Exxon ignores calls from 50 000 people to stop threatening rare whales

WWF 4 Aug 09;

ExxonMobil has ignored a petition from more than 50,000 people demanding the oil and gas giant and several other companies to suspend activities that harm the Western Gray Whale, one of the world’s most critically endangered whales.

The thousands of signatures from around the world were delivered on petitions to the CEO of ExxonMobil in Irving, Texas, and Exxon’s Moscow headquarters, just as the first whales arrived in their summer feeding grounds – the area of Exxon’s Sakhalin I oil and gas project – at northeast Sakhalin Island, in the Russian Far East.

Despite requests from Pacific Environment and WWF to deliver a response with a two weeks deadline, Exxon remained silent.

The petition urges Exxon, Rosneft, and other oil companies operating in the area to suspend all oil and gas development activities near the critically endangered Western Gray Whale’s annual feeding habitat off the coast of Sakhalin Island, and calls for the creation of the Sakhalin Marine Federal Wildlife Reserve.

“The Western Gray Whale population is at great risk of extinction,” said Aleksey Knizhnikov, Oil & Gas Environmental Policy Officer, WWF-Russia. “It is imperative that all oil companies operating in its feeding area acknowledge the effects of their operations on the whales, which have just arrived to feed for the summer, and immediately halt all damaging industrial activities until the whales have left.”

There are only about 130 Western Gray Whales remaining, including just 25 breeding females. These whales feed only in the summer and autumn, and their primary feeding area lies in and adjacent to Exxon’s Sakhalin-1 project in the Piltun Bay area.

The Western Gray Whale Advisory Panel (WGWAP), composed of 11 prominent international scientists, met in April with representatives from Shell and Sakhalin Energy, as well as WWF and Pacific Environment to discuss how oil and gas development is affecting the whales’ main annual feeding area off the Sakhalin Island. The WGWAP reiterated their urgent plea for a moratorium on industrial activities carried out by oil and gas companies that are expected to disturb Western Gray Whales in and near their primary summer/autumn feeding season (July through October).

Scientists on the panel have called for the moratorium following a large decrease in the number of whales in their annual feeding area near the shore during a period of loud industrial activity in the summer of 2008, including a seismic survey. This is significant because if the whales are displaced from this primary annual feeding area, they may have less success surviving and reproducing.

“Noise from oil and gas development is displacing the whales from their main annual feeding area,” said Leigh Henry, Program Officer, WWF. “Any disturbances or additional stresses on the Western Gray Whale could push the already critically endangered population closer toward extinction.”

Sakhalin II project sponsors, including Shell, Gazprom, and other companies heeded scientists’ warnings and postponed the seismic surveying they had planned for 2009. However, Exxon, Rosneft, and others have so far refused to amend their summer 2009 construction and extraction plans in and around Piltun Bay.

“Immediate action is needed,” says Doug Norlen, Policy Director for Pacific Environment. “Over 50,000 people have joined scientists in calling on these companies to stop their potentially destructive activities at Sakhalin Island and every single one of these people will be watching to see if these companies do the right thing for the Western Gray Whale.”

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Mid-Atlantic Trawl Fisheries Catching Illegal Levels of Loggerhead Sea Turtles

Oceana Calls on Fishery Management Council to Help Protect Threatened Species
Oceana Press Release (received via email) 4 Aug 09;

Alexandria, VA, August 4, 2009 – Oceana is calling for fast action to protect loggerhead sea turtles from destructive fishing gear today as the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council (MAFMC) meets in Alexandria, Va. Two trawl fisheries managed by the MAFMC are catching illegal levels of loggerhead sea turtles, a species listed as threatened under the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA).

In the Mid-Atlantic alone, an estimated 770 loggerhead sea turtles are caught in trawl fisheries each year, many of these caught in the two MAFMC fisheries. Florida beaches, where most loggerhead nesting in the U.S. takes place, have seen nesting declines of more than 40 percent in the last decade.

“Every dead sea turtle counts,” said Elizabeth Griffin, marine scientist and fisheries campaign manager at Oceana. “The destructive practices of these fisheries are not only illegal, but are pushing loggerhead sea turtles towards extinction.”

The fisheries, summer flounder, scup and black sea bass and Atlantic mackerel, squid and Atlantic butterfish, are catching 10 times more sea turtles than what is authorized under their ESA permits. Without an avenue for escape, sea turtles likely drown when captured in trawl fishing gear due to forced submergence. If they do escape, they are often injured from the great stress of being netted and are left more susceptible to further injuries and death.

“The government knows these Mid-Atlantic fisheries are catching and killing illegally high levels of threatened sea turtles,” said Griffin. “It’s time for the Council to take a stand to reduce the impact of Mid-Atlantic trawl fisheries on loggerheads.

Turtle excluder devices (TED), escape hatches that allow sea turtles to escape from fishing nets, are not required in many trawl fisheries known to catch and even kill sea turtles. Trawl nets equipped with properly sized and functioning TEDs can lead to a 97 percent reduction in sea turtle entrapment.

To date, the only federal fisheries required to use TEDs in trawls are summer flounder and shrimp. Unfortunately, in the summer flounder fishery, TEDs are not required at all times when and in all areas where the fishery catches sea turtles. When TEDs are used in this fishery, their required size is often too small for larger turtles to escape through.

Oceana’s formal letter to the Council.

About the Summer Flounder, Scup & Black Sea Bass Fishery:

This fishery targets three species: summer flounder (Paralichthys dentatus), scup (Stenotomus chrysops), and black sea bass (Centropristis striata). Commercial fishermen target these species within the Middle Atlantic Bight – a coastal region ranging from Massachusetts to North Carolina. However, black sea bass are fished as far south as Cape Canaveral, Fla. These three species make up the majority of the Mid-Atlantic groundfish fishery and are managed under one fishery management plan because they occupy similar habitat and are often caught simultaneously.

The primary gear types used in this fishery are mobile trawl gear, pots and traps, gillnets, pound nets and handlines. Bottom trawling is the predominant fishing method for each species, landing 90 percent of summer flounder, 74 percent of scup and 56 percent of black sea bass. Landings are distributed differently among Atlantic coastal states by species and year. Recently, North Carolina is leading in summer flounder landings, Rhode Island in scup and Virginia in black sea bass.

About the Atlantic Mackerel, Squid & Atlantic Butterfish Fishery:
This fishery targets four species along the Atlantic coast: Atlantic mackerel (Scomber scombrus), short-finned squid (Illex illecebrosus), long-finned squid (Loligo pealeii) and Atlantic butterfish (Peprilus triacanthus). While a number of gear types are authorized for this fishery, mid-water and bottom trawls are most widely used.

About Trawl Fisheries:
Trawl fisheries operate by towing funnel-shaped nets through the water or along the seafloor. While trawls generally target specific species or groups of species, their unselective nature results in the catch of anything that is too large to escape through the mesh of the nets, including sea turtles.

About the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council:
The Mid-Atlantic is one of eight regional Fishery Management Councils established by the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act of 1976. The Council prepares fishery management plans designed to manage fishery resources from where state waters end, out to the 200-mile limit from New York to North Carolina. These waters are also known as the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

Contacts: Dustin Cranor, 202.467.1917, 202.341.2267 (cell) or dcranor@oceana.org

Elizabeth Griffin, 202.467.1913, 202.271.5645 (cell) or egriffin@oceana.org

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Scientists discover deepest coral reefs off Britain

The deepest coral reefs off the coast of Britain have been explored for the first time revealing ancient coral, colourful fish, deepwater sharks and even species that were previously unknown to science.
Louise Gray, The Telegraph 4 Aug 09;

The five cold-water coral reefs were found by scientists monitoring an underwater mountain range 200 miles off the coast of North West Scotland last month.
The reefs are more than a mile under the ocean in dark, cold waters but boast a wealth of marine life.

By sending hi-tech cameras thousands of feet under the water scientists were able to study coral similar to those that built Australia's Great Barrier Reef, star fish, sea urchins, sponges and strange deepwater fish.

The team of researchers now have 3,000 photographs and 50 hours of film taken by the cameras and think there could even be new species lurking in the depths.

Already, the reefs have been identified as a "biodiversity hotspot" and the Government is expected to apply to have the reefs protected under European law.

The study was commissioned by the Government's adviser on wildlife protection, the Joint Nature Conservation Committee. Scientists from the British Geological Survey and the University of Plymouth spent four weeks exploring one of the most remote and inaccessible areas of the North Atlantic Ocean.

They found four coral reefs around the Anton Dohrn Seamount, an extinct underwater volcano rising more than a mile from the seabed to its summit at a depth of 600m. There is also a coral reef off Rockall Bank.

The majority of the reefs were pristine, because of the depth and remote nature of the area. Some stretched as far as half a mile, however it is not known what scale the reefs cover at this stage of the research.

Hundreds of species were discovered including ancient hard corals similar to those found off Australia, sea fans more than three feet wide, strange fish like the round-nosed grenadier and colourful creatures like the yellow sponges and orange feather stars.

Neil Golding, Offshore Survey Manager for JNCC, said there are only a handful of other coral reefs around Britain and none as deep. He said there may even be species that were previously unknown to science in the newly-discovered reefs.

"It could be the most significant coral reef found in recent years because of the diversity of animals that we found. There are hundreds of species down there and possibly even more that we have never heard of before."

The JNCC is expected to apply to make the reefs Special Areas of Conservation so they are protected from destructive fishing methods like deepwater trawling under European law.

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Frog Species Changes Color With Age, Sex

National Geographic News 4 Aug 09;

August 4, 2009—What's black and white and red all over? Hint: This time, it's not a newspaper.
A new frog species discovered in the Talamanca mountains of southern Costa Rica sports a range of colors depending on its gender and age.

Females are generally black with white belly splotches, such as the one pictured above. The males, meanwhile, have black, white, and brown markings peppering an orange-red base.

Young frogs of either sex are mostly brown with some beige and black blotches on their undersides.

This type of color divergence is "amazing" in the Diasporus genus of frog, the discoverers write in the May edition of the journal Zootaxa.

In fact, to "see such striking color differences between male and female frogs [in any genus] is really rare," said Valerie C. Clark, a Ph.D. student at Queen's University in Belfast, Northern Ireland, who was not involved in the research.

In general, red-and-black coloration in frogs is a red flag to predators that what they're about to eat is toxic, added Clark, a frog biologist who has received funding from National Geographic's Committee for Research and Exploration. (The National Geographic Society owns National Geographic News.)

But the chemistry of the new frog species—part of the dink frog group, so named for their bell-like calls—hasn't yet been studied, Clark said.

The newfound amphibian was "remarkably abundant" in the high-altitude rain forest where it was found. Even so, its limited habitat of fewer than 1.2 square miles (3 square kilometers) makes the frogs' survival tenuous, the study authors say.

"This study demonstrates that there is a great chance to discover new species if one takes the risk to explore remote areas," Clark added, "even within well-explored countries like the U.S.A. and Costa Rica."

—Christine Dell'Amore
Photograph courtesy Adrián García R., Museo de Zoologia, Universidad de Costa Rica

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European bison on 'genetic brink'

Matt Walker, BBC News 4 Aug 09;

Europe's largest mammal, the European bison, remains extremely vulnerable to extinction, despite long-standing efforts to save it, new research shows.

One of the two remaining wild herds of pure bred European bison is down to an effective population size of just 25.
That is despite the actual number of wild bison in the herd having steadily risen to around 800.

The effective population measures the bison's genetic diversity, and can help predict the animal's survival chances.

At 3m long, 2m tall and weighing up to 900kg, the European bison ( Bison bonasus ) is Europe's heaviest surviving land mammal.

It survives in the wild in just two herds, each living on either side of the Bialowieza forest which straddles Belarus and Poland.

While European bison can interbreed with American bison (Bison bison), they are generally considered to be separate species, having considerable genetic and morphological differences.

However, the species has a tortured history.

For hundreds of years, the European bison was protected across large parts of its European range, being considered 'King's game' protected by the monarchy and Russian tsars that conquered Poland.

But early in the 20th Century, its numbers crashed as people left hungry by World War I and a lack of protection saw ruthless poaching of the animals for meat and hide.

By 1919, none were left in the wild.

Back from the dead

"So in the 1920s, biologists decided to reconstruct the population out of the few individuals left in the public and private collections and zoological gardens," says Malgorzata Tokarska of the Mammal Research Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences, in Bialowieza, Poland.

Of 54 European bison left in the world at the time, just four bulls and three cows went on to found the surviving pure-bred population. Of those alive today, all originate from just from just one bull, with 90% of all their genes coming from two founders.

Today's population stands at around 1400 spread all over the world. The only wild animals live in the Bialowieza forest, with around 400 individuals on either side of the border.

To quantify the impact of the 20th Century bottleneck, Tokarska and colleagues Agata Kawalko, Jan Wojcik and Cino Pertoldi genetically sampled 178 individuals at 12 different points in their genome.

By testing the skulls and frozen soft tissues of long-dead animals, as well as live animals, the team could analyse bison born each decade from 1950 onwards.

Despite the growth in actual bison numbers, the genetic tests have revealed that the herd contains an effective population of just 25 animals, the team report in the Biological Journal of the Linnaean Society.

The effective population of any group of animals will be lower than the number that actually exist, due to factors such as non-breeding individuals or a skewed sex ratio.

But it's clear that the European bison has not recovered from the genetic bottleneck it suffered during the early 20th Century.

Usually, a population of animals must have an effective genetic population of 50 animals to be considered to be safe from an immediate threat of extinction caused by the dangerous effects of inbreeding or having too few genes to adapt to new environments.

"They are highly inbred and closely related and the genetic surveys confirmed that," says Tokarska.

"We could pretend that we have a big plan, but honestly, there's not much we can do. We can not enrich the genetics using breeding methods, since there are no out-bred animals. They all come from the same seven founders."

"Mostly, we can work on maintaining the bison-friendly environment and widen it," she says.

Tokarska is also just beginning to analyse the remaining Belarus bison.

Though they originate from the same animals, the other herd does have some slight genetic differences.

If they are confirmed it may be possible to bring bison together from the two herds to further improve the species' survival chances, she says.

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'Trees of life' are vital food source

Miranda Spitteler, BBC Green Room 4 Aug 09;

The "famine food" of trees can keep drought-hit communities alive when all other food crops fail, says Miranda Spitteler. In this week's Green Room, she argues that policy makers need to recognise the important role trees play in providing emergency food aid.

Food insecurity is a defining characteristic of life for many of the world's poorest people, exacerbated now by climate change and the rise in food prices.

Emergency food aid has been the staple of international responses to crises, such as drought and famine for decades.

However, it is much better that the emergency is addressed before it happens.

Farmer Arzouma Thiombiano from eastern Burkina Faso recalls how trees saved lives in the mid 1980s.

"Over 20 years ago, a big famine came but people escaped starvation by eating baobabs leaves and fruit," he says.

Communities living in countries most affected by food shortages have long known about the key role that trees can play in reducing the need for conventional aid.

Recognition of this by the West, and practical support for a localised tree-based solution is urgently needed.

Food for through

Widespread droughts across Africa have devastated crops this year. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), 30 countries around the world are in crisis and require help from overseas.

The effects of climate change are making droughts more of a norm than an exception. This is a pattern that places some of the most vulnerable communities in an increasingly precarious position when it comes to meeting basic food needs.

In Burkina Faso in West Africa, malnutrition affects nearly 40% of the rural poor. Climate change is further impacting on already fragile agricultural lands, and high food costs are affecting people's health.

By the time shortages and hunger in countries like Burkina Faso reach "emergency" levels and warrant aid; families, communities, agricultural practices and lands will have suffered greatly.

The G8 summit held in Italy at the beginning of July pledged $20 billion to support indigenous food production to alleviate the need for such emergency food aid.

What is missing from this pledge is any mention of the key role that trees can play.

"Conventional" crops are often not native and require expensive inputs, significant irrigation and land preparation in order to produce a successful harvest.

This means that they are more vulnerable to droughts. For smallholder farmers in Africa's drylands, a failed harvest can mean months of malnutrition and hardship.

Trees, on the other hand, often survive when other crops fail. Commonly seen by the West as "famine foods", tree foods already form a significant part of daily diets across rural Africa.

Trees provide fruits, nuts, seeds, leaves, flowers, sepals, even sap, which can all be used as food.

Take Moringa oleifera - its leaves have more beta-carotene than carrots, more protein than peas, more vitamin C than oranges, more calcium than milk, more potassium than bananas and more iron than spinach.

Data shows that nursing mothers produce more milk when they add Moringa leaves to their diet.

The leaves can be dried and eaten during the hungry period, and animal fodder from trees is also vital in producing milk and meat.

This existing localised "emergency relief", is what the G8 funding must seek to strengthen.

Self-help

The fight against hunger - especially in drought-hit times - must target those at the epicentre of world poverty - smallholder farmers in rural Africa.

They need support to adopt agro-forestry techniques, which boost soil fertility and provide tree food crops to supplement nutrition. They need the right environment to invest in their land, the ability to share information, and modest support at grass roots level.

Training and support can help villagers earn money from things that grow on trees.

This income can give them food-purchasing power when crops fail, and access to vital services, such as healthcare and education.

This approach can increase self sufficiency for both rural communities and national economies. It can increase environmental security, diversify livelihood options and reduce the vulnerability of poor households to climate change and external shocks.

It can bring real, sustainable long-term returns.

In Dongo, a village in Burkina Faso, Tree Aid's Village Tree Enterprise project aims to help villagers generate income from tree products. All the participants are women.

One of their husbands explained: "During the last drought period, when my granary was empty, my wife's income contributed more than 50% of the household's income."

Projects like these provide communities with the skills and support to manage their trees. They enable people like the group in Dongo to improve their own resilience to drought, crop failure, and higher food prices.

It is time for the value of trees to be recognised at all levels internationally.

Groups like the G8 must make a commitment to developing the enormous potential of agro-forestry. In so doing they present a joined up approach to resolving two of the key issues facing the world today.

They will simultaneously alleviate poverty and food insecurity for people who need it most, while tackling the impact of climate change by encouraging the protection and planting of trees.

Miranda Spitteler is chief executive of TREE AID

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

Trees are 'crucial famine food'
BBC News 4 Aug 09;

Trees can serve as a vital "famine food" to keep drought-hit communities alive when all other food crops fail, according to campaigners.

Food insecurity is a routine fact of life for many of the world's poorest people, Miranda Spitteler, chief executive of Tree Aid told BBC News.

She said the West needed to recognise the important role trees could play in reducing the need for conventional aid.

She also called for support for a local tree-based solution to food shortages.

At this year's G8 summit, hosted by Italy, the leaders of the world's biggest economies recognised the need to improve global food security.

They pledge to spend $20bn over three years in an effort to support food production in developing nations, reducing the need for emergency food aid.

But Ms Spitteler commented: "What is missing from this pledge is any mention of the key role that trees can play."

In an article for the BBC News website's Green Room column, she added: "'Conventional' crops are often not native and require expensive inputs, significant irrigation and land preparation in order to produce a successful harvest.

"Trees, on the other hand, often survive when other crops fail."

Trees provide fruits, nuts, seeds, leaves, flowers, sepals, even sap, which can be used as food.

Self-sufficiency

The leaves of Moringa oleifera , which is cultivated across Africa, India and South America, for example, have more beta-carotene than carrots, more vitamin C than oranges and more calcium than milk, the head of Tree Aid wrote.

She said the fight against hunger, especially in drought-hit times, must target those at the epicentre of of world poverty - smallholder farmers in rural Africa.

"They need support to adopt agro-forestry techniques, which boost soil fertility and provide tree food crops to supplement nutrition."

Ms Spitteler added: "This approach can increase self-sufficiency for both rural communities and national economies. It can increase environmental security, diversify livelihood options and reduce the vulnerability of poor households to climate change and external shocks."

Global food production needs to double over the next 40 years if the world's population is to be fed, according to UN estimates.

Jacques Diouf, director-general of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), says the massive challenge will require a global effort.

"For the first time in human history, we have more than one billion hungry people in the world.

"I am therefore happy that most of the leaders of the G8 have said that we need to focus on food production in poor countries and allow them to earn their income by producing food."

President of Tree Aid, Sir Crispin Tickell said: "As a member of the Copenhagen Climate Council, I greatly applaud the G8's initiative and hope that the vital role of trees will be fully recognised at the COP 15 Summit in Copenhagen in December."

A weekly series of thought-provoking opinion pieces on environmental topics.

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Shoe brands get tough on leather suppliers to save Amazon rainforest

Crackdown against 'environmental criminals' follows Greenpeace report
Damian Carrington and Tom Phillips, guardian.co.uk 3 Aug 09;

Some of the world's top footwear brands, including Clarks, Adidas, Nike and Timberland, have demanded an immediate moratorium on destruction of the Amazon rainforest from their leather suppliers in Brazil.

The move is the first major development since the Guardian revealed a three-year undercover investigation by Greenpeace in June. The investigation said leading Brazilian suppliers of leather and beef for products sold in Britain had obtained cattle from farms involved in illegal deforestation.

"The decision is good news," said Carlos Minc, Brazil's environment minister. "With government pressure on one side and with the pressure of the consumer on the other, we have started to close in on [environmental] criminals."

"It's great progress in a very short space of time," said Greenpeace's James Turner. "What this does now is really put pressure on the UK food companies. The shoe companies have realised there is a problem and taken action, now it's up to the supermarkets to follow that lead."

Clearing tropical forests for agriculture is estimated to produce 17% of the world's carbon emissions – more than the global transport system. Cattle farming is now the biggest threat to the remaining Amazon rainforest, a fifth of which has been lost since 1970. "I'd say that 65-75% of deforestation is linked to the growth of ranching," Minc said. "We are closing in on this, but it is still the sector that is most opposed to change and responsible for the most deforestation in the Amazon."

Ed Miliband, the energy and climate change secretary, who is in the Amazon on an unrelated diplomatic trip, said: "We can only get an agreement on climate change if it involves Brazil and it involves forestry. There is no solution to the question of climate change without forestry. The Amazon forest is such a beautiful place when it is untouched and then you see these scars on the landscape from the deforestation, bigger and bigger scars."

In addition to the moratorium on leather from newly deforested areas, the footwear makers have also demanded that suppliers bring in a stringent traceability system within a year, which will "credibly" guarantee the source of all leather.

Last night, one large supplier agreed to ensure that the farms it takes cattle from are not responsible for deforestation. Bertin, one of Brazil's - and the world's - major suppliers of leather and beef also agreed to meet Greenpeace this month to negotiate how to prevent cattle ranching from driving deforestation.

The Greenpeace investigation compiled field work, government records, company documents and trade data from Brazil, China, Europe, Vietnam and the US to piece together the global movement of leather and meat from Brazilian cattle.

The organisation said cattle from hundreds of legal and illegal farms across the Amazon were mixed and processed on their way to export sites, making it currently impossible to trace the origins of products. "In effect, criminal or 'dirty' supplies of cattle are 'laundered' through the supply chain," said the report. Greenpeace has asked companies to refuse to buy from such suppliers and for consumers to press supermarkets and high street brands to clean up the supply chains.

It said that some Brazilian processing companies exported products linked to Amazon destruction to dozens of blue-chip companies across the world, and named three major processors, Bertin, JBS and Marfrig, which together control a third of Brazilian beef exports.

"We all agree [preventing deforestation] is possible," Leonardo Swirski, head of Bertin's leather division, told the Guardian last night. But he warned against measures that would harm the livelihoods of the 20 million people in the Amazon region.

"If all [consumers] are not buying any products from the Amazon, they will surely create other sorts of problems." He believes other supply companies will also take action: "We have an advantage if they don't. I believe everyone will follow."

JBS and Marfrig reiterated commitments to not sourcing cattle from illegally deforested land, and all three have agreed with the federal prosecutor to reject these cattle. Marcus O'Sullivan, a director in JBS's London office, said: "We are very committed to the protection of the Amazon biome. We work closely with Ibama [the Brazilian ministry of defence's enforcement agency] and don't purchase cattle from the blacklisted farms."

Under the moratorium, the footwear companies will refuse to buy leather sourced from farms on both legally and illegally deforested land. It will be extended if the demand for credible traceability is not in place within a year.

Clarks, which is a major customer of Bertin, said in a statement: "Clarks will require suppliers of Brazilian leather to certify, in writing, that they are not supplying leather from recently deforested areas in the Amazon biome."

Timberland said: "We are grateful for the work of NGOs such as Greenpeace in exposing problems deep within the Brazilian leather supply chain."

Adidas said: "We believe that joining together with our industry partners in this effort ensures an ongoing and sustainable method to stop deforestation in the Amazon biome region."

Adidas, Clarks, Nike and Timberland agree moratorium on illegal Amazon leather
The Telegraph 4 Aug 09

Leading shoemakers, including adidas, Clarks, Nike and Timberland, have demanded suppliers stop sending them leather from illegal ranches in the Amazon, after Greenpeace published a report highlighting the problem.

The environmental charity found that shoe companies were unknowingly accepting leather from cattle raised on ranches set up on land that had been illegally cleared.

Greenpeace said leather from cattle raised on legal and illegal ranches was often mixed up by the time it was exported from Brazil, making it impossible to trace a piece's origin.

The report, published in June, said: "In effect, criminal or 'dirty' supplies of cattle are 'laundered' through the supply chain."

Its conclusion followed a three-year undercover investigation by the organisation, which looked at government documents, company records and trade data to compile a picture of the global leather trade, as well as visiting ranches in the Amazon.

After Greenpeace contacted shoe companies and told them of the situation, several of them have responded by saying they will tighten up their leather purchasing arrangements.

Clarks said in a statement: "Clarks will require suppliers of Brazilian leather to certify, in writing, that they are not supplying leather from recently deforested areas in the Amazon biome."

Timberland said: "We are grateful for the work of non-governmental organisations such as Greenpeace in exposing problems deep within the Brazilian leather supply chain."

Adidas said: "We believe that joining together with our industry partners in this effort ensures an ongoing and sustainable method to stop deforestation in the Amazon biome region."

Nike has signed a policy document that requires all of its suppliers "to certify that they are supplying leather for Nike Inc. products from cattle raised outside the Amazon biome."

The company said this policy would remain in place until it felt a system of governance was in place that allowed every consignment of leather to be traced to source.

The move was welcomed as "good news" by Carlos Minc, Brazil's environment minister.

He told The Guardian: "With government pressure on one side and with the pressure of the consumer on the other, we have started to close in on [environmental] criminals."

About a fifth of the Amazon forest's area has been lost since 1970, according to satellite imagery and other data.

Besides the loss of habitat and biodiversity, the environmental issue has been given greater impetus in recent years because of a growing understanding about the contribution that deforestation makes to man-made climate change.

Deforestation is thought to account for up to 25 per cent of global emissions of greenhouse gases, according to the Oxford-based Global Canopy Programme. Ranching is thought to be responsible for about two-thirds of that forest loss.

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Forestry hurt by crisis, looks to clean energy boom: UN

Yahoo News 4 Aug 09;

GENEVA (AFP) – The forestry industry in Europe, the ex-Soviet Union and North America has suffered the biggest drop in demand for wood since the 1970s with the slump in housing markets, the United Nations said Tuesday.

But as the industry closes down sawmills and restructures, it can see a booming new market for environmentally-friendly wood-based energy, such as pellets and biofuels, the UN Economic Commission for Europe said.

"This year we had one of the biggest drops ever in consumption of forest products," said Ed Pepke, one of the authors of the UNECE's annual market review of forest products.

"This was an amazing turnaround from a few years ago when we were at record levels of consumption," Pepke said.

Consumption of sawn wood, paper and board in the UNECE region fell 8.5 percent in 2008 to about 1.26 billion cubic metres, the sharpest decline since the oil crisis in 1973, as the biggest consumer of wood, the construction industry, slumped.

"Much of this has to do with the housing crisis in the United States first and, secondly, in Europe," Pepke said.

From a peak of 2.2 million homes built in the United States in 2006, construction has fallen to about half a million houses in 2009, with a 50 percent drop in the past year alone, according to industry data cited by UNECE.

With the paper industry also declining due to the growth in electronic communications, the crisis has prompted the closure of sawmills and massive restructuring in Nordic countries and Canada, the report said.

"There's a lot of change in emphasis from wood and paper products to wood energy as a result of this," Pepke told reporters.

Wood energy is accelerating in the UNECE region, with production of wood pellets for heating and furnaces growing from about two million tonnes in 2000 to more than 10 million tonnes this year.

"Wood energy markets are surviving the economic crisis better than the other sectors," said Tapani Pahkasalo, UNECE Forest Products Marketing Specialist.

The report forecast that the market for wood fuel pellets is expected to double by 2012 from the 2008 level of nine million tonnes.

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Amazon deforestation speeds up: Brazil space agency

Yahoo News 4 Aug 09;

BRASILIA (AFP) – Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon rainforest in June was four times more devastating than the month before, further depleting what is seen as one of the biggest buffers against global warming, official data revealed Tuesday.

Satellite imagery analyzed by Brazil's National Institute for Space Research showed 578 square kilometers (223 square miles) of Amazon woodland was burned or cut down.

That was more than four times the devastation recorded in May, and roughly equivalent to the size of Switzerland's Lake Geneva, or half the area of California's biggest city of Los Angeles.

Most of the destruction was concentrated in the Brazilian states of Para and Mato Grosso. Ranchers and farmers regularly encroach on the vast zone.

Between July 2008 and June 2009, more than 4,700 square kilometers of Amazon jungle has disappeared, according to the space agency's imagery.

Brazil last December vowed to slow the rate of deforestation in the Amazon, the world's biggest tropical woodland, by 70 percent over a decade.

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Water crisis in parched northern China

Robert J. Saiget Yahoo Groups 4 Aug 09;

YIXIAN, China (AFP) – The river has dried up, the well yields only dust, and Li Yunxi is hard pressed to irrigate his plot of land, even though he lives right next to the largest water project in history.

The elderly farmer watches in despair as his corn crop wilts under the scorching northern China sun, knowing that a fresh, abundant stream is only a stone's throw away.

"We ordinary people don't dare use that water," Li told AFP as he nodded toward the fenced-in canal, part of China's hugely ambitious but troubled South-North Water Diversion Project.

"That water is for Beijing, and people here do not steal water."

The temperatures have approached 40 degrees centigrade (104 degrees Fahrenheit) for weeks this summer in Hebei province, a region surrounding Beijing that has been stricken by drought for much of the last decade.

But although Li's crops are withering away, he is getting no sympathy from the authorities -- quite the opposite.

Earlier this year the government announced that the completion of the project's central canal, stretching 1,300 kilometres (800 miles) from a tributary of the Yangtze river to Beijing, will be delayed five years to 2014.

This means that instead of being a beneficiary of the project, Hebei will now be tasked with supplying water to the capital until the project is completed.

The delay will further complicate a water shortage in northern China that experts say is caused by global warming, drought and rising demand from 96 million people who live in the booming Beijing region that includes Hebei.

Currently a 300-kilometre portion of the canal from the Hebei city of Shijiazhuang to Beijing is supplying emergency water to the capital from three reservoirs that previously provided water to the parched province.

The canal, which sits above Li's farmland, abruptly disappears as it nears the dry riverbed of the North Yishui river only to reappear on the opposite bank next to a large pump station that sucks the water through pipes underneath the dusty riverbed.

"There has been no water in the river for 30 years," the bronzed Li said, sweating under a straw hat, a partially capped silver tooth gleaming in the sunlight.

His family's well dried up about 10 years ago, so he like other villagers must now rely on water from a machine-pumped well -- and pay for it, making irrigation prohibitively expensive.

"At first the machine-pumped well was only 30 or 40 metres deep, now it is well over 100 metres deep," Li said of the falling underground water table, a phenomenon seen throughout north China.

This situation should have been alleviated by the water diversion project -- an unprecedented 400-billion-yuan (58-billion-dollar) plan to channel water from the humid south to the parched north along three separate lines.

"Now that (construction of the canal) has been pushed back for five years, we will see a deepening of the crisis in the North China region," said Zhang Junfeng, a water expert with Green Earth Volunteers, an environmental group.

"The North-South project was supposed to come on line earlier and it was designed to reduce the amount of underground water being used in urban areas."

The delay means that the region will have to rely on pumping more underground water to meet demand.

Zhang estimates that Beijing already pumps up to two thirds of its water from underground aquifers with wells in some place up to 1,000 metres deep.

Government officials with the South-North project and the Hebei water resources authority refused to be interviewed for this article.

But according to plans, in 2014 about 13 billion cubic metres (460 billion cubic feet) of water is expected to be channelled along the central canal from the Yangtze tributary every year, with one tenth earmarked for Beijing.

The rest will go to Hebei and other cities and regions along the route, while a significant amount will be lost to evaporation and leakage, the government has said.

Beijing's total water consumption in 2008 was 3.5 billion cubic metres, according to government figures.

According to state press reports, the delay in construction stems from the rising costs of the project as well as the resettlement of up to 300,000 people still living along the route of the canal.

Costly plants to treat badly polluted water along the project's eastern line have also put the construction and the delivery of water on that line behind schedule, they said.

A western line that was to transfer water from the headwaters of the Yangtze river to the Yellow river along the Tibetan plateau, which had been scheduled to break ground in 2010, has been postponed indefinitely, reports said.

If the western line is scrapped completely the overall cost of the project will fall significantly, they said.

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Developed world must slash greenhouse gases: Pacific Island states

Yahoo Groups 4 Aug 09;

CAIRNS, Australia (AFP) – Developed countries must slash their greenhouse gas emissions to ensure the survival of vulnerable island states, Pacific island leaders said Tuesday.

Leaders of seven tiny Pacific island states met ahead of the Pacific Islands Forum summit starting Wednesday.

They include some of the countries most vulnerable to climate change, including the atoll archipelagos of Kiribati, Tuvalu and the Marshall Islands, which include land just two to three metres (six to nine feet) above sea level.

The leaders supported the stance of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), a global grouping, which has called for 45 percent cuts below 1990 levels in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 and 85 percent cuts worldwide by 2050.

"We know there will be differences, we understand some of the difficulties the developed countries have with respect to the changes that are needed," said Toke Talagi, chairman of the forum's Small Island States grouping.

"The small island states have agreed we must make a very strong stance with respects to the greenhouse gas emissions," said Talagi, the Premier of Niue, a tiny island state with a population of around 1,100 people.

Talagi told journalists there were a lot of funds available for mitigating and researching the effects of climate change but there was often difficulty in getting access to that money.

An Oxfam report last week said by the year 2050, about 75 million people could be forced to leave their homes due to climate change in the Asia-Pacific region.

"Climate change has the potential to affect almost every issue linked to poverty and development in the Pacific," said Oxfam New Zealand executive director Barry Coates.

"Without immediate action 50 years of development gains in poor countries will be permanently lost," he said.

Climate change is expected to worsen storm surges, cyclones and high tides.

"Scientists have also projected an increase in diseases such as malaria and dengue fever, together with significant soil and coastal erosion as a result of climate change," Oxfam said.

Unless wealthy, developed countries like Australia and New Zealand take urgent action to curb emissions of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, some island nations in the Pacific could become uninhabitable, Oxfam said.

Oxfam estimated that around 150 billion US dollars would be needed every year to fund adaptation and emissions reductions in developing countries on top of existing aid.

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Carbon offsets not perfect but can slash costs: CBO

Reuters 4 Aug 09;

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Carbon offsets could help slash costs in a U.S. market designed to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, but questions linger about whether all of the mechanisms fully cut such pollution, a Congressional Budget Office report said.

Annual savings from offsets under the climate legislation passed by the House of Representatives could be 70 percent per year from 2012 to 2050, said the report from the CBO, which provides nonpartisan analyses to Congress on economic and budgetary issues.

"The cost savings to the economy generated by offsets could be substantial," the report said.

Offsets allow polluters like coal-burning power plants that would face regulation under a U.S. climate plan to invest in projects that aim to cut greenhouse gases when they determine it's too expensive to cut their own pollution.

Such projects include burning methane, a potent greenhouse gas, given off by pits of rotting manure instead of letting it escape to the atmosphere, or storing carbon in soil and plants through agricultural practices such as no-till farming or planting trees.

The climate bill passed by the House aims to cut emissions of greenhouse gases by 83 percent by 2050, under 2005 levels. Democratic leaders hope to bring climate legislation to a vote in the Senate in October.

The bill would allow for a total of up to 2 billion tons worth of offsets annually from both domestic and international sources.

The CBO estimated the cost of a permit to release a metric ton of carbon dioxide equivalent by 2030 in a plan that allowed offsets would be $40 a metric ton, versus $138 a metric ton in a plan that did not allow offsets.

The net cost in the United States for the program with offsets would be $101 billion in 2030, about 60 percent less than if the mechanisms were not allowed, according to the CBO.

LEAKAGE AND OTHER CONCERNS

But concerns have mounted "that the use of offsets can undermine the environmental goals of the program," according to the CBO.

In other words, it may be hard to verify if some offsets, particularly ones that aim to save forests in developing countries from being cut down, may not actually cut the volumes of international emissions of greenhouse gases they say they do.

Saving one portion of forest from being cut down, for example, could have the unintentional consequence of spurring lumber harvesters to cut down parts of other forests by increasing the price of wood. That problem, known as leakage, would have to be controlled, especially in developing countries.

"It might be relatively easy to measure the amount of methane captured in the United States from ... processes to treat animal waste, it might be quite difficult to measure the amount of carbon removed ... because of efforts to plant trees or avoid deforestation in developing countries," the CBO said.

One way carbon markets can keep offsets that are harder to verify in a trading plan is to discount them versus offsets that were easier to verify. Another way would be to limit the amount of the questionable offsets allowed in a trading plan.

(Reporting by Timothy Gardner; Editing by Walter Bagley)

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