Posted on 25 August
2010
Remote Chilean island of Salas y Gomez,
likely to become the centre of the world's
second largest open water marine park. Easter
Islanders, from its closest inhabited neigbour
nearly 400 kilometres away, called the island
Motu Matiro Hiva (Birds Islet on the way
to Heaven) and it has been linked to Hawaiki
in New Zealand Maori mythology
Valdivia, Chile: In what could be a key
step to the formation of the second largest
protected area in the open oceans, a Chilean
Senate committee has urged declaration of
a large scale marine park around remote
Salas y Gomez Island.
The recommendation to
create the marine park stretching 200 nautical
miles around the island - about 380 km east
of Easter Island in the South Pacific –
was a unanimous decision of the Senate’s
Committee on Maritime Interests, Fisheries,
and Aquaculture.
At about 240,000 square
kilometres WWF-Chile estimates the new marine
park would be the planet’s second largest
such area, following the recently declared
Chagos no-take marine reserve under UK jurisdiction
in the Indian Ocean. Under Chilean law marine
parks only allow activities such as observation,
investigation, and research with permits,
with due respect for freedom of navigation
according to international law.
“This is really good
news, and we hope that it will pave the
way to protect other kinds of marine ecosystems
in Chile which lack legal protection in
the face of great threats, like the Corcovado
Gulf, home of the endangered blue whale,”
said Mauricio Galvez, WWF Chile’s Marine
Conservation Coordinator.
Deep stony corals
Relatively little explored
or fished, the area is a geological hotspot
as well as an area of rare biodiversity.
About 40 seamounts, 1200 to 2900 meters
high and ranging from 8.4 to 13.1 million
years old have been identified as sites
for deep sea stony corals and sponge fields.
Expeditions to neighbouring
seamounts by the former Soviet Union indicated
that the fish communities are highly specific
to the seamounts with more similarities
to fish communities off Japan and Hawaii
than the Pacific coast of South America.
A recent Oceana and
National Geographic expedition found schools
of big fishes and sharks, generally taken
as proof of a healthy ecosystem.
“We understand that
this initiative emerges from several areas,
including the Undersecretariat for Fisheries,
Committee President Senator Antonio Horvath,
Oceana and, of course, WWF Chile. The visions
shared by the different actors make this
initiative even more valuable,” said Galvez,
author of a scientific paper in the Latin
American Journal of Aquatic Research earlier
this year in support of the initiative.
WWF sent a technical
document to the Convention on Biological
Diversity (CBD), which demonstrates that
the seamounts of Nazca and Salas y Gomez
fulfill CBD criteria for identifying Ecologically
and Biologically Significant Areas in need
of protection.
Galvez said it was vital
that Salas y Gomez be given the legal status
of Marine Park under Chilean Fisheries Law
since it offers the highest level of protection
for marine ecosystems; requires a management
plan and is administered and managed by
the National Fisheries Service.
“This allows a public
agency to manage the area effectively, allocating
funds for monitoring, control, and surveillance,”
he said.
+ More
China, Russia provinces
agree to first transboundary protected area
to conserve Amur tigers
Posted on 29 August
2010
Hunchun, China: Jilin province of China
and neighbouring Primorsky province in Russia
agreed today to collaborate formally in
working towards the first transboundary
Amur tiger protected area amidst celebrations
for the second annual Amur Tiger Cultural
Festival in the northeastern Chinese city
of Hunchun.
The signed agreement,
facilitated by WWF, the global conservation
organization, will help wildlife authorities
eventually establish a transboundary protected
area – a cooperative conservation network
that crosses country borders - in the provinces
that are home to the world’s largest big
cat. The population of the highly endangered
Amur tiger is currently estimated at 500.
In the agreement signed
by Jilin Provincial Forestry Department
of China and two Russia agencies – the Wildlife
and Hunting Department of Primorsky Province
and Special Inspection “TIGER” of Russia
(official name of the Bureau on Protection
of Rare and Endangered Species of Flora
and Fauna) – the two sides will work together
in establishing a tiger conservation protected
area in both provinces, as well as partner
to restore the endangered species.
“A new transboundary
protected area would provide a wider and
healthier habitat for Amur tigers and other
endangered species, such as the Far East
leopard, musk deer and goral,” said Yu Changchun,
Director of Conservation Department of Jilin
Forestry Department.
“While tigers – the
species at the top of the eco-system – are
better conserved through the agreement,
other species, the forest habitat and all
the bio-diversity resources will also benefit
from this protected area,” said Dr. Zhu
Chunquan, WWF-China’s Conservation Director.
As part of the agreement,
Jilin and Primorsky provinces will increase
information sharing on Amur tiger and Far
East leopard protection, work to adopt identical
monitoring systems for tigers and their
prey, and conduct joint ecological surveys
and develop plans to launch an anti-poaching
campaign along the China-Russia boarder.
Destruction and fragmentation
of habitat, poaching and lack of prey have
reduced the number of wild Amur tigers.
One of six remaining subspecies of tigers,
(and sometimes referred to as Siberian tiger),
the Amur tiger is primarily found in eastern
Russia, with a small number in northeastern
China. Among that population, 20 tigers
have been periodically spotted within the
borders of China’s Jilin and Heilongjiang
provinces.
“This agreement is a
great boost for Amur tiger habitats in Russia
and China. Since both countries play a crucial
role in terms of global tiger recovery,
a future transboundary network would represent
a big step in WWF’s global tiger conservation
effort,” said Dr. Sergey Aramilev, the Biodiversity
Coordinator for Amur Branch of WWF-Russia,
which is also involved in promoting the
agreement. “There’s a lot of work to be
done to implement this agreement, such as
making sure it receives proper government
funding, but this is a major step forward
nonetheless.”
The agreement marks
another milestone during the Chinese Year
of the Tiger in 2010. WWF launched the TX2
campaign early this year, which seeks to
double the number of wild tigers by the
next Year of the Tiger in 2022. A groundbreaking
tiger conservation declaration from the
13 countries that still have wild tiger
populations was prepared in Bali, Indonesia
in July this year, and is due to be signed
before the close of Year of the Tiger at
a tiger conservation summit hosted by Russia.
The Declaration seeks to create a tiger
recovery program that is global in scope
while also promoting transboundary cooperation
amongst the 13 tiger range countries.
Background of the Agreement:
The Amur Tiger Cultural
Festival, which runs from Aug. 29-30, will
include events such as a tiger conservation
and economic development forum, costume
parade, art performances and an ecological
tour of tiger habitat. The China-Russia
agreement will be one of the highlights
of this year’s festival.
In addition to promoting
the transboundary protected area, WWF-China
successfully helped establish a protected
area for tigers in Jilin. It is also working
with northeast China’s Heilongjiang province,
another important home to Amur tigers, to
bring it under the fold of the transboundary
protected area. If this plan comes to fruition,
the protected area for Amur tigers and other
threatened species would double.
While over 95 percent
of Amur tigers are now found in Russia,
the situation differed in the 1950s. An
estimated 50 individuals were then found
in the Russian Far East, while across the
border in China, the total population stood
at about 200. Thanks to anti-poaching efforts
and other effective conservation policies,
Russia’s tiger population recovered and
has remained stable.
