28
Oct 2008 - Solna, Sweden: Only 3% of the
area of all wetlands and inland waters around
the Baltic Sea have legal protection according
to the RAMSAR convention, WWF reveals in
a new report. Denmark, Estonia and Latvia
are exceptions with between 7 and 20 % protected.
Over the years, wetlands have been drained
for agriculture and forest production, used
for peat extraction, landfills or for other
kinds of exploitation and construction works.
Increasingly, calls have been raised to
protect and restore existing wetlands and
even to recreate lost wetland areas.
“We hope this report
will help decision-makers realize the importance
of well-functioning wetlands”, says Lennart
Gladh, Baltic Sea Coordinator of WWF Sweden.
“The report also outlines where the need
is most acute and what types of wetlands
are most underrepresented in the present
scheme”.
Wetlands are important
to protect biodiversity. Many species of
birds, mammals and fish are dependent on
wetlands for their survival. Wetlands are
also important to catch nutrients from agriculture
and forestry before they reach the sea.
More than half of the nutrients that cause
eutrophication and algal blooms in the Baltic
Sea stem from agriculture. Lately, attention
has also been brought to the role of wetlands
as carbon sinks, reducing greenhouse gas
emissions and as protection against storms
and floods, which we are likely to see more
of due to climate change.
“Wetlands are the kidneys
of our ecosystem”, says Lennart Gladh. “If
you remove the kidneys, the patient will
die. Without protection and restoration
of wetlands and freshwater systems it will
simply not be possible to reduce the diffuse
nutrient emissions to the Baltic Sea”.
+ More
Coca-Cola sets goals
for cutting water use and emissions
30 Oct 2008 - Atlanta,
USA – Coca-Cola has committed itself to
a 20 percent improvement in water efficiency
over 2004 levels in its worldwide operations
by 2012, saving about 50 billion litres
of fresh water over projected use that year.
The water saving targets
were negotiated under the terms of a partnership
between The Coca-Cola Company, the World
Wildlife Fund (US) and WWF International.
Also announced were
ambitious targets for reductions in carbon
emissions, a commitment for action down
the Coca-Cola supply chain and conservation
support for some of the world’s most important
freshwater basins.
“Our sustainability
as a business demands a relentless focus
on efficiency in our use of natural resources,”
said Muhtar Kent, president and CEO of The
Coca-Cola Company.
“These performance targets
are one way we are engaging to improve our
management of water and energy.”
Commitments to “grow
the business, not the carbon” and achieve
a five per cent absolute reduction in emissions
over 2004 levels for all developed country
operations are expected to produce savings
of 2 million tonnes of CO2 in 2015, the
equivalent of planting trees over an area
of nearly 250,000 hectares.
“In this resource constrained
world, successful businesses will find ways
to achieve growth while using fewer resources,”
said Carter Roberts, president and CEO of
WWF-US.
“The Coca-Cola Company’s
commitment to conservation responds to the
imperative to solve the global water and
climate crisis.”
In addressing sustainability
issues down its supply chain, Coca-Cola
will look first at sugar where it is a major
global consumer. The company and WWF are
working with the Better Sugarcane Initiative
to establish standards, evaluate suppliers
and set goals for the purchase of sugar.
Coca-Cola is also to
identify two further commodities for action
in 2009.
Possibly the most far-reaching
of the initiatives announced today by the
company are joint conservation initiatives
with WWF for some of the world’s most important
freshwater resourcesincluding the Yangtze,
Mekong, Danube, Rio Grande/Rio Bravo, Lakes
Niassa and Chiuta, the Mesoamerican Reef
catchments, and rivers and streams in the
southeastern United States.
More than a dozen production
plants and /or bottlers in the areas surrounding
these rivers are developing and implementing
comprehensive water stewardship plans.
It is intended that
these plans will ultimately serve as models
for similar water resource conservation
frameworks wherever Coca-Cola operates.
“Water and energy conservation
are areas where we can truly make a difference,”
said Kent.
“Last year, we set a
goal to return to communities and to nature
an amount of water equal to what we use
in our beverages and their production. These
targets support our work to achieve that
goal.”
WWF and The Coca-Cola
Company announced the $US 20 million partnership
in 2007. The partnership has now been extended
additional two years (through 2012) with
Coca-Cola providing $US 3.75 million in
new funding.
Coca-Cola is also a
member of WWF’s Climate Savers programme,
which has seen some of the world’s leading
corporations achieve dramatic cuts in emissions.
“The expansion of our
partnership with WWF demonstrates our shared
dedication to achieving large-scale results,
and a grounded understanding that collaboration
is key if we are to help address the world’s
water challenge,” Kent said.
