Fruit Bats Have It Tougher Than Other Mammals

Sarah Ktisti, PlanetArk 15 May 09;

NICOSIA - Fruit bats are getting a raw deal when it comes to their survival, European experts on the endangered mammal said on Thursday.

The furry creatures' penchant for juicy fruit has made them enemy number one on the fruit farmer's hit list, they told a conference in Cyprus.

"Fruit bats are generally having a tougher time than other mammals," co-chair of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Bat Specialist Group, Paul Racey said.

There are 41,000 species of bat worldwide and 16,000 of these are under threat from extinction.

Cyprus is the only country in Europe which is home to the fruit bat.

Centuries of conflict between fruit farmers and the "flying fox" pillaging their crops, as was the case in Cyprus, almost wiped out the island's bat population.

"The authorities would hand out free cartridges to keep bat numbers down," said conservation expert Andreas Demetropoulos.

In line with Cyprus's EU accession, fruit bats came under the protection of Natura 2000 -- an international convention for the protection of endangered species.

With 22 bat species on the eastern Mediterranean island, Demetropoulos and his team are carrying out a three-year study on the distribution and diversity of bats.

"Cyprus has a lot of natural caves around limestone areas, and many old mineshafts are mostly inhabited by bats," Demetropoulos said.

"To stop the continuous victimization suffered by bats in Cyprus, the Agriculture ministry and various NGOs on the island are trying to educate adults and children about bats," said director of Cyprus Environment Service, Antonis Antoniou.

Since 2007 the Cyprus government has been funding farmers to invest in nets to protect their fruit and the bats.

In India and many other countries, bats have always been classified as vermin. While in Seychelles, one third of hotels and restaurants surveyed by the Environment Ministry served "flying fox."

Viewed in popular folklore as an ominous sign, bats are not as bad as superstition makes them out to be, Racey said.

"A fruit bat's role as a pollinator and in seed dispersal helps keep the native plants regenerating," Racey told Reuters.

Meanwhile, other species of bat help reduce pest species such as biting midges or malaria carrying insects, as well as the need for using a number of pesticides being sprayed on crops, experts said.

(Editing by Paul Casciato)

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Indian mynah bird next to face Australian cull

Australian hostility to 'feral' animals again evident as councils mobilised into planning culls by strength of public opinion
Toni O'Loughlin in Sydney, guardian.co.uk 15 May 09;

Australia's hatred of the Indian mynah bird ignited this week, with local councils drawing up plans for community cullings to combat the pest.

Like another loathed invader, the cane toad, the bird was originally imported from Asia to eat cane beetles, but is now the latest target of Australians' complex relationship with its wildlife.

The mynah is estimated to cost east coast farmers in the vicinity of AS$300 million a year. Its fouling of lawns and clotheslines has propelled it into the top 10 most hated feral animals in Australia.

One caller to talk back radio, reacting to the council plans, gleefully recounted how her husband had built and deployed a mynah bird trap in celebration of their last wedding anniversary.

The irate residents have jolted councils into action, with one in Sydney's western suburbs reportedly spending $5,000 to catch just two birds.

The mynahs are also expanding slowly westwards, evicting native parrots and possums from their nests as they go.

Bird-hunting neighbourhood vigilantes have had some success. Canberra's Indian Mynah Action group, set up three years ago by dedicated bird watcher, have carefully documented all 27,500 Indian mynahs they have killed.

Founding member, Bill Handke, knows they will never eradicate the bird but says "it's not a reason to do nothing".

But scientists say Australian attitudes to invasive species, colloquially known as ferals, often have little to do with science.

"Hate isn't strong enough" to describe how Australians feel about ferals says Professor Tony Peacock, who heads Invasive Species Cooperative Research Centre in Canberra.

For the past 18 months he has tracked public opinion on a host of invasive animals including wild cats, dogs, brumbies, camels, and a swag of other detested creatures including the Indian mynah.

Consistently the cane toad rates as the number one hated pest, even though scientists say the damage it wreaks pales in comparison to other species.

The Indian mynah ranks at seven, though it has been as high as fourth. Rabbits have moved up to third place.

"Four out of ten people were saying they hated rabbits but its now five to six people because we have been doing a lot of publicity about them," Peacock says.

Peacock, who hopes to harness anti-feral sentiment to recruit volunteers to help map the resurgent rabbit population, says that older people particularly dislike the pest because they remember when it literally plagued the land.

"Even if you didn't come from a farm you would go to your uncle's farm for holidays, so you were aware that rabbits and foxes were a problem because your uncle had to go out and shoot them," Peacock says.

The detestation of alien species in Australia come in part from the importance of the country's unique wildlife in the national psyche. Although an increasingly remote experience, Australians continue to identify with the bush says Tim Low, a founder of the Invasive Species Council.

"It's definitely part of the national culture. We love the fact that we have strange animals like kangaroos, platypus and koalas. There's a lot of hostility to the idea that foreign animals can come in and destroy the native habitat," Low says.

Yet ironically this pride has failed to protect the dingo and the kangaroo, which appears on the national coat of arms, from being culled as pests.

They rank 15 and 17 respectively on Peacock's surveys.

So reviled is the dingo that Lyn Watson, who breeds the native canine in Victoria, is worried they are being pushed to the edge of extinction.

"Australia has a powerful rural lobby and when animals get in the way, we kill them," she says.

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David Attenborough: Our planet is overcrowded

Alison George, New Scientist 15 May 09;

Veteran TV naturalist David Attenborough loves humans as much as other wildlife. But not when global populations are out of control, he tells Alison George

"I'M NOT doing anything exciting right now, like wrestling with gorillas. I'm working on radio scripts," says David Attenborough, a bit apologetically. Yet while his home in the leafy London suburb of Richmond is no longer full of the woolly monkeys, bushbabies or other exotic creatures his autobiography had living there, it's still a rich habitat. His collection of tribal art dominates the walls, a tribute to human inventiveness.

He has stopped keeping pets since his wife died, more than 10 years ago. "You can't, when you go away filming for weeks," he says. But his home is not entirely devoid of animal life. "I have great crested newts in the pond, and a darling robin that comes in the kitchen."

The latest venture for this veteran of wildlife documentaries is as controversial as anything he has done in his long career. He has become a patron of the Optimum Population Trust, a think tank on population growth and environment with a scary website showing the global population as it grows. "For the past 20 years I've never had any doubt that the source of the Earth's ills is overpopulation. I can't go on saying this sort of thing and then fail to put my head above the parapet."

There are nearly three times as many people on the planet as when Attenborough started making television programmes in the 1950s - a fact that has convinced him that if we don't find a solution to our population problems, nature will. "Other horrible factors will come along and fix it, like mass starvation."

Trying to pin him down about the specifics of what to do, however, proves tricky. He says it involves persuading people that their lives and the lives of their children would be better if they didn't exceed a certain number of births per family. And that dramatic drop in birth rate rests on providing universal suffrage, education - particularly for women - and decent standards of living for all. It's a daunting task, but the first step, he argues, is to acknowledge that population is a problem.

But isn't the problem solving itself, as people have fewer children and population growth rates slow? Yes, he says, if you discount immigration, the UK's population is more or less static, but it is not so elsewhere. This troubles Attenborough: sounding off about high population and fertility rates in other countries can sound patronising - or worse.

The world at the start of Attenborough's career half a century ago was clearly a very different place. His passion about population seems to connect to a feeling that part of the joy of living rests in the natural world - a world without too many people, where seeking out wildlife means hard days canoeing rather than watching tourist boats arrive twice daily.

As a species, he says, we need to learn modesty, that we can't overrun everything. "If I had more intellectual athleticism I would tackle the problem of why I think other creatures have a right to live. I do think that, but can't justify it in a very convincing way."

For all his love of wild animals and places, Attenborough does not want to be immersed in them full-time. That's why he has chosen to live in London for more than 50 years. "I would go mad if I lived in the rainforest," he laughs. "I like what human beings do, I'm fascinated by them, and if you want to know any of those things, a big city is the place." He would miss libraries, concerts, theatre - and the chance to wander into the British Museum "just to have a look at something".

Talking exactly as he does on TV - breathily, enthusiastically, gesticulating to emphasise certain words - Attenborough is old-school charming. He seems at pains to be even-handed, to see both sides, an attitude he attributes to his early years at the BBC. In those days, it was a public-service monopoly and its broadcasters thought they knew best - a mindset he kicked against.

This even-handedness also allows him to be sanguine about the re-editing of one of his programmes by Dutch creationists, who changed the original narration that the dinosaurs disappeared "65 million years ago" to "a very long time ago". "I don't think I can object to that," he says. "If they imposed a positive creationist message and said 'God killed the dinosaurs', then I would object."

While Attenborough has no truck with those who attribute the wonders of nature to a creator (see #AskAttenborough: Your questions answered), he is reluctant to call himself an atheist. "I'm not, because, with due respect to Richard Dawkins who is a friend and who I admire, that doesn't seem to me a scientific statement. Often when I open a termite's nest and see thousands of blind organisms working away that lack the sense mechanism to see me, I can't help thinking maybe there's a sense mechanism I'm missing, that there's someone around who created this. We cannot discount that. But I don't know."

Though he alludes wistfully to his younger days, he also seems to be enjoying the chance to relax more. "When you get to your 80s, the lust to stir your stumps isn't as great as it was. I think, 'Great, I don't have to do anything today'." Even so, later this year he will be off to the Antarctic and the Arctic to film his next epic for the BBC, The Frozen Planet.

As for retirement: "No, I will go on. It's having things to do that have grit in them, and unpleasantness - and people who want you to do them because they want to see the results. That's what work is. The thought of not having anything to do like that is awful."


Profile

David Attenborough read natural sciences at the University of Cambridge. Joining the BBC's fledgling TV service in 1952, he helped to pioneer the wildlife documentary. A new edition of his autobiography, Life on Air (BBC Books), is published this month.

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Learning from “good” beetles key to sustainable cotton production

WWF 15 May 09;

Andhra Pradesh, India – For Rajita Nandsee and many other families in her village, growing sustainable cotton means getting excited about insects – a sharp contrast to how farmers typically feel towards pests.

On a recent afternoon in Andhra Pradesh state in India, Devender Reddy (pictured below) was happy to prove that point by showing off a test area he oversees near Nandsee’s village, replete with a yellow plastic screen covered in a lot of bugs.

The screen secretes fragrance pheromones that attract insects and is part of a larger WWF-IKEA joint project in the area, for which Reddy acts as a project manager. Everybody involved works to encourage the sustainable growing of cotton by introducing innovative practices to villagers.

"We can see whether the number of insects is increasing or decreasing,” Reddy said. “The farmers use the information to decide what type of pest reduction measure they want to use."

Cotton has been used as a fiber in clothing and textiles for more than 5,000 years, but the plant’s popularity and its dazzling white surface have a downside - cotton is a thirsty crop which often requires large quantities of water and chemicals.

However, WWF and the international furnishings company IKEA are working to solve that problem, and negate cotton production’s negative effects on the environment and people’s health.

For the last three years, the two organizations have run a joint project to support more sustainable cotton production in the Warangal district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, and the project already is showing success.

"Our goals included reducing the use of water, chemical spraying and chemical fertilizers whilst increasing family incomes,” said Vamshi Krishna, project leader. “We have managed to break many trends and we have great hopes for the future.”

Cotton Boom

The mid 1990s saw a cotton boom in India and the cotton growers in Warangal expanded their area of cultivation. Many farmers took out loans but the competition from American cotton growers with huge subsidies led to a fall in prices. Drought and serious insect damage contributed to crop failure and poor yields in the early 2000s.

After this, many farmers chose to use new types of cotton and seeds resistant to insect attack, such as genetically modified cotton (Bt cotton).

Twenty-two-year-old Chiranjeeevi Rnukuntta, from the village of Shyampet, is one of those farmers who had to live with the consequences of those difficult times. His parents committed suicide, one after the other, in 2001 and 2002. They had borrowed money during the drought and could not repay it.

"I had two younger sisters to care for and I had to take care of everything," says Chiranjeevi, who is also a part-time student. “It took me three years to get back on my feet but now I believe in myself and my future.”


Cotton growers test new approaches

The WWF and IKEA project for more sustainable cotton production began in 2006 on a small scale with around 40 families. Today, the project covers 18 villages and involves around 600 cotton growers. More than 6,000 villagers and farmers have taken part in meetings for the project and the number of growers involved is on the rise.

When the project began, the cotton growers formed a cooperative and members discussed issues such as what can be bought in collectively and how the chain from cultivation to market can be made more effective.

"It is positive that we can find solutions and make decisions together. All sorts of issues are handled, from insect control and drinking water quality to how we can get better prices from the buyers and increase our incomes,” said Purushotham Reddy, winner of the ‘Farmer of the Year’ award from the Warangal district authorities.

Andhra Pradesh is a state that traditionally uses a great deal of water for irrigation and is responsible for one quarter of India’s total chemical use. New methods are needed to face the challenges of the future and to improve the current situation, according to WWF.

An important driver for change has been the opportunity for families to receive training at the project’s Farmer Field School. The training course runs for 20 weeks during the high season from August to November. The participants meet twice a week to learn more about cultivation techniques, water and environmental issues.

The model used in the Warangal project is called Better Management Practices (BMPs). It involves adapting cultivation methods to increase yields, minimize environmental effects and achieve best possible social conditions for the farmers. The cotton growers work with test areas where they test co-planting of crops, look at which pests are active and test biological pesticides. For example, growing maize and cotton close to each other is a way of reducing insect damage.

The Cotton plant has long growing and flowering seasons and this makes the plant sensitive to insect damage. In the past, the farmer would spray their plants 20-30 times per season; today they only spray six to seven times per season. They often use plant-based preparations - amongst others, from the Neem tree and extract of Vitex and biological pesticides, with "good" beetles that eat up the pests.

"Last year was a good year. We could work without any toxic chemicals. It’s good for our health to use less chemicals." said Rajita Nandsee, who added that she hopes for more investment in water and toilets in the villages.

Villagers currently have to buy jugs of drinking water that are driven to the village.

"In the future we hope that we can increase our income so that we can pay for a good education for our children," she said.


Environmental and health benefits

Water problems have worsened in India. Groundwater availability is declining in many areas, cotton is one of the thirstiest agricultural crops, and new approaches are needed to cope with future climatic changes.

The cotton growers mainly use rainwater stored in tanks to water their crops, but this is often not enough. So in Warangal, the farmers have invested in drip irrigation. They also treat the soil before sowing by ploughing and applying compost and silt, which helps the soil to retain water. The results so far are very positive. Water consumption has been halved, the use of chemicals has fallen by about 40 percent and artificial fertilizers have been reduced by 30 percent.

"We have broken the negative trend and our next goal in the project is to reach 5,000 cotton growers” said Vamshi Krishna, a project manager for WWF India´s sustainable cotton project.

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WWF aquaculture green plan for shrimp and scallops sparks outrage

Environmental and human rights groups accuse WWF of alienating local communities from aquaculture debate
Leo Hickman The Guardian 15 May 09;

Some campaign groups prefer to shun the company of the big corporations they wish would change their ways. Placard-waving protests, high-profile demonstrations and embarrassing exposes are their modus operandi.

However, other campaign groups prefer to adopt the "softly, softly, catchee monkey" approach, believing you will only achieve your aims through genial dialogue, participation and praise-based persuasion.

Since it was founded in 1961, WWF (then known as the World Wildlife Fund) has tended to fall into the latter of the two groups. It is one of the world's most high-profile campaign groups, boasting five million supporters, and has achieved extraordinary leverage with both governments and corporations around the planet. The group's "Guiding Principles" state that it will "seek dialogue and avoid unnecessary confrontation", as well as "strive to build partnerships with other organizations, governments, business and local communities to enhance WWF's effectiveness".

On occasions, though, this approach can irk other groups trying to achieve similar aims. For example, this week more than 70 human rights and environmental groups from around the world signed a letter expressing "outrage" at the planned launch of WWF's Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC). The new global standard for "responsible seafood farming" is modelled on the Marine Stewardship Council's labelling and auditing system for wild-caught seafood and aims to certify aquaculture farms around the world that comply with its standards.

Earlier this year, WWF initiated "Aquaculture Dialogues" for nine species: salmon, shrimp, pangasius, tilapia, abalone and four types of bivalve shellfish – clams, oysters, scallops and mussels.

But the signatories of the letter are far from impressed:

Strong opposition to this latest ... certification initiative is based upon our years of collective experience in working to counter the negative effects of the industrial aquaculture of shrimp, salmon and other carnivorous marine fin-fish species. We see the ASC as yet another attempt by a Big International NGO to formulate some ill-conceived plan to remedy the problems of unsustainable industrial aquaculture.

These kinds of flawed remedies do not involve the local communities and grassroots movements in the process of defining steps to be taken, thereby excluding those peoples most affected by these industries' ongoing assaults on ocean health and coastal integrity.

Current attempts by WWF and other intended certifiers are not supported by local communities and indigenous peoples, the global network of NGOs, academics and citizens who are still demanding a moratorium on further expansion of these socially disruptive and ecologically destructive industries.

WWF denied it was excluding local people involved in aquaculture:

Since the process to set up the ASC began in 2004, a significant amount of funding has been invested in engaging stakeholders in the process and ensuring that the dialogue is not industry-based. More than 35 Aquaculture Dialogue meetings have been held in the world's most prominent aquaculture regions.

These have included shrimp meetings in Asia and South America last year, and salmon meetings in Scotland. The dialogues are open to anyone and WWF has encouraged all stakeholders, not just industry players, to engage with them.

The Guardian's Felicity Lawrence has written about the damage caused by industrial-scale aquaculture - in particular, tiger prawn farms in Vietnam – both for the paper and her book Not On the Label. Her findings paint a pretty bleak picture about the impact this type of farming can have both on local communities and the environment in which they live.

So, can campaign groups sometimes get too close to the corporations they seek to change? Standards and certification schemes can certainly help to raise standards greatly, but can they do so when they fail to involve the participation of all involved, particularly local community groups, as the signatories of this letter are claiming?

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Fishing for trash off Rio

Claire De Oliveira Yahoo News 15 May 09;

RIO DE JANEIRO (AFP) – Sitting in his fishing boat in the bay of Rio de Janeiro, Gabriel has an easy time hauling in his "catch," plucking it from the sea with his own hands, not with a net.

But that's because the bounty he is grabbing isn't fish -- it's the floating trash that sullies the waters of one of the world's most beautiful cities.

Gabriel, a professional fisherman for two decades, is one of an army of boatman-cleaners employed by the state of Rio de Janeiro to remove tons of detritus from the city's spectacular harbor.

"We were catching more and more rubbish in our nets and sometimes it got caught in our boats' propellors and broke them," he explained.

Under a new state program started early this year, he and the crews on another 140 boats head out three times a week to pick up floating junk that can be recycled: plastic bottles, plastic sheets, paper, cardboard. On average, 15 tons of trash are recovered each time.

The initiative, called Baia Limpa (Clean Bay) and sponsored by Brazil's state-run oil company Petrobras, is just the latest attempt in a long string of operations to clear Rio's Guanabara Bay of pollution.

Since 1995, similar operations have sucked up more than a billion dollars, with few results. The zone -- not so far away from the famed open-sea beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema popular with tourists -- remains a maritime dump.

Much of the sewage from Rio's 10 million residents still spills directly into the sea -- which also collects old cars, televisions, tires, refrigerators and other discarded items thrown into rivers swollen during the rainy summer months.

But fishermen frustrated with the poisonous effect on fish stocks, especially from suffocating plastic refuse, aren't giving up, and have signed on to the new Baia Limpa program in the hope it will finally make a difference.

"Ten years ago, you could still live from fishing. You can't today," said Edmo, a 54-year-old who has spent three decades living off the sea.

He and Gabriel and the others are employed for three-month stints to clear away the floating trash, during which they receive financial aid. Nearly 1,200 fishermen are expected to participate by the end of 2009.

The aim, though, is not to supplant fishing altogether -- nor even to return the bay to pristine condition.

A geographer involved in the project, Jamylle Ferreira, told AFP the main goal is to "map the worst zones and to analyse the rubbish."

He added: "We know we won't be able to clean up the bay, but that's not our intention. What we want to do first is learn from the fishermen, who know the worst-hit areas, often at the mouths of the rivers where they live."

But, Ferreira said, in Rio there were some obstacles, notably from district municipalities "that aren't working with us," and which were leaving bags of recovered trash uncollected.

Some of the trash that is picked up goes to a recycling plant installed on the bay and financed by the private sector. Anything that can't be converted is incinerated and used in energy-production.

The plant, which handles 30 tons of garbage a day, is a pilot scheme that authorities hope will spread to other parts of Brazil.

"We sell units that treat 150 tons of trash a day -- which is what a population of 180,000 residents puts out -- for a cost of 15 million dollars," explained the plant's manager, Jorge Nascimento.

Ultimately, the target is to recycle 100 percent of the waste that comes from urban centers. But such an ideal lies some way off, especially in Brazil, where recycling itself its not widespread and only sporadically observed.

For Rio's bay, the impact of the new cleaning program has yet to be measured.

Perhaps the most telling sign will be any indication its slow disappearance -- its sedimentation from the daily avalanche of detritus -- has been slowed.

According to some studies, the bay is filling up slowly but surely and at its current rate could vanish under the tons of sludge within 200 to 500 years.

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Google Ocean shows effects of climate change

Melinda Chickering, Associated Press, The Independent 15 May 09;

The same satellite technology that allows more than 500 million users to view everything from the Grand Canyon to a neighbour's backyard is now helping them glide through the depths of the ocean, track a whale or compare reviews of their favourite dive locations.

The developers of Google Ocean - built using visual satellite images, sonar waves bounced off ships and data pooled from scientists and individuals - say it could also help highlight the effects of climate change on the seas.

But three months after its launch, the site has high-resolution images of less than 5 per cent of the sea, much of it from around the United States and Japan where research facilities are collaborating closely with Google.

The site has time-delay photos that show the melting polar ice caps, Google's chief technology advocate, Michael Jones said Friday on the final day of the World Ocean Conference in Indonesia.

Jones said the company is still recruiting teams to collect content that will improve nascent efforts to map the underwater world. He urged governments, scientists and divers to upload reviews, photos and even video footage.

"Those kinds of visualizations help people — not just a fellow scientist but everyday people — develop a certainty about the importance of changes that could affect their lifestyle or their ability to live at all," he said.

Next to nothing has been uploaded on, for instance, Southeast Asia's coral reefs, the largest and most biologically diverse in the world, which experts warned this week could be wiped out by the end of the century as water temperatures rise.

"If we help people see (the ocean) by helping scientists to show it, then people can at least have a dialogue about it," Jones said.

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Massive EU support for global food security

Historic agreement with FAO
FAO 15 May 09;

15 May 2009, Brussels/Rome - Europe remains firmly committed to help poor countries boost agricultural production, FAO said today, welcoming a historic €106 million ($144 million) donation from the European Union in support of farmers hardest hit by the global food crisis.

The signing today in Brussels of an assistance package to ten countries in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean who suffered most from the 2007-2008 food price crisis is a major boost to efforts to turn the tide of worsening food security, expected to deteriorate even further this year as the financial and economic crisis deepens in developing countries.

"This is the biggest agreement ever signed between the EC and FAO," said FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf. "We are extremely pleased that in these times of turmoil, Europe shows an unwavering commitment to the plight of around one billion people who go to bed hungry every night." Diouf added that even though international food commodity prices have gone down recently, high and volatile food prices continue to plague developing countries.

Getting agriculture back on its feet

The aid package is part of the EU's €1 billion response to the food crisis, dubbed the ‘Food Facility'. As the economic crisis is pushing more people into hunger and poverty, it sends the urgent message that the time has come to get agriculture back on its feet, responding to FAO's calls for increased investment in agriculture after three decades of decline.

"The Food Facility is the result of extraordinary collaboration between the European Commission and the UN Secretary-General's High-Level Task Force on the Global Food Security Crisis, where FAO played an important role, to identify and develop programmes that will have a quick, but lasting impact on food security," said José Maria Sumpsi, FAO's Assistant Director-General for Technical Cooperation.

He added that it is also an enormous stimulus to FAO's efforts in dealing with the impact of high food prices in developing countries.

FAO is currently engaged in over 90 countries, in most cases supporting food production through the supply of improved seeds, fertilizers, other agricultural inputs and technical assistance of around $350 million in 2008. Nearly seven million smallholder farmers and their 35 million dependents — the majority women and children — benefited directly from this support.

Facts on projects in targeted countries

• Afghanistan: support to seed industry and seed production;
• Central African Republic: seed multiplication, conservation agriculture, reintegration of ex-combatants in the agricultural sector, opening of 80 input shops;
• Democratic Republic of the Congo: seed distribution, rehabilitation of agricultural assets, support to farmer organizations, food security information;
• Guinea Bissau: provision of agricultural inputs, lay-out of 300 school gardens, rehabilitation of agricultural infrastructure;
• Haiti: natural resource management and water storage, diversification and intensification of agriculture, aquaculture/fishing;
• Liberia: joint programme with UN partners, capacity building of extension agents and farmers, agricultural input supply, school gardens;
• Mozambique: quality seed production and distribution; establishment of seed production plant;
• Pakistan: seed distribution, small-scale irrigation and water harvesting, agricultural implements/machinery for 100 farmer associations, farmer training;
• Sierra Leone: establishment of 100 agribusiness centres;
• Zimbabwe: provision of agricultural inputs to 150 000 vulnerable farming families.

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Safer Chemicals Management Moves Closer

UNEP 15 May 09;

GENEVA, 15 May – The world has taken significant steps this week towards ensuring that chemicals are produced, used and disposed of as safely as possible. The second International Conference on Chemicals Management – ICCM2 – which ends today, has made progress in several key areas and has defined its priorities for future work.

Achim Steiner, Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), who was at the high-level segment of the conference, said: "Reaping the benefits that chemicals offer to a modern society while reducing their potential for harm to the lowest level possible is a task for everyone – governments, international agencies like UNEP and many others, non-governmental organisations, and scientists. SAICM this week really has proved its worth as the one worldwide forum which brings together the people who can make change happen. I am particularly encouraged at the way it has focussed attention on the four emerging issues – nanotechnology, e-waste, chemicals in everyday products, and lead in paint – because that will encourage us all to work harder to find some answers."

Conference president is Dr Ivan Erzen of Slovenia said: "This is a unique and comprehensive effort to address chemicals issues holistically, bringing all concerned actors and stakeholders to one table, with equal rights of participation and negotiation. The inclusion of all sectors, whether private or public, helps us to better understand our respective concerns and interests. SAICM is uniquely equipped to facilitate a dialogue between Governments, intergovernmental organizations, industry, non-governmental organizations and civil society."

The ICCM is the governing body of the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management, SAICM, which is part of UNEP. The co-ordinator of the SAICM secretariat, Matthew Gubb, said: "The Conference has also considered how to ensure that sufficient resources are available to give meaning to the Strategic Approach in developing countries. SAICM has already been successful with its Quick Start Programme, a start-up trust fund which is currently running projects worth USD 20 million in close to 80 countries." He added that "the Conference considered that more efforts were necessary to achieve the goal of minimizing the risks of chemicals to human health and the environment."

Apart from its work on the emerging issues (see Notes to Editors), ICCM2 held two high-level round-tables, one on finance and the other on public health, the environment and chemicals management.

Concrete results from the conference, attended by almost 800 delegates, are expected in relation to the consideration of emerging issues, the linkages between health as well as sustainable development and chemicals management, and the financing of sound chemicals management.

Notes to Editors:

SAICM's Four Emerging Issues In 2009 SAICM has chosen four topics as emerging policy issues:

- nanotechnology and manufactured nanomaterials

- chemicals in products

- electronic waste

- lead in paint.

A working definition is that each is "an issue involving the production, distribution and use of chemicals which has not yet been generally recognised or sufficiently addressed but which may have significant adverse effects on human beings and/or the environment".

Nanotechnology is about developing very small objects, typically at a scale of a millionth of a millimetre. One nanometre is about 1/50,000th the width of a human hair. First-generation nanotechnology is already on the market in products such as paints, coatings and cosmetics, medical appliances and diagnostic tools, clothing, household appliances, food packaging, plastics and fuel catalysts.

Examples include:

- improved solar collectors and wind turbines

- better batteries

- replacements for highly polluting brominated flame retardants

- fuel additives and energy savers

- the provision of clean water.

But inhaling minute particles can damage the lungs, arteries and the entire cardio-vascular system. Are nanotech products similarly damaging? And what happens when they break down, or interact with other substances? Can nanoparticles penetrate the skin, or cross the blood-brain barrier? Will they distort commodity markets, disrupt trade and destroy jobs? The potential for nanotechnology to widen existing economic gaps is significant.

Chemicals in Products - this category can be understood as "chemicals in products where you might not expect to find them". We expect to find chemicals developed by humans in pesticides and pharmaceuticals, for example, but we may forget that they are also in tables, books, clothes and shoes. Particularly vulnerable groups may face heightened risks. These can include children at all stages of development, including before birth. Sometimes the risks can be substantial, as from lead in jewellery, and phthalates in plastics. Historically, reducing chemical risks has concentrated on releases during manufacturing. But we now realise that dangerous substances may also be released from products during use, and at the end of their useful lives.

Electronic Waste is known also as e-waste or Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE). It comes from machines like fridges, air conditioners, microwave ovens, fluorescent light bulbs, washing machines, computers, mobile telephones, TVs and stereo equipment. The high rate of obsolescence in many of these means a fast turnover and a huge waste stream, much of which is exported from developed to developing countries, sometimes for further use as second-hand equipment and sometimes as end-of-life waste. E-waste contains persistent, bio-accumulative and hazardous (PBT) substances like heavy metals (lead, nickel, chromium, mercury) and organic pollutants like polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and brominated flame retardants (BFRs). Many developing countries do not have the infrastructure to manage e-waste properly, or an effective regulatory framework. Nor do many people realise how dangerous the wastes can be.

Lead in Paint. No level of exposure to lead is considered safe. It is recognised today as one of the twenty leading risk factors contributing to the global burden of disease. Eliminating lead exposure from gasoline has been one of the most significant environment health improvements in recent times. But lead-containing products are still widely made and sold across much of the developing world. Lead in paint is the second largest source of exposure to lead following exposure from gasoline. Paint containing lead is used in infrastructure like bridges, industry (car parts) and for marine uses, as well as domestically. The evidence of neurological damage, especially to children (whose intelligence can be impaired) and to workers in the lead industry is beyond doubt. Adults can suffer renal and cardiovascular damage. Some studies suggest a link to behavioural problems as well. Lead damage is irreversible, and its effects appear to persist into adolescence and adulthood. House dust is the commonest way in which children are harmed by lead in paint. The lead remains a risk for many years after the paint has been used. Small intelligence changes in an individual child can have substantial impacts on an entire population.

About SAICM:

The Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM) is a policy framework. SAICM has as its overall objective the achievement of the sound management of chemicals throughout their life cycle so that, by 2020, chemicals are produced and used in ways that minimize significant adverse impacts on human health and the environment. This "2020 goal" was adopted by the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002 as part of the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation.

SAICM comprises the Dubai Declaration on International Chemicals Management, expressing high-level political commitment to SAICM, and an Overarching Policy Strategy which sets out its scope, needs, objectives, financial considerations, underlying principles and approaches and implementation and review arrangements. Objectives are grouped under five themes: risk reduction; knowledge and information; governance; capacity-building and technical cooperation; and illegal international traffic.

The Declaration and Strategy are accompanied by a Global Plan of Action, a working tool and guidance document to support implementation of SAICM and other relevant international initiatives.

UN Chemicals Conference Ends on Positive Note
UNEP 15 May 09;

Geneva, 15 May 2009 - The second International Conference on Chemicals Management - ICCM2 - has ended here, with significant progress in several key areas and greater clarity on its priorities for future work.

The ICCM is the governing body of the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management, SAICM, which is part of the United Nations Environment Programme.

The co-ordinator of the SAICM secretariat, Matthew Gubb, said: "The Conference has been a major milestone in the evolution of SAICM, taking us beyond the establishment phase to new challenges and equipping us for accelerated implementation in the years ahead. SAICM has already been successful with its Quick Start Programme, a start-up trust fund which is currently running projects worth USD 20 million in close to 80 countries."

But he added: "The Conference considered that more efforts were necessary to achieve the goal of minimizing the risks of chemicals to human health and the environment."

ICCM2 held two high-level round-tables, one on finance and the other on public health, the environment and chemicals management.

Concrete results from the conference, attended by almost 800 delegates, included agreement to take forward work on five emerging issues - nanotechnology, e-waste, lead in paint, chemicals in everyday products, and perfluorinated chemicals.

These are used for treating surfaces to make them resistant to heat, corrosion and other problems, but, like the chemicals known as POPs - persistent organic pollutants - they are toxic and accumulate in the body, and are easily transported for long distances.

The agreement to develop work on these five problems means SAICM - which is not itself an organisation that can develop international legislation - will soon be better able to advise governments concerned about the impacts on their countries.

ICCM2 also agreed that the linkages between health, sustainable development and chemicals management should be accentuated, and laid the groundwork for substantially augmented financing for international chemicals management work.

It was agreed to hold the third meeting of the International Conference on Chemicals Management, ICCM3, in 2012. No decision was reached on the venue.

Notes to Editors:

About SAICM:

The Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM) is a policy framework. SAICM has as its overall objective the achievement of the sound management of chemicals throughout their life cycle so that, by 2020, chemicals are produced and used in ways that minimize significant adverse impacts on human health and the environment. This "2020 goal" was adopted by the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002 as part of the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation.

SAICM comprises the Dubai Declaration on International Chemicals Management, expressing high-level political commitment to SAICM, and an Overarching Policy Strategy which sets out its scope, needs, objectives, financial considerations, underlying principles and approaches and implementation and review arrangements. Objectives are grouped under five themes: risk reduction; knowledge and information; governance; capacity-building and technical cooperation; and illegal international traffic.

The Declaration and Strategy are accompanied by a Global Plan of Action, a working tool and guidance document to support implementation of SAICM and other relevant international initiatives.

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The Great Wall of Carbon

Paul Krugman, Straits Times 16 May 09;

I HAVE seen the future, and it won't work.

These should be hopeful times for environmentalists. Junk science no longer rules in Washington. President Barack Obama has spoken forcefully about the need to take action on climate change. The people I talk to are increasingly optimistic that the United States Congress will soon establish a cap-and-trade system that limits emissions of greenhouse gases, with the limits growing steadily tighter over time. And once America acts, we can expect much of the world to follow its lead.

But that still leaves the problem of China, where I have been for most of the last week.

Like every visitor to China, I was awed by the scale of the country's development. Even the annoying aspects - much of my time was spent viewing the Great Wall of Traffic - are by-products of the nation's economic success.

But China cannot continue along its current path because the planet can't handle the strain.

The scientific consensus on prospects for global warming has become much more pessimistic over the last few years. Indeed, the latest projections from reputable climate scientists border on the apocalyptic. Why? Because the rate at which greenhouse gas emissions are rising is matching or exceeding the worst-case scenarios.

And the growth of emissions from China - already the world's largest producer of carbon dioxide - is one main reason for this new pessimism.

China's emissions, which come largely from its coal-burning electricity plants, doubled between 1996 and 2006. That was a much faster pace of growth than in the previous decade. And the trend seems set to continue: In January, China announced that it plans to continue its reliance on coal as its main energy source and that to feed its economic growth it will increase coal production 30 per cent by 2015. That's a decision that, all by itself, will swamp any emission reductions elsewhere.

So what is to be done about the China problem?

Nothing, say the Chinese. Each time I raised the issue during my visit, I was met with outraged declarations that it was unfair to expect China to limit its use of fossil fuels. After all, they declared, the West faced no similar constraints during its development; while China may be the world's largest source of carbon dioxide emissions, its per capita emissions are still far below American levels; and anyway, the great bulk of the global warming that has already happened is due not to China but to the past carbon emissions of today's wealthy nations.

And they're right. It is unfair to expect China to live within constraints that we didn't have to face when our own economy was on its way up. But that unfairness doesn't change the fact that letting China match the West's past profligacy would doom the Earth as we know it.

Historical injustice aside, the Chinese also insisted that they should not be held responsible for the greenhouse gases they emit when producing goods for foreign consumers. But they refused to accept the logical implication of this view - that the burden should fall on those foreign consumers instead, that shoppers who buy Chinese products should pay a 'carbon tariff' that reflects the emissions associated with those goods' production. That, said the Chinese, would violate the principles of free trade.

Sorry, but the climate change consequences of Chinese production have to be taken into account somewhere. And anyway, the problem with China is not so much what it produces as how it produces it. Remember, China now emits more carbon dioxide than the US, even though its gross domestic product is only about half as large (and the US, in turn, is an emissions hog compared with Europe or Japan).

The good news is that the very inefficiency of China's energy use offers huge scope for improvement. Given the right policies, China could continue to grow rapidly without increasing its carbon emissions. But first it has to realise that policy changes are necessary.

There are hints, in statements emanating from China, that the country's policymakers are starting to realise that their current position is unsustainable. But I suspect that they don't realise how quickly the whole game is about to change.

As the US and other advanced countries finally move to confront climate change, they will also be morally empowered to confront those nations that refuse to act. Sooner than most people think, countries that refuse to limit their greenhouse gas emissions will face sanctions, probably in the form of taxes on their exports. They will complain bitterly that this is protectionism, but so what? Globalisation doesn't do much good if the globe itself becomes unliveable.

It's time to save the planet. And like it or not, China will have to do its part.

NEW YORK TIMES

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Dozens of nations sign treaty on shipbreaking

Huw Griffith Yahoo News 15 May 09;

HONG KONG (AFP) – Dozens of nations signed a new treaty Friday to make ship recycling safer, but activists called it a step backwards for the environment and the labourers who carry out the dangerous work.

The UN's International Maritime Organisation (IMO) convention is the first-ever such agreement on shipbreaking, which often exposes workers to asbestos, mercury and other hazardous substances.

The deal requires shipowners to provide an inventory of hazardous materials aboard a ship before it is sent for recycling -- work that is mostly carried out in China, Turkey and south Asia, often by unskilled migrants.

But activists say it fails to end the controversial practice of "beaching," when ships are dumped at high tide and then drift to beaches to be taken apart -- a practice 107 environmental and rights groups have urged the IMO to ban.

"The new convention on ship recycling adopted today won't stop a single toxic ship from being broken on the beach of a developing country," said Ingvild Jenssen, director of NGO Platform on Shipbreaking, an umbrella group of non-governmental organisations.

"It legitimises the infamous breaking yards of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, and actually rewards these exploitive operations while punishing those companies that have invested in safer and cleaner methods."

Much of the shipbreaking done in developing countries takes place on soft sand beaches, where access for heavy lifting equipment and emergency vehicles is difficult or impossible.

Workers, many of them children, face a high rate of accidents, including the loss of life and limb.

But the IMO defended the agreement without a ban on beaching and proclaimed the Hong Kong conference a success after 66 member states lined up to sign the treaty -- including Australia, Brazil, China and South Africa.

IMO spokesman Lee Adamson said the member states had to deal with reality in an important multi-million dollar industry.

"There is nothing that can force a sovereign state to become party to an international convention should it consider it not in its interests to do so," he told AFP.

He said the treaty, which must now be ratified by individual member states, was "a tremendous step forward in terms of health and safety for workers in the industry and for protection of the environment from end-of-life ships -- it will set standards where none previously existed."

The IMO estimates that between 1990 and 2006, more than 10,000 ships that weighed over 500 gross tons were recycled worldwide.

Breakers pay ship owners by the ton and make their money from re-selling the recovered materials. According to the NGO Platform on Shipbreaking, 80 percent of recycling is done by ill-protected workers on beaches in poor nations.

Yards in less well-regulated parts of the world can pay much more to break up the ships, as they pay lower wages and have less rigorous health and safety laws.

"(A ship owner will get) more than 10 times the price by selling to a yard in Bangladesh than to a yard in the European Union," where regulations are much stricter, said Jenssen.

Presently, ship owners can expect to earn around 300 dollars per ton by selling to a south Asian shipbreaker, she said, down from around 700 dollars, as prices for raw materials have tumbled because of the global economic slowdown.

Beaches provide a poor environment to contain the pollutants released when ships are broken apart, said NGO Platform spokeswoman Helen Pervier.

"No developed country at this meeting would allow a ship to be broken up on its beaches," she said.

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Draft U.N. climate texts mark step towards treaty

Alister Doyle, Reuters 15 May 09;

OSLO (Reuters) - The United Nations took a step toward a new climate treaty on Friday by publishing the first draft negotiating texts to help bridge a "great gulf" between options for rich nations to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Two documents totaling 68 pages also laid out choices on controversial issues such as nuclear power, emissions trading, forests, shipping or aviation in a new U.N. global warming pact due to be agreed in Copenhagen in December.

"This is intended to move the negotiating process forward," John Ashe, Antigua and Barbuda's ambassador to the U.N. who compiled the texts as head of a U.N. group looking at future cuts in emissions by rich nations, told Reuters by telephone.

"There is a great gulf between the various numbers presented by parties," he said. "It won't be possible to please everyone. Everyone will be unhappy with the outcome in Copenhagen, but my hope is that what comes out will be good for the planet."

Developing countries, which blame the rich for stoking global warming by burning fossil fuels since the Industrial Revolution, are calling for far deeper cuts than planned by recession-hit governments in developed nations.

One of the deepest suggestions is for rich nations to more than halve their emissions below 1990 levels by 2018-2022 to rein in global warming that the U.N. Climate Panel says will cause rising sea levels, heatwaves, floods and droughts.

President Barack Obama, for instance, aims by 2020 to cut U.S. emissions to 1990 levels, about 14 percent below 2007 levels.

The existing Kyoto Protocol, of which the United States is not a member, binds 37 industrialized nations to cut emissions by an average of 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-12.

A separate U.N. text, ranging from 2050 targets for world emissions to possible actions by developing nations led by China and India, will be published on May 18. All texts will discussed at the next U.N. climate change talks in Bonn from June 1-12.

NITTY GRITTY

"It's certainly a big moment for the talks," Yvo de Boer, head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat which published the documents (www.unfccc.int), told Reuters on Tuesday when asked about the publications.

"The texts will provide governments with the basis to get down to the real nitty gritty of identifying where they agree, where they disagree and what they can do to turn disagreement into an agreement," he said.

Friday's texts outline possible ways of widening a scheme that allows developed nations to claim carbon trading credits from green investments in poor countries, for instance in hydropower or wind farms.

Some countries would like to see such credits expanded to nuclear power plants or to projects to capture and bury heat-trapping carbon dioxide released by burning fossil fuels in power plants or oil refineries. Others are strongly opposed.

Three options for nuclear power and carbon capture were acceptance, rejection or shelving decisions until 2010 or 2011.

The documents also lay out options on how to account for forestry or land use changes in developed nations -- plants soak up carbon dioxide as they grow and release it when they decay or are burned.

And the texts include proposals by the European Union to add international shipping or aviation to carbon trading schemes. Fuel burned on planes and ships on international routes are exempt under Kyoto.

-- For Reuters latest environment blogs click on: blogs.reuters.com/environment/

(Editing by Myra MacDonald)

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