Malaysia's catfish sport-fishing plan makes waves

Yahoo News 29 Sep 09;

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) – A plan to promote sport fishing by introducing the Mekong giant catfish to a Malaysian lake has infuriated environmentalists who fear the huge fish will damage the local ecosystem.

Conservation group Friends of the Earth condemned the proposal to bring the fish -- native to the Southeast Asian Mekong basin but endangered by overfishing -- to Tasik Kenyir in eastern Terengganu state.

"To alter these ecosystems for our pleasure is not only thoughtless and selfish, it is also disastrous," said Mohamad Idris, president of the group's Malaysian branch.

"There is one thing that is of greater value than our recreation," he said. "And that would be maintaining the integrity of the lake ecosystem and the balance of the native species which cannot be duplicated or replaced."

To promote sport fishing, the Terengganu government wants to stock Tasik Kenyir with fish species that will be a draw for recreational anglers.

The plan was announced by chief minister Ahmad Said last week ahead of next month's Kenyir Lake Cup fishing competition.

Idris warned that alien fish species can displace local varieties, and that when they do become invasive, efforts to combat the problem "are usually very expensive and difficult to implement."

He said that while the Mekong giant catfish was listed as critically endangered by the World Conservation Union, efforts to save it should focus on protecting its natural habitats, not transplanting it for recreational purposes.

The Mekong giant catfish can grow up to three metres in length and reach a weight of about 200 kilograms (440 pounds) in about five years.

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Giant fish 'verges on extinction'

Jody Bourton, BBC News 29 Sep 09;

One of the world's largest freshwater fish is on the verge of going extinct.

A three-year quest to find the giant Chinese paddlefish in the Yangtze river failed to sight or catch a single individual.
That means that the fish, which can grow up to 7m long, has not been seen alive for at least six years.

There remains a chance that some escaped the survey and survive, say experts, but without action, the future of the species is bleak.

The concern for the Chinese paddlefish is that its fate will parallel that of the Yangtze river dolphin, a large mammal species that was once abundant in the Yangtze river system, but has recently been declared extinct.

A number of fish species vie for the position of the world's largest freshwater fish, including the arapaima ( Arapaima gigas ) of the Amazon river and the Mekong giant catfish ( Pangasianodon gigas ).

At up to 7m, the Chinese paddlefish ( Psephurus gladius ) is much longer than either, though it may not exclusively live in freshwater.

The fish is suspected to be anadromous, meaning it spends some of its life in marine waters before returning to the river to spawn. But it is so rare that little is known about its behaviour, life history, migration habits and population structure.

It is endemic to the Yangtze river system in China.

"It has special characteristics such as its sword-like rostrum. Some people call it the 'elephant fish' and we found out it swims on the surface of the water like a whale," says Professor Wei Qiwei, one of the leaders of the research team from the Chinese Academy of Fisheries Science in Jingzhou, China.

The last confirmed sighting of a Chinese paddlefish was made in the river on 24 January 2003.

Now scientists have published in the Journal of Applied Ichthyology the results of a three-year survey to find and locate the fish.

Professor Wei and colleagues surveyed the upper Yangtze river between Xinshi, Sichuan Province and Chongqing, covering a distance of 488.5km.

Most of this stretch of water lies within the Upper Yangtze National Nature Reserve, a protected area.

Elusive target

Between 2006 and 2008, the team used a number of boats to deploy 4762 setlines, 111 anchored setlines and 950 drift nets in a bid to catch the fish.

They failed to catch a single individual.

The team also used hydroacoustic equipment that beams sound through the water to create a picture of the river and anything in it.

This identified nine possible targets, of which two could be paddlefish, say the researchers. But they could not confirm these finds.

The fish now appears on the brink of extinction, say the scientists.

They speculate that some paddlefish may have eluded the research team, avoiding its nets and capture methods.

Professor Wei also thinks that some younger, smaller paddlefish may also still exist.

"The individuals born in the late 1980s and early 1990s should survive in the wild, since the Yangtze river system is large and it has some complicated habitats where the paddlefish could hide," he says.

But without intervention, the future for the species is bleak.

"It is not a good future for the species. Maybe we have only ten years to save the species according to the estimated life span of 30 to 40 years," Professor Wei says.

"The offspring born in 1990 will be 30 years old by 2020. It is impossible for the species to be a viable population by natural reproduction. With the current situation of ecology and environment in the Yangtze river, man assistant measures have to be taken."

With so few fish left the team proposes that modern reproduction methods need to be considered, such as using surrogates to rear the fish in captivity.

Other techniques may include preserving genetic material, cloning, or gynogenesis, where fish eggs are coerced into developing via parthenogenesis.

However the team need to find live paddlefish in order to be able to start this process.

From the middle of last century the population of Chinese paddlefish has declined rapidly due to overfishing, habitat degradation and pollution.

The construction of the Gezhouba dam in 1981 on the Yangtze river also created a barrier to the migrating fish which further affected fish stocks.

The species has been listed as critically endangered on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species since 1996.

Last chance to find

The team believe the upper Yangtze is probably one of the last places that the fish may be present and propose to focus their efforts there.

They also hope to be in a position to act if any fish materialise on the river.

"In the last three years, we have been trying to set a quick-response network along the upper-stem of the Yangtze river to save accidental catches of the paddlefish," Professor Wei says.

"However, the network not only costs money and time, but is also a great challenge."

FRESHWATER GIANTS
# Record-breaking freshwater fish (weights not included if unknown): Mekong giant catfish 2.7m, 293kg
# European or wels catfish 4.57m, 336.3kg
# White sturgeon 3.8m
# Amazon arapaima 2.48m, 147kg
# Chinese paddlefish 7m

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Bearded Vultures 'seen in India'

BBC News 29 Sep 09;

About 200 Bearded Vultures have been spotted in a remote part of India's Himachal Pradesh state, reports say.

State chief conservator of forests Vinay Tandon said the reported sighting was being checked by wildlife officials and would be "hugely significant".
Lammergeiers have been seen on India's border with China, but not in such a large group or at so high an altitude.

There has been growing concern in India over the fast dwindling population of vultures in recent years.

Experts estimate there are only a few hundred vultures left in India.

'Pleased'

Mr Tandon said four out of the five major vulture species in India are critically endangered.

"We had reports on Monday that what appears to be a very large colony of Bearded Vultures - or Lammergeiers - were spotted close to the border with China in what is known as the trans-Himalayan region," he told the BBC.

"As yet we are not able to confirm that the birds belong to this species. A team from the state's wildlife department will be making its way to the area as soon as possible.

"We are especially pleased to hear of such a large colony when in recent years the vulture population of India has been disappearing so rapidly."

Mr Tandon said that the vultures had been spotted in Lahaul-Spiti, one of the remotest districts of Himachal Pradesh.

Lammergeiers are long-winged vultures known for their unusual habit of dropping bones on to rocks to smash them open and get at the marrow.

Their world population is estimated at between 2,000-10,000 individuals.

Cattle link

South Asia's vulture population has been virtually wiped out in recent years.

Experts believe vultures have been badly affected by the use of the painkiller diclofenac in cattle.

Vultures feeding on the cattle lose their ability to reproduce.

While Bearded Vultures are not thought to have been so badly affected by the drug, their numbers have nevertheless significantly dwindled in India.

In August conservationists announced that the endangered Slender Billed vulture had twice been successfully bred in the states of Haryana and West Bengal.

Conservationists say that despite the recent sightings, urgent action is still needed to save vultures from extinction in the wild.

"With extinction in the wild likely in the next 10 years, we do not have a moment to waste. The more vultures that we can bring into captivity means a better chance of survival for these rapidly declining species," Birdlife International spokesman Chris Bowden said.

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Dutch fishermen say eel ban 'endangers' them

Martine Pauwels Yahoo News 29 Sep 09;

THE HAGUE (AFP) – A delicacy in the Netherlands where it is eaten smoked on bread, the endangered eel gets a short reprieve as of Thursday when domestic catches will be banned for 60 days in a move fishermen say threatens their survival.

The ban, aiming to boost dwindling eel numbers, "will obliterate family businesses that have earned a living from fishing for many generations," said the Dutch professional fisherman's association.

Its members have blasted the measure as "incomprehensible" and threatened to challenge it in court if it goes ahead, saying they risk losing half their annual business in the peak eel fishing months of October and November.

"Fishermen earn 50 percent of their turnover during the months affected by the ban," association spokesman Han Walder told AFP.

And while the government would make available 700,000 euros (one million dollars) a year to compensate 240 fishing businesses affected by the ban, "that amounts to just 1,000 euros per company per month", he said.

The Dutch parliament is scheduled to vote on the plan on Tuesday, and the agriculture and environment ministry said while some parties had submitted motions on the topic, none had asked for the ban to be lifted.

"The ban on eel fishing will definitely go ahead as planned on October 1," ministry spokeswoman Cindy Heijdra told AFP.

Announcing the October 1 to November 30 ban earlier this year, agriculture and environment minister Gerda Verburg conceded: "It is a big sacrifice for fishermen.

"But it is also in the interests of the industry that the eel population is allowed to recover," she said.

According to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) conservation group, the population of adult eels has dropped by 95 percent in the Netherlands in 50 years.

"Less than one percent of the 1980's stock of elvers (baby eels) remains today," said spokeswoman Clarisse Buma, adding that eels do not reproduce in captivity.

A WWF document said eels were just as much at threat of extinction as the mountain gorilla, the tiger or the panda.

"To eat eel on bread is like eating a panda sandwich," it said.

From next year, the ban would be extended by one month, running from September 1 to November 30. It will be reviewed by the Dutch government in 2012.

Some 1,000 tons of wild eel are caught in Dutch lakes and rivers every year, while 4,000 tons are raised in captivity for domestic and export consumption.

In June 2007, the eel was placed under the protection of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) -- the Geneva-based UN agency against illegal wildlife trade -- and was classified as a fish in which trade should be strictly regulated.

The European Union has asked all member states to present a plan for safeguarding the eel.

The Netherlands' first plan, which had the support of fishermen, was rejected by Brussels as insufficient in July.

It would have roped in eel fishers to help release into the Atlantic 157 tons of mature eel caught inland -- shaving some 15 percent off their annual catch.

The eels make the arduous journey to the Sargasso Sea in the North Atlantic to spawn every year, from where their offspring travel back to Europe to feed inland.

"That (initial) plan would have been sufficient to ensure the recovery of the eel population," said Walder, whose organisation has issued a "distress call" to Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende to intervene.

Walder, however, insisted that fishing was not the only cause. "It is easy to blame the fishermen. Dam walls also cause huge losses" as they bar the eels' yearly migration to the Atlantic, he said.

While the Dutch consume mainly adult eels, elvers are preferred in France and Spain, as well as in Asia to where it is exported at 1,000 euros per kilogramme (2.2 pounds).

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New film blames drug firm for plight of honey bees

Michael McCarthy,The Independent 29 Sep 09;

It's a question that has baffled the worlds of agriculture and science – what is it that has caused the mysterious deaths of honey bees all over the world in the last five years? A new film may have the answer.

Vanishing of the Bees, which will be released in Britain next month, claims the cause is the use of a new generation of pesticides that weakens the bees and makes them more susceptible to other diseases.

Narrated by the British actress Emilia Fox, the 90-minute film tells the story of what has become known as colony collapse disorder.

The problem first appeared in America in the winter of 2004, when many beekeepers across the country found that their bees had suddenly vanished, leaving behind empty hives. Since then scientists have failed to find a single cause for it.

The film goes on to suggest that neonicotinoid pesticides, some of them made by Bayer, one of the world's biggest chemical companies, may be behind the disappearances.

The pesticides include the widely-used imidacloprid (marketed under the trade name Gaucho), which has been banned in France following pressure from beekeepers. It is still in use in Britain, the US and elsewhere.

Neonicotinoids are systemic compounds, which means they are applied to seeds rather than sprayed on to growing plants. They enter into the plants themselves and affect the insect pests that consume them.

In theory, insects that are not pests should not be affected. But Vanishing of the Bees, made by the independent filmmakers George Langworthy and Maryam Henein, suggests that long-term, low-level exposure to these compounds may be having a sub-lethal but debilitating effect on honey bees.

The pesticides, it suggests, may be the final straw for a bee populationhas already been weakened in recent years by diseases ranging from the devastating varroa mite to the nosema fungus and other viruses.

In particular, the film targets Bayer, the long-established German firm which invented aspirin and is the world's fourth-largest pharmaceutical company.

Bayer rejected the allegations last night, insisting that its products did not harm bees.

"Everybody knows this is about the varroa mite, the nosema pest and a number of fungal and viral diseases," said Dr Julian Little, a UK spokesman for Bayer CropScience.

"The healthiest bees in the world are in Australia, where they have lots of neonicotinoids but they don't have varroa. If you look at a country where they have restricted the use of neonicotinoids, France, they have a worse bee problem there than they do in the UK," Dr Little added.

The British Beekeepers' Association said it did not have the evidence to say if neonicotinoids were behind honey bee declines.

"All the data we have seen so far is inconclusive," said Tim Lovett, the association's president.

Read more!

Life dries up in Kenya's Mau forest

James Morgan, BBC News 29 Sep 09;

High in the hills of Kenya's Mau forest, some 20,000 families are facing eviction from their farms - accused of contributing to an ecological disaster which has crippled the country.

The authorities are to start the process of removing them any day now. Farmers will be asked to surrender their title deeds for inspection.

If their documents are genuine, they have a chance of being resettled or compensated.

If not, they will simply be told to go.

"We are afraid. Not only me, but all of us here," says Kipkorir Ngeno, a teacher and father of six, from a village known as "Sierra Leone".

"They call us squatters - a very bad name. But this is my land. It is not illegal."

Drought and despair

Mr Ngeno is one of those accused of responsibility for droughts which have left millions of Kenyans thirsty for water and hungry for retribution.

Mau forest is Kenya's largest water tower - it stores rain during the wet seasons and pumps it out during the dry months.

But during the past 15 years, more than 100,000 hectares - one quarter of the protected forest reserve - have been settled and cleared.

Tearing out the trees at the heart of Kenya has triggered a cascade of drought and despair in the surrounding valleys.

The rivers that flow from the forest are drying up.

And as they disappear, so too have Kenya's harvests, its cattle farms, its hydro-electricity, its tea industry, its lakes and even its famous wildlife parks.

The finger of blame is being pointed at the settlers in Mau. And the solution, according to a special task force appointed by Prime Minister Raila Odinga, is to uproot the invaders and replant the trees.

Of 20,000 families living in the forest, they estimate that as few as 1,962 have genuine title deeds.

Civil conflict

"We must act now - before the entire ecosystem is irreversibly damaged," said Mr Odinga.

"We are looking at securing the livelihoods and economies of millions of Africans who directly and indirectly depend on the ecosystem."

The prime minister was speaking at the United Nations - appealing for donations of $400m (£250m) to "rehabilitate" Kenya's water supply.

If he does not act, he foresees a struggle for water and land which could escalate into a bloody civil conflict.

Because in the valleys downstream of Mau forest, farmers like Peter Ole Nkolia are running out of water, cattle, and patience.

"Those people up there need to just move," says Mr Nkolia, as he stands by the carcass of a dead cow.

"If the destruction of Mau shall continue I can assure you that a lot of people will suffer.

"What you are going to see here in Narok is just the skeletons of cattle - and maybe people."

Worse still, the water from Mau quenches thirst far beyond Kenya. Its rivers feed Tanzania's Serengeti and keep the fishermen of Lake Victoria afloat.

When you consider that Lake Victoria is the source of the Nile, you begin to grasp the scale of the crisis the Kenyan government is facing.

"This is no longer a Kenyan problem," said Mr Odinga. "Tanzania and Egypt are feeling the heat from the Mau.

"And the implications go beyond the environment. This has the potential to create insecurity as people squabble over dwindling resources."

'Buffer zone'

Chopping down the tree cover in Mau has removed a natural "pump" which keeps the ecosystem alive.

"It rains a lot in Kenya - but only in the rainy seasons. Then you have four long months with not a drop," explains Christian Lambrechts, from the Nairobi-based UN Environment Programme (UNEP).

"So you need a buffer zone - a way to ration the rain water and release it slowly into the rivers in the dry season. That buffer is the forest.

"If you remove this ecosystem, you reduce the moisture reservoir. Which means that in the dry season... 'Hakuna maji'. No water."

When the rains in Kenya stop falling, the 12 rivers which stem from the Mau forest are the lifeline for about 10 million people.

And this year in Kenya, the rains failed badly.

Narok county - the breadbasket of Kenya - was a barren dustbowl in April, the wettest month of the year. The government declared a "national emergency" with 10 million Kenyans facing starvation.

Cattle keeled over and died, in their millions. And as the drought worsened, Kenyan government was forced to bail out farmers by slaughtering their weak animals for just 8,000 shillings ($105; £65) a head.

In western Kenya, the tea plantations of James Finlay, which feed on the rivers of western Mau, have seen their yields cut to 80%. And the town of Kericho experienced water rationing for the first time in a generation.

Trouble in paradise

Wildlife tourism - another pillar of Kenya's economy - is wilting in the heat.

Lake Nakuru, the birdwatcher's paradise, is disappearing. The rivers that feed it have run dry. They come from Mau.

And in the Masai Mara, the river which hosts the world famous "crossing of the wildebeest" has fallen to its lowest ever level.

Water scarcity has brought wild animals and farmers into conflict. Deaths, injuries and compensation claims are at record highs in Narok, according to the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS).

The fuse for all these disasters was lit in Mau.

"The Mau, in a sense, is the hen that lays the golden eggs," says Paul Udoto, of KWS.

"The eggs are Lake Nakuru, the Masai Mara, the tea plantations... the farming that is being done by pastoralists.

"Once you destroy the centre - the hen - that is the Mau - then by necessity you have to lose the golden eggs."

Frequent droughts

But can deforestation really be to blame for all these catastrophes?

After all, there have always been cyclical droughts in Kenya.

The trouble is that these droughts are becoming more frequent, more severe and less predictable. Particularly since 2001 - the year when 60,000 hectares of Mau were allocated to settlers and cleared.

"At a time when the climate in Kenya is becoming drier, that is when you need to boost your ecosystem - to help it to absorb the impact of climate variability," says Mr Lambrechts.

"Go in the opposite direction, and you are going to feel those impacts much bigger. That is what we are currently feeling."

Mr Lambrechts is one of 30 officials recruited to the task force by Prime Minister Odinga.

Their report, published in July, set out in painstaking detail how more than 100,000 hectares - one quarter of the entire forest reserve - was parcelled up and cleared for settlement.

Almost 20,000 land parcels were "excised" by the governments of Daniel arap Moi and Mwai Kibaki, and handed out to farmers - which helped to boost the two presidents' popularity in the run-up to elections.

At the time, much of these excised land parcels were promised to Ogiek peoples, the original forest dwellers. But the title deeds ended up largely in the hands of local officials and incoming settlers.

Meanwhile, in the southern Maasai Mau forest, almost 2,000 plots were illegally purchased within the protected forest reserve, with the help of local officials.

Plots known as "group ranches" were expanded, subdivided and then sold on to third parties, unaware that their new title deeds may be "irregular" or "bogus".

An area of central Mau was "adjudicated" to local people who have traditional rights in the forest.

But elsewhere large chunks of the forest were occupied and squatted - "encroached" to use the official terminology - by settlers with no title claim whatsoever.

Political tightrope

The task force insists that almost all of these settlers and land owners should leave the forest as soon as possible.

But how many deserve compensation? This is a political tightrope for Prime Minister Odinga.

The task force has promised that each family will have their claim heard on a "case-to-case basis".

All holders of "genuine" title deeds will be compensated - perhaps even those high-ranking public officials who are named by the task force as having received land via irregular means.

A search for new land to resettle farmers is underway, but is already provoking controversy.

"I hope when they go to the World Bank they won't get any money," says Professor Wangari Maathai, the Nobel Laureate and environmental campaigner.

"The only reason why we are being held hostage with the Mau is because people who were in power want to be compensated."

Double-whammy

But perhaps the biggest challenge of all facing Kenya is the ecological one - the co-ordinated replanting of 100,000 hectares of indigenous forest - more than 100 million trees.

It will take decades to restore the canopy - years in which Kenyans will continue to suffer from the double-whammy of local land degradation and global climate change.

Yet among environmentalists there is some relief that, at last, Kenya has woken up to a disaster that has been brewing for decades.

Countless warnings have gone unheeded, as Ms Maathai can testify.

"I keep telling people, let us not cut trees irresponsibly... especially the forested mountains," she says.

"Because if you destroy the forests, the rivers will stop flowing and the rains will become irregular and the crops will fail and you will die of hunger and starvation.

"Now the problem is, people don't make those linkages."

In Kenya this year, everyone is making those linkages.

THE HEART OF KENYA

• Mau forest is the largest in Kenya - the size of the Aberdares and Mount Kenya combined
• 10 million people depend on its rivers
• They feed six lakes - Victoria, Turkana, Natron, Nakuru, Baringo and Magadi
• Plus eight wildlife reserves - including the Masai Mara, the Serengeti and Lake Nakuru
• The rivers have potential for 518MW hydro electricity - 41% of Kenya's total
• In all, the forest provides an economic benefit of 20 billion shillings (£166m) per year (UNEP)
• But already, a quarter of its 400,000 hectares have been destroyed by farmers and loggers

Read more!

East Africa drought leaves millions hungry

Frank Nyakairu, Yahoo News 29 Sep 09;

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Drought for a fifth year running is driving more than 23 million east Africans in seven countries toward severe hunger and destitution, international aid agency Oxfam said on Tuesday.

Launching a 9.5 million pound appeal, it said the situation was being worsened by high food prices and conflict. The most badly hit nations are Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia and Uganda.

Malnutrition is now above emergency levels in some areas and hundreds of thousands of valuable cattle are dying.

"This is the worst humanitarian crisis Oxfam has seen in east Africa for over ten years," Paul Smith Lomas, Oxfam's East Africa Director, said in a statement.

He said failed and unpredictable rains were ever more common in the region, and that broader climate change meant wet seasons were becoming shorter. Droughts have increased from once a decade to every two or three years.

"In Wajir, northern Kenya, almost 200 dead animals were recently found around one dried-up water source," Lomas said.

"People are surviving on two litres of water a day in some places -- less water than a toilet flush. The conditions have never been so harsh or so inhospitable, and people desperately need our help to survive."

Some 3.8 million Kenyans, a tenth of the population, need emergency aid, Oxfam said, partly because food prices have risen to 180 percent above average.

One in six children are acutely malnourished in Somalia, the charity said, while conflict meant people were less able to grow food and drought is ravaging areas where people have fled. Half the population -- more than 3.8 million people -- are affected.

In Ethiopia, 13.7 million people are at risk of severe hunger and need help, Oxfam said. Many are selling cattle to buy food. Farmers in northern Uganda have lost half their crops.

Other countries hard hit are Sudan, Djibouti and Tanzania.

Rains are due next month, but are likely to bring scant relief or even deluges that could dramatically worsen matters.

Oxfam said there were fears that east Africa could be hit by floods that would destroy crops and homes, as well as increasing the spread of water-borne diseases.

"The aid response to the crisis needs to rapidly expand, but it is desperately short of funds," the charity said, adding that the U.N.'s World Food Programme was facing a $977 million donor shortfall for its Horn of Africa work over the next six months.

"Even with normal rain, the harvest will not arrive until early 2010. People will still need aid to get them through a long hunger season," it said.

(Additional reporting and writing by Daniel Wallis; editing by Tim Pearce)

East Africa Drought In Fifth Year, Millions Hungry
Frank Nyakairu, PlanetArk 30 Sep 09;

NAIROBI, - Drought for a fifth year running is driving more than 23 million east Africans in seven countries towards severe hunger and destitution, international aid agency Oxfam said on Tuesday.

Launching a 9.5 million pound appeal, it said the situation was being worsened by high food prices and conflict. The most badly hit nations are Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia and Uganda.

Malnutrition is now above emergency levels in some areas and hundreds of thousands of valuable cattle are dying.

"This is the worst humanitarian crisis Oxfam has seen in east Africa for over ten years," Paul Smith Lomas, Oxfam's East Africa Director, said in a statement.

He said failed and unpredictable rains were ever more common in the region, and that broader climate change meant wet seasons were becoming shorter. Droughts have increased from once a decade to every two or three years.

"In Wajir, northern Kenya, almost 200 dead animals were recently found around one dried-up water source," Lomas said.

"People are surviving on two litres of water a day in some places -- less water than a toilet flush. The conditions have never been so harsh or so inhospitable, and people desperately need our help to survive."

Some 3.8 million Kenyans, a tenth of the population, need emergency aid, Oxfam said, partly because food prices have risen to 180 percent above average.

One in six children are acutely malnourished in Somalia, the charity said, while conflict meant people were less able to grow food and drought is ravaging areas where people have fled. Half the population -- more than 3.8 million people -- are affected. In Ethiopia, 13.7 million people are at risk of severe hunger and need help, Oxfam said. Many are selling cattle to buy food. Farmers in northern Uganda have lost half their crops.

Other countries hard hit are Sudan, Djibouti and Tanzania.

Rains are due next month, but are likely to bring scant relief or even deluges that could dramatically worsen matters.

Oxfam said there were fears that east Africa could be hit by floods that would destroy crops and homes, as well as increasing the spread of water-borne diseases.

"The aid response to the crisis needs to rapidly expand, but it is desperately short of funds," the charity said, adding that the U.N.'s World Food Programme was facing a $977 million donor shortfall for its Horn of Africa work over the next six months.

"Even with normal rain, the harvest will not arrive until early 2010. People will still need aid to get them through a long hunger season," it said.

(Editing by Tim Pearce)

Read more!

Climate migration fears 'misplaced'

Cecilia Tacoli, The BBC Green Room 29 Sep 09;

Fears of millions of "climate refugees" crossing national borders are not supported by evidence on the ground, says Cecilia Tacoli. In this week's Green Room, she says we will fail to protect the world's most vulnerable people if misconceptions about migration continue to shape policies.

Search the internet for "migration" and "climate change" and you will find repeated warnings of a crisis in the making; of hundreds of millions of people on the move, of countries straining to cope with the pressure on their borders, and of national security under threat.

But these fears are based on many misconceptions about the duration, destination and composition of migrant flows.

There is a real risk that alarmism will divert attention from real problems, resulting in policies that fail to protect the most vulnerable people.

The longer it takes people to realise this, the bigger the true problems will become.

Firstly, the numbers of people likely to be moving have been exaggerated. Secondly, the notion commonly expressed in rich countries - that large numbers of poor people from across the planet will attempt to migrate there permanently - is clearly wrong.

Yes, hundreds of millions of people live in places that are highly vulnerable to climate change.

They face extreme weather conditions such as droughts and floods, or they live in low-lying coastal areas that are threatened by rising sea levels. Their lives and livelihoods are threatened in new and significant ways.

But this does not mean they will all migrate.

The poorest and most vulnerable people will often find it impossible to move, as they lack the necessary funds and social support. Those who can migrate will be more likely to make short-term, short-distance movements than permanent long-term ones.

Overall, long-distance international migration will be the least likely option.

Past lessons

What can we learn from the past? In northern Mali, the drought of 1983-5 affected local migration patterns, with an increase in temporary and short-distance movement and a decrease in long-term, intercontinental movement.

Similarly, recent research in Burkina Faso suggests that a decrease in rainfall increases temporary rural-rural migration.

On the other hand, migration to urban centres and to other nations, which entails higher costs, is more likely to take place after normal rainfall periods.

It is influenced by migrants' education, the existence of social networks and access to transport and road networks.

In all cases, migrants make substantial contributions to the livelihoods of their relatives and communities, by sending money, information and goods back home.

A surprisingly large proportion of the income of rural people in Africa, Asia and Latin America comes from non-farm activities, and much of it as migrants' remittances.

With climate change making farming more difficult, the need for these resources will increase.

Unfortunately, most governments and international agencies tend to see migration as a problem that needs to be controlled instead of a key part of the solution.

In doing so, they are missing opportunities to develop policies that can increase people's resilience to climate change.

Room for new views

Policymakers must radically alter their views of migration, and see it as a vital adaptation to climate change rather than as an unwanted consequence or a failure to adapt.

This means that poorer nations need to prepare for climate change at home by building up infrastructure and basic services in small towns located in rural areas that could become destination hubs for local migrants.

Options include policies that promote access to non-farm jobs in small rural towns and a more decentralised distribution of economic opportunities.

To do so, they should first of all focus on increasing the capacity of local governments and institutions in small towns to support local economic development, provide basic services and regulate equitable access to natural resources.

Richer countries, meanwhile, need to stop panicking about a mass influx of migrants that is unlikely to happen and instead focus on helping the poorer countries to face climate change.

As the richer countries have emitted most of the greenhouse gases that cause climate change, they have a duty to address the problem.

This means providing poorer nations with financial support to help them adapt to climate change, which can either reduce the need for migration or enable it to proceed in a way that is sound and sustainable.

It also means taking drastic domestic action to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases that are causing climate change in the first place.

People are talking about migration as if it were something new, but people have always used their mobility as a means to protect themselves and escape from poverty.

The problem is not that people want to move, but that many of the most vulnerable people do not have the resources or livelihood options that will enable them to do so in a way that maintains their security.

Ironically, the failure to recognise the role of voluntary migration in adapting to climate change contributes to crisis-driven movements that inevitably increase the vulnerability of those forced to leave their homes and assets as they flee conflict and disaster.

It is worth remembering that supporting migrants can ultimately help reduce the numbers of refugees.

Dr Cecilia Tacoli is a senior researcher at the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED)

This article is based on a research paper published on 28 September in the journal Environment and Urbanization

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

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Climate pact must include forest scheme: WWF

Yahoo News 29 Sep 09;

BANGKOK (AFP) – A leading environmental group on Tuesday urged delegates at UN climate talks in Bangkok to include plans to reward nations for saving their forests in any deal on global warming.

WWF International released a survey saying that investors showed "significant support" for a carbon market mechanism, which would address the estimated 20 percent of global carbon emissions due to deforestation.

The group released the poll as officials from 192 countries gathered in Thailand to try to agree on a text for a climate change treaty ahead of a crucial showdown in Copenhagen in December.

"Any global deal on climate change must take into account the significant role forests play in combating global warming," said WWF International director general James Leape.

The UN-backed reduced emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) scheme is not yet part of the pact which could be signed at Copenhagen, a successor to the Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gases which expires in 2012.

The idea behind REDD is to work out how much carbon can be saved by not cutting down trees, and selling that carbon on the global market for big polluters to offset their own emissions.

Environmentalists say the world needs forests to absorb the carbon in the atmosphere that is causing climate change, and also to curb carbon emitted by rotting dead trees and burning.

The WWF said that for the survey it had questioned investors who have around seven trillion dollars of assets under management, and that they said they wanted initial public financing for any scheme.

They also wanted certainty from both international agreements and national legislation before they commit.

WWF said it spoke to 25 senior money managers, analysts and specialist sustainability investors in Europe, the United States and the Asia-Pacific region.

"If strong policies are put in place to ensure real reductions in emissions and real benefits to forest communities, investors can play a key role in supporting REDD," Leape said.

"Agreement in Copenhagen -- coupled with progress on national initiatives -- will be a signal to investors that REDD can and will succeed, and will ensure forests are more valuable standing than cut."

The Bangkok talks are the next to last before the Copenhagen meeting and the UN climate chief, Yvo de Boer, warned on Monday that time was running out to reach a deal.

There are major disagreements between developed and developing nations on the how much they will cut carbon emissions by and who will meet the enormous cost.

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Climate change measures 'crucial for Asia-Pacific'

Rachel O'brien Yahoo News 29 Sep 09;

BANGKOK (AFP) – UN experts warned on Tuesday that Asia-Pacific nations and other developing countries need support to combat climate change as they face an intensification of extreme weather such as the Philippine floods.

The comments came as a divide between rich and poor nations continued to dominate crucial negotiations in Bangkok to develop a new climate treaty before world leaders meet in Copenhagen in December.

UN climate chief Yvo de Boer said one of the "key elements" of a deal was increased support for developing countries in the Asia-Pacific region and elsewhere to step up efforts to deal with the effects of climate change.

"Typhoons, floods and extreme weather events regularly make headlines in this part of the world," de Boer told reporters.

De Boer said the devastation in the Philippines was "the most recent tragic example" of climate change affecting the region, as the death toll reached 240, with the same storm, Ketsana, also killing 22 people in Vietnam.

"The impacts are likely to become more intense over time. Dealing with emergency situations, reducing disaster risks and increasing the climate resilience is a necessity for this region," he added.

Indonesia became the latest country to announce plans for a cut in greenhouse gas emissions, saying it would cut them by more than a quarter.

Campaigners have applauded recent encouraging announcements on climate change from Asian countries including China, India and Japan, which has pledged to reduce emissions by 25 percent from 1990 levels by 2020.

Developed nations admit a historical responsibility for global warming but say developing countries should also pledge to curb their output, while emerging economies have called on rich nations to make higher cuts.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono made the pledge in a speech at a working lunch during the G20 summit in Pittsburgh on September 25 but it was only made public at the negotiations in the Thai capital, an Indonesian delegate said.

Indonesia remains one of the leading forest destroyers, with emissions from the clearing of rainforests and peatlands making it the world's third-largest greenhouse gas emitter, according to some estimates.

"We just want to tell the world that although the obligation is mainly, most of it, on developed countries, Indonesia as victims of climate change would like to do something to prevent it from worsening," senior delegate Agus Purnomo said.

In Yudhoyono's speech, a copy of which was obtained by AFP, the president said Indonesia had decided on a national climate change action plan "that will reduce our emissions by 26 percent by 2020 from BAU (Business As Usual)."

With international support Indonesia could reduce emissions by as much as 41 percent, Yudhoyono said.

UN Under-Secretary General Noeleen Heyzer said the Asia-Pacific region had experienced 80 percent of global casualties related to extreme weather events over the last seven years.

"Climate change is likely to increase both the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events as well as the number of related casualties," she told the briefing.

Heyzer, also chief of the UN's Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, said most developing countries in the region faced two inter-linked challenges: combating poverty and overcoming climate change.

"Failure to tackle one will undermine efforts to deal with the other," she said. The transition towards a low carbon economy was already happening in the region but still required "massive investments," she added.

The Bangkok talks are the second-to-last negotiating session before Copenhagen, the last chance to sign a deal to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

Meanwhile conservation group WWF International released a survey saying that leading investors showed "significant support" for a scheme that would reward nations for saving their forests in any deal on global warming.

Asia-Pacific at risk if climate change ignored: ADB
Martin Petty, Reuters 30 Sep 09;

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Asia-Pacific countries face food and energy shortages, worsening poverty and declining crop yields if they ignore climate change, according to studies released on Wednesday.

The region will suffer major social and economic changes if countries fail to adopt new practices -- from liberalizing trade to introducing better quality seeds for crops -- according to separate reports by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), on agriculture, migration and energy.

Under some scenarios, food prices could shoot up as much as 70 percent in the next 40 years as crop yields shrink, leading to a rise in malnutrition in some Asian countries, the ADB said.

"The combination of poverty in rural areas and the expected impacts of climate change and its remaining uncertainty will require careful planning...," the Manila-based ADB said.

"Targeted climate change investments and more flexible decision-making will be necessary to make the most of scarce budgetary resources," it added.

The report warned that the countries where poverty was rife such as Afghanistan, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Bangladesh and Nepal were most at risk and least likely to respond to, or handle, the pressures of climate change.

It recommended new initiatives to reduce the chance of an agricultural disaster. These include trade liberalization, more state subsidies, distribution of improved seeds and being better prepared for environmental problems from land degradation to wetter and drier seasons.

'WORRYING PICTURE'

Without changes in farming practices, prices would rise significantly in line with diminished agricultural yields, the ADB forecast. Rice output could fall 25 percent, wheat and maize by 40 percent, causing prices to rise by 40-70 percent in the next 40 years.

"This significantly negative impact of climate change on agriculture paints a very worrying picture," said Mark Rosengrant of the International Food Policy Research Institute.

"It will worsen existing problems, adding to high malnutrition and the poor will be the most adversely affected."

The ADB report coincided with the release of a study by the World Bank on Wednesday that estimated developing countries would need up to $100 billion annually for the next 40 years to adapt to a two-degree increase in temperature.

The ADB's study also highlighted concerns about energy security, emphasizing that investment and financial support were required to steer poorer countries toward alternative energy sources and lessen dependence on fossil fuels.

"The region is well endowed with clean energy sources but faces constraints in developing them," it said.

"International financial support is essential but has been completely inadequate. The flow of financing from the developed world...is of paramount importance."

The report also highlighted potential problems of migration, internal and external, and warned about the dangers of people continuing to flock to coastal cities likely to be affected by rising sea levels.

Experts said plans needed to be drawn up to manage migration movements, with greater cooperation between neighboring countries and development of urban centers to ease pressure on swelling coastal cities such as Bangkok and Shanghai.

"We need to look at this with seriousness because of growing numbers of people moving into areas vulnerable to climate-induced impacts," said Robert Dobias, a senior ADB climate change advisor. "It's a very worrying trend."

(Editing by Jason Szep and Sanjeev Miglani)

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Poorer states need 'billions' for global warning: World Bank

Yahoo News 29 Sep 09;

THE HAGUE (AFP) – Developing countries will need up to 100 billion dollars (80 billion euros) a year for 40 years to combat the effects of global warming, said a World Bank report released in The Hague on Tuesday.

Assuming the planet is two degrees Celsius warmer by 2050, "the study puts the cost of adapting ... at 75 billion to 100 billion dollars a year" from 2010, according to an investigation commissioned by Britain, the Netherlands and Switzerland.

"What we try to show with this report is the urgency of ensuring that there are sufficient funds for adaptation" for poor countries, Dutch Development Minister Bert Koenders said on receiving the report.

"It is for many countries a question of life and death," he added. "There will be no climate deal in Copenhagen if there is no financing for adaptation" -- referring to the UN climate summit to be held there in December.

East Asia, South Asia, Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa are those most affected by global warming, the report said.

The European Union, Japan and the United States "realise" that money had to be found, Koenders said, adding however that funding "does not necessarily have to come from national budgets".

"The big political debate is now about the figures, that is why it is very important to have objective figures from this report."

Koenders said developing countries would require additional aid on top of traditional development assistance to deal with climate change.

World Bank economist Sergio Margulis, who headed the study, said the costs of global warming will rise.

"Development is the most powerful form of adaptation," the report said.

"It makes economies less reliant on climate-sensitive sectors, such as agriculture. It boosts the capacity of households to adapt by increasing levels of incomes, health and education.

"It enhances the ability of governments to assist by improving the institutional infrastructure. And it dramatically reduces the number of people killed by floods and affected by floods and droughts."

Development also means breeding drought- and flood-tolerant crops, climate-proofing infrastructure, the report said.

Margulis said developing countries, like their rich counterparts, also had a duty to reduce CO2 emissions "to avoid the unmanageable consequences of higher temperatures".

If nothing is done, the report argued, global warming would kill half the species on the planet, flood 30 percent of coastal wetlands, and cause a steep rise in malnutrition and disease.

Climate change to cost poor states $100 billion a year
Thin Lei Win, Reuters 20 Sep 09;

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Developing countries will need to spend as much as $100 billion annually for the next 40 years to adapt to more extreme and severe weather changes, according to a World Bank study issued on Wednesday.

The report said poorer countries would need to invest in large-scale infrastructure projects to cope with floods, drought, heatwaves and more frequent and intense rainfall if the Earth's temperature rose by 2 degrees Celsius by 2050.

"Faced with the prospect of huge additional infrastructure costs, as well as drought, disease and dramatic reductions in agricultural productivity, developing countries need to be prepared for the potential consequences of unchecked climate change," said Katherine Sierra, World Bank vice president for sustainable development.

Previous estimates of adaptation costs by other groups ranged from $9 billion to $104 billion, but the World Bank said the latest projection of costs are the most in-depth analysis to date of the impact of climate change.

The report gave a costs range of $75 billion to $100 billion based on two different scenarios, the first a drier world that would require less investment than wetter conditions, which would need measures such as building sea walls or deeper drainage canals.

HARDEST HIT

East Asia and the Pacific, home to some of the world's fastest-growing economies, would be the hardest hit financially, accounting for at least a quarter of total costs, mostly due to increased urbanization, especially in coastal areas, said Warren Evans, director of the Bank's environment department.

According to the study, the cost of adapting to a warmer world is on the same scale as the amount of aid developing countries currently receive. Aid agencies say it is essential that aid money is not cut to fund climate change initiatives.

"Any financing that comes in must be additional money," Oxfam's senior climate policy advisor, Antonio Hill, told Reuters. "If it's not, then it's just robbing Peter to pay Paul."

Conservation group WWF voiced concern that the World Bank's estimate was based on the assumption that the world would work together to restrict the temperature rise to two degrees.

"The commitments from developed countries in the present negotiations don't come anywhere near this level of ambition," WWF said in a statement, referring to global climate change talks taking place in Bangkok.

"This underlines the need for much stronger commitments on the table from developed countries, both in terms of emissions reductions and in terms of financing for climate action in developing countries." (Editing by Martin Petty and Alex Richardson)

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Best of our wild blogs: 29 Sep 09

30 Sep (Wed): Scene City Singapore - Southern Ridges and Sungei Buloh from wild shores of singapore

Talk Climate change and marine biodiversity: Lessons from a little red dot from BlueWaterVolunteers

A sluggish F1 weekend at Hantu
from Pulau Hantu

A Sub-adult Painted Bronzeback
from Life's Indulgences

Wildfacts updates: saron shrimp, giant chiton and more plants
from wild shores of singapore

Signs of recovery
from The annotated budak and Home swift home

Great Bowerbird of Kakadu National Park
from Bird Ecology Study Group

We'll be back!
from Fish, Respect And Protect

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