Posted on 22 March 2010
Doha, Qatar – WWF welcomes a decree for
better trade protections for rhinos made
today during the Convention on International
Trade in Endangered
Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES)
meeting, which comes amid a global poaching
crisis.
Countries with rhinos
agreed to focus on increasing law enforcement,
training of guards, strengthening border
controls, improving rhino population monitoring,
creating awareness raising campaigns in
consumer countries such as Vietnam, and
rooting out organized crime syndicates that
are behind the increase in poaching and
illegal trade.
"We congratulate
the countries gathered at CITES for their
united commitment to eradicate rhino poaching,”
said Dr Joseph Okori, coordinator of WWF’s
African Rhino Conservation Programme. “The
political will shown at this meeting can
help save rhinos in both Africa and Asia
if it is backed by conservation programs
on the ground and good law enforcement.”
Rhino poaching worldwide
hit a 15-year high in 2009. The illegal
trade is being driven by an Asian demand
for horns, made worse by increasingly sophisticated
poachers that are now using veterinary drugs,
poison, cross bows and high caliber weapons
to kill rhinos.
The decisions adopted
were based on TRAFFIC/International Union
for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) report,
which was released before the CITES CoP
and reported a decline in law enforcement
effectiveness and an increase in poaching
intensity in Africa. Vietnam was highlighted
as a country of particular concern – Vietnamese
nationals operating in South Africa have
recently been identified in rhino crime
investigations. It also raised concerns
about the low and declining numbers as well
as the uncertain status of some of the Sumatran
and Javan rhino populations in Malaysia,
Indonesia and Vietnam.
“CITES governments must
now commit to a complete crackdown on the
illegal international and domestic trade
so that we can turn the tide on rhino poaching,”
said Dr. Okori. “WWF remains committed to
supporting range state governments as they
take on this challenging task.”
+ More
Reinvented cities could
hold climate key
Posted on 22 March 2010
Stockholm, Sweden: Urban infrastructure
decisions over the next three decades will
determine whether cities will be a major
driver for environmental destruction or
a sustainable future, an Earth Hour conference
in Stockholm was told today.
The conference, along
with a new WWF report Reinventing the City,
come as the Swedish capital prepares to
join Earth Hour for the first time, joining
numerous other national capitals around
the world in turning off lights at 8.30
pm this Saturday night in a global call
for effective action on climate change.
At the Earth Hour Conference
the two Swedish cities of Stockholm and
Malmö and the German cities of Hamburg
and Freiburg will share their visions for
reaching low or zero carbon emissions over
the next decades, while companies Ericsson,
IKEA and Interface will outline their view
of the benefits of the transformation to
a sustainable society.
Various estimates link
cities to 70-80 per cent of current carbon
emissions, with no end in site to the trend
for ever greater proportions of the world’s
people to live in urban areas. It is estimated
that an additional 1.7 billion people will
become urban dwellers in Asia and Africa
alone over the next three decades, posing
immense challenges to surrounding environments.
“We are approaching
a world with nine billion inhabitants, and
continued rapid urbanisation,” said Lasse
Gustavsson, Secretary General of WWF Sweden,
who commissioned the report. .
”If the cities of today
are the biggest threat to the climate, tomorrow’s
cities may well be the solution.”
Reinventing the city
cites a Booz & Company analysis conducted
for WWF, showing that in a business-as-usual
scenario), $350 trillion or seven times
current global GDP, will be spent on urban
infrastructure and operation over the next
30 years.
Directing these massive
investments towards the development of low
or zero carbon cities will be crucial to
keeping average global temperature increases
below the two degree rise accepted internationally
as presenting unacceptable risks of catastrophic
or runaway climate change.
According to Reinventing
the City much of the growth in urban populations
will be taking place not in the world’s
mega-cities but in small and fast growing
cities. These will have great opportunities
to provide new low carbon infrastructure,
but will also often be trying to handle
growth with limited resources.
The report says the
measures most needed are for cities to adopt
aggressive energy reduction goals, looking
to best practice urban planning as a key
pathway to achieving them. Innovative financing
strategies will need to be employed to find
an additional $20-30 trillion over business
as usual projections in additional infrastructure
costs, with developed nations needing to
assist developing countries meet the challenges
of clean development in growing cities.
And the latest technological
advances must be utilised to support and
enable the planning, construction and operation
of urban infrastructure in all cities.
“Massive investments
are required to support a growing an urbanising
world in any case,” said Gustavsson. “It
is imperative these future investments are
made in sustainable solutions.”
Thousands cities, towns
and regions from over 117 countries are
expected to take part in Earth Hour events
on Saturday, with city administrations flicking
the switch on many of the world’s best known
urban landmarks including the Eiffel Tower,
Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate, New York’s Empire
State Building and the Forbidden City in
China.
“Cities are the engine
room of Earth Hour and for good reason,”
said Earth Hour Executive Director Andy
Ridley. “It is the mayors and their local
councils that are on the ground, day to
day, seeking sustainable solutions for their
local citizens. It is the sum of these hundreds
of thousands of communities across the planet
that will make the difference in taking
action against climate change."
