts, according to scientists involved with the research.

"We urgently need to locate the viable population of western chimpanzees" in order to protect them, Campbell said.

Emory University's de Waal said preventing illegal hunting would be key.

"Unless we can put a stop to poaching—not just forbidding it but actually monitoring and stopping it—these trends may continue," he said.

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Weak flood defences in Asia 'risking lives'

Navin Singh Khadka BBC News 13 Oct 08;

Recent flood events in Nepal, India and Bangladesh that displaced millions have stoked fears that defences along rivers in the region may not withstand climate change-induced floods, and could result in bigger catastrophes.

Experts say many infrastructures are becoming weaker while the rivers' flows are getting stronger - a classic setting for projected climate change calamities.

Most floods this year were monsoon-related and many would argue they had nothing to do with changes in the climate.

However, the Kosi disaster in eastern Nepal that left millions of Nepalese and Indians homeless was a different story altogether. The devastation was the result of human mistakes.

The embankment along the Kosi was not properly maintained, resulting in it being overrun by the meandering river even when there was no flood.

The event has forced experts to imagine what could happen if rivers like the Kosi swell as the projected impacts of climate change take hold.

"It is entirely possible that some of the existing structures could prove inadequate and possibly dangerous," said Rajendra Pachauri, head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

"They might not be able to withstand higher frequency and intensity of floods in the region," he told the BBC.

Weakest link

It isn't just Kosi that has exposed the structures' vulnerability.

The recent monsoon season, which ended last month, also washed away some weaker spots of the defences along other rivers in the region.

Indian media reported that water from the Bramhaputra breached embankments at many key sites in Assam state.

In neighbouring Bangladesh, the Jamuna River also burst through embankments.

"In Jamuna, the disaster was Kosi-like," said Ainun Nishat, a water resources engineering professor in the IUCN Bangladesh office.

"Just like in Kosi, the embankment of Jamuna has become weak as many of its sections are still built using sand, so it failed to withstand the pressure and there was flooding."

In western Nepal, smaller rivers - tributaries to Ganga - wreaked havoc, displacing tens of thousands as well as damaging embankments, culverts, and even highways.

By the time these swollen rivers merged into big rivers such as India's Ganga, the scale of the disaster had multiplied.

In Uttar Pradesh state, for instance, nearly three million people in 5,000 districts had been affected.

Relief officials said 7,000 houses in the state had collapsed and 350,000 had been partially damaged.

Gathering storm

All of these events happened at a time when "flash floods" and the accompanying deluge were expected, as they are when every monsoon arrives.

But they give a glimpse of the future impacts projected by climate scientists.

Hydrologists say they have recorded extreme and erratic rainfall patterns that can cause unexpected rises in river flows.

"In Nepal, there has been an increase in the events of rainfall of more than 100mm at a time," says Suresh Sharma, deputy director-general at Nepal's Department of Hydrology and Meteorology.

"Their frequency has gone up by 0.6 days a year in the last three decades."

The same has been observed in other parts of the region as well.

"Earlier events of big floods used to happen [once every] 20-30 years, but in the past decade the frequency is really up; and now it seems it has begun to happen every year," said Nishat.

Warming has triggered rapid glacial melt in the Himalayas; yet another reason identified for the observed recent rise in river levels.

However, the levels are expected to decrease drastically in the long term when the glaciers have withered.

Some time ago, a joint study by the United Nations Environment Programme (Unep) and the Nepal-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) had warned that 24 glacial lakes in Bhutan and 20 in Nepal were filling up rapidly due to glacier melt and could burst at anytime.

Experts say this is compounded by another problem brewing on the mountains.

They point at the receding snowline that has exposed vulnerable soil to erosion.

"That has triggered more landslides, which means there will be even more flash floods," said Sharma.

More floods would mean more risks to infrastructures such as dams, barrages and embankments downstream.

"Appropriate measures for adapting to the impacts of climate change would certainly involve the establishment or modification of infrastructure to take care of the revised conditions," says Rajendra Pachauri.

"This may be particularly important in the mountain regions of South Asia," he explained.

"Melting glaciers and changes in precipitation patterns would require some engineering structures being constructed, or existing ones modified, to take care of flood conditions that are clearly on the increase in parts of South Asia."

Neglected structures

The Kosi embankment in Nepal that breached last August is an example of such structures. It is more than 50 years old.

Nepalese officials also point at the aging defences along the Gandak River, a tributary of the Ganga, that could result in a similar disaster.

Both embankments, sections of which are in Nepal, were built by India; and under a bilateral agreement, it is supposed to maintain and repair them.

"We are serious about these works," Indian water resources minister Saif-U-Din Soz told the BBC.

"We have flood control as our top priority when it comes to managing water resources together with our neighbours," he said recently, just before Nepal and India signed an agreement on safeguarding measures for both embankments.

But there are many such structures in the region - some of them already in urgent need of repair.

Experts say the safeguards have not developed at the required pace, and this is causing concern.

"The present technology only takes care of water," says Indian flood expert Dinesh Mishra.

"Yet, most problems are caused by the silt the rivers bring along and the [current] technology does not take care of it."

The Kosi is one of the world's highest silt-yielding rivers. While the challenge silt-yielding rivers pose to dams and defences is yet to be properly dealt with, huge new river-taming infrastructures are in the pipeline.

For instance, the Indian government has been working on a massive project that aims to link major river systems.

The basic idea is that water can be transferred from flood prone areas to drought-hit regions. That would again involve a huge infrastructure network.

"Given the state of such infrastructures in the region and given the increasing flood events, the threat is certainly on the rise," says Nishat.

"You therefore need regional planning from mountains to the sea."

In the climate change action plan it launched earlier this year, India hinted it would initiate regional efforts to deal with many of these problems.

Without addressing the issue of weakening infrastructures across and along trans-boundary rivers, such regional efforts could lead to valuable resources needed to strengthen existing defences being invested elsewhere.

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Environment criminals build $10bn empire on ivory, timber and skins

Robert Booth, The Guardian 13 Oct 08;

Criminal syndicates are earning more than $10bn a year from a booming environmental crime business in rainforest logging, the trade in endangered animal skins and ivory and smuggling canisters of banned gas refrigerants, it is claimed today.

Environmental crime is a growing source of income for international gangs attracted by profit margins of up to 700% on illegal items such as tiger skins, according to the Environmental Investigation Agency. Yet the problem is being largely ignored by national and international crime fighting agencies, it says.

The UK-based charity has named several men it suspects of involvement in multimillion-dollar operations that have resulted in extensive environmental destruction, but who have not been successfully prosecuted. They include an Indian, Sansar Chand, who, according to an interrogation report from the Indian Central Bureau of Investigations, has sold more than 12,000 animal skins to Nepal-based traders. The report says his haul included 400 tigers and 2,000 leopards, worth up to $10m on the open market in China, where EIA investigators found similar skins openly, but illegally, on sale. Since June 2005 Chand has been in Tis Hazari jail in Delhi.

Abdul Rasyid, an Indonesian businessman, has denied illegal logging of hardwoods such as ramin and balau in the protected Tanjung Puting national park. He was named by the Indonesian government in a list of individuals suspected of involvement in the trade. The country's forestry ministry alleged that he organised the trade in illegal timber, in an operation which the EIA said was overseen from Hong Kong and involved middlemen in Singapore. The case against him has since been dropped for lack of evidence.

According to a signed confession obtained by the Zambia Wildlife Authority, Benson Nkunika admits poaching 38 elephants for their ivory using a range of guns including an AK-47 on the orders of an area warden in South Luangwa, the country's most famous national park.

The EIA believes a network of environmental crime rings is thriving in the developing world, even in the ivory trade, which has been the subject of an international ban since 1989. "It is clear the ivory trade is growing among organised criminals because of the increasing numbers of large seizures we are seeing," said Mary Rice, director of the EIA. "That is reflected in the trade in wild cat skins and illegal logging. Seizures in the 1990s were typically of far smaller volumes."

In a report published today which includes the findings of several investigations, the EIA concludes: "Environmental crime generates tens of billions of dollars in profits for criminal enterprises every year, and it is growing. In part this is due to the proliferation of international and regional environmental agreements, leading to more controls on a range of commodities. It is also due to mutations in the operations of criminal syndicates which have been diversifying their operations into new areas like counterfeiting and environmental crime."

The latest trend is the illegal trade in hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), gas compounds used in refrigeration and aerosols which are known to contribute to global warming. Julian Newman, an EIA investigator, said US authorities had intercepted the first attempts to smuggle HCFCs, which were intended to replace chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) but are now being phased out in the US.

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China funds protection of endangered sea cows

Xinhua 13 Oct 08;

NANNING, A protection project for dugongs, an endangered sea mammal, is expected help save the species from extinction in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

The project will cost 26 million yuan (3.8 million U.S. dollars), 76 percent of which comes from the central budget and the rest from the regional and local governments, Lai Chunmiao, the Beihai Environment Monitoring Center director, told Xinhua on Monday.

The project, to be completed in 2009, includes the building of a scientific research center, a sea animal rescue center, watchtowers and the purchase of equipment, such as patrol boats, in the Hepu Dugong National Nature Reserve, the only sanctuary of its kind in the country for the animal.

Dugongs, also dubbed sea mermaids or sea cows, were once common in the Shatian shallow sea area in Hepu County, the animal's major habitat in the country before the 1980s. But the proliferation of fish farms and seawater pollution in the area caused the animal's numbers to decrease sharply. Local residents believed they might have become extinct or moved elsewhere.

Lai said there was no exact numbers for the animal in the area.

The 350-sq-km reserve was established in 1992. In recent years, there had been increasing sightings by fishermen of the docile animal.

Dugongs live on sea grass and can grow to 3 meters and weigh as much as 500 kg. They inhabit shallow, tropical waters throughout the Indo-Pacific region. Australia has the largest concentration of dugongs in the world, estimated at 70,000 in 1991.

However, due to human threat, the animal has been listed as a species vulnerable to extinction by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

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Sammy's rescuer speaks out: I'm stuck in the middle

Emmanuelle Landais, Gulf News 13 Oct 08;

Dubai: The fisherman who caught Sammy the Whale Shark said he would do it again if he came across another fish in the same distress. All that mattered to him was the well-being of the giant fish.

Whether Sammy stays in the Atlantis tank is not his immediate concern but the artificial environment could offer the world's biggest fish a good home, said Hamed Al Rahoomy, an Emirati fishermen and previously chairman of the Fishermen's Association.

Annually, one or two whale sharks are caught accidentally or found by fishermen dead from boat collisions, said Rahoomy, adding that having one in a tank is a good means of educating the public and fishermen on the gentle fish.

"I am working for Atlantis to collect all the fish for the aquarium," he said.

Rahoomy said the Atlantis resort had not placed an order for a whale shark and refused to disclose the amount of money they may have paid for her.

"Some fishermen were surprised it was put in the tank with other fish. They don't know it doesn't eat other fish. We need education, it can help other whale sharks," he said.

Ali Bin Saqer Al Suwaidi, chairman of the Emirates Marine Environment Group based in Ghantoot which works on environmental education projects is adamant the whale shark should be tagged and released.

"When you catch them you tag them and release them. We have signed CITES and we should take it into consideration," he told Gulf News.

After more than a month in an aquarium with qualified team looking after the whale shark, Sammy should be well enough now to be released and have recovered from the distress it was apparently in. According to Al Suwaidi, Atlantis has up to eight tags for future plans to monitor certain species.

Al Suwaidi added that fishermen know very well which fish can and cannot be caught. "They know the endangered species. Our grandfathers would catch them to use the oil from their skins on their boats, but not anymore!"

According to Rahoomy the whale shark ran into some trouble in shallow waters around a breakwater in Jebel Ali making it very difficult for it to find its way back to sea. "We know about dolphins, turtles, dugongs and all these animals and we don't catch them but there is nothing in the law about whale sharks," he said.

"Normally we don't catch this fish, we don't go fishing for it, it has little value," he said, "I have a fishing permit and whether I bring fish dead or alive to sell, it's the same thing, but this is not fishing because we gave it to the Atlantis to look after it."

Residents worried about treatment of animals
Mariam M. Al SerkalDina El Shammaa and Fuad Ali, Gulf News 11 Oct 08;

Dubai/ Abu Dhabi/ Fujairah: Survival of the fittest is the law of the jungle - do we have the right to change it?

Thousands of species living in their natural habitats have to fend off danger for themselves, and some have even become extinct as they were unable to fight off predators.

In order to preserve wild animals, establishments have taken the responsibility in nurturing them so that they can breed and flourish. However, some commercial establishments are keeping certain animals only for entertainment purposes in drawing a crowd.

In a recent Gulf News poll, 63 per cent of respondents agreed that the captured whale shark at Atlantis Hotel should be set free, 14 per cent disagreed and 22 per cent said they do not care.

City Talk took to the streets and asked residents if they are concerned about wild animals being kept in captivity purely for commercial or entertainment purposes. Should the authorities interfere and put a stop to the practice?

Andrew Chopra, delegate sales from India, 25, said: "I am an animal lover and believe that animals should be in the wild and it is wrong to keep them in cages. Animals should be left in open spaces, like in their natural habitat. The authorities should interfere if companies want to use the animals for commercial reasons, and should impose strict rules so that the wild animals can live in a home that is similar to their natural habitat."

Maribeth Solana, Filipina waitress, 32, said: "It is OK as long as they are kept in their natural environment. They should not be kept in tight spaces, like cages, and should have the spaces to move freely. In other countries, exotic fish are kept in the sea and people can still look at them through a glass tunnel. It is not bad to keep animals if they are looked after safely."

Ali Awad Albadi, Member of the Arabian Saluki Centre, UAE national, said: "It will just result in keeping the animal lonely and depressed. The government should interfere with illegal smuggling of wild animals and place strict restrictions on wild animals being sold in pet shops. They are not meant to be sold or treated as a pet, they are meant to live a free life and should be left alone."

Arriane Villanueva-Intal, marketing executive, Philippines, 23, said: "They should be left in the wild. We have to protect their rights and understand that they also have feelings. It is fine to keep animals in captivity for educational purposes, as long as they are kept in their natural environment. But it is wrong to keep them for commercial reasons."

Abdul Raheem Ahmad, 67, Palestinian shop in-charge, said: "Freedom is a sacred right not only of human beings but also of animals, and many people often forget that. All religions preach that we should be humane towards animals, but how many of us follow those ideals. I think there is a big role for the relevant authorities and animal groups to play in educating the masses about nature but we as individuals also need to play a role in fighting ignorance and greed which imprisons wild animals and causes harm to the wildlife."

Sumaya Viethen, Personal Assistant at the Arabian Saluki Centre, said: "Wild is wild, why should you call them wild animals if you're going to treat them otherwise? They are not pets. I am not a big supporter of zoos but I do believe there should be more wild life centres that home these animals and have enough facilities and space for them. Wild animals should also be treated in a specific way and be kept close by to their own breed/circle. Do not capture these animals from the wild life and put them behind bars, which is my message to the authorities. They should be kept in safe centres that are familiar with the wild."

Mylene D Cedillo, 29, Filipina office assistant, said: "I think animals should be left alone in their natural habitat and not exploited for commercial or entertainment purposes. Animal protection groups and the authorities should work together to limit such inhumane behaviour and to educate people about the issues of animal care. If there are situations in which owners can assure the relevant authorities of their capability to provide full and proper care to an animal, which otherwise may struggle in the wild, then may be that is OK. Many homeowners who keep exotic animals as pets are also guilty of the same inhumane treatment and they should reconsider their actions."

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Best of our wild blogs: 13 Oct 08

Leaves are special and Uncle Joe shows why
and a growing sundew on the flying fish friends blog

Pied Fantail feeding juvenile cuckoo
on the Bird Ecology Study Group blog

Whipper snapper
poetry in snaky motion on the annotated budak blog

Flurry of moths
have been uploaded on the Moth Mania blog

Swhine
about the wild boars of Chek Jawa on the annotated budak blog

The Blue Dragon, a Solar-Powered Nudibranch
about a nudi that's commonly seen on our shores too, on The Right Blue blog

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A vibrant city will get youth to stay: Chee Hean

Straits Times 13 Oct 08;

THE Formula One night race made Singapore vibrant and exciting - just the thing that will interest young Singaporeans to stay on here, said Mr Teo Chee Hean, the Minister in charge of the Civil Service.

A Singapore with the old kampung feel will not. For they can work and live in 'happening' cities like New York, Tokyo or Shanghai, he told reporters on the sidelines of a public policy competition for undergraduates yesterday.

'You can have a dull, old Singapore that feels like your old home, a comfortable pair of shoes. But I'm not sure that will be enough to excite young Singaporeans to want to live and work here.'

Mr Teo, who is Defence Minister, was elaborating on his answer to an undergraduate, who had asked him if Singapore's pragmatic bent reduced people's sense of belonging to Singapore.

The minister had replied that this sense of belonging is fostered when people play a part in improving others' lives.

He noted that some felt the F1 race did not resonate with them. Mr Teo disagreed with the view that the F1 race excluded most Singaporeans.

The event aired on the free-to-air channel garnered the highest viewership for a TV programme this year, he noted.

Channel 5's three-day F1 coverage was said to have reached 1.96 million viewers.

GOH CHIN LIAN

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Treasure the old: infrastructure that lasts

Letter from Lau Ying Shan (Miss), Straits Times Forum 13 Oct 08;

THE Singapore Seminar is organised by the Public Service Commission for Singapore scholarship holders studying overseas. On Oct 4, it was held in Boston, Massachusetts, for scholarship holders studying in the United States.

One discussion touched on Singapore's obsession with all things new - new infrastructure, new buildings, new layout, new packaging. Unlike other countries which have a culture of stretching the value of their assets to the maximum, Singapore prefers to depreciate the value of its assets quickly, so they can be replaced with some other new thing.

Aircraft were cited as an example: The planes in the Singapore Airlines fleet are normally replaced after six years of use, way before the end of their expected lifespan.

Much as it is good that infrastructural assets are replaced for safety reasons, taking this quality to excess may not be environmentally prudent. For example, some shopping malls in Singapore are constantly being refurbished. The mentality of the new is also ingrained in everyday Singapore culture, from our obsession with newly packaged goods to technology that is newly off the factory line. New shoes, new clothes, new mobile phones, new cars, new DVDs. Undeniably, there are health and safety concerns that cannot be compromised. One can argue that the Japanese are equally fascinated with the new and the clean. However, the pertinent question is: Does Singapore have a recycling system comparable to Japan's? I doubt it.

In his book, Cradle To Cradle: Remaking The Way We Make Things, architect and designer William McDonough has compared the exuberant feeling one gets from using something new, be it the simple act of opening the package of a new product, to the satisfaction of 'virgin defloration'. This comparison may be a little far-fetched, but the environmental consequences of this Singaporean obsession are a constant and excessive flow of materials, resources and energy. In contrast, Bostonians like their buildings old and quaint, yet the cities of Boston and Cambridge are home to Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and many leading medical institutions.

The key is to design infrastructure that is not only environmentally friendly, but also adaptable so the main frame of the infrastructure can be kept intact while minor changes are made to suit changing preferences and advances in society. In the face of current economic difficulties, perhaps it is also time for us to rethink our culture to make it even more resilient and sustainable.

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