Indonesia Holds Firm to Controversial Rent-A-Tiger Plan Ahead of Conservation Meeting

Ahmad Pathoni Jakarta Globe 7 Jul 10;

Officials and conservationists from 13 countries are to meet in Bali next week to discuss efforts to double the population of endangered Indonesian tigers by 2022, the Indonesian government says.

The meeting, to be held on the Indonesian resort island on Monday and Tuesday, is expected to produce a draft Global Tiger Recovery Program, said Darori, the Forestry Ministry’s director general of forest protection and nature conservation.

That document would then be discussed at a summit of global leaders on tiger conservation in Russia in September, he said.

The draft would address the threats facing the world’s remaining tigers, including the Sumatran tiger, Darori said on Tuesday.

The meeting was expected to be attended by senior government officials from the 13 tiger-range countries — Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Russia, Thailand and Vietnam — as well as tiger experts and representatives from local and international groups.

The World Wide Fund for Nature said the global wild tiger population was estimated at 3,200, including 400 Sumatran tigers.

Darori said Indonesia was confident it could double the population of Sumatran tigers by 2022.

“With better law enforcement and the support of donors and partners, we will be able to achieve the goal,” he said. “It’s easier to breed tigers than rhinos.”

Indonesia has been criticized by conservationists for considering a scheme allowing rich people to adopt captive tigers to help curb poaching.

Under the plan currently being worked out at the Forestry Ministry, a pair of tigers could be rented against a deposit of Rp 1 billion ($110,000 dollars).

“People don’t understand that this is a realistic initiative,” Darori said. “Every day, there are people who request to adopt tigers.”

“They will take good care of the tigers” he said. “It’s better than allowing them to be killed by poachers.”

Of nine tiger subspecies, six exist today, according to the WWF: the Sumatran, Bengal, Amur, Indochinese, South China and Malayan tigers.

Threats to the tiger include habitat fragmentation and destruction, loss of prey, poaching and illegal trade.


DPA

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New Batfish Species Found Under Gulf Oil Spill

Maggie Fox PlanetArk 9 Jul 10;

Researchers have discovered two previously unknown species of bottom-dwelling fish in the Gulf of Mexico, living right in the area affected by the BP oil spill.

Researchers identified new species of pancake batfishes, a flat fish rarely seen because of the dark depths they favor. They are named for the clumsy way they "walk" along the sea bottom, like a bat crawling.

Photo by Ho, Chakrabarty & Sparks (2010)

"One of the fishes that we describe is completely restricted to the oil spill area," John Sparks of the American Museum of Natural History in New York, said in a statement released on Thursday.

"If we are still finding new species of fishes in the Gulf, imagine how much diversity, especially microdiversity, is out there that we do not know about."

Writing in the Journal of Fish Biology, Sparks and his colleagues named the species as Halieutichthys intermedius and H. bispinosus. A third already known species called H. aculeatus also only lives in waters affected by the spill, they said.

Pancake batfishes have round, flat bodies with giant heads and mouths they can thrust forward. They use arm-like fins to drag themselves along the bottom and a modified dorsal fin excretes fluid to lure prey.

Sparks said the three species had been considered just one species, but his team found distinct differences.

"These discoveries underscore the potential loss of undocumented biodiversity that a disaster of this scale may portend," he said.

BP aims to plug the well late this month or in August.

The well has pumped millions of gallons (liters) of oil into the Gulf, coating shorelines and animals and having as yet unknown effects on creatures living in deep waters.

It threatens to devastate the Gulf region's multibillion-dollar fishing and tourist industries.

(Editing by Vicki Allen)

New species of pancake batfishes discovered in the Gulf of Mexico
American Museum of Natural History EurekAlert 8 Jul 10;
Scientists describe 2 new species of fish from area engulfed by oil spill

Although the Gulf of Mexico has been intensively surveyed by scientists and picked over by fishermen, it is still home to fishes that are waiting to be described. New research published in the Journal of Fish Biology describes two new species of pancake batfishes (Halieutichthys intermedius and H. bispinosus) and re-describes another (H. aculeatus), all of which live in waters either partially or fully encompassed by the recent oil spill.

"One of the fishes that we describe is completely restricted to the oil spill area," says John Sparks, curator of Ichthyology at the American Museum of Natural History. "If we are still finding new species of fishes in the Gulf, imagine how much diversity—especially microdiversity—is out there that we do not know about."

Pancake batfishes are members of the anglerfish family Ogcocephalidae, a group of about 70 species of flat bottom-dwellers that often live in deep, perpetually dark waters. Pancake batfishes have enormous heads and mouths that can thrust forward. This, combined with their ability to cryptically blend in with their surroundings, gives them an advantage for capturing prey. They use their stout, arm-like fins to 'walk' awkwardly along the substrate; their movements have been described as grotesque, resembling a walking bat. As most anglerfishes, batfishes have a dorsal fin that is modified into a spine or lure, although their lure excretes a fluid to reel in prey instead of bio-illuminating.

The pancake batfishes described by Sparks and colleagues, genus Halieutichthys , live in shallower waters than most batfishes and occur along the coasts of the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic from Louisiana to North Carolina. Until now, the currently described three fishes had been lumped into one species, since they all have similar coloration and body shape.

But there are several differences. The three species are distinguished by the size, shape (blunt or sharp), and arrangement of tubercles on the body; the presence or absence of dark bands on the pectoral fin; and the unique reticulate pigmentation patterns on the dorsal body surface. H. aculeatus, the re-described species, is characterized by a comparatively sparse arrangement of spiny tubercles and is distributed along the northeastern gulf coast as well as along the Florida, Georgia, and Carolina coasts. H. bispinosus is a newly described species with a characteristic pattern of densely arranged spiny tubercles covering the body and a geographic distribution similar to H. aculeatus. Finally, H. intermedius, the second newly described species, has a smooth, non-spiny dorsal surface and a geographic distribution that mirrors the current range of the Gulf oil spill. This last species does not have a known population outside of the Gulf of Mexico.

"These discoveries underscore the potential loss of undocumented biodiversity that a disaster of this scale may portend," says Sparks.

###

In addition to Sparks, authors include Hsuan-Ching Ho of the Biodiversity Research Center of Academica Sinica in Taipei, Taiwan and Prosanta Chakrabarty of the Museum of Natural Science at Louisiana State University. The research was funded by the National Science Foundation, the Lakeside Foundation, and the Lerner-Gray Fund for Marine Research.

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Famous New Zealand dolphin found dead

Yahoo News 8 Jul 10;

WELLINGTON (AFP) – A New Zealand dolphin who became an international tourist attraction as he entertained bathers on beaches is believed to have died, conservation officials said Thursday.

The carcass of a bottlenose dolphin found on an eastern North Island beach looks like the well-known Moko and has been taken away for an autopsy and DNA testing.

"Based on the size, markings and teeth of the carcass, we think that this is Moko," Department of Conservation ranger Jamie Quirk said.

The playful Moko, who was last seen about two weeks ago, delighted in playing with bathers and had been a familiar sight at beaches near Gisborne on the North island.

"This is a sad loss. The way that Moko interacted with people really inspired public interest and care for dolphins and marine mammals and their environment in general," regional conservation manager Andrew Baucke said.

But Moko's antics did not please everyone.

Last year a woman swimmer had to be rescued after Moko swam around her and refused to let her return to shore.

"We were playing around for a while but then when I wanted to go back in, he just wanted to keep playing. I became exhausted and started to panic," the woman said.

"The reality set in that I was out in the ocean with a wild animal and no people around, so I felt quite vulnerable."

Moko's fame spread in March 2008 when a conservation worker trying to rescue two pygmy whales trapped between a sandbar and the beach saw Moko approach the pair and guide them through a narrow gap to the open sea.

Conservation department community relations manager, Katrina Knill said there was growing public interest in what will be done with Moko's remains.

"This is really sad, a large number of people feel strongly connected to Moko. We'll be looking into what's most practical and appropriate over the next few days."

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Where next for climate policy in Australia?

David Fogarty Reuters 8 Jul 10;

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Australia faces an election within months and new Prime Minister Julia Gillard has said she will announce additional steps on fighting climate change before the poll.

Climate change will be an election issue and analysts say Gillard must do something to win back voters angry over the government's shelving of an emissions trading scheme in April.

Gillard has said Australia needs to place a cost on planet-warming carbon emissions from industry, transport and households. A national consensus on how to do this is crucial.

Here is a look at what might come next in the government's fight to preserve its voter base and recapture disgruntled green voters ahead of elections.

A COMPROMISE EMISSIONS TRADING SCHEME OR CARBON TAX?

Very unlikely.

The political debate on emissions trading has become so polarized that Gillard will want to avoid anything that gives the opposition or powerful industry lobbies reason to attack her, particularly after a bruising debate on a planned mining tax.

"A carbon price is completely off the agenda. I can't see the government going anywhere near that in the lead up to the election. They don't want to fight a great big new tax," said Andrew Macintosh, Associate Director of the Center for Climate Law and Policy at the Australian National University.

Gillard will want to shore up the existing voter base by trying to resolve other outstanding issues, such as the mining tax deal and changes to immigration and refugee policies.

But she needs to restore public trust in the fight against climate change, so she might announce some form of public consultation on carbon pricing prior to the election with a view to having legislation come back to the parliament next year.

MORE STEPS TO BOOST RENEWABLE ENERGY AND ENERGY EFFICIENCY?

Likely.

Gillard has said she will announce steps in these areas. She might announce additional funding of big-ticket renewable energy projects, such as offering tax relief or other incentives. She might also opt for energy efficiency measures for households and small-to-medium enterprises to help them cut power costs.

Analysts say much more can be done to boost energy efficiency in Australia to curb the growth in demand for electricity.

Plans for households and businesses could include subsidies, revolving funds or marginal tax rate benefits. But the key is to avoid a repeat of a botched government-backed home insulation scheme that led to fires and the deaths of four people.

Analysts say Gillard also needs to find a way to reach to out to farmers, even if it is simply discussing ideas on helping on climate change, land productivity and drought tolerance.

DO NOTHING?

Possible but risky.

"My feeling at the moment is that she will continue the rhetoric on concern about climate change, but we won't hear much in terms of substance," Macintosh said.

Gillard faces a delicate dance in being seen to be doing something while not angering blue-collar workers who fear higher costs from climate policies.

"My take-home message is the government has a major credibility gap in this policy space," said Peter Christoff, lecturer in climate policy at the University of Melbourne, adding the government needed to revisit the carbon pricing debate to regain that credibility.

Q+A: Why Australia needs a price on carbon
David Fogarty Reuters 8 Jul 10;

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Australia is the world's top 2coal exporter, relies on coal to generate more than 80 percent of its power, transports most goods by road and cars clog its cities.

Still, one of the world's top per-capita emitters of planet-warming carbon pollution is determined to cut its emissions, even as a growing population and booming economy make achieving this a major challenge.

Following are some questions and answers on tackling Australia's greenhouse gas emissions:

WHY THE NEED TO ACT?

Australia's economy, and particularly its power generation sector, has been driven by access to nearly limitless supplies of cheap brown and black coal, and gas. Coal, the most polluting fossil fuel, still remains the cheapest source of power.

Australians also love their cars. In a nation of 22 million people, there were 15.7 million vehicles registered in 2009, up from 13.5 million in 2004, government figures show.

Between 2008 and 1990, the base year for the U.N.'s Kyoto Protocol climate pact, net emissions grew by 31.4 percent.

Over the same period, emissions from the power generation sector rose 52.1 percent, while transport emissions increased 29.2 percent. Overall, emissions from the energy sector, comprising three-quarters of the nation's greenhouse gas pollution, rose 44 percent.

A growing population, expanding at roughly two percent a year, and rising incomes mean greater demand for energy.

The projected impacts of climate change on Australia also worry many. Rising sea levels, greater extremes of droughts and floods, higher temperatures, more intense bushfires, water shortages, and warmer and more acidic oceans in coming decades collectively point to a tougher future.

WHAT HAS THE GOVERNMENT DONE SO FAR?

Not much. It is has developed an emissions trading scheme but twice failed to win political support and has since shelved it.

The government has also set a target of cutting emissions by 5 percent by 2020 from 2000 levels and by up to 25 percent if there's a strong global climate agreement.

Europe has a more ambitious target of cutting greenhouse gas emissions 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 and by 30 percent if there's a strong global climate pact. Britain is targeting a cut of 34 percent below 1990 levels by 2020.

The Australian government has had better luck winning parliamentary approval for a scheme that mandates a target of 20 percent renewable energy generation by 2020 and has also laid out a A$4.5 billion initiative backing investment in clean energy.

IS A CARBON PRICE BEST?

Yes. An emissions trading scheme that sets a clear reduction target and lets the market set a price for each tonne of carbon dioxide emitted is seen as the best way to drive greater energy efficiency and investment in cleaner energy.

The renewable energy target (RET) laws just passed by parliament, while boosting investment in wind farms and some other renewables, won't lead to significant emissions reductions, analysts say.

Instead, the RET will promote the addition of generating capacity that will largely meet the projected annual growth in consumption of about 3 percent.

The RET is unlikely to displace coal-fired generation to any significant degree but is likely to encourage fast-start gas-fired generation needed to meet baseload power demands when wind power output dips.

Generators say a CO2 price that effectively makes coal-fired power more expensive is needed to push a greater shift to cleaner gas and new-generation renewables, such as geothermal.

WHAT ARE THE RISKS IF THERE'S NO CARBON PRICE?

Increasingly, investors are demanding certainty on CO2 pricing to ensure financing for investment plans.

Some companies and the government also say the longer the delay, the higher the costs to the power generating sector, other industries and households in meeting the minus-5 percent target.

(Editing by Michael Urquhart)

Factbox: How will Australia's RET affect power generators?
Reuters 8 Jul 10;

(Reuters) - Australia's approval of an expanded green energy scheme will underpin a multi-billion dollar boom in wind farm construction, analysts and investors say.

The scheme mandates 20 percent renewable energy generation by 2020 and will go a long way to satisfy the growing thirst for electricity of Australia's expanding economy and limiting growth in greenhouse gas emissions from the power sector.

It is expected to lead to an additional 7,000 to 9,000 megawatts of wind power on top of about 2,000 MW now.

Following are some of the scheme's key points and likely impacts on power generators.

HOW THE SCHEME WORKS

The renewable energy target (RET) scheme mandates the creation of 45,000 gigawatt hours (GWh) of green power by 2020, with 41,000 GWh to be met by large-scale investments and the rest by smaller domestic solar hot water and solar panels.

The large-scale target will step up from 10,500 GWh in 2010 to 41,000 GWh within a decade.

To underpin investment, clean-energy projects earn tradeable renewable energy certificates (RECs) per megawatt-hour produced.

The RET scheme legally obliges wholesale power retailers and some generators to buy RECs from green power providers at negotiated prices, so creating demand and supply. The RECs are traded online and held in a registry.

IMPACTS ON COAL-FIRED GENERATORS

Coal remains Australia's cheapest form of power generation. Black coal makes up 57 percent of all fuels used, brown coal 25 percent and gas 16 percent, based on 2007/08 government data.

Coal generators include International Power, TRUenergy Holdings Ltd, state-owned Macquarie Generation and AGL Energy.

Analysts and power firms say the RET will not displace coal and only a carbon price via an emissions trading scheme will speed the closure of brown and black coal power plants or refitting with cleaner gas burners.

But the RET will nonetheless put an extra squeeze on coal-fired generators, who already realize a price on carbon is coming and their polluting product will inevitably become more costly and less desirable, says WWF Australia CEO Greg Bourne.

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Best of our wild blogs: 8 Jul 10

Two subspecies of Coppersmith Barbet
from Bird Ecology Study Group

Raffles Museum Treasures: Common wolf snake
from Lazy Lizard's Tales

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AVA aims to make Singapore fish food supply more sustainable

Victoria Jen Channel NewsAsia 7 Jul 10;

SINGAPORE: Singapore's efforts to make its food supply more resilient has received a boost with the success of its only deep-sea net-cage farm.

Located off Pulau Semakau, Barramundi Asia, Singapore's biggest commercial fish farm, is about a half-an-hour boat ride from the city.

The farm enjoyed its first harvest last October, and now produces 500 tonnes of barramundi, also known as Asian sea bass.

One of the secrets of its success lies in the water.

Joep Kleine Staarman, managing director, Barramundi Asia Farm & Nursery, says: "Fish farming in Southeast Asia is mainly done in Indonesia and Malaysia. But Singapore actually has very good water quality. Having a fish farm so close to Singapore brings the fish very fresh to the market."

Singapore is a safe haven for fish farming as it isn't prone to natural disasters like typhoons or tsunamis.

And with help from Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority, AVA, Barramundi Asia aims to further boost its output by six folds within a few years.

Mr Staarman says: "Next year 2011, it'll be 1000. And we'll go on to 2012-2013 to 2000 tonnes. And we want to grow to 3,000 tonnes."

The farm's ultimate ambition is to account for more than 80 per cent of local food fish production.

As part of AVA's efforts to make Singapore's food supply more sustainable, there are now more than 100 licensed floating fish farms in the country's coastal waters.

Tan Poh Hong, CEO, Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority of Singapore, says: "There's a selective breeding programme which was started about five years ago, where we look for the best breeds, the blue stocks, and these are able to grow much faster at 15 per cent. We are looking right now into selecting breeds that can grow faster, even up to 30 per cent, so when you can grow faster, you can have better productivity."

Currently, Singapore's main sources of food fish are neighbouring countries like Malaysia and Indonesia. - CNA/jm

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Demand for more eco-friendly utensils rise

Zhao Quan Yin, Hoe Yeen Nie Channel NewsAsia 7 Jul 10;

SINGAPORE : The growing awareness of eco-issues has led to an increase in demand for utensils made from recycled paper, with one local supplier seeing a sharp increase in import volumes over the past year.

The bulk of demand comes from eateries, with one saying it is happy to go green even if the utensils made from recycled paper cost 10 per cent more than plastic.

However, prices of utensils made from recycled paper have been coming down.

One importer, Pacific CAM Trading Enterprise, said the rise in global demand has led to better technology and cheaper products.

It now imports 300 crates of eco-friendly utensils from Taiwan, up from just 20 crates last year.

Currently, Singapore imports all utensils that are made from recycled paper, with 95 per cent brought in from Taiwan.

- CNA/al

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Jane Goodall: Urgent Action Needed to Save Chimps

Charles Q. Choi livescience.com 7 Jul 10;

Reflecting on a half-century of pioneering research on chimpanzees, legendary scientist Jane Goodall has called for urgent action to save our closest living relatives from extinction in the wild.

"The survival of chimpanzees requires a dramatic change to how we think about the natural world, as well as advances in science and technology," Goodall wrote in an opinion article published in the July 8 issue of the journal Nature.

In the years since Goodall first set foot in what is now Tanzania's Gombe Stream National Park on July 14, 1960, she made a series of groundbreaking discoveries about chimps. She helped discover how they could make tools, how they could hug, kiss and tickle each other, and how they also had a darker side to their natures, engaging in infanticide, cannibalism and war. These stunning findings not only revolutionized our ideas regarding our closest living relatives, but also made us rethink how unique humans really are when compared with the rest of the animal kingdom.

However, as knowledge about chimpanzees grew over the years, so have threats to their existence, Goodall noted. While there were more than 1 million chimpanzees in Africa in 1900, now fewer than 300,000 remain in the wild, and some conservationists fear they will become extinct in the wild within 30 years.

Several years after she first landed in Gombe, deforestation on a huge scale transformed the 13.5 square miles (35 square kilometers) of wilderness Goodall explored into an island of forest surrounded by bare land. In addition to this loss of habitat, chimps are also vulnerable to human diseases such as polio and the flu. Compounding these threats, chimp numbers have declined because of illegal bushmeat hunting,

These threats aren't unique to Gombe; they also threaten chimpanzees in other parts of Africa.

"I am finding the same sorts of problems in Senegal," said primatologist Jill Pruetz of Iowa State University in Ames who, like many researchers of chimps, cites Goodall as one of their heroes. "One of the biggest threats they face is large-scale mining - something that stems mainly from the so-called developed world's great need for things like automobile parts."

Seeking to make a difference

For more than 15 years, Jane Goodall's institute has worked to improve the lives of people who live near chimpanzees. Addressing the problems of these villagers - such as poverty, drought and erosion caused by unsustainable farming methods, and a lack of basic needs such as clean water, health care and education - can in turn help them in aiding the endangered apes.

"We need to give people, particularly those who live alongside our closest relatives, good reasons to preserve them," Goodall wrote in the opinion piece.

"We must work together with people that live alongside chimps," Pruetz said, agreeing with Goodall and her colleague Lilian Pintea. "We are asking them to give up a lot in some respects, compared to the typical rate of consumption we Westerners exhibit, and these same people are often considered to be stressed for resources themselves."

Basic research also highlights the importance of chimps in the ecosystems that people themselves rely on.

"Part of the scientific research we do at Fongoli [in Senegal] is studying the chimps' diet and specifically their dispersal of important plants in the area," Pruetz said. "For example, seeds of a very important vine species for chimps and humans - humans gather the fruit and sell it to markets in the capitol, and it is one of the few ways that women can bring in cash on their own - germinate more quickly and successfully once they pass through the chimp gut. People are quick to recognize the value that chimps have in terms of ecosystem health in this way, and hunters and other people who spend a lot of time out 'in the bush' are quick to point this out."

Technology and conservation

Satellite imagery, in combination with remote sensing data and decades of aerial photos, is yielding valuable insights into chimpanzee life to better figure out how to protect them. For instance, vegetation maps helped show that chimpanzees are more likely to hunt successfully in woodland and semi-deciduous forest than in evergreen forest, helping focus efforts to conserve prime chimp habitats.

These projects can also help benefit people as well - for example, restoring habitats on steep slopes helped prevent soil erosion that was muddying water quality.

Recent satellite pictures suggest that deforestation is finally beginning to slow at Gombe, though Goodall still stresses the need to protect our closest primate kin.

"There is no time to waste," Goodall said. "Yet the marvelous advances in science and conservation practices over the past five decades gives me hope."

"If she has hope, then I think I can too. And it is very difficult at times!" Pruetz told Our Amazing Planet. "It takes a lot of funds to do the things that need to be done - improving the conditions of people living alongside apes."

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Europe bans illegal timber to protect forests

Yann Ollivier Yahoo News 7 Jul 10;

STRASBOURG (AFP) – The European Union on Wednesday barred the import and sale of illegally harvested timber in a bid to fight climate change and deforestation from the Amazon to Asia.

The European Parliament voted 644-25 to outlaw illegal timber or products made from such wood, which makes up around one-fifth of all timber imports into the European Union, and punish unscrupulous dealers.

"With this, we are sending a signal to the world that the EU will no longer serve as a market for illegally harvested timber," said European Environment Commissioner Janez Potocnik.

Green member of the European Parliament Satu Hassi, who negotiated a deal with the 27 EU member states, called the legislation an "internationally important breakthrough."

The European Council must now formally approve the ban and it will take two years for the rules to take effect, as governments must draw up their own penalties to impose on lawbreakers.

The European legislation, which comes two years after the United States passed a similar law, closes a loophole in the industry. For it is currently not against the law to sell timber in the EU that was cut down illegally in its country of origin.

"Those who have been making a profit from illegal logging and destroying forests around the world have finally been given a good slap in the face," said Anke Schulmeister, EU forest policy officer at environmental group WWF.

More than half of logging activities take place in vulnerable regions such as the Amazon Basin, central Africa, southeast Asia and Russia, according to the European Union.

Illegally harvested timber represents 20 to 40 percent of global production of industrial wood, or 350 million to 650 million cubic metres (460 million to 850 million cubic yards), according to the UN.

The environmental group WWF estimated that in 2006 the EU imported around 30 million cubic metres of timber and wooden products made from illegal logging, mostly from Russia, China and Indonesia.

Under the new EU rules, importers will have to seek sufficient guarantees that the timber they are bringing in is legally harvested.

Traders such as furniture sellers must then make sure that the origin of the wood used to make their products is traceable.

While the legislation covers the 27-nation EU, it will be up to individual member states to set penalties for wrongdoers.

In drafting fines, governments can take into account the impact of the damage done by illegal logging to the environment, the value of the timber and the tax revenue that was lost.

It will also be up to individual governments to decide whether to "make the worst offences crimes," Hassi said.

The new rules will be implemented in 2012 to give national governments time to draft their own sets of sanctions and fines, she said.

Environmental groups have welcomed Europe's move to combat illegal logging, saying it would help curb climate change. Deforestation accounts for 20 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, according to the EU.

"We think that although the law is not perfect it is an important step forward," said Greenpeace EU forest policy director Sebastien Risso.

But they were disappointed the law was not coming into force immediately, he added.

"Greenpeace is altogether happy with the decision but we will remain vigilant because the adoption of the legislation is not the end point, it is the beginning."

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Bolivia wildfire threatens world's largest wetland

Yahoo News 7 Jul 10;

ASUNCION (AFP) – A huge wildfire in Bolivia threatened Wednesday parts of the Pantanal, the world's largest wetland which is a popular tourist attraction and home to thousands of species of plants and animals.

The environmental group Guyra Paraguay warned that the uncontrolled blaze was approaching the The Three Giants Biological Station, an important research center in the wetland, which is bounded by vast arid forests and savannahs.

"The fire is moving towards the Rio Negro area to the border between Paraguay and Bolivia," the group said. "It is 15 kilometers (9.4 miles) wide and is now just 26 kilometers north of The Three Giants in the Pantanal."

A similar fire emanating from Bolivia last year struck the Paraguayan part of the Pantanal, a vast natural area of nearly 200,000 square kilometers (75,000 square miles), which also extends into Bolivia and Brazil.

A local police officer in the small Pantanal border town of Bahia Negra, Roberto Segovia, told AFP the glow of the current fire was visible from Paraguay already.

The blaze raged amid a prolonged drought which has brought misery to farmers in northern Paraguay.

The Pantanal is considered one of world's richest area of biodiversity, home to caimans, jaguars, giant otters, tapirs and other animals, and is visited by an estimated 200,000 tourists a year.

Last year, environmentalists established a group called "SOS Pantanal" in Brazil, hoping to slow the creeping development in the region for farming or pasture land.

At the current rate, the Brazilian Pantanal will disappear in 45 years, according to a 2006 report by Conservation International.

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Haiti Most At Risk From Natural Disasters: Survey

Alister Doyle PlanetArk 8 Jul 10;

Haiti and Mozambique are the nations most at risk economically from natural disasters, according to a ranking on Thursday that says some rich countries such as Italy and the United States also face high risks.

British-based business consultancy Maplecroft said the index aimed to show the economic impact from 1980 to 2010 of disasters such as earthquakes, floods, droughts, landslides, epidemics, tsunamis and extreme heat and cold.

Haiti, hit by a January 12 earthquake that killed more than 300,000 people, topped the index of about 200 nations. Even without the quake, the Caribbean nation would have ranked near the top because of exposure to hurricanes, it said.

Mozambique, which has suffered severe flooding such as in 2000 when at least 800 people were killed and economic losses totaled more than $400 million, was second ahead of Honduras, Vanuatu, Zimbabwe, El Salvador and Nicaragua.

Some industrialized nations were also among those facing high risk -- led by Italy in 19th place largely because of earthquakes and a 2003 heatwave, Maplecroft said.

The United States was in 30th place after big economic losses from hurricanes such as Katrina in 2005. China, where the Sichuan earthquake in 2008 killed almost 90,000 people, was in 26th.

"Katrina cost the U.S. $45 billion, whilst the Chinese government estimated the cost of the Sichuan earthquake in 2008 at $123 billion," Maplecroft environmental analyst Anna Moss said in a statement. As a percentage of gross domestic product, developing countries are most exposed.

The U.N. panel of climate scientists says that global warming, caused by a build-up of greenhouse gases mainly from burning fossil fuels, will mean desertification, floods, heatwaves, more powerful storms and mudslides.

She told Reuters that the index was based on an international EM-DAT disaster database based in Belgium, along with economic losses as a percentage of gross domestic product, with additional factors of deaths and frequency of disasters.

"Businesses ... need to be aware of the potential impacts," Moss said, to help disaster preparedness, protect staff and investments.

Countries facing a low frequency of natural disasters, and low economic risks, included Iraq, Kuwait and Finland.

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Germany Could Kick Fossil Fuel Habit By 2050: Study

Erik Kirschbaum PlanetArk 8 Jul 10;

Have your say and help us to improve the World Environment News for your chance to win a $100 Amazon Voucher. Just click here to complete a quick survey and enter the draw.

Germany could derive all of its electricity from renewable energy sources by 2050 and become the world's first major industrial nation to kick the fossil fuel habit, the Federal Environment Agency said on Wednesday.

Germany is already a global leader in renewable energy and exports green technology around the world.

It gets 16 percent of its electricity from wind, solar and other renewable sources -- triple the five percent level it had 15 years ago.

"A complete conversion to renewable energy by 2050 is possible from a technical and ecological point of view," said Jochen Flasbarth, president of the Federal Environment Agency as he presented a new study to journalists on Wednesday.

"It's a very realistic target based on technology that already exists -- it's not a pie-in-the-sky prediction," he added, saying the timetable could even be accelerated with new technology breakthroughs and a greater public acceptance.

Thanks to its Renewable Energy Act, Germany is the world leader in photovoltaics with half of the installed capacity. It expects to add more than 5,000 megawatts of photovoltaic capacity this year to a total of 14,000 megawatts.

Germany is also the world's second-biggest wind power producer after the United States. Some 300,000 renewable energy jobs have been created in Germany in the last decade.

The government has set goals of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent from 1990 to 2020, and by 80 to 85 percent by 2050. That goal could be achieved if Germany switches completely to renewable sources by 2050, Flasbarth said.

About 40 percent of Germany's greenhouse gases come from electricity production, in particular coal-fired power plants.

Flasbarth said the Environment Agency's study found that switching to green electricity by 2050 would have economic advantages, especially for the vital export-oriented manufacturing industry. It would also create tens of thousands of jobs.

"The costs of a complete switch to renewables are a lot less than the costs to future generations that climate change will cause," he said.

Last month a report by the UK's Center for Alternative Technology said Britain could eliminate all its carbon emissions by 2030 by overhauling its power supply.

(Editing by Maria Golovnina)

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