Changing lives through sustainability

UNEP 23 Feb 10;

2009-10 Sasakawa Prize winners bring light and heat to communities in Latin America, Africa and India

Bali (Indonesia), 23 February 2010 - Two projects bringing green stoves and clean lighting to remote communities in Latin America, East Africa and India are the laureates of the 2009-10 UNEP Sasakawa Prize, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) announced today.

This year's winners are Nuru Design, a company bringing rechargeable lights to villages in Rwanda, Kenya and India; and Trees, Water and People (TWP), an organization that collaborates with local NGOs to distribute fuel-efficient cook stoves to communities in Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Haiti.

The UNEP Sasakawa Prize, worth $200,000, is given out each year to sustainable and replicable grassroots projects around the planet. The winners will receive their prestigious Prize at an Award Ceremony in Bali attended by dozens of Environment Ministers during the 11th Special Session of the UNEP Governing Council.

In a year that saw global leaders meet in Copenhagen for the crucial climate conference, the 2009 theme for the Prize is 'Green Solutions to Combat Climate Change'. The winners, who were selected by a panel of four people including Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and UN Messenger of Peace Wangari Maathai, will receive $100,000 each in order to expand and develop their grassroots projects.

Achim Steiner, UNEP Executive Director and UN Under-Secretary-General who chaired the Jury Panel, said: "Combating climate change is not just up to governments: it starts at the grassroots level, as communities tap into the power of renewables and sustainable technologies. Through pioneering green ovens and sustainable lighting, Nuru Design and Trees, Water and People are changing the lives of thousands of schoolchildren, housewives and villagers across Latin America, Africa and India. This is the Green Economy of tomorrow, in action today."

The two projects are both helping to improve daily lives in far-flung, non-electrified villages while helping to fight climate change.

Nuru Design has already converted thousands of households to rechargeable lights, and aims to prevent the emission of around 40,000 tonnes of CO2 from kerosene lighting in 2010.

And through fuel-efficient cooking stoves that burn 50 to 70 per cent less wood, TWP is helping households save money and preventing nearly 250,000 tonnes of hazardous emissions.

The winners

Nuru Design

Lack of reliable energy and lighting affects over two billion people in the developing world and remains a primary obstacle to improving health, increasing literacy and education, and, ultimately, reducing poverty and hunger. Meanwhile, the equivalent of 260 million tonnes of CO2 is emitted into the atmosphere yearly from burning kerosene and firewood, which millions of people around the world rely on for lighting.

With seed-funding from the World Bank Lighting Africa initiative, Nuru Design UK co-developed and field-tested the Nuru lighting system with villagers and local partners in Rwanda - UNDP Rwanda and Millennium Villages. Nuru means "light" in Swahili, and the system consists of portable, inexpensive rechargeable LED lights that sell for $5.

Nuru lights can be recharged by solar panel or AC charger, but the primary recharging source is human power using the world's first commercially available, locally-assembled, pedal generator: the Nuru POWERCycle. Gentle pedalling for 20 minutes using feet or hands, bicycle-style, can fully recharge up to five Nuru lights - each one lasting up to 37 hours. The lights give up to two weeks of bright light on a full recharge, allowing children to study, home-based businesses to operate, and households to function after dark.

The project has been a runaway success, making a significant, immediate and long-lasting environmental impact. In Rwanda alone, Nuru is adding 40 entrepreneurs every quarter, meaning 10,000 households every quarter will switch from kerosene to Nuru light.

Nuru Design plans to use the Sasakawa funding to scale up in Rwanda and to replicate their work in Burundi, Kenya, Uganda and India - expanding to 800 entrepreneurs who will deliver lighting to about 200,000 households.

Trees, Water and People

Nearly half the world's 6.8 billion people rely on smoky open fires to cook their daily meals. This traditional practice causes deadly indoor air pollution which kills 1.6 million women and children annually.

Trees, Water & People (TWP) , a non-profit organization, collaborates with local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Haiti to distribute fuel-efficient cook stoves that burn 50 to 70 per cent less wood and remove toxic smoke from homes. Other projects include community tree nurseries, reforestation, protecting watersheds and the promotion of renewable energy.

To date, TWP has coordinated the building of 35,000 stoves throughout Central America and Haiti, benefitting more than 175,000 people. The ecostoves burn 70 per cent less wood than traditional ovens, saving families $1 to $5 per day.

They also decrease harmful carbon emissions by 1 tonne of CO2 equivalent per year per stove for domestic users and 3.5 tonnes of CO2 equivalent per year for commercial users, like tortilla makers.

To supplement the fuel-efficient stoves project, TWP has helped villages create 16 community-run tree nurseries that sequester carbon and counter the effects of deforestation. To date, three million trees have been planted throughout Latin America.

TWP will use the Prize money to support and expand the fuel-efficient stove projects and community tree nurseries throughout Central America and the Caribbean, purchasing equipment and materials necessary for increased stove production, as well as vehicles for transportation and delivery.

Notes to Editors:

About the UNEP Sasakawa Prize

The UNEP Sasakawa Prize is sponsored by the Japan-based Nippon Foundation, an independent, non-profit grant-making organization that supports both Japanese and international philantropic projects. The UNEP Sasakawa Prize was originally created in 1982 by the late Ryoichi Sasakawa. The Prize was re-launched in its current format in 2005, and is currently chaired by Mr. Sasakawa's son, Yohei Sasakawa.

The four members of the 2009-10 UNEP Sasakawa Prize jury are Jury Chairman and UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and UN Messenger of Peace Pr. Wangari Maathai, Nobel chemistry Laureate and 1999 Sasakawa Winner Pr. Mario Molina, and Ms Wakako Hironaka, Member of Japan's House of Councillors.

At the UNEP Sasakawa Award Ceremony on 23 February, last year's Sasakawa Winners - Sunlabob Rural Energy and Practical Action - will deliver a report on their progress since they were awarded the Prize.

Winners' Biographies:

Nuru Design - Sameer Hajee

Prior to Nuru Design, Sameer Hajee was the Global Business Development manager at Freeplay Energy plc, the developers of the world's first hand-crank radio and flashlight. At Freeplay, Sameer created the international aid and development sales team which in 2006 and 2007 generated $6 million in revenue. He also co-created and co-managed a Development Marketplace project that saw the creation of 50 rural energy enterprises in Rwanda.

In 2005, Sameer launched and managed the Growing Sustainable Business (GSB) initiative at UNDP in Kenya, where he helped domestic and multinational companies, such as SC Johnson, Tetra Pak and Microsoft, to develop and implement pro-poor business models in Kenya.

Trees, Water and People - Stuart Conway

After graduating from Colorado State University with a Bachelor's degree in Forest Management, Stuart Conway served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Guatemala for three years, where he introduced reforestation, agroforestry, soil conservation, and stove building techniques into nearby villages. Upon returning to the States, Stuart received his Master's degree in International Development and Agroforestry from Cornell University. He then served as Director for the New Forests Project at the International Center in Washington D.C., where he guided the program to plant over 2 million trees annually, establish agroforestry training centers in Guatemala and El Salvador, and initiated community reforestation projects throughout Central America.

In 1998, Stuart co-founded Trees, Water & People (TWP), a Colorado-based nonprofit committed to improving people's lives by helping communities protect, conserve and manage the natural resources.

In 2005, Prince Charles presented Stuart with the prestigious Ashden Award for Sustainable Energy, for TWP's fuel-efficient stove project in Honduras. Stuart and TWP were awarded the 2008 US$1 million Rio Tinto Prize for Sustainability.

For more information, please visit the UNEP Sasakawa Prize website at: www.unep.org/sasakawa/ or e-mail: sasakawaprize@unep.org

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World's coral reefs could disintegrate by 2100

Researchers at Carnegie Institution say corals are being overwhelmed by rising carbon dioxide in the atmosphere
Ian Sample, guardian.co.uk 23 Feb 10;

The world's coral reefs will begin to disintegrate before the end of the century as rising carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere make the oceans more acidic, scientists warn.

The research points to a looming transition in the health of coral ecosystems during which the ability of reefs to grow is overwhelmed by the rate at which they are dissolving.

More than 9,000 coral reefs around the world are predicted to disintegrate when atmospheric carbon dioxide levels reach 560 parts per million.

The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere today stands at around 388ppm, but is expected to reach 560ppm by the end of this century.

Coral reefs are at the heart of some of the most biodiverse marine ecosystems in the world. They are home to more than 4,000 species of fish and provide spawning, refuge and feeding areas for marine life such as crabs, starfish and sea turtles.

"These ecosystems which harbour the highest diversity of marine life in the oceans may be severely reduced within less than 100 years," said Dr Jacob Silverman of the Carnegie Institution in Stanford University, California.

Coral reefs grow their structural skeletons by depositing aragonite, a form of calcium carbonate, from calcium ions in sea water. As oceans absorb atmospheric carbon dioxide, they become so acidic the calcium carbonate dissolves.

Silverman's team studied a coral reef in the northern Red Sea and calculated its response to increasingly acidic waters. The research showed that the ability of the coral to build new structures depended strongly on water acidity and to a lesser extent temperature.

From these data the researchers created a global map of more than 9,000 coral reefs, which showed that all are threatened with disintegration when carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere reach 560ppm. Silverman was speaking at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in San Diego.

In a separate study, Simon Donner, an environmental scientist at the University of British Columbia in Canada, warned that carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is already at a high enough level to cause devastating coral bleaching.

Corals have a symbiotic relationship with microscopic algae that live on them. The algae give coral reefs their vibrant colours, but are also an important food source for the habitat's marine life. When sea temperatures rise, the corals expel the algae and turn white. Once this happens the coral is deprived of energy and dies.

"Even if we froze emissions today, the planet still has some warming left in it. That's enough to make bleaching dangerously frequent in reefs worldwide," said Donner.

Bleaching had become increasingly widespread in recent years, Donner said. In 2006, severe bleaching struck the southern part of Australia's Great Barrier Reef, the largest coral reef system in the world. Last year scientists reported that a "lucky combination" of circumstances had allowed the coral to recover from the disaster.

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Rising carbon snuffs coral

ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, Science Alert 24 Feb 10;

Rising carbon dioxide levels in the world’s oceans could deliver a disastrous blow to the ability of coral reefs to withstand climate change.

A major new investigation by Australian scientists has revealed that acidification of the oceans from human CO2 emissions has the potential to worsen the impact of the bleaching and death of reef-building organisms expected to occur under global warming.

The study, by a team led by Dr Ken Anthony of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and the University of Queensland, published in this week’s Proceedings of the (US) National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) concludes that earlier research may significantly understate the likely damage to the world’s reefs caused by man-made change to the Earth’s atmosphere.

In a large experiment on Australia’s Heron Island, the team simulated CO2 and temperature conditions predicted for the middle and end of this century, based on current forecasts of the world’s likely emission levels and warming by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

The results of their analyses of the bleaching, growth and survival of a number of organisms including corals indicates that a number of very important reef builders may be completely lost in near future.

“We found that coralline algae, which glue the reef together and help coral larvae settle successfully, were highly sensitive to increased CO2. These may die on reefs such as those in the southern Great Barrier Reef (GBR) before year 2050,” says Dr Anthony.

“Every time you start your car or turn on the lights, half the CO2 you emit ends up in the oceans, turning them just a tiny bit more acidic, as well as causing the climate to warm. What is new is an understanding of how these two effects interact to affect the corals and reef building algae.”

The CoECRS team erected 30 large aquaria in the waters of Heron Island in the southern GBR and studied the combined effects of warming, high CO2 and sunlight on a large range of reef organisms for eight weeks.

“The results, frankly, are alarming,” says Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg. “They clearly suggest that previous predictions of coral bleaching have been far too conservative, because they didn’t factor in the effect of acidification on the bleaching process and how the two interact.”

The results of the team’s analyses of the bleaching, growth and survival of key coral reef species indicate that a number of very important reef builders may be completely lost in the near future – in particular the coralline algae that glue the reef together and help coral larvae settle successfully, says Dr Guillermo Diaz-Pulido.

On the positive side, some coral species seem able to cope with the levels of ocean acidification expected by the mid-century by enhancing their rates of photosynthesis, says team member Dr David Kline. “This is an important discovery that can buy the reef time while the nations of the world work together to stabilise CO2emissions,” he says.

“Although high CO2 causes corals to bleach and lose their symbiotic organisms, the surviving symbionts seem able to work harder. However, when CO2 levels in the water become too high, the symbiotic coral-algal system crashes and the corals die”, adds Dr Sophie Dove.

“The implications of this finding are massive as it means that our current bleaching models, which are based on temperature only, severely underestimate the amount of coral bleaching we will see in the future,” Dr Anthony says.

“These results highlight the urgency of reducing CO2 emissions globally. Without political will and commitment to abatement, entire reef systems such as the Great Barrier Reef will be severely threatened in coming decades,” the team warns.

The results of the research are being offered to reef managers to help them develop strategies to protect the reefs which are most at risk.

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U.N. Says Emissions Vows Not Enough To Avoid Rise Of 2 Degrees C

Sunanda Creagh, PlanetArk 24 Feb 10;

NUSA DUA, Indonesia - Emission cuts pledges made by 60 countries will not be enough to keep the average global temperature rise at 2 degrees Celsius or less, modeling released on Tuesday by the United Nations says.

Scientists say temperatures should be limited to a rise of no more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 F) above pre-industrial times if devastating climate change is to be avoided.

Yearly greenhouse gas emissions should not be more than 40 and 48.3 gigatonnes of CO2-equivalent in 2020 and should peak between 2015 and 2021, according to new modeling released on Tuesday by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

Keeping within that range and cutting global emissions by between 48 percent and 72 percent between 2020 and 2050 will give the planet a "medium" or 50-50 chance of staying within the 2 degree limit, said the report, which was based on modeling by nine research centres.

However, the same study found that the world is likely to go over those targets. The pledges were made by nations that signed up to the Copenhagen Accord.

"The expected emissions for 2020 range between 48.8 to 51.2 gigatonnes of CO2-equivalent, based on whether high or low pledges will be fulfilled," the report said.

In other words, even in a best-case scenario where all countries implement their promised cuts, the total amount of emissions produced would still be between 0.5 and 8.8 gigatonnes over what scientists see as tolerable.

Greenhouse gas levels are rising, particularly for carbon dioxide, because more is remaining in the atmosphere than natural processes can deal with.

Carbon dioxide is naturally taken up and released by plants and the oceans but mankind's burning of fossil fuels such as coal for power and destruction of forests means the planet's annual "carbon budget" is being exceeded.

OTHER OPTIONS

UNEP's executive director Achim Steiner said the bleak prediction should motivate countries to make more ambitious cuts.

"The message is not to sit back and resign and say we will never make it," he told reporters in Nusa Dua on the Indonesian island of Bali, which is hosting a major U.N. environment meeting.

"But it's not enough at the moment and there are other options that can be mobilised."

Steiner said one such option was more investment in a scheme called reduced emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD), in which poor countries are paid to preserve and enhance their forests.

A state of the environment assessment released by UNEP on Tuesday, the UNEP Year Book 2010, also advocated more investment in REDD.

"It has been estimated that putting $22 billion to $29 billion into REDD would cut global deforestation by 25 percent by 2015," the report said.

Forests soak up large amounts of planet-warming carbon dioxide. Cutting them down and burning the remains releases vast amounts of the gas, exacerbating global warming, scientists say.

REDD is not yet part of a broader climate pact that the U.N. hopes to seal by the end of year at major climate talks in Mexico.

Steiner told reporters a day earlier he expected talks this year to be a tough slog. The Copenhagen climate summit last December ended with a political accord that was not formally adopted and no clarity on the shape of a new climate pact to succeed the current Kyoto Protocol.

"A deal has become more difficult than in Copenhagen. Let's be very frank. The world has moved away, rather than closer, to a deal," he told reporters. "The politics of international negotiation and the economics, the momentum that built up toward Copenhagen will not be there for Mexico.

(Editing by David Fogarty)

UN warns greenhouse gas cuts 'not enough' to curb warming
Yahoo News 24 Feb 10;

NUSA DUA, Indonesia (AFP) – Countries will have to make far greater cuts in greenhouse gas emissions if the world is to limit the rise in global temperatures to two degrees Celsius or less, the UN has warned.

Commitments made since December's Copenhagen climate conference have been insufficient, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) said in a report at its annual meeting on the Indonesian island of Bali.

"No one should assume that the pledges will be enough," UNEP director Adrian Steiner said.

"Countries will have to be far more ambitious in cutting greenhouse gas emissions if the world is to curb a rise in global temperature."

The Copenhagen summit struck a last-minute compromise that set a goal of limiting warming to two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) and pledged a total of nearly 30 billion dollars in aid to poor countries by 2012.

But it did not spell out the means for achieving the warming limits, and the emissions pledges were only voluntary.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono warned the ministers and officials gathered on Bali that the clock was ticking on efforts to forge a global treaty on climate change to succeed the Kyoto Protocol.

"We have to conclude the climate change negotiations in Mexico at the end of the year," Yudhoyono noted at the opening session on Wednesday. "I think it is not too late."

Other environment ministers and climate officials echoed his call although the United States, which is the world's second biggest polluter after China, did not send any ministers to Bali.

International climate negotiators are due to meet on April 9 in Bonn to draw up a programme for the rest of the year looking towards the ministerial-level meeting opening on November 29 in Cancun, Mexico.

Green groups and most scientists say the document adopted in Copenhagen, a limited pact made after China angrily ruled out binding commitments, falls far short of what is necessary to curtail global warming.

The European Union is pledging to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent by 2020, compared to 1990 levels, if other major powers do the same. But cuts outlined by the United States and China fall well short of that.

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Hard To Agree On U.N. Climate Treaty In 2010: De Boer

Robert Nowatzki, PlanetArk 24 Feb 10;

BONN, Germany - Agreeing on a U.N. climate treaty in 2010 will be "very difficult" despite a new push to spur negotiations after the Copenhagen summit, the head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat said on Tuesday.

Yvo de Boer, a Dutch citizen who announced plans last week to stand down in July after four years, also suggested to Reuters Television that his successor should be from a developing nation.

"I think that's going to be very difficult," he said of prospects for agreeing a new treaty at an annual ministerial meeting in Cancun, Mexico, from November 29-December 10. Rich and poor are divided over sharing out the burden of curbs on emissions.

A U.N. summit in Denmark in December disappointed many nations by failing to agree a new legally binding deal to succeed the existing Kyoto Protocol.

It ended with a non-binding Copenhagen Accord to limit warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 F) above pre-industrial times.

De Boer said developing countries would want to know what a treaty would mean "in terms of obligations and what it's going to bring for them in terms of finance and technology, before they're willing to take that step and say: 'yes, we're willing to work toward a legally binding treaty'."

"So I think the first step will be to get the architecture right and I think that can be done in Mexico. The next step would be to decide on a treaty on it," he said.

On Monday, key nations agreed to add an extra negotiating session of senior officials from 194 nations in Bonn from April 9-11, on top of a meeting in Bonn from May 31-June 11. Delegates said it was a sign of willingness to work for a treaty.

MEXICO

De Boer also said he expected that Mexico would host talks among some key negotiators in March.

De Boer said the choice of his successor was up to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. But he said "I think it would be quite useful to...have somebody from a developing country."

So far, 100 nations have signed up for the Copenhagen Accord, which promises almost $10 billion a year in aid from 2010-12, rising to $100 billion a year from 2020, as well as setting the 2C temperature ceiling.

De Boer said that the climate debate was shifting into a period when it could carry out decisions already taken to slow droughts, floods, heatwaves, more powerful storms and rising ocean levels.

"We're now moving into a phase that is very much about implementation and about getting developing countries on board and acknowledging cooperation and adaptation," he said.

In Indonesia on Tuesday, a U.N. study said promised cuts in emissions, mainly from burning fossil fuels, so far by 60 countries under the Copenhagen Accord were insufficient to limit temperature rise to 2 degrees.

Achim Steiner, head of the U.N. Environment Programme, urged countries to announce deeper cuts in emissions: "The message is not to sit back and resign and say we will never make it."

De Boer will be joining business consultancy KPMG.

"I've always said that I think the ultimate solution to climate change needs to come from the private sector, within boundaries designed by government, but from the private sector," he said.

(Editing by Jon Boyle)

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Best of our wild blogs: 23 Feb 10

They are back at Sungei Buloh!
from The Simplicities in Life

Chek Jawa walk
from a spark of new hope

Reaching for the light!
from Psychedelic Nature

Green Junglefowl
from Bird Ecology Study Group

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Carbon tax a 'more practical' system for Singapore

Teo Xuanwei, Today Online 23 Feb 10;

SINGAPORE - It would be "more practical" to reduce carbon emissions in Singapore through a tax system, rather than a cap-and-trade system, said the Ministry of Finance (MOF) in the FY2010 Revenue and Expenditure Estimates it released yesterday.

This is because Singapore is a small domestic market with only "a few large energy consumers".

A tax system - where the Government fixes the price per unit of carbon - can also "provide greater price certainty and stability that will incentivise investments in energy efficiency and low carbon solutions", MOF said.

Conversely, a cap-and-trade system - which allows firms to buy and sell their emissions permits - could pose "substantial" transaction and monitoring costs on both the Government and firms because a new carbon trading infrastructure would have to be set up.

Carbon trading also allows the price of carbon to vary, and may deter or delay carbon reduction investments, the ministry added.

MOF said a combination of price signals, fiscal measures and other policy interventions will be needed to curb carbon emissions.

It is studying all the options, and will announce specific measures after working out the details and the outcome of climate change negotiations is clearer.

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Increasing the number of 'green' cars in Singapore

Today Online 23 Feb 10;

SINGAPORE - To encourage test-bedding of clean technologies, green vehicles brought in here can enjoy the waiver of Additional Registration Fees, Certificate of Entitlement and custom duties for six years - an extension from the current two years.

The Transport Technology Innovation Development Scheme will also be enhanced to allow up to 1,300 vehicles, up from the current quota of 300. The total amount of tax waived is estimated to be about $75 million.

Imported used green vehicles will also get to enjoy the Green Vehicle Rebate, which grants a 40-per-cent cut in the main car tax. Currently, only brand new green vehicles qualify for the rebate, but the scope will be extended from July.

However, the extension of the rebate will not be applicable to imported used Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) vehicles and vehicles which are required to be brand new at the point of registration, such as taxis.

More details will be released by the National Environment Agency and the Land Transport Authority next month.

Singapore Environment Council executive director Howard Shaw welcomed the move to allow imported used green vehicles here as returning Singaporeans and expatriates could bring their green vehicles for use here. "Overall, it is a small development in the scheme of greening private cars but it will increase the number of green cars on the roads," he said. Leong Wee Keat

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Singapore budget: committed to going green

Teo Xuanwei, Today Online 23 Feb 10;

Despite inconclusive climate change talks in December, the Republic is nonetheless pushing ahead with more spending for a greener Singapore. Within the Government's expenditure estimates, which were released yesterday, green schemes featured notably as part of the new spending commitments in the year ahead.

The Environment and Water Resources Ministry will be spending more, for example, on research programmes in environment technology and on grants for firms developing energy-efficient technologies in the upcoming financial year.

But in terms of funding for the individual ministries, the Information, Communications and the Arts Ministry is getting the largest hike compared to last year - a 33-per-cent increase. It will be getting $1.01 billion.

This is largely due to the development of the Next Generation National Broadbank Network, which will cost an estimated $258.03 million.

For the National Development Ministry, $1.09 billion is expected to be spent on public housing expenditure, which includes the lift upgrading and main upgrading programmes and the Selective En-bloc Redevelopment Scheme.

The largest share of Government spending will go to Mindef (24.7 per cent or $11.46 billion) and the Education Ministry (20.8 per cent or $9.66 billion). Salaries for political appointments - ministers, ministers of state and parliamentary secretaries - are estimated to be $58.28 million, or 8.8 per cent higher than last year. TEO XUANWEI

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Shock in Malaysia over tiger poaching clip

Lester Kong, The Star 23 Feb 10;

PETALING JAYA: Conservation groups are shocked over a video clip showing poachers proudly posing for the camera with a tiger which they had allegedly killed.

The clip, which was captured using a mobile phone, was highlighted in a report by Britain’s Channel 4 News and posted on its website on Saturday.

It stated that the footage was recorded in northern Malaysia around the end of last year.

The clip showed several people standing around a tiger carcass and discussing how they had killed the animal.

Malaysian Nature Society president Tan Sri Salleh Mohd Nor said the killing was disrespectful to the Year of the Tiger, especially with the low tiger population in Malaysia.

“They should be hung for that. The law needs to be urgently tightened with tougher punishment for poachers,” he told The Star yesterday.

He also urged the Department of Wildlife and National Parks (Perhilitan) to bolster its manpower and support services to prevent more poaching.

“The Government needs to stop thinking in terms of economics. Conservation of tigers and other endangered wildlife is about our natural heritage,” Salleh said.

Public environment stewards who act as whistle-blowers against environmental and wildlife threats must also be appointed, he added.

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Whaling Commission Proposes Return to Commercial Whaling

Environment News Service 22 Feb 10;

CAMBRIDGE, UK, February 22, 2010 (ENS) - A working group of the International Whaling Commission today released a draft proposal that would allow the return of commercial whaling. An IWC moratorium on commercial whaling has been in place since 1986.

The compromise is aimed at unblocking the long-stalled negotiation process between IWC member countries opposed to commercial whaling and those that want to kill whales.

The draft Consensus Decision by the Small Working Group on the Future of IWC would allow only the countries that currently take whales under the "research" provisions of the treaty to hunt them under the proposed management regime. Those countries are Japan, Norway, Iceland and the Faroe Islands, which together kill some 1,500 whales a year. Indigenous subsistence whaling also would be allowed to continue.

The draft proposal would bring whaling by all 88 member countries under the control of the IWC. Currently, the IWC has no control over whaling under objection/reservation to the treaty or whaling under special permit, the so-called "research whaling."

The proposal establishes caps of takes that are "within sustainable levels" for a 10 year period, although most of those quotas are not specified in the draft document but are marked "TBD," to be decided. The draft comments that catches would be reduced "significantly" from current levels.

Currently, Japan has a six-vessel whaling fleet in Antarctic waters as part of its scientific whaling program. It targets up to 900 minke whales, which are not an endangered species, plus 50 endangered fin whales.

In 2009, Japan took 679 minke whales and one fin whale for a five-month effort in the Southern Ocean, spending much time and effort in clashes with the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. Japan's goal had been to kill up to 935 minke whales and 50 fin whales.

The IWC proposal states that a fundamental component of the Consensus Decision is that the commission will "focus on the recovery of depleted whale stocks and take actions on key issues, including bycatch, climate change and other environmental threats."

But environmental groups are outraged by the proposal.

From its office in Amsterdam today, Greenpeace International called for the proposal by to be rejected out of hand, describing it as a dangerous throwback to the 20th century when whales where hunted to near extinction.

"The proposal rewards Japan for decades of reprehensible behavior at the International Whaling Commission and in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary," said John Frizell, Head of the Greenpeace Whales Campaign.

"We are at a critical junction for both whaling and ocean conservation," said Frizell. "A return to commercial whaling would not only be a disaster for whales but will send shock waves through international ocean conservation efforts, making it vastly more difficult to protect other rapidly-declining species such as tuna and sharks."

From its headquarters in Gland, Switzerland today, WWF-International said the new draft compromise on whaling "set a dangerous precedent that the international community must reject."

WWF said that while the compromise "contains many positive elements for whale conservation that would help bring the IWC into the 21st Century," the compromise could legitimize whaling by Japan in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.

"If there is one single place in the world where whales should be fully protected, it is the Southern Ocean," said Wendy Elliott, species manager at WWF-International. "What we need is to eliminate all whaling in the Southern Ocean, including Japanese commercial whaling thinly disguised as 'scientific research.'"

"But what we have now is a deal which could make it even easier for Japan to continue taking whales in this ecologically unique place," Elliott said.

The IWC supposedly provides special protection to a critical whale feeding area, the Southern Ocean, surrounding the continent of Antarctica, which the IWC established as a 50 million square kilometer whale sanctuary in 1994. "This extra layer of protection signifies the importance of this area as the primary feeding habitat of many of the Southern Hemisphere�s whale populations," Elliott said.

The proposal sets a process in motion that could endorse quotas which have not yet had a full and proper scientific review. "It is difficult to see how determining quotas through politics rather than science can be considered progress," said Elliott.

The draft Consensus Decision will be discussed by a group of IWC countries at a meeting in March, with the intention that it will be adopted by the IWC at its next full meeting in Agadir, Morocco in June.

New whaling compromise is step backwards for whales
WWF 23 Feb 10;

A new draft compromise on whaling released by the International Whaling Commission (IWC) today set a dangerous precedent that the international community must reject, WWF said.

A working group within the IWC today unveiled a new compromise aimed at unlocking the stalled negotiation process between countries fundamentally opposed to whaling and states that support it.

While the compromise contains many positive elements for whale conservation that would help bring the IWC into the 21st Century, the compromise could legitimise ‘scientific’ whaling by Japan in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.

“If there is one single place in the world where whales should be fully protected, it is the Southern Ocean,” said Wendy Elliott, Species Manager at WWF-International. “What we need is to eliminate all whaling in the Southern Ocean, including Japanese commercial whaling thinly disguised as ‘scientific research’. But what we have now is a deal which could make it even easier for Japan to continue taking whales in this ecologically unique place.”

The IWC has maintained a ban on all commercial whaling since 1986. But, defying this ban, Japan, Norway and Iceland use loopholes in the IWC’s founding treaty to kill more than 1,500 whales a year. The loopholes allow whaling under ‘objection’ to management decisions (Norway and Iceland) and “scientific” whaling for research purposes (Japan).

The IWC also provides special protection to a critical whale feeding area, the Southern Ocean surrounding the continent of Antarctica, which the IWC established as a 50 million square kilometre whale sanctuary in 1994. This extra layer of protection signifies the importance of this area as the primary feeding habitat of many of the Southern Hemisphere’s whale populations.

Additionally, the proposal sets a process in motion that could endorse quotas which haven’t yet had a full and proper scientific review. “It is difficult to see how determining quotas through politics rather than science can be considered progress,” added Elliott.

The are some positive aspects of the compromise including increased efforts to secure the recovery of depleted whale populations, action on critical conservation threats facing whales such as such as bycatch and climate change, and improved governance and compliance. However, the compromise cannot be accepted by WWF as long as it allows whaling in the Southern Ocean.

The new compromise which will be discussed by a group of IWC countries at a meeting in March, is intended to be adopted by the IWC at its next full meeting in June this year.

Whaling plan to okay hunts in return for fewer kills
Kyoko Hasegawa Yahoo News 23 Feb 10;

TOKYO (AFP) – The global body that regulates whaling has proposed giving the green light to Japan to keep hunting the sea mammals in return for reducing the number of animals killed.

Greenpeace and the World Wide Fund for Nature harshly condemned the draft plan which aims to unlock stalled talks when the 85-nation International Whaling Commission (IWC) meets next month in Florida.

While Greenpeace called it "a dangerous throwback to the 20th century when whales were hunted to near extinction", the WWF said it "could legitimise ?scientific? whaling by Japan in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary".

Commercial whaling has been banned worldwide since 1986 but Japan justifies its annual hunts in the Antarctic and Northwestern Pacific as lethal "scientific research" under a loophole permitted by the IWC.

Norway and Iceland also hunt whales, claiming it is central to their culture. Between them, the three nations have killed more than 30,000 whales since the moratorium was declared, says the IWC.

The draft -- which has not been agreed by members, and which leaves whale catch quotas undecided -- would allow Japan to keep hunting the ocean giants, but under stricter monitoring, including DNA sampling of whale meat.

Cristian Maquieira, the body's chairman, described the proposal as a "paradigm shift" designed to bring whaling back under IWC control, reduce the numbers killed and regulate it to ensure a healthy whale population.

The proposal comes as Japan's annual whale hunt in Antarctic waters has again made headlines in recent weeks, with its harpoon ships clashing repeatedly with militant environmentalists the Sea Shepherds.

Anti-whaling nation Australia last weekend warned it would launch legal action against Japan in the International Criminal Court unless it commits before November to ending its annual whale hunts.

Japan makes no secret of the fact that the meat of whales it kills is sold in restaurants and shops, and maintains that whaling is an important and centuries-old tradition for the island-nation.

Under the IWC draft proposal, whaling ships would be fitted with satellite monitoring systems, and DNA registries and market sampling would be introduced to detect illegal whaling and enforce quotas.

Commenting on the draft, Japan's Fisheries Minister Hirotaka Akamatsu said only that in the IWC talks "we will be flexible, but we will also seek to gain 60 or 70 percent of what we've been demanding".

A Japanese fisheries agency official said the new proposal "aimed at breaking the deadlock in the IWC, setting aside the arguments on the nature of whaling -- whether it is commercial whaling or scientific, or whaling by indigenous people for their subsistence".

"We can't comment on whether the proposal is good or bad for Japan," the official, Toshinori Uoya added.

Greenpeace, a veteran opponent of whaling, was scathing about the draft.

"The proposal rewards Japan for decades of reprehensible behaviour at the International Whaling Commission and in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary," said John Frizell, head of the Greenpeace Whales Campaign.

"We are at a critical junction for both whaling and ocean conservation. A return to commercial whaling would not only be a disaster for whales but will send shockwaves through international ocean conservation efforts."

In the draft document, a table features catch limits for the next 10 years, including for Japanese whaling of minke whales in its coastal waters while it leaves the annual quotas "to be decided".

"The only number that should be decided is zero," said Frizell.

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Foreign fishing activity threatening Papua`s marine life

Eliswan Azly, Antara 22 Feb 10;

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The operations of many foreign fishermen in Papua waters have become a serious problem to Indonesia as they increasingly use equipment that damage the province`s coral reefs and other biota.

Aria Aditya Setiawan, a political and international relations observer, said here recently illegal fishing using trawls often occurred in waters just a few hundred meters off the Papua coastline.

The illegal fishing`s impact on the environment was posing a problem to Indonesia`s easternmost province. It was not only causing economic damage but also had a negative impact on the environment of the region because of the use of explosives, he said.

Aria who is head of the International Relations Department of the Jayapura Technology and Science University (USTJ) said the use of explosives in fishing had become popular because potassium was easy to get both legally and illegally.

Commonly, according to him, foreign boats which are often illegally fishing in Papua`s waters came from the Philippines, Thailand and China.

"There were also Indonesian ships cooperating with the foreigners so they could get bigger profits from Papua`s marine resources," he said.

He said activities of foreign fishermen in Papua waters produced better results than those of Papua fishermen themselves because the former used high technology.
Meanwhile, Papuan fishermen are still relying on traditional fish traps.

Aria said, until 2008, security officers had inspected 39 foreign ships engaged in illegal fishing in Papua`s waters.

"Illegal fishing still poses a problem and gives a serious impact. Therefore the government including the security forces and the people should work together in dealing with the problem," he said.

Coral reefs in Indonesia`s territorial waters reach to 51.000 kilometers square or 18 percent of the total coral reefs in the world and stretching from the western through the eastern parts of Indonesia`s territorial waters.

With its wealth in biodiversity, Indonesia lies in the coral triangle along with the Philippines, Malaysia, Timor Leste, Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands.

Currently, Raja Ampat islands in Papua Barat Province is the richest area in coral reefs in the world with 537 species of coral reefs and 1.074 species of fish.

Last year former Maritime and Fisheries Minister Freddy Numberi asked the National Police`s Criminal Investigation Department (Bareskrim) to dismantle the many illegal fishing networks believed to be operating in Indonesian waters.

The minister also requested Bareskrim to investigate fish and fuel oil barter activities in which Chinese fishing boats were known to be often engaged in Indonesian waters.

Numberi said his requests was tendered to the police in connection with the apprehension of 26 foreign fishing boats in waters off Papua`s southern coast by an integrated security agencies team.

All of the 26 fishing boats, including two Thai-flagged ones, were currently being detained at Timika`s Pomako harbor in Papua.

Numberi said his ministry believed some organization was behind the illegal activities in Indonesian waters and he had asked Bareskrim to bust it and uncover the individuals involved.

It was also reported the foreign fishing vessels used forged documents.

In the meantime, Navy spokesman First Adm. Iskandar Sitompul previously said the Indonesian Navy had seized 32 foreign ships in Papuan waters since the beginning of the month for crimes ranging from illegal fishing to the transportation of illegally harvested timber.

Iskandar said that most poachers were from Malaysia, the Philippines, China and Thailand. Most of the crew members were Indonesians, he said.

According to him, investigations had already been launched into all the cases and hoped that prosecutions would be filed in the near future.

He said that the seized ships were being held at a number of naval bases, including Jayapura, and Sorong and Manokwari in West Papua.

Court cases relating to the seizure of 25 vessels last year were still ongoing, with the owners of 21 of the vessels filing appeals with the Supreme Court, Iskander said. For example, the MV Golden Blessing was waiting for re-evaluation of its case by the Supreme Court.

Another vessel, the Siong-siong Hai-05099, would be auctioned off if its owners and crew members were found guilty of breaking the law, Iskandar said.

The Navy`s deputy chief, Vice Adm. Moekhlas Siddik, earlier said that in 2008 the Navy successfully prosecuted the operators of 100 domestic and foreign vessels.

During the year, Navy patrols inspected 1,869 ships, and of those, 521 were seized for alleged violations of Indonesian law, he said.

Indonesia is facing a host of unsolved maritime problems including rampant illegal fishing and the environmental damage from the dumping of toxic waste.

Based on a 2007 report from the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing in Indonesian waters costs the state $2 billion each year.

Iskandar said not all the crimes were related to illegal fishing or logging. (*)

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