One fifth of world's plants threatened by extinction: study

Yahoo News 29 Sep 10;

LONDON (AFP) – More than a fifth of the world's plant species faces the threat of extinction, a trend with potentially catastrophic effects for life on Earth, according to research released on Wednesday.

But a separate study cautioned that extinction of mammals had been overestimated and suggested some mammal species thought to have been wiped out may yet be rediscovered.

Stephen Hopper, director of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, London, said the report on plant loss was the most accurate mapping yet of the threat to the planet's estimated 380,000 plant species.

"This study confirms what we already suspected, that plants are under threat and the main cause is human-induced habitat loss," Hopper said at the launch of the so-called Sampled Red List Index.

The study, carried out by Kew with the Natural History Museum in London and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), set a "major baseline" for future conservation efforts, he said.

"We cannot sit back and watch plant species disappear -- plants are the basis of all life on Earth, providing clean air, water, food and fuel. All animal and bird life depends on them, and so do we," Hopper added.

The study comes ahead of a meeting in Nagoya, Japan, from October 18 to 29, where members of the UN's Biodiversity Convention will set new targets to save endangered wildlife.

Craig Hilton-Taylor of the IUCN said he hoped the Nagoya meeting would set the goal of preventing the extinction of any known threatened species by 2020.

"We want to make sure that plants will not be forgotten," he said.

In their study, researchers assessed almost 4,000 species, of which 22 percent were classed as threatened, especially in tropical rain forest.

Plants were more threatened than birds, as threatened as mammals and less threatened than amphibians or corals, it said. Gymnosperms, the plant group including fir trees, were the most threatened.

The greatest peril came from man-induced habitat loss, mostly the conversion of natural habitats for crops or livestock. Human activity accounted for 81 percent of threats, said Kew researcher Neil Brummitt.

Meanwhile, a study by two Australian authors said Tuesday that fewer mammal species than believed may be extinct, especially those animals threatened by habitat loss.

Diana Fisher and Simon Blomberg of the University of Queensland said they had identified 187 mammals that have been "missing" since 1500, 67 species of which had subsequently been found again. Their paper was published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, a journal of Britain's de-facto academy of science.

"Extinction is difficult to detect," the study said. "Species with long gaps in their sighting records, that might be considered possibly extinct, are often rediscovered."

Mammals hit by habitat loss were "much more likely to be misclassified as extinct" than those affected by introduced predators and diseases or by overhunting.... Hence impacts of habitat loss on extinction have likely been overestimated, especially relative to introduced species."

The authors said efforts to hunt extinct mammals should be diverted away from often fruitless attempts to rediscover "charismatic" species such as the thylacine, a stripy, carnivorous marsupial, the last known example of which died in 1936 in Tasmania.

Last week, conservationists announced that two species of African frog and a Mexican salamander feared to have become extinct last century had been found again after teams explored remote places, sometimes at great risk to themselves.

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EU-poor rift could derail biodiversity conservation talks - group

David Fogarty Reuters AlertNet 28 Sep 10;

SINGAPORE, Sept 28 (Reuters) - Tension between the European Union and poor countries could undermine U.N. talks on agreeing 2020 targets to preserve nature's riches that provide clean air, water and medicine, a top conservation official said.

The Oct. 18-29 talks in the Japanese city of Nagoya also aim to seal a treaty that outlines rules for access to genetic resources and discoveries, potentially a big source of cash for poor nations when dealing with drug and agricultural firms.

"This is going to go to the wall in terms of brinkmanship," said Jane Smart, director, biodiversity conservation group, of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Agreement on the genetic resources pact, called the access and benefit-sharing (ABS) protocol, was key, Smart told Reuters by telephone from Switzerland, because of the potential flow of money it could bring to corporations and poorer countries.

A draft strategic plan for 2020, set to be formally adopted at the Nagoya talks, calls for "effective and urgent action" either "to halt the loss of biodiversity by 2020" or "towards halting the loss of biodiversity" with no deadline.

It sets out 20 targets to help prevent a biological crisis that scientists say could imperil economies and mankind.

Studies show many of the world's ecosystems are facing increasing extinctions because of pollution, climate change, forest clearing and hunting.

The United Nations says its crucial to set new targets to curb the losses. Businesses and governments must also integrate the estimated multi-trillion dollar services provided by coral reefs that are key fishing grounds, forests that provide clean air and river water and mangroves that protect coastlines.

"What is contentious is that if no ABS protocol is agreed then countries might not adopt a strategic plan and that is a real and genuine worry," said Smart.

TENSION

"Some of the tension is between the developing countries and the EU," she said. "The EU has taken as their target to halt biodiversity loss by 2020," she added, a target many including the IUCN say is out of reach. The IUCN groups governments, scientists and environmentalists.

"Developing countries say that if you want to halt biodiversity loss, you will have to put a lot more cash in."

Current funding to safeguard biodiversity is about $3 billion a year but developing nations say this should be increased 100-fold.

"We need a new green-based economy. If governments all started using green procurement policies we could generate money to implement the strategic plan," Smart said. Redirecting more than $500 billion in fossil fuel subsidies was another source.

The United Nations says the world has failed to reach a goal, set in 2002, of a "significant reduction" in biodiversity losses by 2010 as agreed under the Convention on Biological Diversity.

The IUCN says species extinction rates are now up to 1,000 times greater than the average rates before mankind appeared and are increasing.

Smart said businesses and governments needed to integrate the value of the environment into decision-making.

"We've got to the point the (Convention on Biological Diversity) needs to go way beyond environment ministries. It needs to be looked at by finance and agriculture ministries, you name it. Everybody has got to be involved."

FACTBOX-The world's rising loss of species and its costs
Reuters AlertNet 28 Sep 10;

Sept 28 (Reuters) - The United Nations says the rate of animal and plant extinctions is up to 1,000 times higher than inferred in the fossil record, a biological crisis that is the worst since dinosaurs were wiped out 65 million years ago.

U.N. talks in Japan next month aim to set 2020 targets to put the brakes on the loss of species. Scientists say the world needs to act to avoid disasters such as the drying out of the Amazon and ocean dead-zones caused by the build-up of fertilisers.

The United Nations says a growing human population, set to hit 9 billion by 2050, needs nature more than ever to ensure we can grow crops, breathe clean air, drink clean water and source new medicines from forests.

Following are some facts on species loss and costs.

-- Close to 30 countries have lost 90 per cent of their original forest cover. But the rate of deforestation is slowing. In the past decade, the annual loss of forests has averaged 13 million hectares (32 million acres), about the size of England, compared with 16 million hectares (39 million acres) a year during the 1990s.

-- Coral reefs in the Caribbean have declined by 80 per cent and globally 30 per cent of mangroves have been lost in the past two decades.

-- The IUCN's Red List of threatened species says 22 percent of the world's mammals are threatened and at risk of extinction.

Nearly a third of amphibians face the same threat, one in eight birds, 27 percent of reef-building corals, and 28 percent of conifers.

-- About a billion people rely on coral reefs and mangroves, vital fish nurseries that replenish fish stocks, a main source of protein. But rising ocean acidification linked to climate change and rising sea temperatures are damaging reefs. Over-fishing and clearing of mangroves is exacerbating the threat to livelihoods.

-- The United Nations Environment Programme says annual losses from deforestation and degradation are estimated at between $2 trillion and $4.5 trillion. Yet this could be tackled with annual investment of $45 billion.

-- A study by British-based consultancy TruCost this year said the world's top 3,000 listed companies are estimated to cause environmental damage of about $2.2 trillion a year.

-- A separate UNEP study says schemes that promote certification of biodiversity-friendly agricultural products could create a market worth $210 billion by 2020 up from $40 billion in 2008. (Writing by David Fogarty)

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Growing food in greener cities

Urban horticulture supplies fresh food, creates jobs, recycles waste
FAO 28 Sep 10;

28 September 2010, Rome - By 2025, more than half the developing world's population - an estimated 3.5 billion people - will be urban. For policy makers and urban planners in poor countries, greener cities could be the key to ensuring safe, nutritious food, sustainable livelihoods and healthier communities.

The concept of "green cities" is usually associated with urban planning in the more developed world. But it has a special application, and significantly different social and economic dimensions, in low-income developing countries.

As cities grow, valuable agricultural land is lost to housing, industry and infrastructure, and production of fresh food is pushed further into rural areas. The cost of transport, packing and refrigeration, the poor state of rural roads, and heavy losses in transit add to the scarcity and cost of fruit and vegetables in urban markets.

New population bomb

"Historically, cities have been places of opportunity, employment and improved living standards," says Shivaji Pandey, Director of FAO's Plant Production and Protection Division. "But in many developing countries, rapid urban growth is being driven not by economic opportunity but by high birth rates and a mass influx of rural people seeking to escape hunger, poverty and insecurity."

By 2020, the proportion of the urban population living in poverty could reach 45 percent, or 1.4 billion people. By then, 85 percent of poor people in Latin America, and almost half of those in Africa and Asia, will be concentrated in towns and cities.

That prospect has been described as the new population bomb and a nightmare for governance: sprawling, degraded and impoverished cities with large, vulnerable populations that are socially excluded, young and unemployed.

Reinventing the village green

The challenge is to steer urbanization from its current, unsustainable path, towards greener cities that offer their inhabitants choice, opportunity and hope. One solution is urban and peri-urban horticulture, according to FAO.

Growing crops in and around cities and towns is nothing new. The Incas' citadel of Machu Picchu in Peru included a residential area and a zone of intensively farmed terraces.

FAO estimates that 130 million urban residents in Africa and 230 million in Latin America engage in agriculture, mainly horticulture, to provide food for their families or to earn income from sales.

"Urban horticulture offers a pathway out of poverty," says Dr. Pandey, citing its low start-up costs, short production cycles and high yields per unit of time, land and water.

Urban meals, often high in low-cost fats and sugars, are responsible for rising levels of obesity, overweight and diet-related chronic diseases, such as diabetes.

Growing fruit and vegetables, the richest natural sources of micronutrients, in and around cities increases the supply of fresh, nutritious produce and improves the urban poor's economic access to food.

Supporting city gardeners

Governments in 20 countries have sought FAO's assistance over the past decade in removing barriers and providing incentives, inputs and training to low-income "city gardeners". FAO has also provided tools, seeds and training to establish thousands of school gardens, a proven means of promoting child nutrition, in more than 30 countries.

From the burgeoning metropolises of West and Central Africa to the low-income barrios of Managua, Caracas and Bogotá, FAO has helped governments promote irrigated commercial market gardening on urban peripheries, simple hydroponic micro-gardens in slum areas, and green rooftops in densely populated city centres.

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, FAO advised on measures that regularized titles to 1 600 ha of garden areas operated by some 20 000 full-time growers in five cities. The project introduced improved vegetable varieties and installed or upgraded 40 irrigation structures, which extended water availability throughout the year.

To ensure the quality and safety of produce, 450 growers' associations were trained in good agricultural practices, including the use of organic fertilizer and bio-pesticides. Market gardens in the capital, Kinshasa, now produce an estimated 75 000 to 85 000 tonnes of vegetables a year, or 65 percent of the city's supply.

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Malaysia: Green technology to power 11% of electricity generated nationwide by 2020

The Star 28 Sep 10;

MUAR: A target has been set for 2080 megawatts or 11% of all the electricity generated nationwide by 2020 to be sourced from environment-friendly renewable energy, said Minister Datuk Seri Peter Chin Fah Kui.

This was in line with a framework of the 10th Malaysia Plan (2011-2015) announced by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak which gave emphasis to the use of such energy, he added.

“Although the application of green technology is still new in our country, we should not lag in taking advantage of opportunities to introduce green technology products,” he added.

Chin said this in a speech at the opening of a new building of Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) in Jalan Temenggung, Muar, by the Sultan of Johor, Sultan Ibrahim ibni Almarhum Sultan Iskandar, here yesterday.

The text of his speech was read out by the deputy minister, Noriah Kasnon.

Also present were the Tunku Mahkota of Johor, Tunku Ismail, Johor Menteri Besar Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman and TNB chairman Tan Sri Leo Moggie.

In Kuala Lumpur, Chin said public consultation was crucial before the country decide on having a nuclear power plant.

He added that a timeline from now until 2015 had been set to have nationwide consultations on the proposal.

“At the end of the day, if the public does not wish for a nuclear reactor, we will respect that decision,” he told reporters at the National Water and Utilities Summit here yesterday.

On another matter, Chin said Malaysians might have to bear with higher water tariffs in the future.

He added that state-owned water utility operators needed to repair or replace old water pipes, in which a substantial amount of expenditure would be needed.

Green light for green technology
New Straits Times 29 Sep 10;

AT last year's climate change summit in Copenhagen, Prime Minister Da-tuk Seri Najib Razak pledged to reduce carbon emissions by 40 per cent if there were green technologies and funding from the West.

The government set up a RM1.5 billion green technology funding scheme to encourage companies, especially in the energy, water and waste management industries, to use green technology.

It allocated RM20 million under the 2010 Budget to promote green awareness and lifestyle among consumers.

Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister Datuk Seri Peter Chin Fah Kui said the ministry had approved 10 per cent or RM104.8 million for six projects in the scheme.

"We are lagging behind Thailand and Singapore in green technology, which has a huge potential."

Chin blamed this on the lack of awareness among industry and consumers about environmental concerns such as inefficient energy use and carbon emissions.

The ministry will host the International Greentech & Eco-Products Exhibition and Conference Malaysia next month. Its Dare to Dream challenge will encourage young minds to report on issues and suggest sustainable measures through green technology.

Malaysia Energy Centre chief operating officer Ahmad Zairin Ismail notes the potential of the green technology industry, which includes information and communication technology, transportation, buildings, water and waste water management, energy and manufacturing.

Najib said in his blog in May that the renewable energy sector could create at least 52,000 jobs by 2020.

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Best of our wild blogs: 28 Sep 10

Down-under
from Psychedelic Nature

A quick look at Chek Jawa
from wild shores of singapore

Two prominent birds on Pulau Ubin – calls on movie clips
from Otterman speaks

Hornbill!
from Trek through Paradise

Some Sightings From Kusu Island
from colourful clouds

Feeding Spotted Dove: 10. More on eyelids
from Bird Ecology Study Group

Arachnophilia
from The annotated budak

Trash busters at Changi Beach Sites 3 and 4
from News from the International Coastal Cleanup Singapore

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Sea turtle watching in Malaysia by invitation

Ng Ai Fern The Star 28 Sep 10;

SEA turtles mating for long hours off Talang-Talang islands in the Talang-Satang National Park, one of the primary sites for turtle nesting in Sarawak, is an amazing sight for a privileged few.

“I thought there were turtles approaching the island. I walked to the beach and saw two pairs of turtles mating. It’s the greatest sight in the morning on a beautiful turtle island,” said Teresa Lim, a volunteer diver who stayed a night on the island recently for a reef cleaning project organised by Sarawak Forestry Corporation (SFC).

Another volunteer diver, Mark Justin, also reported that his group had spotted a pair of mating turtles underwater during their third reef monitoring dive.

As the islands are part of the totally protected area managed by SFC, the only way to see turtles nesting is to be among the invited few or to become one of the few privileged participants of a Turtle Adoption Programme.

Each year between May to September, female turtles will cross several hundred kilometres of ocean to return to the place where they hatched to lay eggs.

Female turtles normally mate with several male turtles near their nesting grounds, which is also where they hatched.

After crawling up the beach and digging a deep hole, they can lay up to 100 eggs. The eggs will hatch after 45 to 70 days.

“I once saw the same turtle coming back seven times to lay eggs in a year. Some of them come four to five times a year. I can tell by the tag on their flippers,” said, Abu Seman, 51, who has been working on the islands for about 12 years.

SFC has recorded a total of 9,980 mother turtles since 1996 and 755 nests at the island annually.

Most of the eggs collected by SFC will be incubated. However, among the hatchlings released, only one out of 1,000 will survive and reach maturity.

About 3mil hatchlings have been released in the past 40 years and only 3,244 mature turtles were produced.

“They grow very slowly in the wild, they usually make a long breeding migration of up to 3,000km from the feeding ground to a nesting beach,” said the park warden Tonny Ganyai.

Sea turtles are very sensitive and may return to the sea without nesting if they are disturbed while stranding or excavating the nest, explained Tonny.

The Turtle Adoption Programme was introduced to protect the turtles.

“There are only 12 slots each year and only six volunteers are allowed in each slot. Most of the participants are foreigners and we are always fully booked a year ahead,” said SFC general manager Wilfred Landong.

To adopt a turtle, a local would have to pay RM600 and a foreigner RM1,200.

Wilfred said SFC had limited tourism on the islands despite demands from the industry.

“Tourists coming, turtles going. This (turtle adoption programme) is the maximum level we can open the island for eco-tourism, not more than that. We do not allow day-trips as it would be too noisy, too many speed boats in the area will definitely drive the turtles away,” he said.

In the adoption programme which was launched in 2007, volunteers can actively participate in turtle conservation efforts from locating turtle landings, monitoring sea turtle nesting activities, tagging and measuring turtles, transferring eggs to hatchery, release hatchlings, data recording and other in-situ conservation activities.

Lim agreed with SFC that she and her group of nine other volunteer divers were privileged to stay overnight on the island and witness the reproduction of sea turtles without having to fight for the limited spots to join the adoption programme.

“The efforts done in turtle conversation is encouraging. The public should learn more about this programme and understand the life span of turtles, so they would know how important it is to stop buying or eating turtle eggs,” Lim said.

The group of volunteer divers also adopted a baby turtle for RM300 and a nest for RM100 to show their support to the conservation programme. The baby turtle was named, 1Malaysia, to commemorate the inaugural reef-cleaning project on the island.

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Gawking tourists give Bryde's whales the hump

Flood of boat tours in Gulf scare giant mammals away
Bangkok Post 26 Sep 10;

An influx of whale watchers to the upper Gulf of Thailand could scare the marine animals away from the ecologically fragile area, experts say.

Fishermen and villagers in the coastal provinces along the upper part of the gulf, including Samut Sakhon, Samut Prakan, Samut Songkhram, and Phetchaburi, are familiar with the sight of Bryde's whales and Irrawaddy dolphins in the area.

However, since videos and pictures of the mammals swimming in the upper gulf off Phetchaburi coast appeared in the media last week, the number of whale watchers has drastically increased.

Conservation groups have started to worry about the impact of whale-watching activities on marine animals and have asked boat operators to proceed with caution. They say too many boats could disturb the whales' habitat.

"An increase in tourists might affect the Bryde's whales, especially mother whales and their offspring," said Vorapol Dounglomjan, leader of the Upper Gulf Conservation Network.

He said whale-watching guidelines are needed to prevent the activity harming marine life.

His group has proposed limiting whale and dolphin watchers to three or four locations to minimise the risk of disturbing the animals.

Boat operators would not be allowed to take tourists to other areas.

The group also proposed designating a 10.45 square kilometre area in the upper gulf as a conservation area which is off-limits to tourism activities.

The area covers mud flats and parts of the sea where marine animals go to feed. Migratory birds can also be found there.

''We need to provide some quiet zones for marine animals, especially whales and the dolphins, or we might not see them again,'' said Mr Vorapol.

Bad tourism management can lead to a decline in marine life.

In Chachoengsao province, the number of Irrawaddy dolphins has dropped after a boom in tourism.

Bancha Wadwaree, a seafood restaurant owner of Ban Klong Mai who provides a free boat service for Irrawaddy dolphin and Bryde's whale watchers, said the number of tourists booking boat trips had jumped sharply in recent weeks.

He played down the impact of whale-watching activities on marine life.

''We have a regulation that boat operators must not get too close to the whales.

''We will try our best to protect them since locals regard them as auspicious animals that will bring us luck,'' said Mr Bancha.

However, he agreed that strict regulations were needed if more boat service operators were to start work in the upper gulf as their activities could pose a threat to the ecological system.

Veera Plairaksa, vice-chairman of the Samut Sakhon-based Pantai Norasing Fishery Network, said fishermen and tourism operators in the upper gulf may announce closure of part of the gulf to allow the marine environment to recover.

''We don't want Thai waters to turn into a dead sea. We want to maintain fertility in the sea for succeeding generations of whale admirers,'' said Mr Veera.

Sombat Poovachiranon, chief of the Samut Sakhon-based marine and coastal resources research centre in the upper gulf, said marine biologists had been collecting data about the Bryde's whales and Irrawaddy dolphins to learn more about their habitats and feeding grounds.

About 100 Irrawaddy dolphins and 20 Bryde's whales live along the upper gulf.

''Sea water quality is a key to their survival. Our study found that Bryde's whales have moved away from the coast as sea water quality has deteriorated,'' he said. The whale-watching boom could also affect the animals, the official said.

He said tourist boats should stay at least 100 metres away from the whales. Boat engines must be turned off when boats draw close to the whales as engine noise could disturb the animals.

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Dolphin-stranding in the Philippines ‘unusually high’

Tonette Orejas Philippine Daily Inquirer 27 Sep 10;

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – More than 500 dolphins, whales and dugong (sea cows) were stranded on Philippine shores or swam in shallow waters in the last 11 years, producing several hotspots around the archipelago, according to the country’s first database on marine mammal-stranding from 1998 and 2009.

A team of 10 scientists, veterinarians and policymakers put the database together through a grant given by the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Development of the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City. The international journal “Aquatic Mammals” published a paper summarizing its contents and findings.

Doctor Lemnuel Aragones, the team leader, said the Philippines was in a better situation now because it has a database as well as a response program. These, he said, were “often nonexistent in developing countries.”

Stranding happens when sea creatures that are sick, lost and weak take refuge on shores or when their remains are washed ashore, the team said.

The database documented 178 stranding incidents. In 163 incidents, the sea mammals were found to be alone or a few with calves. In 10 incidents, 36 creatures were seen in groups of two or up to 14. Five “out-of-habitat” stranding incidents, or when animals stayed near shores, counted 370, mostly dolphins in Pilar, Bataan, in February 2009.

On the average, 15 stranding incidents were reported yearly.

The database also included information on illegal fishing practices and environmental changes that caused what the team called “unusually high incidence of stranding.”

“It might be likely that the annual average number of stranding of 15 from 1998 to 2009 represents an underestimate in events because past incidents might have been unreported,” the team said.

At least 116 of 163 individually stranded dolphins, whales and dugong were found alive, a rate considered by local scientists to be high.

These animals might have sought refuge on the beach due to noise trauma from dynamite fishing, interactions with fish or biotoxins from harmful algal blooms, the team said. Countries like Thailand, Taiwan, South Australia and eastern United States had low live stranding cases, it said.

The stranding incidents happened mostly in Central Luzon, Central Visayas, the Ilocos and Bicol.

Zambales, Cagayan, Zamboanga City, Negros Oriental, Bohol, Pangasinan and Bataan are considered hotspots because of the frequency of stranding incidents there.

Some places are also considered hotspots because rare species retreated to their shores.

The Longman’s beaked whale (Indopacetus pacificus) was seen in Davao City. The first recorded specimen of the pygmy sperm whale (Kogia breviceps) was seen in Bulakan, Bulacan, while the highest number of stranding baleen whales was documented in Batangas.

It was through the database that the team validated that 23 of the 28 confirmed species of marine mammals in the Philippines had been stranded. These included the Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops aduncus), pygmy sperm whale and Longman’s beaked whale.

The database showed that the top five stranded species were the spinner dolphin (Stenella longirostris), short-finned pilot whale (Globicephala macrorhynchus), melon-headed whale (Peponocephala electra), Risso’s dolphin (Grampus griseus) and common bottlenose dolphin (T. truncatus). Records showed seven stranding cases of dugong (Dugong dugon) since 2001.

Stranding happened throughout the year, but mostly during the northeast monsoon (amihan) season when winds caused strong water current from November to March.

Its members said it was not surprising to see stranded mammals in the country because the Philippine coastline stretches 36,289 kilometers.

The team collected the data from the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, nongovernment groups, Museum of Natural History at UP Los Baños in Laguna, the private marine park Ocean Adventure in Zambales and incidents documented by team members.

Too few data are available before 1998, the oldest being that of the stranding of 12 sperm whales in Cadiz City, Negros Occidental in 1967, the team said.

It made a stranding report form to systematize the recording of incidents. It said the database confirmed the diversity of marine mammals in the Philippines and growing awareness of the public to help animals in need.

The database called attention to the plight of the Irrawaddy dolphin and dugong because these have been most endangered by human activities.

The team recommended the continued collection of comprehensive data to reach “greater accuracy in determining the possible causes of stranding [incidents] and the influence of human activities on these events.”

It urged further investigation on the impact of dynamite fishing and other causes of stranding.

The team suggested improving the response capability of communities and groups and opening facilities to support the rehabilitation of stranded marine animals. To date, Ocean Adventure is said to be the only place capable of doing that.

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Sinar Mas Says Audit Finds Greenpeace Report ‘False’

Fidelis E Satriastanti Jakarta Globe 27 Sep 10;

Jakarta. Jakarta-based Asia Pulp & Paper, a subsidiary of Sinar Mas Group, on Monday went on the counterattack, accusing Greenpeace of using false and misleading information to damage its credibility.

Greenpeace has accused APP of massive expansion in Indonesia, destroying peatlands and other unsustainable forestry practices.

In a statement, APP said an independent peer-reviewed audit released by consultancy ITS Global on Monday showed the environmental watchdog’s report “is highly misleading and simply not defensible,” citing ITS chief executive Alan Oxley.

According to the Melbourne-based ITS, which was commissioned by APP to conduct the audit, Greenpeace had in its report on APP provided unattributable quotes, maps that showed concessions that did not exist and used source material with high margins of error, trying to pass them off as facts.

However, Bustar Maitar, lead forest campaigner for Greenpeace Indonesia, dismissed ITS’s report, saying it was biased. “If they claim it’s an independent report, it’s a joke because Alan Oxley is speaking as an APP representative,” he said.

Oxley is well-known for his strong support of the palm-oil industry, which he says is an effective vehicle for relieving poverty in the developing world.

He was also a former Australian ambassador to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, the precursor to the World Trade Organization.

When contacted by the Jakarta Globe, an ITS representative was unable to provide any details about the audit and did not respond to further questions submitted by e-mail.

Sinar Mas also commissioned a separate audit last month to analyze Greenpeace’s claims. British auditor BSI Group, however, complained that the company had misrepresented its findings.

BSI Group and Control Union Certification had found that some of Greenpeace’s claims were false or exaggerated, but also found that Sinar Mas had cleared high-value deep peatlands and 38,000 hectares of natural forest without conducting an impact assessment.

Last week, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, in apparent response to the BSI Group audit, publicly censured Sinar Mas Agro Resources & Technology for its practices.

The RSPO, a group of industry planters, green groups and palm oil buyers, said Smart was in “serious noncompliance” with its principles and criteria, and faced suspension or expulsion if it did not “take the necessary remedial actions.”

It was the first time that the RSPO had censured a member.

Greenpeace Slammed for Using 'False Data' on Sinar Mas: Report
Fidelis E. Satriastanti Jakarta Globe 27 Sep 10;

Jakarta. Greenpeace on Monday rejected allegations of using "false and misleading information to attack a company's credibility," after an independent study questioned the environment watchdog's data.

International Trade Strategies Global, also known as ITS, conducted a peer-review on Greenpeace's report, "How Sinar Mas is Pulping the Planet."

The report was launched in July 2010, highlighting the environmentally devastating actions of one of the world's leading pulp and paper companies, Asia Pulp and Paper, also known as APP, owned by Sinar Mas.

"The evidence shows that Greenpeace provided quotes that don’t exist, maps that show concessions that don’t exist, and used source material with high margins of error that was cited as absolute fact," said Alan Oxley, chief executive office of the Melbourne-based ITS Global on the press release.

Oxley said the Greenpeace report was highly misleading and indefensible. In addition, the audit stated that a map in the Greenpeace report shows four concessions which don't exist.

“Sadly this is not an isolated incident. Greenpeace has exaggerated claims in the past.

"When we see reports like this with such obvious factual inaccuracies it makes us call into question the real Greenpeace agenda, risking the greater good to achieve its own political ends."

However, Bustar Maitar, team leader of Greenpeace SouthEast Asia, retaliated saying that the reviews were not independent considering the reviewer was allegedly paid by the company.

"If they claim it's an independent report, it's a joke because Alan Oxley is speaking as an APP representative," Bustar said.

Concerning the maps, he said the maps were based on data drawn from the government and the company's internal sources.

"So, if they said that those maps don't exist then they should have corrected the government and their own sources," he said.

Read more!

'Pollination crisis' hitting India's vegetable farmers

Mark Kinver BBC News 28 Sep 10;

A decline in pollinating insects in India is resulting in reduced vegetable yields and could limit people's access to a nutritional diet, a study warns.

Indian researchers said there was a "clear indication" that pollinator abundance was linked to productivity. They added that the loss of the natural service could have a long-term impact on the farming sector, which accounts for almost a fifth of the nation's GDP.

Globally, pollination is estimated to be worth £141bn ($224bn) each year.

The findings were presented at a recent British Ecological Society meeting, held at the University of Leeds.

Each year, India produces about 7.5 million tonnes of vegetables. This accounts for about 14% of the global total, making the nation second only to China in the world's vegetable production league table.
Lack of data

Despite the concern, no study had been done to assess directly the scale of the decline in natural pollinators, explained Parthiba Basu, from the University of Calcutta's Ecology Research Unit.
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"The ideal situation would have been if we were able to compare the overall pollinator abundance over the years, but that kind of data was just not available," he told BBC News.

Instead, his team compared the yields of pollinator-dependent crops with pollinator-independent crops.

"Data shows that the yields of pollinator-independent crops have continued to increase," Dr Basu said. "On the other hand, pollinator-dependent crops have levelled off."

He explained that certain crops did not depend on insects for pollination, including cereals. Instead, the plants used other mechanism - such as relying on the wind to carry the pollen.

However, many vegetables - such as pumpkin, squash, cucumber and gherkin - were reliant on insects, such as bees.

He added that the fall in yield per hectare was against the backdrop of a greater area being turned over to crop production each year.

In an attempt to identify an underlying cause for the pollinator decline, the team is carrying out a series of field experiments, comparing conventional agriculture with "ecological farming".

Defined as "a farming system that aims to develop an integrated, humane, environmentally and economically sustainable agricultural production system", ecological farming is almost a hybrid of conventional and organic farming, looking to capitalise on returns from modern farming methods as well as drawing on natural ecological services, such as pollination.

Dr Basu said: "There is an obvious indication that within the ecological farming setting, there is pollinator abundance. This method typically provides the habitats for natural pollinators - this is the way forward."

He added that if the team's findings were extrapolated, this would offer a "clear indication" that India was facing a decline in natural pollinators, as ecological farming was only practiced on about 10-20% of the country's arable land.

Figures show that agriculture accounts for almost one-fifth of the nation's gross domestic product (GDP), compared with the global average of just 6%. The sector also provides livelihoods for more than half of India's 1.2 billion population.
Troubling times

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that of the slightly more than 100 crop species that provide 90% of food supplies for 146 countries, 71 are bee-pollinated, primarily by wild bees, and a number of others are pollinated by other insects.

In order to gain a clear insight into the scale of the global problem, the FAO has established the International Pollinators Initiative, which includes a project involving seven nations (India is among them) with the aim of identifying practices and building capacity in the management of pollination services.

In a 2007 assessment of the scientific data on the issue, the UN Environment Programme observed: "Any loss in biodiversity is a matter of public concern, but losses of pollinating insects may be particularly troublesome because of the potential effects on plant reproduction and hence on food supply security."

Dr Basu said food security was unlikely to be the main consequence facing India.

"There has been a debate within India about this, but most of the cereal crops are not pollinator dependent, so if there is a pollination crisis it is not going to affect food security as such.

"What is going to be affected is nutritional security."

The concept of food security was first established by a FAO committee in 1983. Nutritional security was soon added as a key pillar to ensure "access by all people at all times to enough food for an active and healthy life".

Dr Basu said that vegetables such as pumpkins, squash, cucumber, and gherkins were "quite substantial" in terms of delivering necessary nutrients to the population.

"But there are many other vegetable crops that are eaten by people who are around the poverty level, so-called minor vegetable crops like eggplant, for which is there is no or very little data," he explained.

About a quarter of India's population is believed to live below the poverty level, which - under the UN's Millennium Development Goals - refers to people who live on less than US$1 a day.
Uncertain times

In industrialised nations, such as the US and in Europe, many farms employ the services of commercial hives to pollinate fruit trees and food crops, and ensure they harvest adequate yields.

But Dr Basu said the use of domesticated bees in this context was not widespread in South Asia.

"There are honey farmers, but using hives in the field to pollinate crops is not at all common in India," he said.

"That is why a lot of the political noise about a global pollination crisis came from the US and Europe, because their managed/domesticated bee population was declining."

In 2007, about one third of the US domesticated bee population was wiped out as a result of a phenomenon known as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), with some commercial hive owners losing up to 90% of their bees.

The exact cause remains a mystery, and last year a number of UK agencies - including the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) - began a £10m project to help identify the main threat to bees and other insect pollinators.

A number of possible causes have been suggested, including the misuse of pesticides, habitat loss and fragmentation, and the spread of parasites and diseases.

Dr Basu said that as a result of his team's field experiments, it was clear that India too was experiencing a decline.

However, he cautioned: "There are many kinds of natural pollinators. As a result, we - not only in India, but in other parts of the world - do not really know what is happening to natural pollinator populations."

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Palau, at risk from rising seas, aims to drill for oil

Justin Nobel Reuters AlertNet 27 Sep 10;

Palau is a paradox: The low-lying Pacific island nation is threatened by climate change but may soon be drilling for oil.

Seismic tests in the 1970s indicated the presence of petroleum but exploratory wells were never dug. Now, President Johnson Toribiong is pushing for exploration, hopeful oil will bring cheaper fuel, revenue and jobs.

"Right now we are importing fossil fuel and that is very, very expensive," Toribiong said in a telephone interview. "If we find oil we will use the proceeds to make Palau a green country."

Many island nations around the world are looking for creative solutions to a pending crisis - predicted boosts in sea level, associated with climate change, that could ruin their drinking water supplies and crops, put them at greater risk from storms and tidal surges and, in some cases, submerge their homelands entirely.

Officials in Kiribati, a group of Pacific Ocean atolls, are trying to train their young people as nurses and other sought-after professions, in hope they - and eventually their families - can migrate legally to other countries, particularly Australia. The president of the Maldives is exploring buying land elsewhere - perhaps in India or Sri Lanka - to accommodate an eventual wholesale migration.

Other island officials think finding ways to improve the economic plight of their people will give them more resources and options to adapt to the coming changes.

Palau, however, may be the only imperiled island nation aiming to raise needed funds by pumping oil, which when burned boosts carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere and drives climate change.

Toribiong, Palau's president, established the world's first shark sanctuary in Palau but also, prior to becoming president in 2009, did legal work for Palau Pacific Exploration (PPX), the Australia- and U.S.-based company now drilling for oil.

His position on drilling is in marked contrast to that of Tommy Remengesau Jr., Palau's former president, who launched a project called the Micronesia Challenge to conserve 30 percent of Palau's near-shore marine resources by 2020 and was cited by Time magazine in 2007 as a "Hero of the environment" for trumpeting the threat of climate change. Presently, he is a member of Palau's Congress.

The island's Congress has criticized the President's contract with PPX, which gives the company until May 2011 to drill two exploratory wells and which Toribiong signed before giving Congress a chance to draft legislation guiding the development of petroleum resources.

Palau is now working with the World Bank to craft such legislation, which will ensure that as the country pursues an oil economy, social and environmental concerns are considered and a means for the fair distribution of profits is set up.

'I HOPE WE DON'T HAVE TO DRILL'

"In the end I hope we don't have to drill," said Noah Idechong, a renown marine conservationist who is now a leading member of Congress. "But I kind of sat down myself and realized that if you don't get the legislation done right it will pop up in the future and we won't be able to control it."

Some analysts question why the World Bank is helping Palau develop fossil fuel resources when the island's very existence is threatened by the burning of them.

"It is gut-wrenching and kind of sickening that Palau has been put in this position by those who have developed on the backs of the country's future," said Janet Redman, a sustainable energy researcher with the Institute for Policy Studies, a Washington D.C.-based think tank. "We are contributing to the process of an entire country disappearing."

When asked why the World Bank was helping Palau pursue oil, Silvana Tordo, the lead energy economist in the World Bank's oil, gas and mining policy division replied: "The choice of developing Palau's resources is theirs, not ours. They will develop them with or without World Bank assistance. It is therefore important for the Bank to be part of the dialogue."

Palau has 16 states and a complex system of governance that includes both state- and nationally-elected officials and traditional chiefs. Nearly two-thirds of the country's 21,000 people, and most of its hotels and institutions are in the capital state of Koror.

The oil is located far from the capital, some 13 miles offshore from the remote state of Kayangel, a sandy reef-ringed isle of sparse tribal villages.

"Kayangel is not like Koror," said Kayangel Governor Edwin Chokai. "They have a lot of jobs over there; over here we don't have a lot of jobs, so over here we want to start the [oil] project so we can help the people of Kayangel."

But even President Toribiong worries about what oil might bring.

"I am concerned. It is easy for people to be friendly in advance, but once you get the money greed sets in and shysters and phony consultants come," Toribiong said. "Kayangel is a simple state, and these are not sophisticated people."

Justin Nobel has reported on science and culture in Nunavik, Micronesia and northern California, and has on ongoing interest in climate issues in the South Pacific.

Reuters AlertNet is not responsible for the content of external websites.

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Greening the high-street: big brands and the eco-revolution

Emma Charlton Yahoo News 27 Sep 10;

PARIS (AFP) – Poisonous pesticides, soil pollution and water waste: high-street fashion has a lot to answer for in the environmental game. But can big brands use their global clout to drive the green revolution?

If green is the new black on the high-street, then global retailers are lining up to parade their eco-credentials, from Marks and Spencers in Britain, to sportswear behemoth Nike or the fashion giant H&M.

"There's a paradigm shift in the textile sector," John Mowbray, editor of the green trends magazine Ecotextile, told AFP at the Texworld trade fair in Paris this month.

"Three years ago sustainability was not on the agenda" he says. "Now a lot of retailers and brands want to move regardless of what their suppliers think. They think consumers want transparency. Brands are driving change."

Sourcing cleaner fabrics -- from organic yarns to recycled polyester -- and rooting out sweatshop practices in Asia and elsewhere are the twin planks of the sustainability mantra adopted by many of the West's top brands.

And the most visible example of this is organic cotton.

Until recently an expensive rarity, organic cotton t-shirts are cropping up on supermarket and bargain retail shelves, from Tesco or Topshop in Britain to Auchan in France or Primark in the United States.

Global retail sales of organic cotton apparel and home textile goods have been soaring 40 percent per year since 2001, according to the Organic Exchange (OE) non-profit group.

The world's top 10 organic-cotton using brands last year, according to the OE, reads like a Who's Who of the high-street fashion and sports industry, including C&A, Nike, Walmart, H&M, Levi Strauss & Co and Adidas.

The global organic cotton market is still a baby, making up one percent of the total harvest. But the market is booming -- and the growth appears recession-proof.

Organic cotton production grew 20 percent in 2008/09 over 2007/08, across India, Turkey, Pakistan and 19 other countries, with growth forecast to continue at 20 to 40 percent through 2011.

Last year, even as the economic slowdown sliced seven percent off the global apparel and textiles market, the organic segment grew by 35 percent, with sales of 4.3 billion dollars.

"We weren't affected by the crisis," said H.L. Ding, a Chinese entrepreneur whose natural fibre firm Hemp Fortex turned over 10 million dollars in 2009 selling to the likes of Walmart.

"We're a small part of a market that's still growing."

Short of going organic, meanwhile, dozens of brands and retailers -- who together consume 15 percent of the world's cotton -- have signed up to a global scheme called the Better Cotton Initiative.

Aiming to cut water and soil pollution while battling child and bonded labour, it involves 100,000 cotton farmers in China, Central Asia, Brazil and West and Central Africa.

Retail giants Ikea and Levi Strauss sit on the council of the scheme, whose first crop is set for harvest in the coming months.

-- 'Organic cotton, yes, but at what price?' --

So the figures are impressive. But how much is this really doing to reduce the industry's ethical footprint? Is this real change or mere "greenwashing"?

"Sure, they are buying organic cotton, but at what price, and how is it made?" warned Isabel Quehe, founder of the Ethical Fashion Show which was holding its seventh edition in Paris this week.

Looking beyond fabrics, "consumers need to think about where their clothes come from, whether the person who made them was paid a living wage."

Just this week, a report in France's Liberation newspaper exposed the "prison-like" conditions in a textile complex in southern India that supplies many of the West's top brands, like Gap or H&M.

"I saw an organic t-shirt selling for 2.90 euros -- at that kind of price you can only be producing it in terrible conditions," said Christan Tournafol, one of the designers at the Paris show whose label Les Racines du Ciel sources organic fibres around the world.

But there was also evidence at the Texworld fair that support from big retail partners is helping green, ethical suppliers to thrive.

Some 120 certified organic and fair-trade fabric suppliers made the trip to Paris this year -- double the number a year ago.

"It's not easy for companies to transform themselves," says Bernd Muller, in charge of sustainable textiles at the show.

"There have been problems with whole villages who converted to organic, and ended up with unsold cotton on their hands," added the fair's managing director Marie-Armelle de Bouteiller.

A case in point: JCT Limited ships a million yards of organic yarn each year from the Indian Punjab to clients including Nike and Decathlon.

Under a lock-in deal with Nike, it says it plans to convert huge acreage to organic farming within three years, educating farmers about the technique and pledging to buy their whole crop.

OE research also suggests that organic cotton is being spurred by "strong commitment and support from brands".

"Big companies always tread very carefully but once they feel its right for the market, it can be really big," agreed Hemp Fortex's Ding. "They are taking serious steps."

Quehe believes it is easier for a small firm to be truly ethical, by keeping watch on environmental and labour practices all along its supply chain.

But she concedes that "large firms have the power to set an example."

"Change has been set in motion on a global scale. And the more of us there are, the better."

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