Scientists Urge Tougher Efforts to Preserve Biodiversity

Lynne Peeples LiveScience.com Yahoo News 14 Oct 10;

Global biodiversity is declining at an increasingly fast clip, taking down with it natural services such as freshwater provided by rivers and streams and storm protection from barrier islands and marshes, all of which are critical to human societies.

An upcoming meeting in Nagoya, Japan, aims to set conservation targets that will halt this downward trajectory by 2020.

But some conservation experts think that the 20 new goals being considered by the 10th conference of the parties at the Convention on Biological Diversity fall short of what's really needed, especially after an earlier goal set for 2010 have not been met. Experts hope to see the new goals strengthened before negotiations end later this month.

Causes of biodiversity loss

Biodiversity loss can be caused by many different human actions, such as overhunting, pollution and land clearing for farming. For example, companies and individuals clear out parts of the Amazon rainforest to plant crops or to log.

"There are very strong private incentives for people to convert habitat and undertake actions that cause the loss of biodiversity," said Charles Perrings of Arizona State University and lead researcher on a policy paper published this week in the journal Science that makes new recommendations for the convention's goals. "For them, they are usually good reasons, like producing food for their family or protecting themselves against pathogens, but nevertheless it has consequences for the rest of us."

Such human needs likely explain why few nations have documented a reduction in the rate of biodiversity loss, the convention's sole target for 2010 set eight years ago, he added.

"The target itself didn't address the driving forces behind biodiversity loss, "Perrings said. "The 2020 targets do better."

The new targets-labeled "SMART"for "specific, measurable, ambitious, realistic and time-bound" -include an array of strategies that attempt to both directly and indirectly safeguard biodiversity. These include identifying and eradicating invasive alien species, eliminating overfishing and harmful incentives such as agricultural subsidies, and educating the public about the values of biodiversity.

Not enough

But it is not enough for the targets to be SMART, Perrings said. He and his international team argue in their paper that more emphasis needs to be placed on the real interests that people have in biodiversity, from its use for food and fuel, to its benefits for aesthetics and health.

"A lot of people have this impression that it's just about species,"said Frank Larsen, a conservation scientist with Conservation International, a nonprofit environmental group based in Washington, D.C. "We are losing species-and that's a big concern that we need to deal with-but we should not forget that nature supports human societies."

In fact, a 2002 study published in Science found that protected areas conserve benefits worth more than 100 times theircost, added Larsen, who was not involved in either paper.

Still, there are trade-offs to be made. It will not be in everyone's best interest to conserve species everywhere, and species that are needed for one set of services may differ from another set, Perrings said. Protecting a watershed requires a range of species with a variety of root systems, for example, while planting a monoculture of the greatest carbon-absorbing trees is best for sequestrating carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere.

There are many other complex interdependencies between the targets, such as the dual targets of phasing out harmful subsidies and conserving 15 to 20 percent of terrestrial areas, note the researchers. Some targets will need to be implemented in sequence, conditional on the goal being achieved.

Other oversights highlighted by the team include the strict 10-year timeframe, which may not work across all 20 targets.

"Some things are just more urgent than others," Perrings said. "The problem of invasive species, including emergent zoonotic diseases, is probably not something we can wait 10 years to solve, while it will frankly take forever to make all people aware of the values of biodiversity."

Further, a changing climate and growing global population could alter conservation priorities over the next 10 years.

Below each of the new 2020 targets, delegates at the conference will create a set of indicators for use in measuring progress toward the goals. Perrings and his colleagues suggest that most of their recommended changes could simply be addressed here.

However, Larsen worries that the points laid out by the team may be too detailed and therefore distracting from the meeting's primary goals. "It's very important that we set these ambitious political targets and make world leaders agree upon them,"he said. "And then we can work out the specifics. Sometimes you can get lost in the details."

"We are losing nature fast and we are adding more and more people,"Larsen added. "The window of opportunity is now, so we need to act. This meeting is a very good time."

Code RED for biodiversity
Arizona State University EurekAlert 14 Oct 10;

International Year of Biodiversity's mounting losses mean Nagoya convention critical turning point

While not an outright failure, a 2010 goal set by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) for staunching the loss of the world's species fell far short of expectations for "The International Year of Biodiversity."

What does this mean for the 20 proposed 2020 goals being considered by the 10th conference of parties at the Convention on Biological Diversity in Nagoya, Japan, on Oct. 18-29, 2010?

In the article "Ecosystem Services for 2020," published Oct. 15, 2010 in the journal Science, some of the world's foremost biodiversity experts assembled by the Paris-based international program of biodiversity science DIVERSITAS offer a strategic approach to the 2020 goals -- one that incorporates trade-offs, timing and complexity.

Feasible goals

"While there is still time, it is critical to design the 2020 targets and their indicators in ways that give them a reasonable chance of success," argues ecoservices expert Charles Perrings of Arizona State University. The DIVERSITAS team, led by Perrings, includes ASU scientist Ann Kinzig and 16 other leading biodiversity experts from the United States, Argentina, Sweden, Chile, Japan, England, France and Germany.

The team lauds the convention for increased efforts to address the most serious aspects of global change, climate and biodiversity, through pursuit of 20 "SMART" (specific, measurable, ambitious, realistic and time-bound) targets to be achieved by 2020. However, the group also argues that it is not enough for the targets to be SMART.

"The 2010 CBD goal was unrealistic," says Perrings, a professor in ASU's School of Life Sciences and co-director of the ecoSERVICES group in ASU's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

"And while the 20 proposed goals for 2020 are more specific about where to go to reduce the rate of loss of biodiversity, there are critical oversights that need to be considered by the Nagoya conference delegates."

For example, the 2020 target that "all people are aware of the values of biodiversity and the steps they can take to conserve and use it sustainably" seems unrealistic. In addition, a 2020 target for the sustainability of agriculture, aquaculture and forestry asserts that doing this will automatically assure conservation of biodiversity, yet scientific evidence does not support this, according to the authors. Both the extensive and the intensive growth of agriculture —expansion of the area committed to the production of crops or livestock, increased use of pesticides and herbicides—come at a cost to non-farmed species.

One issue with the 2020 targets, the authors point out, is that many of them are interdependent. Some are likely to be mutually inconsistent, meaning achieving one compromises achievement of another. Others are contingent, meaning achieving one is conditional on achievement of another. It will be important to adopt indicators that recognize the interdependence of targets.

"We are also fishing out oceans, one stock at a time. Often there are no real instruments for protection and those that do exist have no teeth. There are lots of reasons, reasonable ones, for people making private decisions that lead to biodiversity loss, but they cost us all collectively."

The journal article points out that the proposed 2020 CBD goals also need also to tap into the benefits that biodiversity provides to humanity, in addition to recognizing trade-offs between benefits.

Codes for success

The DIVERSITAS team assessed the 2020 targets and challenges to their implementation using the ecosystem services framework developed by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, an effort led by the United Nations in 2001-2005 to "analyze the capacity of the world's ecosystems and assess the consequences of ecosystem change for human well-being."

The authors' resulting roadmap for 2020 recommends a hierarchical approach, one that is sensitive to the timing and sequence of targets. Some targets concern issues that need to be addressed before 2020 (DIVERSITAS codes urgent targets "red"), and other targets concern issues that need to be implemented in sequence ("enabling conditions" are coded "blue"). Moreover, many of the traditional conservation targets (coded "green") involve trade-offs with red and blue targets that will play out over much longer timescales.

The 2020 targets to be negotiated at the Nagoya convention are a significant improvement over the 2010 target. They address the international community's traditional conservation goals – to reduce the pressures on biodiversity and to safeguard ecosystems, species and genetic diversity. But they also address the underlying causes of biodiversity loss, its sustainable use, and the capacity and knowledge building that need to be done to if the targets are to be successfully implemented.

The scientists argue that while the 2020 targets could be strengthened, Nagoya could well be a turning point for the Convention on Biological Diversity. "The development of a strategic plan supported by targets, indicators and actions is a very positive step," Perrings says.

The convention, together with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), also established in 1992, represent the commitment of nations to secure global commitments to address the most serious aspects of global change: climate and biodiversity. The UNFCCC was the focus of much attention in 2009. Combined with the establishment of an Intergovernmental Science Policy Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), to be brought before the U.N. General Assembly this session, Perrings and his team believe that the convention in Nagoya, Japan, may mark the first serious attempt by the international community to deal with the second of the world's two greatest environmental problems: biosphere change.

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Activists Vow To Take On First Dam on Lower Mekong

Marwaan Macan-Markar IPS News 14 Oct 10;

BANGKOK, Oct 14, 2010 (IPS) - A hydropower dam project in Laos that could permanently scar South-east Asia’s largest river, the Mekong, faces a strong wall of opposition from local and regional green groups determined to protect its pristine environment.

This defiance comes in the wake of the Lao government’s submission in late September of plans for the 1,260-megawatt Sayaboury dam project, confirming its intention to proceed with it and win approval for the first megadam on the mainstream of the lower Mekong, which is also shared by Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.

"It is very dangerous and damaging to the environment and the people to have dams on the Mekong," Premrudee Daoroung of Towards Ecological Recovery and Regional Alliance (TERRA), a Bangkok-based green lobby, said in an interview. "We are suspicious that this is an effort to move this problematic dam-building process forward."

Environmentalists’ opposition to the dam, which is to be built in the north-west Lao province of Sayaboury, sets the stage for a three-cornered battle that will test the limits of environmental diplomacy in this region. Drawn into this tussle, besides the green groups and the governments, is the Mekong River Commission (MRC), an inter-governmental organisation based in the Lao capital, Vientiane.

The Lao government’s submission triggers the MRC’s mechanism for assessing dam proposals like the Sayaboury one and its cross-border impacts. But while officials say this allows discussion of dam projects that have caused tensions in the past, Save the Mekong, a coalition of local and regional green groups, finds it deeply flawed.

This mechanism, which has existed for the past 15 years, is now being dusted off and tested for the first time: the prior consultation process for dam building, formally known as the Procedure for Notification Prior Consultation and Agreement (PNPCA).

"The Sayaboury dam’s project documents, submitted to the MRC Secretariat by the Lao government thus initiating the PNPCA, have not been released to the public and represent a complete failure of transparency; this despite the fact that a stated principle of the PNPCA is transparency," Save the Mekong said in an Oct. 13 letter to MRC Chief Executive Officer Jeremy Bird.

"Official documents on the MRC’s website about the PNPCA process lack a clear explanation of the actual procedure to be followed, contain wording that is deliberately ambiguous, and have no commitment to consultation with the public," it added.

But Bird sees the PNPCA, which was written into the agreement that helped create the MRC in 1995, in a different light. "The process will be a test for (MRC) member countries’ commitment to sustainable development of water and related resources of the Mekong," he explained in an e- mail interview.

"The fact that a forum exists among the four Mekong countries to discuss the transboundary impacts of mainstream development demonstrates the willingness to engage in environmental diplomacy," he added. "It can be viewed as an opportunity for member countries, for the first time, to come to a consensus on how to proceed with development that could impact on the region."

It is uncertain if this process will be confined to official discussions, shutting out NGOs that say they speak on behalf of the riverbank communities expected to bear the brunt of the Sayaboury dam project.

"Although the prior consultation on specific projects does not formally require additional public participation, it does not exclude it either," Bird revealed. "In the near future, Lower Mekong Basin countries will discuss how to involve relevant stakeholders through public participation and consultation relating to the prior consultation process."

Under the PNPCA, consultations among the four countries on a dam project on the Mekong’s mainstream should be completed within six months. They need to reach a consensus before a hydropower project can get underway.

Activists add that the democracy deficit in the region cannot be sidestepped in discussions about dam projects. Laos and Vietnam are ruled by communist parties that brook no criticism and provide little space for independent NGOs. Cambodia, although more open to opposition and civil society’s voices, has a mixed record.

This is why Thailand, which has the most democratic space of all four, is a key battleground in public debates about dams on the Mekong mainstream. In early September, Thai villagers living along the Mekong wrote to the government of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to withdraw support for the Sayaboury dam.

Although it is not the first of dams on the Mekong, the Sayaboury project is significant because it will be the first of 11 planned dams on the river’s mainstream, nine of which will be in Laos. Vientiane’s march to become the battery of the region is being driven by what its officials expect will be a foreign exchange windfall from exporting the electricity generated by its hydropower potential.

The Sayaboury dam, to be built by a Thai company close to the Thai-Laos border, will submerge 2,130 homes and some 200,000 residents will "suffer impacts to their livelihoods, income and food security," states Save the Mekong. "Up to 41 fish species would be at risk of extinction, including the critically endangered and iconic Mekong Giant Catfish."

The 4,880-km Mekong River flows from Tibetan plateau, through southern China, winds its way by Burma and through the Mekong basin, before finally emptying out in the South China Sea in southern Vietnam.

China has built four of a cascade of eight dams in the upper stretches of the Mekong, all of which activists have criticised for damaging a rich ecosystem that 60 million people living in the Mekong Basin depend on. Annual income from fisheries there is estimated at two to three billion U.S. dollars. (END)

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UN climate body to push for reforms, but Pachauri stays

Yahoo News 14 Oct 10;

SEOUL (AFP) – The United Nations panel of climate change scientists agreed Thursday to push for reforms after coming in for strong criticism over errors in a 2007 report.

But Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), made it clear he plans to stay in the post despite calls before the meeting for him to step down.

"I look forward to working with the panel to continue the process of reform," he said in a statement at the end of a four-day IPCC meeting in the southern South Korean city of Busan, with some 400 delegates taking part.

The IPPC and Pachauri came under fire after the report three years ago predicted that Himalayan glaciers could melt by 2035 -- a forecast found to be scientifically impossible.

The group admitted its mistakes but insisted its core conclusions about climate change were sound.

A five-month probe ordered by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said the IPCC should have a stronger scientific basis for making its predictions and recommended an overhaul of the position held by Pachauri.

The inquiry carried out by the InterAcademy Council (IAC), grouping experts from national science academies, called on August 30 for major reform of the IPCC's management and said its top leaders should serve only one term.

"The IPCC is taking decisive action to respond to these recommendations in a way that is transparent and open, and ensures the highest-quality assessments are produced and made available to the international community," its statement said.

The panel said it would immediately implement many recommendations including guidance on uncertainty, "non-peer-reviewed literature" and addressing potential errors.

It announced a special group to consider other IAC recommendations on procedures for preparing assessment reports.

The IPCC said work on its fifth assessment report, to be published in 2014, "remains on course and will benefit from the panel's decisions".

U.N. climate panel agrees reforms; Pachauri stays
Reuters AlertNet 14 Oct 10;

SINGAPORE, Oct 14 (Reuters) - The U.N. panel of climate scientists agreed on Thursday to push ahead with reforms after errors in a 2007 report and chairman Rajendra Pachauri rejected suggestions he should step down.

The panel said after an Oct. 11-14 meeting in Busan, South Korea, that it would tighten checks for errors and set up a "task force" to agree wider reforms by mid-2011 such as an overhaul of the panel's management.

"Change and improvement are vital to the IPCC," Pachauri told a telephone news conference.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has been under pressure after errors in its 2007 report, including a projection that Himalayan glaciers could all melt by 2035 -- centuries before the worst-case thaw.

The InterAcademy Council, grouping experts from national science academies, called on Aug. 30 for a fundamental reform of IPCC management and said that top leaders of the panel should serve only one term.

Pachauri, an Indian scientist, elected in 2002 and who is in his second six-year term, said the recommendation would only apply to future IPCC leaders after he steps down in 2014.

"I have every intention of staying right till I have completed the mission that I have accepted," he said, referring to the completion of the IPCC's next major climate change report in 2014.

(Reporting by David Fogarty and additional reporting by Alister Doyle in Oslo; Editing by Sugita Katyal)

Climate panel agrees 'milestone' reforms, defers others
Richard Black BBC News 14 Oct 10;

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has adopted new guidelines on dealing with scientific uncertainties following criticism of its 2007 report.

But the panel's meeting in South Korea closed with many other reforms proposed in a recent review being passed to committees for further consideration.

Chairman Rajendra Pachauri confirmed his intention to stay in post until the next assessment is published in 2014.

Dr Pachauri said the talks marked a milestone in the panel's history.

"The IPCC is 22 years old, it's evolved and seen a number of changes; but in the past few years we've also seen major changes in the global context in which it works," he said.

"The decisions made here in Busan send a clear message - we need to get to work and we need to do much better than ever before, and to work harder than ever before," he said.

The new guidance on uncertainties is aimed at preventing too much confidence being ascribed to conclusions where evidence is scarce.

In its recent review of the IPCC, the InterAcademy Council (IAC) - an umbrella group for the world's science academies - highlighted a case in the 2007 assessment where studies projecting rapidly declining crop yields in Africa were given more weight than they merited, in the absence of supporting evidence.

The revised guidance emphasises that in future, authors must assess both the quality of research available and uncertainties within that research.

It urges authors to be careful of "group-think", but maintains that it "may be appropriate to describe findings for which the evidence and understanding are overwhelming as statements of fact without using uncertainty qualifiers".

Enhanced guidance on the use of "grey literature" - material not published in peer-reviewed scientific journals - has also been drawn up, and will be finalised by chairs of the IPCC's working groups in the coming months.

Procedures for correcting errors should they arise were also approved - which means that the most serious error in the 2007 report, on the projected melting date for Himalayan glaciers, can be formally repaired.

"Some aspects of that error have been corrected and are now incorporated in the text," said Chris Field from the Carnegie Institution at Stanford University in California, who co-chairs the IPCC working group on climate impacts.

"But for other elements, we didn't really have the procedures in place until the error correction protocols were approved today.

"So the first order of business once I get back to my office is to initiate the procedure to do the definitive correction on the Himalayan glaciers."
Governance questions

Following allegations of conflict of interest against Dr Pachauri and other prominent climate scientists, the IPCC also endorsed IAC calls to establish a protocol for dealing with such issues in future.

But while some figures outside the IPCC have called for Dr Pachauri's head, government delegates here supported him continuing in post.

"I not only have the mandate to oversee the completion of AR5, but having been one of the two parties that requested a review by the IAC (the other being the UN), I now also have a commitment to oversee the implentation of the reforms that have come out of the review process.

"So I have every intention of staying right until I have completed the mission I accepted voluntarily to carry out, namely the conclusion of AR5 in 2014."

The IAC recommendation that senior officials - including the chair - should be limited to a single term of office will go forward to committee, with some delegates concerned about a lack of continuity.

Also going to committee is the recommendation that the IPCC reform its management - by taking on a full-time executive director to complement the part-time role of the chair, and by establishing an executive committee that could make decisions in periods between full meetings.

In response to suggestions that the panel had simply kicked these issues into touch, Thelma Krug from Brazil's National Institute for Space Research, who leads the IPCC's task force on measuring greenhouse gas emissions, said governments had simply wanted more clarity.

"The general feeling of the panel was that an executive committee was necessary," she said.

"But if we follow the recommendation of the IAC, it says the committee should act on the IPCC's behalf. That's a very strong statement - to 'act on its behalf' - so initially countries would like to know the mandate they will be giving to the executive committee to act on their behalf."

The aim is to reach agreement on these issues at the next full meeting in May 2011.

The IPCC, which is ultimately controlled by its 194 member governments, is charged by the UN system with producing regular systematic evaluations of global climate change and its implications.

The next assessment will be the fifth since the panel's inception - and the assessment procedure begins next month.

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Best of our wild blogs: 14 Oct 10

Surprises on oil-slicked Tanah Merah
from wild shores of singapore

Chronicle of Mr & Mrs King
from Life's Indulgences

Long-tailed Parakeet eating fruits of yellow simpoh
from Bird Ecology Study Group

Seen on the shore
from The annotated budak

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How butterfly book became reality

... And the role the late Mrs Lee Kuan Yew played
Neo Chai Chin Today Online 14 Oct 10;

SINGAPORE - It began with a casual email exchange with Temasek Holdings executive director and chief executive Ho Ching. Now, butterfly enthusiast Khew Sin Khoon's dream has borne fruit, a dream the late Madam Kwa Geok Choo had a role in, albeit indirectly.

In late 2006, Mr Khew had shared with Ms Ho how she could grow certain plants to attract butterflies to her garden.

Ms Ho then offered to lend a helping hand if Mr Khew ever wanted to write a book on butterflies in Singapore. It was actually an idea Mr Khew, 51, had kept on the backburner since 2003, when publishers told him such a book would not sell.

But armed with a "five-figure" sponsorship, the book A Field Guide to the Butterflies of Singapore was launched on Sunday at the Botanic Gardens, with Ms Ho as the guest of honour. She sponsored the book in her private capacity and declined to be interviewed for this story.

Her late mother-in-law, Mdm Kwa, also had experience "attracting butterflies to the Istana garden, planting the right type of plants to attract the desired species", Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan recounted in his blog last week.

This interest is believed to have played a role in the commissioning of a survey of butterflies at the Istana in August 2006, done by Mr Khew's online interest group, ButterflyCircle. Although the group did not interact directly with Mdm Kwa - it was a National Parks Board curator that had invited them - Ms Ho got in touch with Mr Khew soon after, he recounted.

"At that point in time, I'd just started the blog butterflycircle.blogspot.com. I didn't see any harm in sharing with a larger community of nature lovers," said Mr Khew.

Of Mdm Kwa's role in his book, which has a first print run of 1,000 copies and will be distributed to schools and public libraries, Mr Khew said it was an indication of her "care towards nature".

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'Bear sighting' publicity stunt now a public nuisance case

Ng Jing Yng, TODAY Channel NewsAsia 14 Oct 10;

SINGAPORE : Worried residents, searches by animal interest and wildlife groups, even police officers having to cordon off the area - all because of a purported "bear" sighting along Ulu Pandan Road which has turned out to be a publicity stunt by a company to market shavers.

The blurry video clip of a purported "bear" rummaging through a dustbin at a bus stop had been making the rounds on the Internet. It was also reported on television and in newspapers such as Lianhe Wanbao, Shin Min Daily and The New Paper.

In a statement on Wednesday, through public relations agency Fleishman-Hillard, Philips Electronics Singapore clarified that the bear was a mascot for a guerilla marketing campaign for a shaver undertaken by social media agency, The Secret Little Agency.

"We acknowledge that the resemblance of the mascot to a live bear has caused some public concern in the neighbourhood where the mascot was sighted. We had anticipated the attention that the bear will draw but have no intention to cause any alarm. We would like to apologise for any concern caused," the electronics giant said.

But the police, as well as tens of men and women from Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (Acres) and Wildlife Reserves Singapore who scoured the area for hours on Wednesday, were not amused.

On Wednesday night, a police spokesman said: "In response to media queries on the sighting of a 'bear' in Ulu Pandan, Police confirm that we're investigating an offence of Public Nuisance under Section 268 of the Penal Code."

On Monday, the video clip was sent to several news outlets by a person claiming to be a civil engineer named "Wilson Tay", who claimed his teenaged son shot the clip while he was driving on the road.

TODAY newspaper decided against running the story on Wednesday until proper checks could be done, including finding out the full particulars of the so called witness and having this reporter meet him face-to-face to ascertain the authenticity of the "bear sighting" claims he had made online.

This reporter had sent an email to the informant, asking him to call her – which he did. But when this reporter then tried to contact Mr Tay on the mobile number he provided, the person who answered denied he was Mr Tay and said she was not the first one to call that number looking for the informant.

When contacted, The Secret Little Agency said the aim was to get the public to blog and talk about the sighting on social media.

Creative partner Nicholas Ye said they called up to enquire with the Police if a licence was needed on Sunday before heading down to film the video on Monday at about 2am.

"This is irresponsible and it is a waste of resources ... publicity by all means, but this has gone way too far," said Acres founder and executive director Louis Ng, whose group also conducted an hour long search on Tuesday.

Singaporeans whom MediaCorp spoke to had mixed reactions to the news.

"It is hilarious that this bear mascot got on the news ... but imagine the stress and work they have caused the police and zoo over this silly mistaken identity," said a nurse Lee Xiu Hua, 24.

The latest publicity gimmick brings to mind SingPost’s postbox graffiti stunt in January this year - the last time resources were invested when SingPost employed an agency to spray graffiti on its postboxes in the lead-up to the Youth Olympic Games.

Members of the public were startled when they spotted a vandal at work, and called the police. The police said then that they would take up the matter with SingPost.

Wild bear chase
Electronics firm says sorry for ad campaign that alarmed public
Victoria Vaughan Straits Times 14 Oct 10;

TWELVE employees of the Singapore Zoo rushed to the scene, one armed with a tranquilliser gun. Four police officers showed up for whatever help might be needed. Three members of a nature group spent hours searching a forest.

And some residents of Ulu Pandan were left wondering and worrying if indeed danger lurked on their doorstep.

Time and energy were wasted yesterday, all in the name of a new media marketing campaign for a shaver. Industry players said the stunt tested the boundaries of responsible behaviour.

Last night, Philips Electronics Singapore apologised for alarming the public with its guerilla advertising campaign featuring a video of a 'bear' along Ulu Pandan Road.

The police told The Straits Times that it is now investigating if what happened was an offence of public nuisance under Section 268 of the Penal Code, which can lead to a fine of up to $1,000.

In a statement, Philips said the 'bear' was actually a mascot deployed as part of a guerilla marketing campaign undertaken by social media agency, The Secret Little Agency, to launch a new shaver.

'We had anticipated the attention that the bear would draw but had no intention to cause any alarm. We would like to apologise for any concern caused,' it said.

It is understood that the agency had not alerted any of the authorities about the 'bear' before the campaign, though it did inquire if a permit was needed to wear an 'animal mascot outfit'.

Mr Nicholas Ye, creative partner at The Secret Little Agency, said that an employee had filmed someone in a custom-made bear suit in Ulu Pandan Road at 2am on Monday.

The video was uploaded onto citizen journalism website Stomp with a write-up. In it, a man said he was driving along the road with his son when they spotted the animal near a dustbin. The video was reported by various media on Tuesday and yesterday.

Alarmed by the news, three members of Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (Acres) set off for the forest behind the bus stop at 11pm on Tuesday to search for the animal, and later again between 1am and 3am. Mr Louis Ng, executive director of Acres, said they had to check it out even though they were sceptical that there was a bear on the loose.

He was left fuming when he found out it was nothing but a ploy.

'You shouldn't joke about such things... Residents were concerned, the police called us to ask if we were doing something about it. You can't tell people there is an adult bear in their neighbourhood. It's completely irresponsible.'

The zoo also swung into action with 12 of its curators heading there. It is understood that the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority had contacted them. Led by veterinarian Serena Oh, they combed the area for 11/2 hours but found nothing.

Speaking during the search, Dr Oh said they were looking for paw prints or signs of disturbance consistent with a large animal. 'If we had spotted it we would have fired the tranquilliser gun,' she said.

She added that the bear looked like it could be an Asiatic black bear, but the video was unclear. The zoo does not keep such a bear but has five sun bears, four sloth bears and two polar bears.

Some residents and workers in the area who heard the news were alarmed.

Mr Elvin Aristorenas, centre manager at Total English Learning in Pandan Valley condominium, said he was worried. 'The bear was obviously hungry as it was digging for food,' he said.

The campaign was roundly criticised by some industry players. They noted this was the second time in recent months that a guerilla marketing campaign had backfired. SingPost recently caused a furore when it had graffiti on its post boxes that turned out to be a campaign for a post box art competition.

On the 'bear' stunt, Mr Baey Yam Keng, deputy managing director of public relation agency Hill and Knowlton, had this to say: 'There needs to be a line drawn... in cases where it may draw unnecessary alarm and waste public resources... Creativity is important but it must be balanced with some common sense.'

Additional reporting by Ng Kai Ling and Cheryl Ong

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One Singapore resident's ecological footprint equals that of 33 Africans

Esther Ng Today Online 14 Oct 10;

SINGAPORE - If everyone on the planet enjoyed the same level of consumption as the average resident of Singapore, three Earths would be needed to sustain it.

This, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Living Planet Report 2010, which placed Singapore's ecological footprint per person at 5.34 global hectares, 21st in the world.

Put in another way: The ecological footprint of the average Singapore resident in a year is equal to that of 33 Africans.

The ecological footprint is calculated by comparing human demand on renewable resources against the regenerative capacity of the planet.

Carbon is the biggest component of Singapore's footprint, followed by demand for crop and grazing land to raise livestock, oil crops, rubber and livestock feed.

Since people consume resources from all over the world, the ecological footprint of consumption adds together these areas regardless of where they are located.

Asked whether Singapore can support a population of 7.5 million - a figure recently floated by former Housing and Development Board chief Liu Thai Ker - Dr Christopher Hails, chairman of WWF Singapore and director (network relations) of WWF International, said: "Singapore can never sustain its population from an island of this size, Singapore is always going to be an importer of all the resources Singaporeans need for their lives."

However, Singapore can make a positive difference to sustainable development by importing from the right sources, he said. For instance, buying fish and timber from sustainably-certified sources and by putting pressure on other countries to farm sustainably.

However, Singapore's Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) has been making efforts to increase its food production capabilities on a sustainable basis, including the setting up of more than 100 licensed floating fish farms in the country's coastal waters.

Dr Hails also commended the Republic's Garden City concept: "Singapore does have a role in the region, within Asean, to set some good examples ... Kuala Lumpur has used Singapore as a model for its own green programmes."

Why does the UAE have such a high carbon footprint?
Reuters AlertNet 13 Oct 10;

Oct 13 (Reuters) - The United Arab Emirates, the world's third-largest oil exporter, has one of the highest per capita carbon footprints in the world.

According to a U.N. Development Programme report in 2003, the UAE emitted 33.6 tonnes per capita, second only to nearby Qatar and over nine times the world average of 3.7 tonnes.

The 2008 WWF Living Planet Report gave the UAE the world's worst ecological footprint per person. It placed the United States second and fellow Gulf Arab state Kuwait in third place.

The ecological footprint measures humanity's demand on the biosphere in terms of biologically productive land and sea required to provide the resources we use and absorb our waste.

The UAE has said it is becoming greener. The following lists some of the UAE's green and not so green credentials.

NOT SO GREEN

PRIVATE JETS

Dubai's Executive Flight Service handled 6,060 flights and 19,797 customers in 2009, according to figures from Dubai International Airport.

PUBLIC TRANSPORT

Dubai Taxis made 70 million journeys in 2009, in which they transported more than 140 million passengers, the emirate's transport authority said. That compares with 120 million people who took public buses in 2009.

Since its inauguration in September 2009, the number of passengers using the Dubai Metro has risen from about 40,000 a day to more than 120,000 a day. In total, it has transported more than 19 million people so far and expects 35 million passengers in 2010.

FUEL CONSUMPTION

In 2006, the UAE's population of around 6 million consumed nearly 500 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) of gas.

Germany, which has a population of more than 80 million, burned 942 billion kWh in 2008, according to the German energy industry association (BDEW).

THE WORLD

One of the most ambitious schemes in Dubai, The World is a collection of man-made islands shaped into the continents and countries of the world. As the slump has frozen much building activity, homes have yet to be built there. If completed, the islands would be reachable only by private jet or boat.

Property developer Nakheel used 34 million tonnes of rock to build the 27 kilometre breakwater that surrounds the 300 islands in the development.

Nakheel has said its activities have no harmful effect on nature, although environmentalists have said the consequences of such extensive artificial islands on the natural ecosystem are unknown and could be damaging.

GREEN PROJECTS

MASDAR CITY

Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, better known as Masdar, was set up in 2006 with a mandate to develop, commercialise and deploy renewable energy technologies and environmental solutions.

Its flagship project in Abu Dhabi is Masdar City, a $22 billion investment in what will be the first zero-emissions, zero-waste city when completed in 2020.

The plan is for Masdar City to be home to some 40,000 residents.

DESERT ISLANDS

The Desert Islands resort comprises the former royal nature reserve of Sir Bani Yas Island, and the Discovery Islands, six nearby offshore outcrops. All of them will be linked by a ferry and hydrofoil service, water taxis, private 'resort' boat service and regional and sea planes.

For every visitor to Sir Bani Yas, one mangrove plant is planted to offset the environmental impact of the visit.

Other initiatives include breeding programmes for rare and endangered wildlife, removal of human interference, including closing roads and removing old irrigation pipes, and water conservation.

FUEL STANDARDS

The UAE has set itself a goal of reducing the maximum sulphur target for both diesel and gasoline to 10 parts per million (ppm). Industry analysts say the target will be reached once a refinery upgrading project is finished.

Until then, the Emirates Authority for Standardization and Metrology has set a maximum sulphur limit for gasoline at 100 ppm, which must be followed by all oil companies in the UAE. For diesel, the maximum limit is 500 ppm. (Reporting by Amena Bakr, Barbara Lewis, Nina Chestney and Henning Gloystein, editing by Lin Noueihed)

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Time to find a second Earth, WWF says

(AFP) Google News 13 Oct 10;

PARIS — Carbon pollution and over-use of Earth's natural resources have become so critical that, on current trends, we will need a second planet to meet our needs by 2030, the WWF said on Wednesday.

In 2007, Earth's 6.8 billion humans were living 50 percent beyond the planet's threshold of sustainability, according to its report, issued ahead of a UN biodiversity conference.

"Even with modest UN projections for population growth, consumption and climate change, by 2030 humanity will need the capacity of two Earths to absorb CO2 waste and keep up with natural resource consumption," it warned.

If everyone used resources at the same rate per capita as the United States or the United Arab Emirates, four and a half planets would be needed, it said, highlighting the gap in "ecological footprint" between rich and poor.

The "Living Planet" report, the eighth in the series, is based on figures for 2007, the latest year for which figures are available.

It pointed to 71 countries that were running down their sources of freshwater at a worrying, unsustainable rate.

Nearly two-thirds of these countries experience "moderate to severe" water stress.

"This has profound implications for ecosystem health, food production and human wellbeing, and is likely to be exacerbated by climate change," WWF said.

Signatories to the UN's Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) are to meet in Nagoya, Japan, from October 18-29 to discuss ways of addressing Earth's dramatic loss of species.

The UN named 2010 as the International Year of Biodiversity. Under Target 7b of the Millennium Development Goals, UN members pledged to achieve by 2010 "a significant reduction" in the rate of wildlife loss.

Biologists say many species, especially mammals, birds and amphibians, are in headlong decline, their numbers ravaged by habitat loss, hunting or the likely impact of climate change.

The WWF said biodiversity showed a dramatic loss overall, but one with sharp disparities.

Between 1970 and 2007, an index of biodiversity health showed a global fall of almost 30 percent, it said.

In the tropics, the decline was 60 percent, but in temperate regions, there was an increase of 30 percent.

Temperate zones -- the first parts of the world to industrialise -- may be starting from a lower baseline of species loss, which could explain the gradual improvement in recent decades.

Improvements in pollution control and waste management, better air and water quality, an increase in forest cover and greater conservation efforts may also be making headway in some temperate countries, the WWF said.

Tropics in decline as natural resources exhausted at alarming rate – WWF 2010 Living Planet report
WWF 13 Oct 10;

Gland, Switzerland – New analysis shows populations of tropical species are plummeting and humanity’s demands on natural resources are sky-rocketing to 50 per cent more than the earth can sustain, reveals the 2010 edition of WWF’s Living Planet Report – the leading survey of the planet’s health.

The biennial report, produced in collaboration with the Zoological Society of London and the Global Footprint Network, uses the global Living Planet Index as a measure of the health of almost 8,000 populations of more than 2,500 species. The global Index shows a decrease by 30 per cent since 1970, with the tropics hardest hit showing a 60 per cent decline in less than 40 years.

“There is an alarming rate of biodiversity loss in low-income, often tropical countries while the developed world is living in a false paradise, fuelled by excessive consumption and high carbon emissions,” said Jim Leape, Director General of WWF International.

While the report shows some promising recovery by species’ populations in temperate areas, thanks in part to greater conservation efforts and improvements in pollution and waste control, tracked populations of freshwater tropical species have fallen by nearly 70 per cent – greater than any species’ decline measured on land or in our oceans.

“Species are the foundation of ecosystems,” said Jonathan Baillie, Conservation Programme Director with the Zoological Society of London. “Healthy ecosystems form the basis of all we have – lose them and we destroy our life support system.”

The Ecological Footprint, one of the indicators used in the report, shows that our demand on natural resources has doubled since 1966 and we’re using the equivalent of 1.5 planets to support our activities. If we continue living beyond the Earth’s limits, by 2030 we’ll need the equivalent of two planets’ productive capacity to meet our annual demands.

"The report shows that continuing of the current consumption trends would lead us to the point of no return,” added Leape. “4.5 Earths would be required to support a global population living like an average resident of the of the US."

Carbon is a major culprit in driving the planet to ecological overdraft. An alarming 11-fold increase in our carbon footprint over the last five decades means carbon now accounts for more than half the global Ecological Footprint.

The top 10 countries with the biggest Ecological Footprint per person are the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Denmark, Belgium, United States, Estonia, Canada, Australia, Kuwait and Ireland.

The 31 OECD countries, which include the world’s richest economies, account for nearly 40 per cent of the global footprint. While there are twice as many people living in BRIC countries – Brazil, Russia, India and China – as there are in OECD countries, the report shows the current rate of per-person footprint of the BRIC countries puts them on a trajectory to overtake the OECD bloc if they follow same development path.

"Countries that maintain high levels of resource dependence are putting their own economies at risk,” said Mathis Wackernagel, President of the Global Footprint Network. “Those countries that are able to provide the highest quality of life on the lowest amount of ecological demand will not only serve the global interest, they will be the leaders in a resource-constrained world."

New analysis in the report also shows that the steepest decline in biodiversity falls in low-income countries, with a nearly 60 per cent decline in less than 40 years.

The biggest footprint is found in high-income countries, on average five times that of low-income countries, which suggests unsustainable consumption in wealthier nations rests largely on depleting the natural resources of poorer, often still resource rich tropical countries.

The Living Planet Report also shows that a high footprint and high level of consumption, which often comes at the cost of others, is not reflected in a higher level of development. The UN Human Development Index, which looks at life expectancy, income and educational attainment, can be high in countries with moderate footprint.

The Report outlines solutions needed to ensure the Earth can sustain a global population projected to pass nine billion in 2050, and points to choices in diet and energy consumption as critical to reducing footprint, as well as improved efforts to value and invest in our natural capital.

“The challenge posed by the Living Planet Report is clear,” said Leape. “Somehow we need to find a way to meet the needs of a growing and increasingly prosperous population within the resources of this one planet. All of us have to find a way to make better choices in what we consume and how we produce and use energy."

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Bakun dam flooding begins

Stephen Then The Star 14 Oct 10;

MIRI: The flooding of South-East Asia’s largest dam, the Bakun Dam, in Belaga district has begun.

Developer and manager Sarawak Hidro, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Ministry of Finance Incorporated, dammed up the Balui River diversion tunnels to start the process of flooding 69,000ha of land.

The impoundment of the 205m high dam, the second highest concrete-rock filled dam in the world, started before 8am yesterday and by 10am, the massive gates of the diversion tunnels were closed.

There are three river diversion tunnels, each measuring 12m wide and 12m high.

A small outlet was still open in one of the tunnels to enable a controlled amount of water to flow downstream so that the Balui River downstream would not dry up completely.

The flooding was initiated in a somewhat sudden manner at short notice after Sarawak Hidro engineers held a late meeting on Tues­day night and decided that the weather and river conditions were safe enough for damming up of the tunnels.

Some Bakun folk lodged a police report on Tuesday morning in a desperate bid to halt the flooding.

Sarawak Hidro managing director and chief engineer Zulkifle Osman told The Star from Bakun that he and his group of engineers found the condition right for the impoundment.

“We have successfully closed tunnels number 2 and 3. A small outlet in tunnel 1 is still open to release some water downstream,’’ he said.

To a suggestion that the impoundment was rushed through despite the pre-conditions that there must be seven continuous days of dry weather and water depth of below 60m were not met, he said:

“We found that the weather was good enough in the past two days and the river level safe enough, so we went ahead with the impoundment.”

It will take about seven months and two weeks for the 69,000ha area to be flooded to the top of the dam wall, which is roughly about 44 storeys high or half the height of the Petronas Twin Towers.

Once the water level reaches 195m, the water will enter the inlet and turn the turbines and the power-generation process can start.

In the meantime, natives living downstream of Bakun and environmentalists and human rights groups, expressed shock that the impoundment had proceeded despite the Bakun folk lodging a police report.

Denis Hang Bilang, secretary of the Joint Committee of Lebu Kulit, Uma Bakah, Uma Lesung and Uma Balui Ukap, said he and his longhouse folk had lodged a police report at the Belaga police station against Sarawak Hidro.

“We lodged the police report at 10am yesterday (Tuesday) and today but they (Sarawak Hidro) went ahead with the flooding. We have called on the police to halt the flooding because the compensation issue for our land has not been settled yet.

“The land in Bakun still belongs to us be­­cause the government and the dam developer have not fully compensated us for uprooting us from our original longhouses in Bakun 15 years ago,’’ he said.

Meanwhile, a Sarawak coalition of environmentalists and human rights group expressed alarm at the manner in which the flooding began.

The Sarawak Conservation Alliance for Natural Environment (SCANE) was unhappy with the manner in which Sarawak Hidro was allowed to proceed with the flooding.

“How could the Federal and state governments allow the impoundment to start when the Emergency Rescue Plan has not been made public? On Monday, a longboat capsized in Bakun and a man is still missing,” said SCANE national coordinator Raymond Abin.

“The people living in Bakun, especially downstream, have not been adequately informed of the precautionary measures to take. We fear the impoundment would trigger landslides and floods and may even trigger an earthquake,’’ he said.

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Police in Six Countries Nab 25 Suspected Tiger Traders

Environment News Service 13 Oct 10;

LYON, France, October 13, 2010 (ENS) - An international law enforcement operation coordinated by INTERPOL against the illegal trade in tigers has led to the arrest of 25 individuals suspected of taking part in the illicit trade of one of the world's most endangered species.

The two-month operation in August and September involved national enforcement agencies in six tiger-range countries - China, India, Nepal, Russia, Thailand and Vietnam.

The entire operation was co-ordinated by INTERPOL's Environmental Crime Programme at its General Secretariat headquarters in Lyon.

INTERPOL worked in close collaboration with the participating member countries to provide a single platform to National Central Bureaus for the exchange and coordination of intelligence via INTERPOL's I-24/7 secure police communications system.

In Russia, criminal intelligence obtained by national authorities revealed key smuggling routes.

Direct enforcement action during the operation included the arrest by Indian authorities of 10 suspected wildlife criminals.

In Thailand, the Royal Thai Police arrested a number of alleged tiger smugglers connected to cross-border trade, including at Suvarnabhumi International Airport in Bangkok.

In a single raid in Hanoi, Vietnamese police seized six whole tiger skeletons and six tiger skulls, while in a separate case two tiger carcasses were seized along with 50 kilograms of tiger bone. As few as 30 wild tigers are believed to survive in Vietnam.

In June, Vietnam's Environmental Police launched a 24-hour Wildlife Crime Hotline as a new enforcement measure in the battle against the illegal wildlife trade and other environmental crimes. More than 150 Environmental Police officers have been trained handle reports.

"The Government of Vietnam has strong laws in place to stop the illegal trade of protected plants and animals and the Environment Police is committed to enforcing these laws," said Capt. Luong Minh Thao, vice director of the Department of Environmental Police.

In addition to the 25 arrests during the two-month INTERPOL operation, more than 50 kg of tiger bone, including skeletons and skulls, were seized, and key smuggling routes broken up during raids across the six participating countries.

INTERPOL's Environmental Crime Manager David Higgins said, "The national agencies involved in this international operation supported by INTERPOL have shown unscrupulous criminals who target threatened species that action will be taken to combat their illegal activities."

Fewer than 3,200 tigers remain in the wild as a result of loss of habitat and the involvement of organized criminal networks engaged in poaching and in the illegal trafficking of their skins and bones.

"It's great to see news of arrests of criminals rather than seizures alone," said Debbie Banks, who heads the Tiger Campaign for the UK-based nonprofit Environmental Investigation Agency, which investigates and campaigns against a wide range of environmental crimes, including illegal wildlife trade.

"Organized crime needs an organized response and Operation Tigre is a step in the right direction, but must be sustained," said Banks.

Conservationists hold out hope that concerted action and funding may be the outcome of a Heads of State Tiger Summit that will be held November 22-23 in St. Petersburg, Russia, hosted by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and World Bank President Robert Zoellick.

The summit aims to get unprecedented high-level commitment for tiger conservation from all of the 13 tiger range states.

Banks said, "Increased resources for slick, professional policing operations to bust the criminal networks controlling the tiger trade should be at the top of the agenda for the St. Petersburg tiger forum."

The global conservation organization WWF has been working with tiger range countries to strengthen protection for wild tigers. WWF hopes the St. Petersburg summit will deliver a high-level binding agreement committing countries to initiate actions, backed by sustainable financing mechanisms, to double the number of wild tigers by 2022.

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Snaring the Wealth: Can Negotiators Reach a Uniform Position on Patenting the World's Genetic Resources?

A new international regime hopes to help reverse the trend of biodiversity loss as well as spur economic growth and research for both industrial and developing nations

Robynne Boyd Scientific American 13 Oct 10;

High in the Cederberg Mountains of South Africa grows a bristly shrub that embodies the tug-of-war taking place between industrialized and developing nations over the value of genetic resources—the genes found in plant, animal or microbial cells used for research as well as in commercial products, such as enhanced seeds and naturally derived cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.

The leaves of rooibos, translated from Afrikaans as "red bush," are sipped in ruby-hued teas around the world but were previously sought by early settlers for their capacity to heal skin and reduce inflammation. Now, Nestec, SA, a subsidiary of Switzerland-based Nestlé, is trying to patent rooibos's healing properties for use in beauty products, a process some call a misuse of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge. Others consider it an advancement of science and an economic boon, given the industry's estimated value of $500 billion to $800 billion, as of 1999.

A truce in the worldwide tussle over the use and patenting of genetic resources is scheduled for the middle of October when the parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)—an international legally binding treaty on upholding the world's ecological sustainability—are set to gather in Nagoya, Japan, in hopes of finalizing a protocol on "access and benefit–sharing [ABS]." The aim is to ensure that the benefits resulting from researching animals, plants and microorganisms, such as the invention of new medicines or enhanced genes to improve crop varieties, are "fairly and equitably shared" among the providers and users. Whereas most people agree on the need for such a legally binding agreement, the fine print is still being tweaked between industrialized and developing countries. Even if the protocol is adopted in Nagoya, the only way for it to be truly effective is for it to have a strong compliance component.

"I think there is a clear ethical mandate for developed countries to create partnerships with developing countries, rather than subordinate them," says Paul Root Wolpe, a bioethicist who directs Emory University's Center for Ethics. "There also needs to be clear ways for those countries to not only get paid, but receive the other benefits of their own biological resources."

Ethics aside, there is also a political mandate. It reaches back to 1992 when 154 governments adopted the CBD. At that time, developed countries such as Canada, Germany and Japan agreed to share the associated benefits of poorer countries' genetic resources. In return, developing nations would help preserve them.

The vision was for countries and biodiversity a win–win situation. Over time it would spur scientific knowledge, catalyze commercial production, protect species and help enable developing countries to undertake bioprospecting themselves. It is akin to the "teach a man to fish" philosophy.

Unfortunately, less industrialized countries have not received the intended compensation, says Krystyna Swiderska, senior researcher in the Natural Resources Group of the International Institute for Environment and Development, which has led to a growing feeling of distrust between providers and users. The term "bio-piracy" evolved from this distrust and numerous examples exist.

Take the example of açaí fruit pulp, which is found in high-antioxidant health drinks sold in the U.S. The name of the fruit was patented, causing Brazilians to have to fight over the right to use the name "açaí" in their own products. Brazil eventually won this battle in court. Similar arguments have erupted over basmati and jasmine rice, neem, ayahuasca, tumeric and the hoodia cactus, to name a few.

The new protocol would change this trend by legally binding the industrialized countries that utilize the genetic resources to the ABS laws of the countries of origin, adds Swiderska, even though the negotiation's outcome remains uncertain because delegations still need to agree on a number of key elements. One is whether the protocol should apply to genetic resources that have already been collected. Many developing countries hope this will be the case, although the E.U. and others oppose this proposal.

"Given the substantive implications of the ABS Protocol for research and industry, any application of the new rules to past activities would create legal uncertainty for users, not legal certainty," E.U. negotiator Matthias Buck wrote in an e-mail, "We are supportive of a legally binding instrument on ABS precisely because our stakeholders would appreciate greater legal certainty on access and benefit–sharing for genetic resources in the future."

To clarify, Buck used the metaphor of a speeding ticket, noting that a person cannot be punished for speeding yesterday if a traffic sign was only placed on the street today.

Another key area of disagreement is whether derivatives of genetic resources, such as biochemicals produced by DNA, should be included in or excluded from the text of the protocol or left to be negotiated bilaterally. The third relates to the inclusion of traditional knowledge. The negotiators have a few days before the Conference of the Parties to the CBD to finalize these details.

For all those involved in the negotiations it may help to remember that 2010 has been declared by the United Nations the "International Year of Biodiversity". This year was supposed to mark a reduction in the rate of global biodiversity loss. This has not happened. Instead, animals and plants continue to go extinct at an alarming rate. According to the IUCN Red list of Threatened Species, of the 47,000 species assessed by the agency the world is losing species about 1,000 times more than the assumed normal rate.

If negotiators are successful at hashing out their differences, ideally then, a new day may dawn for the global preservation of species and science.

"We need a regime that provides enough confidence for access, and in exchange the access is facilitated and facilitates interesting research and use," says Johanna von Braun of Natural Justice, an environmental law firm that's working on the rooibos issue. "This would help benefit everyone."

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How ecosystems protect communities against natural hazards

UNEP marks International Day for Disaster Reduction
UNEP 13 Oct 10;

Geneva, 13 October 2010 - Haiti, one of the poorest and most environmentally degraded countries in the western hemisphere, is one of the many examples in recent times of the crucial role played by ecosystems in reducing disaster risk. Prior to the earthquake in January 2010 which devastated the country, environmental degradation was already a critical challenge, as extensively degraded catchments made Haiti's rural and urban population vulnerable to floods, landslides and severe soil erosion. From August to September 2008, four major storms ravaged Haiti, triggering mudslides and flash floods, leaving thousands homeless, killing nearly 800 people and destroying 60% of the country's harvest.

Neighbouring Cuba and the Dominican Republic were also affected but to a significantly lesser degree than Haiti. Did deforestation play a role in multiplying the devastating impact of disasters in Haiti?

With less than 2% tree cover and high rates of deforestation driven primarily by poverty, Haiti has become extremely vulnerable to floods and landslides during heavy rainfall. Unfortunately, 2008 was not a one-off event. In 2004 tropical storm Jeanne killed an estimated 3,000 people as a result of mudslides and floods coming down exposed mountains. But these lessons are not confined to Haiti alone; flash floods linked to forest degradation are a recurring experience in countries like the Philippines and most recently Mexico and are stark reminders of how environmental degradation can contribute to disaster statistics.

In the past decade alone, an estimated 2.5 million people globally were affected by natural hazards, 97% of whom were impacted by climate-related and hydro-meteorological disasters.

Greater recognition of the vital role of well-managed forests and watersheds in reducing the risks of disasters will help make urban and rural populations more resilient to floods, landslides and other natural hazards, was the theme of the high-level forum convened in Geneva, Switzerland today by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Partnership for Environment and Disaster Risk Reduction (PEDRR) to mark the International Day for Disaster Reduction.

The audience heard how forests and watersheds provide critical services to both rural and urban communities, including protection against natural hazards and critical support to local livelihoods and economies. Yet these multiple forest services, particularly for natural hazard regulation, continue to be under-valued, resulting in missed opportunities to maximize their potential for disaster prevention and mitigation.

Around the world, in countries such as Bolivia's Altiplano region, China, Switzerland and Japan, communities and governments are giving increased recognition to the value of forests for mitigating against floods, avalanches, rockfall and soil erosion while providing timber and non-timber products to support livelihoods.

The International Day, held annually on 13 October, aims to raise awareness on the impacts of disasters globally, and it originated within the framework of the World Disaster Reduction Campaign, initiated in 2008.

The roundtable, attended by members of the development community and the general public, provided a key opportunity to raise awareness of the environmental drivers of disaster risk and discuss the challenges faced by communities and countries in reducing disaster risk and recommendations to guide future actions. It was opened by the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction, Margareta Wahlström, and the Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Costa Rica to the United Nations of Geneva, His Excellency Manuel B. Dengo.

The International Day was also marked this year at the Shanghai Expo with a panel discussion around the theme "The City" which examined ways of building urban centers resilient to natural hazards and included the Assistant Mayor of Chendgu, Mao Zhixiong; the Editor-in-Chief of China Business Times, Li Zhong Chun, and the Chief of UNEP's Post-Conflict and Disaster Management Branch, Henrik Slotte, as well as representatives from the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UN ISDR).

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