The
baiji, a freshwater dolphin that has inhabited
China's Yangtze River for some 20 million years,
was declared extinct in December 2006. The end
of the baji is a reminder of the sinister fate
that awaits dolphins if greater species conservation
measures are not adopted by the international
community soon.
Living in oceans and rivers,
dolphins are a living treasure of our blue planet.
However their survival is becoming increasingly
difficult. Dolphins need clean and quiet oceans,
protected areas and people who care.
The health of many of the world’s
dolphin populations are threatened by bycatch,
pollution, habitat destruction, over-fishing and
climate change. Other threats include activities
that may frighten, displace or harm these species
such as underwater noise pollution from sources
such as shipping traffic, wind farms, seismic
surveys and military sonars. The belief that dolphins
compete with fisheries or damage fishing nets
has prompted culls in some regions.
The United Nations Environment
Programme (UNEP) and the UN Convention on Migratory
Species - together with its specialized agreements
on dolphin conservation ACCOBAMS and ASCOBANS
and the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society
(WDCS) - have declared 2007 the Year of the Dolphin.
A strong alliance between UNEP, the CMS, partner
NGOs and Civil Society is being forged to achieve
a common objective: to protect dolphins. A crucial
factor in achieving this is education to create
awareness of dolphin species, educate, inform
decision makers and involve local communities.
Therefore, the Year of the Dolphin will be part
of the UN Decade on Education for Sustainable
Development. The campaign is also a tangible contribution
towards meeting targets to reduce the loss of
wildlife by 2010 which all Governments have agreed
through the UN.
Patron of the Year of the Dolphin,
H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco, said: "The
Year of the Dolphin gives me the opportunity to
renew my firm commitment towards protecting marine
biodiversity. With this strong initiative we can
make a difference to save these fascinating marine
mammals from the brink of extinction."
Under the auspices of the Convention
on Migratory Species two special Agreements were
concluded to help protect dolphin species: the
Agreement on the Conservation of Small Cetaceans
of the Baltic and North Seas (ASCOBANS) and ACCOBAMS.
Recently, TUI, Europe’s leading
travel group, has launched a joint initiative
with the United Nations Environment Programme,
through the Bonn Convention, to undertake a major
public awareness campaign on various threats to
dolphin survival such as by-catch and the degradation
of their habitats. Activities promoted though
this partnership include the publication of information
on dolphins in brochures and travel catalogues,
in-flight magazines, a dedicated website (www.YoD2007.org)
and the development of a ‘dolphin diploma’ for
children. Multilingual dolphin manuals will also
be developed and distributed to young travelers
and their families in TUI destinations and passed
onto local schools.
Robert Hepworth, Executive Secretary
of the Convention said: “We are very pleased to
welcome TUI as our corporate partner of this campaign
and rely on their established communication network
to spread our message.”
The message UNEP, the CMS and
their partners are trying to deliver is that dolphins
deserves an opportunity to survive so do other
species. The World Conservation Union's "Red
List" estimates 16,119 threatened species
- out of 15 million estimated species. The threats
to species’ survival are man-made and ongoing,
It is the responsibility of
humans to ensure the sinister fate of the baiji
does not befall members of its species. 2006 may
have ended sadly for the baiji, but if conservation
efforts are successful 2007’s may bear promise
for the dolphin.
New Website Explores Technologies
and Wildlife Conservation
New website explores the links
and provides exciting new resource for the conservation
community - Conserving endangered species, and
the delicate ecosystems on which both humans and
wildlife depend, is one of the greatest challenges
faced by the modern world. However, whilst man’s
influence on the environment has frequently been
a negative one, many of the technologies that
have supported rapid social and economic development
in recent decades also offer enormous potential
to enhance conservation efforts.
The Technologies for Conservation
& Development project (t4cd) – a partnership
between the international conservation charity
Fauna & Flora International (FFI) and the
Southern African development NGO ResourceAfrica
- has launched an exciting new resource onto the
World Wide Web. The t4cd “Hub” website, generously
funded by Microsoft UK and the Vodafone Group
Foundation, is designed to highlight the enormous
potential for technologies to enhance conservation
and development work, and to help link conservationists’
needs with technologists’ solutions.
This interactive site hosts
information about a wide range of information
and communication technologies (ICTs), such as
global information systems (GIS), mobile telephony
and wildlife tracking devices. Technologies to
provide remote power supply also feature, recognising
that much conservation and development work takes
place in remote locations where powering electrical
equipment is a big issue. The aim? To make the
task of identifying appropriate technology tools
less daunting for the average over-worked and
resource-constrained conservation practitioner.
The site also features case studies of projects
already reaping the benefits of using technologies
to help achieve conservation goals.
Developed on Microsoft’s latest
website management system, SharePoint 2007, the
t4cd site will, in due course, also be able to
offer interactive features such as discussion
fora, blogs and private project collaboration
areas. The hope is that these facilities will
help practitioners Worldwide to share experiences
in the use of technologies for conservation and
development, collaborate, and drive forward the
technology for conservation agenda.
t4cd Hub screenshot
The UN Environment Programme World Conservation
Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) is lending generous
support to this initiative by hosting the site.
Visit the t4cd Hub at www.t4cd.org and send your
comments or contributions to Zoë Cullen at
zoe.cullen@t4cd.org
Sharing Experiences in Environmental
Sustainability
Environment Reforms must Accelerate to reach 2015
Poverty Goals, says UN Report
Developing-country governments
must recognize and address the natural world’s
central role in poverty, says Dervis New York,
15 December--Egypt, Peru, Vietnam and Mongolia
are among a number of countries taking the lead
in putting the environment at the heart of their
plans to cut poverty by 2015, according to a new
report launched today by the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP) in partnership with the United
Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). However,
unless more governments take more ambitious steps
to protect the natural world, overall development
goals will be jeopardized, according to the Report.
“A healthy, sustainable environment
is a vital national asset and when it is eroded,
the poorest people suffer the most,” said UNDP
Administrator Kemal Dervis. “This report highlights
the progress of some countries towards more environmentally
sustainable development planning but it also presents
a harsh reality: If our delicate ecosystems are
not firmly at the heart of all national plans
to reduce poverty, then all other efforts to reach
the Millennium Development Goals by 2015 will
be undermined,” he said.
The UNDP report, entitled “Making
Progress on Environmental Sustainability:
Lessons and recommendation from a review of over
150 MDG country experiences” charts the progress
of developing countries’ efforts to make the environment
a priority in their national plans to reach the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
The environment is very much
a part of efforts to reduce poverty. While the
role of the environment in poor people’s lives
varies from country to country, the Report’s authors
stress that the best progress is made when countries
first adopt the principle of environmental sustainability,
and then adapt their development plans to their
own specific ecosystems.
Deforestation is a major challenge
in Kenya, for example, where the poor chop down
trees as their only source of fuel for cooking
and heating. As part of its plan to reach the
MDGs, the Kenyan Government proposes to protect
at least 3.5 percent of its forested area by 2008
and introduce renewable options like solar energy
to the rural population.
The conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina
left behind a different set of environmental challenges:
Between 75 and 80 percent of identified minefields,
accounting for approximately five percent of the
country’s overall land surface, have yet to be
cleared. The mines are incredibly damaging to
the environment and their presence means that
access to safe, productive land on which the country’s
citizens can earn a living is restricted. As part
of their MDG planning, the Government is working
to increase the percentage of de-mined land from
five percent of the minefields in 2000 to 36 percent
in 2007 and 80 percent in 2015.
In Egypt, where protecting the
environment is a priority for the country’s eco-tourism
industry, the Government is already actively monitoring
and reporting progress on water access, waste
management and land degradation, with a view to
ensuring it understands what still needs to happen
to reach the MDGs, and sets targets accordingly.
Albania, Buthan, Lesotho, Nepal, Syria, Thailand
and Vietnam were also cited among the leaders
by the Report.
Achim Steiner, UNEP Executive
Director, said: “Achievement of environmental
sustainability is not only a national concern
but one with significant international dimensions.
Countries, by mainstreaming environment into poverty
reduction and development strategies, can achieve
a great deal.
However, national environmental
degradation and conversely environmental sustainability
is also inextricably linked with trading regimes,
economic instruments and the values placed on
‘nature-based’ goods and services within a globalised
world”.
“Together and as part of UN
reform, UNEP and UNDP can be a catalyst for drawing
together and weaving these national and international
threads into a seamless whole. Together we can
play a big part towards achieving environmental
sustainability and the realization of the Millennium
Development Goals,” he added.
The Report, which drew support
from the governments of Canada, Sweden and the
United Kingdom, is part of a wider “toolbox” of
services designed by UNDP to help developing countries
prepare national plans to reach the MDGs on time.
