1
October 2008 - Beijing, China: After clamping
down on cars and the pollution that comes
with them for the Olympics, China last week
tried to keep the spirit alive with its
second national Car Free Day.
As part of International
Car Free Day, cities across the country
restricted private vehicles in designated
areas from 07:00 to 19:00 on Monday 22 September,
and all drivers were encouraged to leave
their cars at home.
Many drivers did just
that, but many didn’t. While “Car Free”
roads saw a sharp reduction in traffic,
other routes appeared normal.
For Beijing, this year’s
Car Free Day came just two days after pollution
reduction measures put in place for the
Olympics officially ended.
One regulation saw over
half the capital’s cars pulled off the streets
every day, leading to some of the clearest
skies of recent times.
But many are still reluctant
to give up the convenience driving brings
them. “It’s really hard for me to get to
work,” says Li Gang, an IT worker who commutes
daily from the suburbs to the capital’s
business district.
“It usually takes me
30 minutes in the morning, but without my
car, on the bus and subway, it takes over
an hour. I wish there were a better way.”
China’s Ministry of
Housing and Urban-Rural Construction, the
government body in charge of promoting the
event, has tied International Car Free Day
in with a national “Public Transportation
Week” in the hope of drawing more attention
to how traffic congestion alters urban landscapes.
“You can see the difference,”
said Qiao Qi, a business owner and designer
in Beijing. . “Since they put the traffic
restrictions in place for the Olympics,
the air is a lot cleaner. And it’s also
a lot easier to get around.”
International Car Free
Day was first held in its present form on
the same date in 2000. More than 1,500 cities
in 30 countries participated in this year’s
event, including over 110 Chinese cities.
The key to success,
says WWF-China representative Dermot O’Gorman,
is public involvement in environmental initiatives.
“The WWF’s ‘20 ways
to 20%’ campaign, which complements China’s
goal to reduce energy consumption by 20%
by 2010, is a step in the right direction,”
said O’Gorman.
One part of the “20
to 20” campaign, the Efficiency Games, saw
groups and individuals from schools and
local communities around China compete to
promote practical and accessible ways to
reduce energy consumption.
+ More
Brazil announces new
measures to stem Amazon assault
01 Oct 2008 - Brazil
has announced new measures designed to stem
an accelerating assault on the Amazon’s
rainforests – on the same day as the nation’s
space agency released figures showing that
756km2 of Amazon forest were cleared in
August, triple the 230km2 cleared in August
2007.
Heading a list of a
dozen new measures, Brazilian Environment
Minister Carlos Minc named the top 100 clearing
culprits and announced that an agreement
had been made with government law and prosecution
authorities to tackle a situation where
only 10 out of 100 clearing prosecutions
proceed to trial, and only one to any punishment.
The top six clearers
were agricultural settlements established
by Incra (the federal agency for rural land
settling and agrarian reform) located in
the state of Mato Grosso.
According to WWF-Brazil’s
Conservation Director, Cláudio Maretti,
the measures announced, if actually implemented,
will address several needs including that
of more coherence among the various government
offices and a break with the practice of
establishing settlements without due environmental
care.
“The lack of consistency
among government actions, particularly those
of Incra and the Ministry of the Environment,
is finally being tackled,” said Maretti.
“In some cases, settlements are established
without even complying with legal requirements
and we still have cases of settlements created
in conflict with protected areas.
“The release of the
top 100 responsible deforestation entities
is a positive thing, because it accounts
for a great part of the area which was cleared
in the Amazon and enables the government
to concentrate actions and resources on
those who are most responsible for destroying
the forests.”
Minister Minc put the
leap in deforestation down to pressure for
land occupation and illegal possession,
the expectation of a land ownership regulation,
increased agricultural activity in the state
of Pará, the difficulties faced by
environmental agencies in mounting patrols
and the municipal electoral period.
Survey analysis shows
annual deforestation to be 17,300km2 in
non-election years, compared to 19,729km2
in election years.
One other survey result
released by Ibama was the accumulated deforestation
during January through August 2008 in the
36 municipalities which compose the Deforestation
Arch.
A total of 373.3km2
were deforested within the Incra’s settlings,
172.2 km2 in Indigenous Territories and
1,388.8km2 in private properties.
Deforestation detected
within strict use federal protected areas
amounted to 7.9km2 while in sustainable
use federal protected areas, such as extractive
reserves and sustainable use reserves, it
reached 88.8km2.
“It is a complete shame
that there were almost 100km2 deforested
within federal protected areas in those
36 municipalities alone,” Mr Minc said.
Other measures announced
included the creation of a federal force
to fight environmental crime, for which
3,000 new agents will be hired and 1,500
agents from the official environmental agencies
- Ibama and Instituto Chico Mendes – will
be trained.
An Amazon Deforestation
Control and Prevention Action Plan, to support
design of state plans to fight deforestation,
will be re-activated and a federal ministerial
committee –Cide - will be created.
It will be composed
of six ministers with portfolios affecting
deforestation, such as rural credit and
land property policy and, according to Minc,
“will be the deforestation Copom” (Copom
is Brazil’s powerful Monetary Policy Committee).
Another measure will
see protected area implementation and costs
included in highway plans and budgets –
a key measure as new and improved roads
often open the gates to greater deforestation
WWF Brazil believes
that the four pillars of effective action
on deforestation are the creation of protected
areas, promoting the sustainable use of
natural resources, effective surveillance
and law enforcement and financial support
for those protecting the forest.
“Land ownership regulation
is the basis to make these measures effective
and the Amazon Fund has the promise to provide
the financial incentives for the protection
of ecological services provided by forests,”
Cláudio Maretti said.
“It is imperative that
the funds reach the field, meaning local
communities, land owners and protected areas
but civil society is still confused about
the objective guidelines to implement the
Fund,” he said.
