World governments to miss goal protecting 10 percent of every ecoregion by next year

Mongabay 9 Jun 09;

It is unlikely that world governments will keep their pledge to protect 10 percent of every ecological region by 2010, according to a new study published in Biological Conservation.

This goal is just one of many agreed upon by world governments through the Convention on Biological Diversity. With less than a year to the goal’s deadline, the study found that half of the world’s ecoregions are currently below the 10 percent threshold.

“Without major investments in conservation, spread across the world’s ecosystems, the world is likely to miss the 2010 Target,” says Clinton Jenkins, co-author of the paper and professor at the University of Maryland. “We should not despair though. Reaching the 10 percent goal in 2011 or 2015 or later will still be a major societal achievement, helping preserve the world’s natural heritage for future generations.”


Percent of each ecoregion protected. (a) Global distribution of ecoregions. Percent of each ecoregion protected within (b) all PAs, (c) IUCN PAs, and (d) strict PAs. Graph courtesy of Clinton Jenkins.

Employing the 20009 World Database on Protected Areas, Jenkins and co-author Lukas Joppa analyzed the percentage of protected area in 821 ecoregions identified by the World Wildlife Fund ecoregions database. In addition to half of the world’s ecoregions having less than 10 percent of their area protected, more than three-quarters of the eco-regions have less than 10 percent under strict protection (in other words, rated by the IUCN as levels I-IV).

The authors note that ecoregions which have reached the goal of 10 percent protection (or above) are largely found in southern Africa, the Amazon, southern Australia, western US and Alaska. Areas of the world where protection is lacking includes China, the eastern and mid-west US, Mexico, and north Africa.

Certain ecozones (also known as biogeographical realms) also fared better than others. There are eight ecozones in the world as delineated by WWF: the Nearctic, Palearctic, Neotropic, Afrotropic, Australasia, Indo-Malaya, Oceania, and Antarctic. The study found that the Neotropics is the best protected ecozone in the world with 20 percent of its area under some form of protection. On the other end of the spectrum, Oceania is the least protected: 3 percent of its land is under protection, while only 1 percent is under strict protection.

In total the study found that 12.85 percent of the world’s land area is currently under some form of protection. This includes a stunning expansion of protected lands in the past 20 years. In 1985 a survey estimated that 3.48 percent of world’s land area was under protected; this number rose to nearly 9 percent by 1997; and now twelve years later has reached almost 13 percent.

“The true expansions of the global protected area system are encouraging, for they suggest the world’s governments are setting aside more land for environmental protection,” the authors write. However, it should be noted that less than half of the total area actually incorporates strict protection for biodiversity, the goal of the Convention on Biological Diversity.

Since 2003, the authors of the study found that protected areas are expanding by 0.13 percent every year. Yet, surprisingly, the majority of this expansion has taken place in a single country: 74 percent of area protected since 2003 occurred in Brazil. While this statistic is notable for highlighting Brazil’s conservation efforts, it also shows that creation of protected areas has likely slowed elsewhere in the world.

The authors write that while protected areas are essential for biodiversity conservation, more protected land may not always be the best way forward. “Many parts of the world now have substantial fractions of their land area under formal protection. In those areas, we suggest that shifting efforts toward implementation and enforcement of protection in already declared protected areas may best serve conservation. In some parts of the world though, there is still a distinct lack of protected areas. In those cases, there is still a need to set aside more land for protection.”

Joppa, a doctoral student at the Nicholas School, concludes that “protected areas are the best chance we have to save the world’s biodiversity, and they are going to play an increasing role in climate change negotiations as well.” He adds that “missing a conservation milestone is regrettable, but we hope our results turn attention to the achievable tasks at hand, and not to what the world has failed to accomplish.”

Citation: Jenkins, C.N., Joppa, L. Expansion of the global terrestrial protected area system. Biol. Conserv. (2009), doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2009.04.016

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Climate change blamed for Caribbean coral deaths

Reuters 9 Jun 09;

LONDON (Reuters) - Climate change has contributed to a flattening of the complex, multi-layered architecture of Caribbean coral reefs, compromising their role as a nursery for fish stocks and a buffer against tropical storms, a study shows.

The analysis of 500 surveys of 200 reefs, conducted between 1969 and 2008, showed the most complex types of reef had been virtually wiped out across the entire Caribbean.

Such reefs -- typified by Table Corals of over 1 meter across and huge antler-shaped Staghorn Corals -- act as a sanctuary for local fish stocks and a hunting ground for larger, commercially fished species.

Many have been replaced with the flattest types of rubble-strewn reef, which now cover about three quarters of the Caribbean's reef area, up from about a fifth in the 1970s, said the study, published in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters.

The biggest impact has occurred in the last decade, said the report by researchers from Britain's University of East Anglia and Canada's Simon Fraser University.

"Lack of ... refuges for species with commercial importance, such as lobsters and large fishes may compromise the long-term sustainability of fisheries and fishing communities," the report said.

Flatter reefs are also less effective in protecting coastal homes and villages from storm swells and tidal surges.

"The importance of this is going to increase," said Lorenzo Alvarez of the University of East Anglia, who led the study. "Many scientists think there will be more hurricanes in the future."

The degradation of Caribbean reefs is not entirely linked to climate change, with disease killing about 90 percent of Elkhorn and Staghorn Corals in the 1970s, but a second period of coral destruction is now under way.

New damage is typified by "coral bleaching," which occurs when the tiny organisms that build coral reefs become stressed and abandon their colonies.

"We suggest that the last period of decline is partly due to climate change, but also due to several other human impacts such as over-fishing and coastal development," Alvarez said. "In future, we'll need to change our behavior and reduce the stress on the reefs."

(Writing by Pete Harrison; Editing by Jon Hemming)

Caribbean reefs 'flattened' in just 40 years
Andy Coghlan, New Scientist 10 Jun 09;

In just 40 years, the Caribbean's spectacular branched corals have been flattened. Research reveals that the corals have been replaced by shorter rival species – and points to climate change as at least partly to blame.

Most of the reefs have lost all the intricate, tree-like corals that until the 1970s provided sanctuary for unique reef fish and other creatures, as well as protecting coastlines by sapping the energy of waves.

Coral diversity is important for both the many species that swell on reefs and for coastal protection, says Jennifer Gill of the University of East Anglia and a member of the research team.

She and her colleagues analysed data over the past 40 years from 500 surveys of 200 Caribbean reefs. They say that the flattening process took place in two main phases. Firstly, in the late 1970s, a condition called white-band disease swept through the reefs, killing 90 per cent of the most spectacular tree-like elkhorn and staghorn corals.

The second phase, in 1998, saw many of the remaining tree-like corals being wiped out during a massive bleaching event, probably driven by global warming.

Different corals – fast-growing but short-lived "weedy" species – then took over the reefs, outcompeting most of the remaining tree-like corals. The researchers found that flat reefs now cover 75 per cent of the Caribbean, compared to just 20 per cent in the 1970s.

"It's difficult to see how to reverse any of this," says Gill. The biggest problem, she says, is the sheer density of human habitation. Across the Indian Pacific, by contrast, where human habitation is sparse, reefs remain in almost pristine condition.

Decline warning

"The study confirms the dire ecological impacts of the widespread degradation of coral reefs globally, but particularly in the Caribbean," says Alex Rogers, a marine biologist at the Institute of Zoology in London.

"The loss of structural complexity that reefs provide is a huge disaster for the species associated with reefs," says Rogers. "Coral reefs are probably the most species-rich marine ecosystems and host an estimated 1 to 2 million species, including a quarter of all fish."

He says the only answer may be immediate cuts in emissions of carbon dioxide from burning of fossil fuels, which would curb the amount of bleaching and limit acidification of oceans that results when they absorb carbon dioxide. "A lethal combination of increased occurrence and severity of bleaching, along with ocean acidification, will mean that already severely damaged reefs will undergo a catastrophic decline in the next 40 years," warns Rogers.

A recent assessment of reef biodiversity by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature found that a third of shallow-water corals that build reefs faced extinction – with those in the Caribbean at greatest risk.

Journal reference: Proceedings of the Royal Society, B (DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2009.0339)

Caribbean Coral Reefs Flattened
ScienceDaily 9 Jun 09;

Coral reefs throughout the Caribbean have been comprehensively 'flattened' over the last 40 years, according to a disturbing new study by the University of East Anglia (UEA).

The collapse of reef structure has serious implications for biodiversity and coastal defences – a double whammy for fragile coastal communities in the region.

It was already known that coral cover in the Caribbean was in decline, but this is the first large scale study showing exactly what this means for the architecture of the region's reefs.

Published online on June 10 by the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the researchers found that the vast majority of reefs have lost their complex structure and become significantly flatter and more uniform. The most complex reefs have been virtually wiped out.

The researchers, working with colleagues at Simon Fraser University in Canada, analysed changes in the structure of reefs using 500 surveys across 200 reefs conducted between 1969 and 2008. They found that 75 per cent of the reefs are now largely flat, compared with 20 per cent in the 1970s.

There have been two major periods of reef flattening. The first occurred when a widespread disease killed about 90 per cent of the Elkhorn and Staghorn corals in the late 1970s. The second period has been underway more recently and is thought to have been caused by an increase in the intensity and frequency of coral bleaching events, as a consequence of human-induced climate change increasing sea surface temperatures.

Lead researcher Lorenzo Alvarez-Filip, of UEA's School of Biological Sciences, said: "For many organisms, the complex structure of reefs provides refuge from predators. This drastic loss of architectural complexity is clearly driving substantial declines in biodiversity, which will in turn affect coastal fishing communities.

"The loss of structure also vastly reduces the Caribbean's natural coastal defences, significantly increasing the risk of coastal erosion and flooding."

Reversing declines in reef architecture now poses a major challenge for scientists and policy-makers concerned with maintaining reef ecosystems and the security and well-being of Caribbean coastal communities.

Journal reference:

1. L Alvarez-Filip, N Dulvy, J Gill, I M Côté and A Watkinson. Flattening of Caribbean coral reefs: region-wide declines in architectural complexity. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, June 10, 2009

Adapted from materials provided by University of East Anglia, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

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Rare megamouth shark caught off Taitung, Taiwan

Taiwan News 9 Jun 09;

Taipei, June 9 (CNA) A megamouth shark, one of the world's rarest species, was caught Monday by a fisherman from the eastern county of Taitung, marine biologists said Tuesday.

According to National Taiwan Ocean University's Department of Environmental Biology and Fisheries Science, the shark is only the 42nd that has been caught or sighted worldwide and the ninth in Taiwan since the species was discovered in 1976.

The shark was 3.9 meter long, weighed 350 kilograms and its mouth when opened measured 75 centimeters across. It was netted off the county's Chenggong coast and was sold Tuesday for NT$18,000 (US$549) to a local shark museum where it will be displayed as a preserved specimen.

The fish was identified by a researcher surnamed Tien, from the Eastern Marine Biology Research Center under the Council of Agriculture's Fisheries Research Institute. Tien said the species is very unusual and that it was the first time in his career that he ever saw a megamouth shark.

Chen Wen-jung, the owner of the shark museum, said he has collected dozens of shark specimens but this was his first megamouth.

The last record of the species being spotted was in late March, when a 500-kilogram, 4-meter megamouth was caught off Burias Island in the Philippines.

The megamouth shark is so named because of its large mouth.

(By Y.F. Low)

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Philippines to train on stranded marine mammals

BFAR to hold seminars on marine mammals
Vicente Labro, Philippines Inquirer Visayas 10 Jun 09;

TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines—With the stranding incidents involving marine mammals occurring in Eastern Visayas, the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) here said it will strengthen its network that addresses this concern.

BFAR regional director Juan Albaladejo III Tuesday said they would hold a series of training on the rescue, rehabilitation and release of marine mammals, particularly dolphins this June in the provinces of Leyte and Eastern Samar.

Albaladejo disclosed that the chief of the Guiuan Marine Fisheries Development Center in Guiuan, Eastern Samar reported the latest stranding incident last month involving a pregnant dolphin.

Last June 1, GMFDC station superintendent Nonita Cabacaba informed Albaladejo that fishermen encountered some 50 dolphins while fishing in the sea off Guiuan, located 155 kilometers from Tacloban City on May 21.

The fishermen turned over to the GMFDC personnel a pregnant dolphin that got entangled in the fishing net, Cabacaba said in her report to Albaladejo.

The dolphin, which had some bruises and was suffering from stress, died three days later while about to deliver its calf, she added.

The mother dolphin was 209 centimeters long while the calf was 106 centimeters long. Their carcasses were buried in a fish cemetery at the GMFDC, Cabacaba said.

He said people have started reporting stranding incidents—such as that of the stranded 15-foot whale shark reported to the BFAR Leyte provincial office—even if these did not involve marine mammals.

BFAR-Leyte provincial director Anselmo Riel on Monday said the beached whale shark was found dead by locals in Barangay Luyo, Leyte town, Leyte province in the first week of May.

Riel said the large fish had several hack wounds, which could have been caused by fishermen who were trying to free the whale shark from their net where it probably got entangled.

Albaladejo said that many local fishermen were aware of the need to protect the dolphins and other marine mammals, which play an important role in the marine ecosystem.

However, he said the fishermen have to undergo training on what to do to avoid dolphins being entangled in their nets and how to free them from entanglement without harming the sea creatures.

Albaladejo said that the BFAR provincial office in Leyte has scheduled the training on June 17-18 for more than a hundred municipal agricultural officers, members of fishery law enforcement teams and government and private veterinarians, among others.

Another 200 fishing boat operators and other concerned groups would be attending similar training sessions scheduled late this month in Eastern Samar, particularly in the towns of Borongan, Guiuan and Oras.

"After this, we will also be having trainings in Northern Samar and Southern Leyte," he said.

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Is it time to take tuna off the menu?

Stephen Dowling, BBC News Magazine 9 Jun 09;

Bluefin tuna - the staple of sushi boxes the world over - is on the brink of extinction, with its plight highlighted in a new film. Sandwich seller Pret A Manger is changing its stance on tuna, but should the rest of us follow suit?

The bluefin tuna is one of the world's most impressive fish - a predatory cruiser of the open ocean that can zoom through the sea at the rate of 40mph and grow to the size of a small car.

The bluefin has become the unwitting star of the campaign to end overfishing. The End of the Line, a documentary based on a book by journalist Charles Clover, examines the mismanagement of bluefin fisheries as a microcosm of how we are hoovering the seas of their fish.

The bluefin is particularly prized in Japan. And the explosion in the market for sushi - which 25 years ago was a relative rarity outside Japan - has created a global market for the three species of bluefin, as has the taste for omega-3-rich tuna steaks to be pan-fried or thrown on a barbecue.

"Bluefin tuna has become the poster boy for the overfishing campaign. It's on the buffers - it's really on the slide down now," Clover says.

"There are no large tuna anymore. There were bluefins of 250lb in Japanese fish markets when I went there four years ago - there are none now. A third of the catch is undersize."


1. Fish shoals are encircled by a large "wall" of net
2. Net is closed off at base, like a purse
3. Fish captured along with a bycatch of non-target species, including bluefin and dolphins

The backlash against those selling bluefin has already begun - a raft of celebrities, including actress Charlize Theron and Sting, have barracked high-end fusion restaurant chain Nobu for still offering the critically endangered bluefin - some have likened it to offering a dish made of tiger or white rhino.

Let's be clear - bluefin is not the tuna you add to your jacket potato or rustle up a tuna pasta bake with. The tuna that finds its way into cans is usually the much more common skipjack variety.

But even the catching of skipjack impacts on the bluefin. Skipjacks are caught using purse-seine nets, which encircle an area before being pulled together in the shape of a purse.

Rod and line

"The trouble is," Clover says, "the skipjack run with all these other tuna species, like bigeye and bluefin. The skipjack are close to the surface and the bluefins swim further down, so there is often bluefin bycatch."

The solution may be to buy canned tuna which is caught by pole and line - fishing vessels with rods and lines. This method is much less wasteful, with fewer fish dying from bycatch - and underage fish can be returned to the sea.

Clover's film, which had its premiere in the UK on Monday, has already had an effect on another high-street name, the Pret A Manger sandwich chain. Co-founder Julian Metcalfe was so incensed when he saw the film he made the chain change its policy on tuna.

Out went the yellowfin tuna from the sushi - less endangered than bluefin, but still overfished. The tuna and cucumber sandwiches are - from July - to use only supplies from a sustainable rod-and-line fishery from the Maldives, says the chain's head of sustainability, Nicki Fisher.

"Our skipjack was dolphin-friendly but was still caught by purse seine nets. The dolphins could get out of the nets, but the sharks, the turtles and the bluefin couldn't. Seeing the film has really galvanised us into action."

Other supermarkets have also been taking action.

Supermarket changes

Marks & Spencer made its big announcement on Tuesday, boasting it is the first of the supermarkets to switch to pole-and-line-caught tuna, not just with fresh and canned but also in sandwiches and salads. The retailer sells 20,000 tuna sandwiches per day.

Sainsburys switched a while back to using pole-and-line-caught for all own brand canned and fresh tuna, while Morrisons says all own brand fresh, and some canned, is pole-and-line. Waitrose is introducing an own brand pole-and-line canned range and Co-op has 60% of its own brand as pole-and-line, Greenpeace says.

But the environmental campaign group has criticised the two big tuna suppliers Princes and John West for not making the switch.

"John West tuna is largely made of skipjack tuna caught using a combination of pole-and-line and purse seine fishing. Global stocks of skipjack are scientifically recognised as being healthy and are not overfished," says John West board member Adolfo Valsecchi.

Mr Valsecchi suggests the firm does its utmost to minimise bycatch and promote sustainability.

Moving to pole-and-line across the skipjack market would help eliminate the issue of bluefin killed because of bycatch, but it would not get rid of the wider problem.

Efforts to regulate the fishery in the Mediterranean - where the Atlantic population of bluefin migrates to spawn - have failed because the Sicilian and Neapolitan mafias have a stake in the fisheries, and have little compunction about putting profit ahead of sustainability. Illegal tuna worth more than $6bn (£3.2bn) is thought to have made its way to Japanese markets in the 20 years up to 2006.

Also, tuna spend their life on the move, and range over a number of territorial waters to and from spawning grounds, which has made the management of the fishery by the likes of the European Union so difficult.

Giles Bartlett, the fisheries officer for the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF), admits that while the WWF was able to make an icon of some endangered animals, like the panda, a fish may be a more difficult sell.

"That's the real challenge we face. What we try and do is link it to everything else in the sea, like turtles and whales and big sharks," he says. "It's not just about sustainable fishing, it's about how we look after the oceans as well."

What Mr Bartlett says will save the bluefin is a better fisheries management system - at the moment the Mediterranean fishery continues to fish thousands of tonnes more each year than even the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) scientists say is allowable.

He says centralised management, with quotas revised once a year, will not work. Fishermen have to agree quotas, and have the flexibility to manage them over five or 10 years.

For the moment, though, sushi lovers cannot look forward to a guilt-free portion of bluefin.

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Are pig pens flu bug incubators?

BBC News 9 Jun 09;

The spread of so-called swine flu, which has caused over 120 deaths globally, has sent public health officials into overdrive.

As thousands fell ill in rural Mexico, those living near the outbreak raised suspicions about large industrial pig farms despite the owners' saying their herds were clean and workers were healthy.

Concerns over the border in the US have also centred on the intensive methods which have transformed pig farming in the past 20 years, Julian O'Halloran reports.

Animal welfare campaigners may see the way pigs are crammed into their pens in industrial farms as cruel, but to some public health experts these pens are also incubators for viruses.

This was the warning in a report published last year by American NGO, the Pew Charitable Trust, which funded a commission to study the possible spread of viruses and pathogens.

The conclusion of the study, which took two-and-a-half-years to produce, was clear: "The continued cycling of viruses and other animal pathogens in large herds or flocks increases opportunities for the generation of novel viruses through mutation... that could result in more efficient human-to-human transmission."

The commission's executive director, Bob Martin, told BBC File on 4 the warning was prophetic, coming a year before this outbreak of flu in Mexico in March.

'Incredible incubators'

"The commission was very concerned regarding the concentration of swine. Swine are incredible incubators for viruses - they're susceptible to swine flu, avian flu and human flu."

He added: "They can pass it back to you, the human worker and then back to the pig. They generate the novel virus, as it's called."

Mr Martin said the commission had based its report on research by the Iowa School of Public Health, where one of its commissioners was dean of the school.

"They came and addressed what a perfect incubating system a concentrated animal feeding operation or an industrial farm is for breeding novel flu viruses."

He said the virology experts stated these farms could amplify the spread of flu and add to the problem in another way - by possibly increasing the risk that the virus will also infect humans.

'Vulnerable' workers

"Many of the industrial farm operation workers are lower-income scale in the US - they don't have access to immediate health care or screening and they would be a bridging population to bring the virus from the industrial farm to the broader population."

However the farming industry believes its methods do not increase the risk of breeding novel flu viruses.

Dr Liz Wagstrom, scientific expert with the US National Pork Council, insisted that a range of precautions are in place on US farms.

"There are all sorts of influenza viruses, pigs are one of them, birds are one of them, humans are one of them and there is a chance for these recombination events can happen in all three species so that's why we have worked very closely with public health agencies to try to develop a surveillance and response plan to identify emerging viruses and respond to them," she said.

The industry also rejects the term swine flu after meat sales fell following the outbreak of the new flu.

And she said that America's top public health officials now call the virus H1N1.

"We worked closely with scientists and others to question whether this was an appropriate name and people within the scientific bodies came to the conclusion that even though there were pieces and parts of this virus that were consistent with viruses seen in swine, because it was not number one found in pigs and contact with pigs was not associated with infection, it was better renamed," she added.

However, Dr David Morens, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases near Washington DC, is not convinced.

Jumping viruses

"It's a swine virus - a virus that's descended from two different pig viruses that have been in pigs for a number of years."

He told File on 4: "If you had asked most virologists last year most would have said it was unlikely that a virus circulating in pigs could jump into humans and cause a pandemic.

"And yet that seems what we're observing now... it certainly is spreading in the direction of being called a pandemic."

He added: "Over the coming months, many public health officials in the world will be discussing these things and undoubtedly more research will need to be done and ask the question what can be done to limit the chance that something like this will happen again.

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Film aims to expose dangers in U.S. food industry

Christine Kearney, Reuters 9 Jun 09;

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bigger-breasted chickens fattened artificially. New strains of deadly E. coli bacteria. A food supply controlled by a handful of corporations.

The documentary "Food, Inc." opens in the United States on Friday and portrays these purported dangers and changes in the U.S. food industry, asserting harmful effects on public health, the environment, and worker and animal rights.

Big corporations such as biotech food producer Monsanto Co., U.S. meat companies Tyson Food Inc. and Smithfield Foods, and poultry producer Perdue Farms all declined to be interviewed for the film.

But the industry has not stood silent. Trade associations across the $142-billion-a-year U.S. meat industry have banded together to counter the claims. Led by the American Meat Institute, they have created a number of websites, including one called SafeFoodInc.com.

"Each sector of the industry that's named is doing its part to counter a lot of the misinformation in the movie," said Lisa Katic, a dietitian and consultant with an unnamed coalition of trade associations representing the food industry.

Their campaign promotes the U.S. food supply as safe, abundant and affordable, whereas the film asserts that images of animals grazing on grassy farms emblazoned on U.S. food product labels are misleading.

"Food, Inc." explores the argument that food comes not from friendly farms but from industrial factories that put profit ahead of human health.

"The film pulls back the curtain on the way food is produced," said Michael Pollan, who appears in the film and is the best-selling author of several books including "In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto.

"Products with farm labels attached -- this stuff comes from factories now," he said.

But an industry spokesman said 98 percent of U.S. farms were family owned and operated and they accounted for 82 percent of farm production.

Mace Thornton of the American Farm Bureau, the nation's largest farm group, said the industry was interested in the well-being of farm animals.

"If a farmer or rancher is not the kind of person to take care of their animals, they're not going to be in business long," he said.

A PEEK INSIDE

The film shows footage inside cattle, pork and chicken production plants, some secretly recorded by immigrant workers under cramped conditions for both workers and the animals.

Maryland farmer Carole Morison let cameras in to show chickens collapsing and dying before they are put on the market because, she said, of fast weight gain caused in part by antibiotics in the feed. Morison said she lost her contract with Perdue.

The film says U.S. food corporations now widely use industrial techniques linked to growing problems like obesity, diabetes, salmonella, toxic strains of common E. coli bacteria and environmental pollution.

"Confined animal agriculture is so unsustainable in so many ways. It depends on using antibiotics in the feed that lead to antibiotic-resistant diseases. It produces more pollution than any other industry," Pollan said.

"It costs treasury, costs the public health system," he said. "The film vividly shows it costs the people who do the work and of course it is brutal to the animal."

Barbara Kowalcyk, whose 2-year-old son Kevin died from an infection of E. coli, appears in the film trying to persuade Congress to pass "Kevin's law," which would give the U.S. Department of Agriculture the power to shut down plants that produce contaminated meats. It has not passed.

Consumers can effect change, the film says, pointing to Stonyfield Farm's Gary Hirshberg, who now offers his line of organic products at giant chain Wal-Mart due to demand.

"You vote for what you eat by what you buy at the supermarket," Pollan said.

(Additional reporting by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Michelle Nichols and Philip Barbara)

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More studies needed for Amazon dams

WWF 9 Jun 09;

La Paz, Bolivia - An international group of scientists has called for more studies into the impacts of large hydro-energy projects in the Amazon and other tropical regions.

The International Symposium held in Bolivian government seat La Paz looked at multiple studies, focusing on the Madeira river watershed, to assess required and prudent levels of environmental, social and economic evaluation of tropical dam projects.

“The main objective of the studies supported by WWF is to contribute to the fair and expected Bolivian Amazon development to be reached in a sound manner, especially considering enough elements not to jeopardize the ecosystem and its use irreversibly for future generations,” said Marcela Añez, Infrastructure Officer with WWF Bolivia.

The Madeira river is the Amazon’s main tributary and supplies the greatest quantity of water and sediments to the river. Research presented at the symposium showed that the Brazilian dams of Jirau and Santo Antonio would cause hydraulic and hydrological impacts in Bolivia, including an increased risk of floods.

The symposium, attended by scientists from Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Peru and France, also heard an estimated that 80 percent of fish in the Bolivian Amazon are migratory, and some of the species with an important value from a commercial and subsistence point of view could be affected.

“Within the possible impacts are the gradual reduction in fishing, which could affect at least 16,000 Bolivian families whose livelihood depends on this activity,” said Paul Van Damme, from the FaunAgua Association.

Marc Pouilly, from IRD, also warned that “there is considerable data that is precise and which predicts that floods will occur as a consequence of the dams, which could affect the use of natural resources and increase diseases such as malaria, yellow and dengue fevers. It is very important to carry out further studies to estimate the extension of the area of the Bolivian Amazon that could be flooded, as well as the impacts in the dams’ nearby areas and downstream”.

Other impacts that have been observed in dams that are constructed in tropical areas is the increase in mercury in fish (in the reservoir and mainly down river), deforestation in the area along the power lines, contamination with herbicides to maintain these power lines, retention of sediments and erosion on river banks, according to Jean Remy Davée Guimaraes, from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ).

In terms of socioeconomic impacts, Manuel Antonio Valdés, from the Rondonia Federal University (UNIR), added that, in the case of Brazil, 65 percent of the population that was visited in the area of the Madeira river (close to 1,100 families) as part of the research will very likely have the need to move, leaving behind their animals, crops, customs and ways of life in harmony with the river. Of these, only 30 percent have land property titles, which would make social compensation efforts difficult.

The event was coordinated by Jorge Molina of the Institute of Hydraulics and Hydrology at Andrés University (IHH/UMSA), the Institute for Research and Development (IRD) and WWF, the global conservation organization.

IHH, IRD and WWF have been supporting research and dissemination of technical information related to the possible impacts that might occur in Bolivia as a result of the construction of dams on the Madeira river in Brazil, aiming to provide input for stakeholders to be able to influence decision makers, minimize negative impacts and promote the development of sustainable energy infrastructure in the Bolivian Amazon. The scientists’ main concerns revolve around the sensitivity of the northern Amazon in Bolivia in regards to the dams, and the need for improved evaluations.

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Bio-fuel may be commercially viable by 2015

Move in line with airline sector's green aims: halving carbon emissions by 2050
Ven Sreenivasan, Business Times 10 Jun 09;

COMMERCIAL airliners could be powered by a mixture of bio-fuel and traditional jet kerosene within six years, according to the International Air Transport Association (Iata).

Paul Steele, Iata director of aviation environment, said that testing is at an advanced stage, the results are positive - and alternative fuels could be in use as early as 2015.

'We could have commercial viability between 2015 and 2021. It is now a question of scalability and how quickly we get there,' he told journalists on the sidelines of Iata's 65th annual general meeting in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

Most of the development work on alternative fuels has been done by non-traditional players such as Honeywell, he said. The big oil companies have shown little interest.

Bio-fuel is produced from renewable biological resources, primarily plant material. The advantages are that besides being non-fossil fuel, the plants that are harvested absorb large amounts of carbon dioxide from the environment.

Second-generation bio- fuel feedstock includes plants such as jatropha, camelina, algae and Halophytes - which grow in harsh non-arable environments where they do not compete with crops.

Several airlines - including Air New Zealand, Japan Airlines and Virgin Atlantic - have carried out successful tests with alternative fuels.

'There has been a huge interest in their development over the past 18 months, and by 2015 we may have something that makes a difference,' said Mr Steele.

Alternatives could form as much as 10 per cent of the jet fuel mix by 2017, he reckons.

Development work is progressing towards certification of the fuels, he said. 'We are looking at a 2011 timeline for certification.'

The rapid move towards bio-fuel is in line with Iata's aim to ensure that the industry is carbon neutral by 2020 and cut its carbon emissions by half by 2050. Other measures that Iata is counting on to achieve this are fleet renewal by airlines, enhanced technology and better air-traffic management.

The rush to cut carbon output comes amid a myriad of emission regimes being rolled out by various countries - particularly in the European Union - which could have a devastating impact on the already troubled aviation industry.

'We are facing a multiplicity of regulations. We need political joint thinking,' Mr Steele said. 'Aviation emissions are mobile and the industry should pay for them only once. There is a need to look at aviation as a sector - not a state-by-state approach.'

Still, with the race to develop alternative fuels, more fuel-efficient planes and better navigation in full swing, he reckons that the industry could slash its carbon emissions by 80 per cent if all these factors align. The carbon footprint of air transport is expected to shrink 7 per cent this year. Of this, five percentage points are due to the global recession and the rest, to efficiency gains.

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Best of our wild blogs: 9 Jun 09

Singapore Nature
a new blog by James who has started seriously documenting our shores.

Labrador check up on World Ocean Day
on the wild shores of singapore blog

Massive oil terminal considered at Pengerang Johor
on the wild shores of singapore blog

Starling hit by a passing car
on the Bird Ecology Study Group blog

‘Bee’ry Lucky Day!
on the Manta Blog

Fishermen launch nationwide mangrove replanting program
on the Pulau Hantu blog

When Sea Cucumbers eat plastic- somethin's WRONG!
on the Echinoblog

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Saving our orchids and enjoying them too

Botanic Gardens digs in to rescue endangered species and revive others
Grace Chua, Straits Times 9 Jun 09;

YOU could walk right under the world's largest tree-growing orchid and never know it.

Singapore's tiger orchid, with its distinctive cream-and-maroon flowers and growth height of 4m, is among five species thought to have disappeared forever. But it was re-introduced across the island in a Singapore Botanic Gardens programme which came to fruition in 1999.

Once, 226 native species of wild orchids grew here but 178 of these are now extinct locally. The only specimens are at the Botanic Gardens. A further 40 species remain critically endangered.
There are more than 3,000 orchid plants of various species growing on trees in neighbourhood parks, nature areas and along Orchard Boulevard. -- PHOTO: DR YAM TIM WING, NPARKS

When asked why the programme was started, Botanic Gardens director Chin See Chung said it was part of an ongoing effort to make Singapore's roadside vegetation more interesting.

Planting orchids also adds to the variety of plant life, which prevents the streetscape from being wiped out by disease.

But do not expect to see giant blossoms all over the island. Orchids do not flower year-round, and some of the species need environmental triggers, such as heavy rain, to bloom, added Dr Chin.

The programme has rescued some species from the brink of extinction. For example, the slender-petalled Cymbidium bicolour was thought to be lost from Singapore, but a single plant was found within the wetlands at Sungei Buloh.

Researchers rushed there to pollinate it and get it to produce fruit and seeds. Now, there are about 150 plants - alive and well - at Sungei Buloh, Dairy Farm, Pulau Ubin and other areas.

The orchids are planted on pieces of bark to simulate their natural growing conditions.

About three-quarters of orchid species are epiphytes - meaning they are anchored to other trees and shrubs - while the rest are free-standing.

Once the young plants are large enough to survive on their own, the pieces of bark they grow on are simply nailed to a suitable tree.

There are now more than 3,000 orchid plants of various species growing on trees in neighbourhood parks, nature areas and even along bustling Orchard Boulevard.

The planting programme aims to reintroduce two species annually from this year onwards.

Besides the reintroduction, NParks' Botanic Gardens has other conservation initiatives, such as a resource centre for Asian ginger species and an orchid seed bank.

But conservation goes beyond simply preserving species, said Dr Chin.

It involves documenting, preserving and using plant species, educating people, and training them in the skills needed to protect species and habitats, he said.

Dr Chin was speaking last Thursday after moderating an open forum at the Botanic Gardens, which featured a talk on conservation issues by primatologist Jane Goodall.

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Primate expert upbeat about environment

Straits Times 9 Jun 09;

WILDLIFE enthusiasts got to walk in the footsteps of world-renowned primate researcher and conservationist Jane Goodall, who was here last week sharing stories of her time in the wild and hope for the world's endangered species.

Dr Goodall, 75, started the world's longest-running study of animals in the wild in Gombe Stream National Park, Tanzania, in 1960.

There, the British researcher made ground-breaking findings about chimpanzee social structures, behaviour and capacity for aggression, which overturned many of the contemporary assumptions about non-human primates. For her research and conservation work, she was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2004.

During a five-day visit to Singapore, which ended yesterday, Dr Goodall addressed packed auditoriums at a conservation forum, a talk at the National Institute of Education and a youth symposium, as well as attended a fund-raising gala dinner for the Jane Goodall Institute (Singapore) and a Green Generation Concert at the Botanic Gardens, among other events.

She also shared stories from her latest book, Hope For Animals And Their World: How Endangered Species Are Being Rescued From The Brink, which will be published in September.

One example she cited was New Zealand's black robin, which was brought back from the edge of extinction, going from a population of five to 250 birds in 30 years.

She also said the biggest single threat to chimpanzees and other species is habitat destruction for modern development.

But Dr Goodall was optimistic about humans' ability to protect the environment. She exhorted her listeners - a mix of fellow scientists, other adults and children - to take small, easy steps to save the earth, such as conserving food and water.

'There is so much doom and gloom (about the state of the environment). If everybody gives up, then there's no hope. If there's no hope, what's the point?

'I think my main mission is to give people hope,' Dr Goodall said.

GRACE CHUA

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